Powering Through

How to perform Power Cleans

2012-02-01T14:41:00.000Z

I love the powerclean! I was first introduced to this exercise at a BWLA course when I first started uni and have been doing it ever since. it is easily one of the best movements for building power and explosiveness. Plus they are easier to grasp than the full clean, very important if you are time poor or don't have a coach familiar with the lifts. But people often get them wrong with lots of technical nuances that are easy to miss. Here are two of the best Video's Ive seen on the exercise.

Circuit Training should not be the basis of your physical preparation

2012-01-26T12:32:00.000Z

The internet is a powerful tool for the dissemination of useful information, but it also perpetuates nonsense. One of my bugbears at the moment is that it perpetuates the myth that all fighters need to be nearly passing out from gruelling circuit training. I have blogged about this issue here.
Lots of high intensity circuits strike me as one of the most unintelligent ways to build fitness.

You tube fitness porn at its best!

Now im no stranger to circuits I use them from time to time but sparingly. Most MMA fighters or grapplers are beating themselves up regularly on the mat as it is. And time for proper strength and conditioning is limited. The other issues exsist such as, due to higher volume, circuit training becomes rather sloppy, fatigue builds and quality movement goes out the window and finally exercise selection is often inappropriate. Consider the something the verteran Coach Vern Gambetta blogged recently.

"Make every rep, every, run, every jump and every throw count! Work without a purpose is not training, it is just work that will make you tired but will not make you better. To have real purpose the work must be meaningful and mindful."

Consider crossfits fight gone bad.

This usually looks like

Rounds of 1 minute each of the following movements:

Wall balls - 20lbs
Sumo deadlift high-pulls - 75lbs
Box jumps 20-inch box (I think V made us do 24″)
Push press - 75lbs
Row - for calories

You have what are supposed to be explosive exercises done for nearly a minute, no-one can maintain that kind of force production, especially movements like box jumps and wall balls. Often the reasoning is "more is better" so people do more reps, longer rounds and more rounds than they need. But hey it makes you tired, who am I to criticize?

Ideally you should be walking away from your circuit feeling tired yes, but strong and ready to do go again after a few minutes. Athletes of all types must begin to understand that hard work and quality work are not the same thing and that you don’t have to crawl or vomit your way out of the gym everyday to improve.

The last issue is CNS load, doing very intense circuits regularly will leave you feeling stale, especially if you are calorie restricted approaching a fight.

Most athletes need to be able to explode with quality movement but have the capacity to come back and do it again and again. This is not to say I don't use variations of circuit training, I employ complexes, high intensity sprints and TUF (Simple technical drills, married with an exercise task) style work to prepare athletes for competition. Brendan Chaplin (who I unashamedly borrowed TUF from) has also touched on the technical issues that arise with circuit training;

"It is very easy to slow down when you have to move yourself like in a bodyweight circuit, its much harder when you have to move someone or something else! Make sure you have technical competency in the exercises you use before putting them into this type of training and keep the reps low on power exercises. You are better off doing several exercises. I do not recommend doing extensive reps on exercises like power cleans or snatches!"

Most top athletes improve because of the quality of their work not the quantity.

Tom Platz : State of the fitness industry

2012-01-24T14:10:00.001Z

Tom Platz record speaks for itself, listen in at about 2m03s when he talks about watering down of the fitness industry and current revival of "old" training modalities such as kettlebells.

Arthritis and Brazilian Jiujitsu

2012-01-17T11:26:00.000Z

We often document the benefits of Brazilian jiujitsu, but murmur in mention of some of the draw backs. While all sports carry risk of injury and overuse injuries, Brazilian jiujitsu in particular is known to be rough on the joints and I have heard much anecdotal evidence of finger and pain in particular in more experianced players.

All that gripping,pulling wrenching, grabbing, throwing has to start somewhere

What is Arthritis

People are often confused as to the difference between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The difference mainly being one is wear and tear the other is a auto immune disease.

Osteoarthritis (also referred to as degenerative joint disease or wear-and-tear arthritis) is caused by the breakdown of joint cartilage. Cartilage acts as a cushion between the bones that form a joint. Cartilage loss can cause bone to rub on bone in a joint -- a condition that is very painful. The ride along of this condition can be bone spurs, bony enlargements (Heberden's nodes and Bouchard's nodes). This is related to but not caused by aging. It appears that mechanical stress on joints underlies all osteoarthritis, with many and varied sources of mechanical stress, including misalignments of bones caused by congenital or pathogenic causes; mechanical injury all contribute to the condition. Oh and cracking you knuckles has no effect!

So I used to be a hand model

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory type of arthritis. It is also classified as an autoimmune disease (i.e., immune cells attack the body's own healthy tissues). The synovium (lining of the joint) is primarily affected by rheumatoid arthritis, but organs body-wide can be affected as well. Multiple joints are usually involved with rheumatoid arthritis.

Incidence in Jiujitsu

Speak to more senior members of school or gym and more than likely they will have stories pertaining to hand injuries, joint pain, mangled finger/toes, dislocations and more. Very little research has been done into BJJ and arthritis so numbers are hard to fathom. But BJJ's nearest relative Judo has had plenty of research into the subject. In 1997 Strasser P et al did a study into

"Traumatic finger polyarthrosis in judo athletes" the found that "Extensive Judo seems to be a risk factor for the development of osteoarthritis of the finger joints due to chronic-repetitive micro- and substantial (macro-) injury."

