Joining School/Conditioning

Hey guys, I could do with having some knowledge bombs dropped on me if you've got the time!
First off, my life story:
I'm a university student and the city I'm in has no good schools for jits, but back home I'm real close to Rick Young's school (he's a Mauricio Gomes black belt) so I'm looking to join there.
Now the conditioning part, basically I'm a skinny guy but I can see the beginnings of a belly coming on. I was thinking it would be a good idea to do jits while I was at home, which will be about 6 months of the year total, and then join a gym or start swimming while I'm at uni the other half.
Since I won't have the time or money to do both at once does anybody know what makes for good workouts while you're unable to train, I figured just swimming would be pretty good as it's a full-body thing but I wanted to hear your thoughts.

Random circuit training seemed to give me more cardio for rolling. More muscle stamina too if I performed the exercises in different ways.

When you say circuit training do you just mean going round various spots in a gym?
I've always found I have a really short attention span in a gym, I get distracted really easily and just kind of wander around, and never really commit too much. I suppose that's just something I need to work on myself.
It's one of the reasons I liked the workouts I used to do when I did Tae Kwon Do (way back when I was a kid, don't judge me!) because there was someone telling me what to do, I had no excuses

You should probably develop a more specific routine but yeah, I would just sprint on a treadmill until my heart rate was through the roof and the jump on a machine or just kick out reps for an exercise. I would do that till my muscle burned out and then get back on the treadmill. Rinse and repeat. My goal was just to decrease my muscle recovery time and increase my cardio.

Swimming is the way to go bro

www.dynamiteconditioning.tumblr.com

i post excersises and info on my site about training i put my clients through and all around fitness info. hopefully it can help also check out

www.monkeybargym.com

they post workouts there that i use myself sometimes

Originally Posted by 4site

Swimming is the way to go bro

See I really thought that would be the case, but every time I look, I always see a few guys who totally bash it saying that "it won't build strength or explosiveness" stuff like that, is that just total BS?
The way I see it, I'll probably be trying to fit these workouts into an hour between classes 5 days a week, so something like Mon, Tue, Thur = gym and then Wed, Fri = Swim. Or something along those lines

Originally Posted by Dennis Martinez

www.dynamiteconditioning.tumblr.com

i post excersises and info on my site about training i put my clients through and all around fitness info. hopefully it can help also check out

www.monkeybargym.com

they post workouts there that i use myself sometimes

I think I'd be more inclined to use your blog there, looks like some real good ones!
I'm generally a bit wary of websites that just look like they're trying to sell some new product, maybe I'm just being a dick though and need to have a proper look

Originally Posted by Dennis Martinez

www.dynamiteconditioning.tumblr.com

i post excersises and info on my site about training i put my clients through and all around fitness info. hopefully it can help also check out

www.monkeybargym.com

they post workouts there that i use myself sometimes

That is some good shit! Thanks for putting up the links!

Originally Posted by Calum Whyte

See I really thought that would be the case, but every time I look, I always see a few guys who totally bash it saying that "it won't build strength or explosiveness" stuff like that, is that just total BS?
The way I see it, I'll probably be trying to fit these workouts into an hour between classes 5 days a week, so something like Mon, Tue, Thur = gym and then Wed, Fri = Swim. Or something along those lines

Summary if you want to avoid wall of text:
Keep it simple until you learn etc.. at any stage walking around and jumping on random stuff will be a waste of time, and nutrition.(also imo if you don't have at least a minimal strength base then any amount of conditioning will barely benefit you)


Because it won't.. that's like saying running laps around a track will build large powerful legs. Swimming is great for conditioning though.. so keep at it. Also the reason you just go from one end of the gym to others etc.. is because you aren't exactly sure what you should be doing. So like others say.. find a routine.. a solid beginner strength routine imo.. as long as your consistent you'll make gains at this stage.

Also work your diet because that's the most important part. John berardi is who I recommend as far as info sense hes pretty much the master of nutrition(and anyone that's read things I say.. I don't actually follow what he says :P so don't judge him based on me)(he actually has a grapplers nutrition book as well but most of it is common sense imo)

As far as a routine.. "starting strength" is pretty much what anyone will say.. its tried and tested as a starting point.. dont overcomplicate things when you just start or you won't get anywhere.. just do something like that to burn through whatever beginner gains you have. Decide what weight you want to compete at and work to add/lose mass to get to that point then try and keep it in that area(you won't magically put on muscle so its easy to maintain weight)

Just for a fun read
This is an interesting training log
http://tnation.t-nation.com/free_onl...12734&pageNo=0
This is where it continues
http://www.5100block.com/Warrior-Athlete

Basically to give you an idea of how someone goes about mixing max effort lifts and conditioning together. Maybe more relatable..?!? I like browsing peoples training logs from time to time. I don't keep an online one sadly.. probably should so I'm held accountable.. mine is in a notebook.