In 1984 Frey A, Müller W. found that "X-ray showed that all judokas examined have more or less severe osteoarthritis of the distal interphalangeal joints (DIP), whether Heberden nodes were present or not. At the same time, in most cases osteoarthrosis of the proximal interphalangeal joints (PIP) was found by X-ray and clinical examination. Osteoarthrosis of DIP and PIP in this young age group is due to overstress and injury to the joints involved." It is the repeat injury, re-injury, micro trauma and over stress over a period of time that appears to accumulate and then manifest as arthritis. More than likely athletes who play a grip heavy game see a high incidence than those who don't.

Those who play a heavy grip game risk injury of Proximal and Intermediate Phalanges

Mitigation and treatment

Practical solutions to limiting and preventing arthritis are few in number, the ultimate solution being suspension of the activity but seriously when has injury ever stopped you grappling? So you have a few choices.

Introduce more no-gi training in order to give your grip a rest
Cycle play styles, avoid spider and other grip play that is rough on the distal and intermediate phalanges.
Stronger muscles can help stabilize the joint, improving range of motion and aid in pain reduction. That's the goal of arthritis-oriented physical therapy, just be sure to work extensor and thumb strength too, as finger flexion is often over worked.
Some evidence suggests that hand flexibility may reduce arthritis risk http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15248215
Taking NSAIDS (ibuprofen etc)
Some evidence suggests people with arthritis need longer warm-ups

Supplementary Solutions

As soon as joint pain is mention people are quick to ask for supplementation, often supplement seller pray on those in discomfort to shift shoddy produce or gimmicky devices.

Worth Trying (evidence for):

Omega 3 fish oils, There is evidence that rheumatoid arthritis sufferers taking long-chain n−3 fatty acids from sources such as fish have reduced pain compared to those receiving standard NSAIDs. Krill oil http://www.jgsupplements.com/categories/Oils-and-Omega-3/Krill-Oil/ or omega 3 capsules comes highly recommended http://www.jgsupplements.com/products/Omega-3-1000mg-X-500-Softgels.html. If you are in UK holland and barret tend to be on the expensive side.
Curcumin, In vitro and animal studies have proven that curcumin has antioxidant, antiarthritic, and anti-inflammatory properties. See http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/phytochemicals/curcumin/ Curcumin can be picked up at http://www.jgsupplements.com/products/Curcumin-665mg-X-60--Vcaps.html

Maybe Worth trying (some evdience or good anecdotal evidence)

Celadrin, applied topically caused significant reduction in pain vs placebo http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15705022

Best avoid (No evidence)

Powerbands and Magnet therapy research has shown that magnetic wrist straps are ineffective in the management of pain, stiffness and physical function in osteoarthritis
Glucosamine and or Chondroitin - A meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal published in 2010 concluded: "Compared with placebo, glucosamine, chondroitin, and their combination do not reduce joint pain or have an impact on narrowing of joint space. Health authorities and health insurers should not cover the costs of these preparations, and new prescriptions to patients who have not received treatment should be discouraged."

Im super picky where I get my supplements from with alot of places price gouging and selling poor quality products I recommend buying from www.jgsupplements.com for niche products at low prices or www.myprotein.com for bulk buying

I hope that this has been a helpful insight into a fairly common issues, more than any other sport BJJ and our grappling brethern are at risk of can be a painful and in the long term debilitating condition. If you have stories of joint pain or treatments you perhaps have found effective please fell free to share them in the comments section.

Upper Crossed Syndrome in MMA and Desk Workers

2012-01-12T14:09:00.000Z

Upper-Crossed Syndrome (UCS) in MMA is a problem I see a lot in MMA fighters, it is also a persistant problem with people who spend too much time at desk. In MMA often striking coaches encourage a chin tucked shoulders forwards posture and drill this position into fighters. On top of these we have an overriding preference to train what we can see (anterior) and negelect what we cannot (posterior). While it is useful in this instance structurally it can cause problems if this becomes your posture all the time. It can lead to both shoulder and back pain.

Hellboy is a badass, but he sports some badass UCS

Upper Crossed Syndrome is characterised by the following:


look familiar?

Shortened Upper Trapezius, Levator Scapula PAIRED with a Weak Lower and Middle Trapezius
Shortened Subocciptials and Sternocleidomastoid PAIRED with a Weak Longus Coli (deep neck flexors)
Shortened Pectoralis Major and Minor PAIRED with a Weak Serratus Anterior

Simply put, upper-cross syndrome is the weakening and lengthening of the posterior upper back and neck muscles and the coincident tightening and shortening of the opposing anterior chest, shoulder and neck muscles. The correction of this problem involves the strengthening of the weakened posterior musculature and stretching of the tight anterior musculature.

Prevention and correction:

A conscious effort should be made to keep correct posture when walking and sitting, just reading this you are now probably sitting straighter. This practice is especially important for those working in front of desk or computer. The tendency is to slouch forward with head bent.

A good stretching and mobilisation program is essential to both preventing and correcting upper-cross syndrome. Check a previous blog post with my favourite shoulder mobilisations.

The other thing you can do is be sure to include plenty of scapular retraction and thoracic extension work in your general strength and conditioning.

Here a couple of favourites

And my personal favorite, also why was I not informed charles polquin is sporting a new beard!?

Thick Bar Training and Strength Shop Big Hands Review

2012-01-06T17:40:00.000Z

Thick bar training is becoming ever more popular at the moment with more private gyms investing in Bar attachments, thick handled cable attachments, thick barbells and thick handled dumbbells. Like a lot of recent trends in fitness (kettlebells, clubbells, Complexes etc), thick bar training has its roots in the past.

Old time strongmen either had to have their equipment custom made or improvise and fashion their equipment out of what they could find, no one had yet thought of using perfectly good metal as a training tool. This made for some interesting equipment and is the reason for the famous challenges they performed like the Apollons axle (railway wheels) and the Inch Dumbbell.

Thick bar training went out of fashion due to formalisation of bar thickness by manufacturers, which sits at around 1 inch. Thick bars however are usually considered anything over 2.5 inches.

Benefits of Thick Grip Training

You are only as strong as your weakest link and in the case of most lifters and athletes is generally their grip strength, usually coming as an after thought for most grip is quite often neglected. What thick grip training does is even out the gripping work between thumb and fingers. With the fingers usually doing most of the work on ordinary barbell work. You have actively grip as hard as possible in order to maintain purchase on a thick bar. This helps build terrific mental focus among other things. I can see BJJ, Judo, wrestlers, lifters of all persuasions and MMA athletes making the most of a tool like this. There are a number of theories and practical concepts underpinning the usage of thick grips in your regular training. They come highly recommend from many of the industries best strength coaches.

Post-Tentanic potentiation and thick grips

Post-tetanic potentiation, or PTP, is a motor-learning concept defined in the Neuromechanical Basis of Kinesiology as “The magnitude of the twitch force is extremely variable and depends on the activation history of the muscle. A twitch elicited in a resting muscle does not represent the maximal twitch. Rather, twitch force is maximal following a brief tetanus [a condition of prolonged or repeatedly induced muscle contraction]; this effect is known as post-tetanic potentiation of twitch force.” What this means effectively is that gripping a larger bar will activate more motor units and lead to a greater muscle recruitment and force production during subsequent exercises. In short do your warm-up sets with oversize grips then perform your work sets with regular handles or bars, you should notice the difference immediately. (I noticed this instantly on the first work set of Deadlifts and ripped the bar off the floor). The same effect occurs with isometric to concentric actions.

Fat grips and your arm anatomy

One of claims you hear about thick grip training is reduced strain on the shoulders, elbows and wrists. This is partly because larger barbells allow for more surface area on the thumb to supply leverage to the fingers. As a result, users are able to reduce stress in joints. With pronated (palm down) grip on small or regular sized bar movements your fingers are bearing the brunt of lifting work. Your thumb has to drive against your finger extensors. You can see this when making a fist versus making a “ok” gesture with your hand. The wider hand position helps dissipate force putting less stress on the joints. An excellent example is Picture a 50 kilo female stepping on the palm of your hand. She's wearing flat-soled tennis shoes. It probably hurts somewhat. Now picture the same 50 kilo female stepping on your palm again. This time she's wearing heels. This time it hurts a lot more, even though it is the same weight.

A stronger grip means more full body tension

Often you will hear Olympic and Powerlifters talk about gripping the bar like your life depended on it. Squeezing the bar with a tight grip will allow your body to recruit more muscle fibers of the working muscle and increases full body tension. Gripping hard increases full body neuromuscular activation. If you clench both fists your whole body should tense up. Psychologically It can make a world of difference too, if you feel like you can crush a bar with your grip when you pick it up to do your set, then you will be able to use more weight and have more confidence throughout your workouts and hopefully increase the training effect.

Considerations

Absolute power and strength work is limited by your grip strength, thick grip training will initially mean that you cannot lift as much on most lifts as you ordinarily could. Thick grip training is best used on accessory and warm-up lifts, because reduced grip strength means less stimulus for the prime-movers, less stimulus means less strength gained. The effect on pressing movements will be small but carry greater anti injury benefits. Where as with pulling movements thick bars are a real game changer. Grip training is no longer an after thought and is challenged with your accessory work. They are certainly worth cycling in and out of your training.

Strength Shop Big Hands

For those of us that cannot afford Olympic thick bars, I recently picked up a pair of these when they were reduced to £19.99. Normally retailing at £29.99, made of solid black rubber these are a worthy and cheaper alternative to Fat Gripz which normally retail between £30-40 pounds. They have the “strength” symbol detail neatly imprinted on them. In terms of feel, these felt no different to fat gripz I had used in the past. I used them first for a set of bent over rows, I can normally row 100kg for 8 reps, I had to swallow my pride and start out with 60kg and even then towards the end of my sets I had to switch to rest pause to complete the set. Looking slightly Mad I wandered around the gym seeing what they could be attached too and did not find them lacking (you can even attach them to machines if you are so inclined). With price and colour being the only real difference between these and fat grips its hard to argue against “Big Hands”. With the above rationale and the cost effectiveness of this product (in the UK that is) I recommend getting some to add thick bar variety to your training.

You can buy them here

https://www.strengthshop.co.uk/review/product/list/id/558/category/101/

Note: The split in the rubber means that for pulling exercises, the split needs to be in the palm or you risk pulling it off, while pressing the split should face out of the palm.

Most Interesting Sports Science studies of 2011 part 2

2011-12-20T13:58:00.000Z

I have rounded up some of my favourite and possibly significant studies from this year, some because they are controversial and challenge our way of thinking others because they in a bits and pieces validate the methods many strength and conditioning coaches already employ due to years of experience working with athletes, sometimes science is playing catch up others times its pointing us in the direction to take. Enjoy part 2.

Read Part 1 here

Eating an extra 200g of pork a day can help build lean mass and improve your blood profile

Pork, the most misunderstood of meats, reviled for its fat content. But lean pork is a worthwhile addition to any diet for someone looking to improve protein content in their diets. But what would happen if we give pork to someone who does not exercise at all?

Leave the crackling out

Increased Fat-Free Body Mass and No Adverse Effects on Blood Lipid Concentrations 4 Weeks after Additional Meat Consumption in Comparison with an Exclusion of Meat in the Diet of Young Healthy Women

Experimenters aimed to investigate whether changes of meat consumption can affect body composition and laboratory parameters in healthy, normal weight, young women without the aim to reduce body weight. They split the women into two groups one of meat eaters and one no-meat-eaters.

Group 1, the meat-eaters (M), were advised eat additional 200g of lean pork meat (fillet) to their diet (the scientists demanded that the fillet was eaten separately from their usual meals, in order to make sure that the condition of "additional" meat intake would be met).

Group 2, the no-meat-eaters (NOM), were instructed to abstain from consumption of all meat and meat products, but were allowed to consume eggs and dairy.

The meat-eater group raised their overall daily caloric intake by 180.4kcal/day, while the members of the no-meat-eaters (NOM) reduced their overall caloric intake by - 97.6kcal/day.

What the experiments found was that the addition of 50g of protein, equivalent to about 200g of lean pork or 2x 30g scoops of whey protein, to the diet effectively increased lean muscle mass in a real world scenario without exercise intervention. And it did so without detrimental effects on the young women's health.

The experimenters also saw a substantial decrease in total and LDL cholesterol with only a slight dip in HDL that is accompanied by decreased triglyceride and glucose levels. So inclusion of 200g of red meat actually caused a small amount of gain in lean mass and this is remember without any exercise stimulus!

Fast eccentrics and no pause on your lifts for power improvement

Speed of eccentrics has been something a question in lifting circles for sometimes, there is evidence to suggest it can aid hypertrophy and max strength. But the question of slow or fast eccentrics and whether we should pause at the bottom has been answered pretty well in the following study.

Optimizing power output by varying repetition tempo.
Pryor RR, Sforzo GA, King DL.

They set out to measure the effects of varying interrepetition rest and eccentric velocity on power output (PO) and the number of repetitions performed during a bench press

Experimenters took 24 college-aged resistance trained men got them to perform 6 bench press repetitions on different occasions and had them perform:

1.Between rep rest of either 0 or 4 seconds

2. Eccentric velocity of 1 or 4 seconds

3. Bottom rest of 0 or 3 seconds. (Resting the barbell at the bottom of the lift)

They measured the velocity of each lift.

What they found was “varying interrepetition rest (1 or 4 seconds) did not significantly affect PO or repetitions. The results of this study support the use of fast eccentric speed and no bottom rest during acute performance testing to maximize PO and number of repetitions during a set of bench press.” So it seems that fast eccentrics with no rest in the bottom position resulted in the greatest power output gains when compared to slow eccentrics and pauses in the bottom position.

Use Bands for bigger strength gains
Band training has been around for a little while and used extensively by powerlifters and some strength coaches. And by bands I don’t mean those rubbish physio bands you find in the mouldy corner of the gym. Some people swear by band training for strength increases and others prefer not to use them, usually because the set up can be difficult in most commercial gyms.

The Effects of Combined Elastic- and Free-Weight Tension vs. Free-Weight Tension on One-Repetition Maximum Strength in the Bench Press
Bellar,et al.

In the trial subjects trained in the bench press for 3 weeks to allow for the beginning of neural adaptation. After another 1RM test, participants were assigned to 1 of 2 conditions for the next 3 weeks of training: 85% Free-Weight Tension, 15% Elastic Tension (BAND), or 100% Free-Weight Tension (STAND)

The experimenters found their “results suggest that the addition of elastic tension to the bench press may be an effective method of increasing strength.” So distributing the load with 15% band tension and 85% free weight tension allows for superior strength gains compared to free weights only.

Two 20 second sprints three times a week maybe enough to improve fitness

This this to be the year of HIIT (high intensity interval training), with more evidence suggesting it improves power output, growth and helps with fat loss it is hard to not like it. Now going flat out 100% is hard work. So some researchers set out to see what the minimum is that you can get away with the reap some of the mentioned effects of HIIT training.

Towards the minimal amount of exercise for improving metabolic health: beneficial effects of reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training
Richard S. Metcalfe, John A. Babraj, Samantha G. Fawkner and Niels B. J. Vollaard

In this study the researchers set out to investigate the effects of a reduced-exertion HIT (REHIT) exercise intervention on insulin sensitivity and aerobic capacity. Twenty-nine healthy but sedentary young men and women were randomly assigned to the REHIT intervention or a control group. The REHIT group did a 3x per week 10min exercise regimen with no more than two (ONLY 2!) flat out sprints for 20 seconds on top of 10 minutes 60watt (very low) cycling. The control group did just the 10 minutes steady cycling exercise.

The subjects male as well as female study participants exhibited similar improvements in their individual VO2Max +15% in men; +12% in women from just 3 sessions work that 2 minutes flat out work a week! What was more interesting was the effect on the male subjects glucose (-12%) and insulin (-39%)levels. This effect was’nt seen in the female subjects for some reason that left the experimenters guessing. According to researchers

“...we observed that some of the female volunteers struggled with the transition from 60 W to the all-out sprints, and were unable to substantially increase their pedal frequency, and thus their power output during the sprints. This may have increased the aerobic contribution to energy supply and reduced glycogen depletion.”

So what was supposed to be a sprint was a bit of slog for the female subjects, so they could not get the training stimulus the men achieved. So there you have have it, sprints 3 times a week for 40 seconds a session is enough to have an impact on hormone levels and your fitness!

Functional and Core Training not beneficial for improved performance

I blogged this here and it caused quite a stir in the “functional” training crowd but the basic synopsis is :

Recently a study looking at the "relationship between core strength and performance" found the relationship between core training and performance to be poor. To quote " Despite the emphasis fitness professionals have placed on functional movement and core training for increased performance, our results suggest otherwise. Although training for core and functional movement are important to include in a fitness program, especially for injury prevention, they should not be the primary emphasis of any training program."

Abstract here...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20179652
Key finding:

Moderate to weak correlations identified suggest core stability and Functional Movement Screening are not strong predictors of performance.

Not getting enough sleep will make you fat

The effect of not getting enough sleep on body composition has been touted for sometime. There have been studies in the past looking into similar sleep disturbances and body compositions, explaining why men and women caring for babies gain a lot of weight.

Effects of sleep fragmentation in healthy men on energy expenditure, substrate oxidation, physical activity, and exhaustion measured over 48 h in a respiratory chamber
Hursel et al

The objective was to assess the effect of sleep fragmentation on energy metabolism and energy balance in healthy men.

The subjects stayed for 48 h in a respiration chamber, where energy expenditure, physical activity, and substrate oxidation were all measured. On both occasions, the subjects had ﬁxed bedtimes (lights out: 11:00pm; lights on: 7:40am) resulting in 8 h sleeping time per night. On one of the occasions, however, the scientists used induced sleep-fragmentation "approximately hourly wake-up calls" inhumane if you ask me. This led to a stress-related -52% decrease in fatty acid oxidation.

Now from where your sitting you might ask well what does this mean? Well not getting enough sleep, followed by impaired mental functioning and motivation. The decrease in fatty oxidation means your body can’t access its fat reserves as well as it should. The lack of sleep causes a lack of motivation which leads into poor eating habits and the “I can’t be arsed” to exercise im too tired response, which over time compounded by physiology is going to make you fat.

Most Interesting Sports Science studies of 2011

2011-12-15T12:41:00.000Z

I have rounded up some of my favorite and possibly signifcant studies from this year, some becuase they are controversial and challenge our way of thinking others because they in a bits and peices validate the methods many strength and conditioning coaches already employ due to years of experience working with athletes, sometimes science is playing catch up others times its pointing us in the direction to take.

Don't Sip your post workout shake if you want to kick start protein synthesis

Rapid aminoacidemia enhances myofibrillar protein synthesis and anabolic intramuscular signaling responses after resistance exercise

West et al

Despite its disconcerting title this study set up to come the effects of sipping vs swallowing (Bolus) whey protein post exercise made a difference it terms of total protein synthesis.

They had 8 healthy men consume whey protein either as a single bolus ( 25-g dose) or as repeated, small, “pulsed” drinks ( ten 2.5-g drinks every 20 min) to mimic a more slowly digested protein.

They found "Rapid aminoacidemia in the post-exercise period enhances MPS and anabolic signalling to a greater extent than an identical amount of protein fed in small pulses that mimic a more slowly digested protein." So its seems you should be gulping down your post workout shake, as the effect on protein synthesis is far greater than that of those you sip.

Intrestingly they confirmed that exercise works well as a nutrient partitioner:

"It appears that a unique aspect of resistance exercise is to selectively sustain elevated synthetic rates of myoﬁbrillar proteins after protein consumption. In contrast to the effects of protein consumption alone at rest, the current results and our earlier work showed that the highest rates of MPS were observed at 3–5 h post-exercise when aminoacidemia had subsided."

Does lifting fast or slow make a difference for building muscle?

Difference in Kinematics and Kinetics Between High- and Low-Velocity Resistance Loading Equated by Volume: Implications for Hypertrophy Training.
Mohamad NI, Cronin JB, Nosaka KK.

Hypertrophy everyone wants to get bigger fast, bodybuilders have been stomping this yard for decades as have athletes who want to add mass.

In bodybuilding circles the 3 sets of 8-12 reps mantra with 70-80% of 1RM is one we hear regularly and often as a training protocal. Why? well it works. If the ACSM had their way you would be doing 1 set of 11, but thats just a guideline and not really optimal for hypertrophy. So what is optimal for growth?

A pair of Australian scientists set out to determine if 2 training loads (35 and 70% 1 repetition maximum [1RM]) equated by volume, differed in terms of their session kinematic and kinetic characteristics.

Twelve subjects were recruited in this acute randomized within-subject crossover design study. Two bouts of a half-squat exercise were performed 1 week apart, one with high load-low velocity (HLLV = 3 sets of 12 reps at 70% 1RM) and the other with low-load high-velocity (LLHV = 6 sets of 12 reps at 35% 1RM). Time under tension (TUT), average force, peak force (PF), average power (AP), peak power (PP), work (TW), and total impulse (TI) were calculated and compared between loads for the eccentric and concentric phases. They Discovered that "it seems that the LLHV protocol may offer an equal if not better training stimulus for muscular adaptation than the HLLV protocol, because of the greater time under tension, power, force, and work output when the total volume of the exercise is equated." Their exercise selection was however not so great utilising the half squat if they do however try different exercises with a longer term study things could get interesting.

This Differs completely to a study earlier this year by Roschel 2011, that found velocity does'nt matter at all!

Is Active rest worth your time?

The idea of active rest is simple, doing an activity between sets to help aid recovery or the overall amount of activity done in a training session, quoting from Serious Strength Training (don't buy it, if you are serious its not a great book), by Tudor Bompa and Lorenzo Carnacchia: "Such physical activities can facilitate a faster recovery of the prime movers.... As the muscle becomes more relaxed, its energy stores are more easily restored."

The Effect of Aerobic Exercise During the Interset Rest Periods on Kinematics, Kinetics, and Lactate Clearance of Two Resistance Loading Schemes.
Mohamad NI, Cronin JB, Nosaka KK.

"It may be possible to enhance set and session kinematics and kinetics by engaging in low-intensity aerobic exercise during the inter set rest period." Nice idea but does it work in practice, between sets of squats subjects were asked to cycle at low intensities in order to aid recovery. They found "It was concluded that active recovery in the form of low-intensity cycling offered no additional benefits in terms of lactate clearance and enhancement of set and session kinematics and kinetics."

So low level aerobic work might not beuseful, but flexibility, accessory and core work between sets may still have value.

However quoting Nick Tummello

"You could think of dozens of ways to use active recovery, and they might all be valid, as long as they adhere to these three simple rules:

1. You must have a damned good reason for doing whatever you're doing in between sets. It can't be random.

2. What you do can't interfere with the primary exercise. It can't exhaust those muscles, or require some type of recovery of their own.

3. It can't make the time in between sets of the primary exercise longer than it would be without the AR exercise. In other words, it can't extend the workout, or compromise the training effects you're trying to attain."

HIIT training beneficial for power increases in Judo

I have already blogged this one and you can read it here
To summarise "anaerobic peak power and mean power in Sprint Iinterval Training group was significantly increased by 16% and 17% at 4 weeks and by 17% and 22% at 8 weeks compared to baseline values." "SIT program for elite Judoists would be effective to increase anaerobic power in a short period during off-season training."

High Intensity Circuit Training vs Traditional Strength Training

Similarity in Adaptations to High-Resistance Circuit vs. Traditional Strength Training in Resistance-Trained Men.
Alcaraz et al.

This study used a fixed exercise volume of 3-6 sets of 6 exercises with a 6RM, three times per week for 8 weeks.

The groups were divided into two training styles – a Circuit group that performed the exercise routines as a circuit (one set of each exercise in series) with 35s rest between sets and a traditional strength training group that performed the routine as straight sets, with 3mins rest between sets. Obviously the traditional session took longer to finish.

At the end of the 8 week training period the researchers reported no difference in strength (1RM), peak power, shuttle-run performance and lean mass between the two groups (both groups had the same improvements). However – only the circuit group lost significant levels of body fat.

However, effect of traditional strength on the Bench press concentric peak power was higher than those that did the high resistance circuits. For for trainees looking to improve maximum strength in the long term it might not be such a great approach.

But High Intensity Circuit training is shaping up to be a good way to get in shape for those who are time poor. How many people would make it through a circuit of their 6RM with 35seconds rest between exercises?

Design would be similar to the video above.

Eating Carbs in the evening?

Greater Weight Loss and Hormonal Changes After 6 Months Diet With Carbohydrates Eaten Mostly at Dinner

This study was designed to investigate the effect of a low-calorie diet with carbohydrates eaten mostly at dinner after 6pm on anthropometric, hunger/satiety, biochemical, and inflammatory parameters.

This study appears to support the idea that a high carbohydrates intake in the evening cannot be as bad, as mainstream weightloss paradigms would have it.

They discovered that"simple carbohydrate manipulation" in the form of carb-fasting before dinner, improves hunger/satiety status, increases persistence in the weight loss process, and provides "better anthropometric outcomes, improved insulin sensitivity, improvement in metabolic syndrome parameters, less inflammation".

They subjects involved however had BMI's of over 30, wether this can be repeated on healthy or athletic subjects remains to be seen.

My 5 Most Popular Blog Posts of 2011

2011-12-14T20:44:00.000Z

I know 2011 is not finished just yet but going over the analytics for my Blog for the Past year, this year I have strived to bring as much new content, random musing and new sports science info as I can. Here are the 5 most visited pages this year.

#1 Strength and Conditioning Advice for Combat Sports/BJJ/MMA
I lay my general training philosophy out for those involved in combat sports, also applicable to other sports.

#2 Two Day strength plan for BJJ and MMA
Put this together to show how I plan for BJJ and MMA athletes, Im asked often how can I fit my strength training into two days.

#3 Are Altitude Masks Really Worth It?
Growing increasingly popular this year with more and more athletes pimping this device, is it really worth buying?

#4 Sprint Workouts for Improving Fitness
Growing body of research suggesting that sprint training maybe superior to conventional endurance training for an number of athletes across an array of sports.

#5 Sprint Workouts for Improving Power in Judo
Most recent article on sprints improving performance for Judo athletes with an impressive improvement for the athletes involved in the study.

The new Zumba "POWER SCOOTING"

HIIT training beneficial for power increases in Judo

2011-12-09T13:42:00.001Z

Those of you who read my blog regularly will know about my preference for high intensity interval training and sprint training over conventional endurance training methods. Circuit obessession, Sprint workouts and my recent slidecast. Many seem to think that steady state long duration is the only way to get fit and healthy or worse yet prepare for sport.

Korea produces some of the best Judoka in the world

A recent study "Effects of Sprint Interval Training on Elite Judoists" from Kim et al took 29 judoka from the Yongin University in Korea who participated in an 8-week study at the Korea National Sport University in Seoul. Split these athletes into two groups one group to conduct Sprint Interval Training (SIT) and the other to act as control. The results were compelling "anaerobic peak power and mean power in SIT group was significantly increased by 16% and 17% at 4 weeks and by 17% and 22% at 8 weeks compared to baseline values." Additionally the blood lactate was lower and ability to clear metabolites was higher in those who did SIT.

The Baseline training was

7hrs a week resistance training, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Friday
10hrs a week Judo training Monday to Friday

Additional HIIT training looked like this

Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday mornings

4 minutes warm-up
30 seconds sprints plus 4 minutes rest
Number of intervals starting at 6 and increasing to 10 over 8 weeks.

The study produced a profound performance increases in the anaerobic peak and mean power test. More evidence the HIIT is a powerful conditioning tool that cannot be over looked for combat athletes and athletes of sports requiring high power output. The authors suggest that "SIT program for elite Judoists would be effective to increase anaerobic power in a short period during off-season training." On a side note it seemed that VO2 max did'nt increase despite other studies showing benefits for VO2, this possibly is because the athletes have pretty much pushed their VO2 max to its limits as a resultant effect of all the other training they do.

Hard to argue with a study with such profound improvements, go forth and get sprinting.

Not a fan of crossfit you will like this...

2011-12-08T10:26:00.001Z

Saw this thrown up on facebook, it seems some people are very dissatisfied with crossfit, a particularly venemous timeline of major crossfit events can be read here....enjoy!

http://joshsgarage.typepad.com/Crossfit_White_Papers_--_Timeline.html

"Former elite Crossfitter Gillian Mounsey releases a very honest article on her dissatisfaction with Crossfit. Describes an epiphany that Crossfit was making her good at exercise, not athletics."

pic unrelated

Barefoot running: An overview

2011-11-22T08:28:00.000Z

Barefoot running: An overview

The excellent writers of the science of sport have done a terrific overview of Barefoot running. Barefoot running is hot topic in running circles, with vested interest from shoe manufactures, the public, hippies and injury prevention types. The broad evidence being that it may be better for you if you take the proper precautions.

Future of footwear?

My Three Favorite Shoulder Mobilisations

2011-11-15T12:44:00.001Z

As a guy who does alot of heavy pressing plus a diet of Jiu-Jitsu and a few past subluxation injuries, I really value my shoulder health, so I make sure to do these mobiltisations a couple of times a week. These videos are by Eric Cressey who lets face it is a bit of a shoulder health don.

NeoCellSport Collagen Sport Whey Isolate Complex Review

2011-11-11T12:45:00.001Z

There are a lot of whey protein supplements on they market and to be honest many of them are the same. So when given the opportunity to review something different in NeoCell’s collagen whey I leapt at the chance. What is interesting is that NeoCell sponsor an array of MMA and BJJ athletes, including Frankie Edgar, Ricardo Almeida, John Cholish, Gregor, Renzo and Igor Gracie. Often we see collagen sold separately as a joint and bone health product, I have however never seen it sold mixed with a whey protein product. Knowing the benefits of whey protein and protein supplementation on muscular strength and growth which has been done to death, this review will focus on the collagen NeoCell Sport have added to their product.

Ingredients

click to enlarge

Containing around 30 grams of protein total is a fairly standard amount for most supplements. What is important that we understand where the protein comes from, the split is 15g Whey protein Isolate and 15g Super Collagen 1&3. A little bit about collagen the most prevalent two in the human body are types I and III (there are in total 29 types!). Collagen acts almost as binding agent in the body forming connective tissues. Bone contains mainly type 1, preventing bone fragility; it is also found in skin. Type 3 In cardiovascular system largely. And when found together it is usually in connective tissues. Secondly we know that Vitamin C is needed for collagen synthesis. Neocell has also put in 100mg of Vitamin C for this very reason. There is as you can see an abundance of vitamins and minerals included also, which is nothing to sniff at.

Efficacy of Collagen for Joint and Bone health

A study by Ruiz Benito et al in (2009) saw subjects a randomized trial report a decrease in joint discomfort and another Meta analysis by Moskowitz (2000) reported “Collagen hydrolysate is of interest as a therapeutic agent of potential utility in the treatment of osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. Its high level of safety makes it attractive as an agent for long-term use in these chronic disorders.” Other studies have pointed to collagen supplementation improving the activity of chondrocytes into producing more collagen. Other studies point to increased bone density but thus far these have been conducted on rats. Most of the other studies on this supplement have been conduction on patients with arthritis so applicability to a (fairly) healthy athlete might be a little strained.

Another quality that needs further research is that collagen may have a nitrogen sparing effect and that other proteins mixed with whey mean its bio availability is higher. This is important because collagen in the presence of a complete protein may in fact increase protein synthesis and thus recovery. This will hopefully be studied soon and on a athletic population. My understanding is the issue with collagen is that is broken down into a few simple and incomplete amino acids (contains 8 out of 9 essential amino acids). The presence of these amino’s in the presence of vitamin C might be responsible for the above effects we can’t be sure right now. Sometimes unscrupulous protein supplement manufacturers will use Gelatin (hydrolyzed collagen and not just 1,3) to bulk up protein supplements because it saves money, we consider this junk protein. If Hydrolyzed collagen, gelatine is listed fist on ingredients it is probably a junk supplement.

Taste/mix-ability

Collagen Sport Belgian chocolate was the flavour I was sent and I can tell you it tastes great, as a man who has tried many brands of chocolate protein powder over the years I can tell you taste can sell a shake alone. I mixed it both with water and milk, It mixes fairly easily, it may have a slightly gritty mouth feel because of the collagen powder in it. I was tempted to mix in 1 and half scoops to bump the whey protein content up slightly.

Conclusion

A solid, great tasting protein supplement, that has some “potential” benefits for your joint and cartilage health from the addition of collagen 1,3. Maybe in the future NeoCellSport might think about altering their ratio’s to 20:10 whey to collagen. Hopefully we will see more research into protein synthesis and availability of proteins in the presence of collagen. Visit NeoCellSport's website at http://www.neocellsport.com/index.php

Refrences

Moskowitz, R. (2000). "Role of collagen hydrolysate in bone and joint disease". Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism 30 (2): 87–99. doi:10.1053/sarh.2000.9622. PMID 11071580.

Ruiz-Benito, P.; Camacho-Zambrano, M.M., Carrillo-Arcentales, J.N., Mestanza-Peralta, M.A., Vallejo-Flores, C.A., Vargas-Lopez, S.V., Villacis-Tamayo, R.A. and Zurita-Gavilanes, L.A. (2009). "A randomized controlled trial on the efficacy and safety of a food ingredient, collagen hydrolysate, for improving joint comfort". International journal of food science and nutrition 12: 1–15.

Powering Through Slidecast 01 - S&C advice for combat athletes

2011-11-04T15:11:00.000Z

In a change of pace I thought I would experiment with a webinar, here are the results let me know what you think. Discussing combat sport strength and conditioning. I have to give thanks to @Girgast for pointing me towards Audacity sound capture software.

Bjj, grappling and mma – general advice final

View another webinar from William Wayland

2 days Strength Training
http://bit.ly/qvZgx2
Conditioning
http://bit.ly/vBi3TQ

2 Day training quicky and Olympic lifts

2011-11-02T13:31:00.000Z

Ive been asked by a few folks about splitting two day training program into two full body sessions.In Addition to this I was asked about adding olympic lifts. An outline might look something like this.

A
snatch (use as a warm-up for C&J)
clean & jerk (working to max)
overhead press of some form
lat delt assistance (pull-ups, lat pull downs etc followed by band pull aparts or rear delt flyes)

B
snatch grip DL (working to max)
front squat
bench press (DB/BB, doesn't matter)
kroc row (or horzontal row variant)

Forgoodness shakes review

2011-10-31T14:37:00.000Z

I have been meaning to write a piece on Forgoodness shakes for sometime. I first noticed this "recovery" drink in supermarkets sometime back in 2008. The company has gone great guns since then and has a distribution deal with Sainsburys. The product in particular that gets alot of attention is their 3:1 Sports Recovery drink. Endorsed by English Institute of sport, British Athletics Commission, Sports Aid, Sports Institute of Northern Ireland, Sport Wales, The Tour of Britain and gets a Mens Health endsorement. No small list, so what is that makes this so widely endorsed when there a slew of sports recovery products on the market. What For Goodness Shakes has done has effectively broken into the mainstream with sports recovery drink.

Ingredients
So what is in it well...
Semi-Skimmed Milk (52%), Skimmed Milk (41%) Sugar, Cocoa (1.5%), Stabilisers: Guar Gum Carrageenan; Flavourings, Vitamin and Mineral Mixture (Maltodextrin, Magnesium Hydroxide, Vitamin C, Zinc Lactate, Ferric Pyrophosphate, Vitamin E, Vitamin B3, Sodium Selenite, Biotin, Manganese Sulphate, Vitamin A, Copper Sulphate, Vitamins B6, B9, D3, B1, B2, Potassium Iodide).

per 500g
17.4g of protein
52.3g of Carbohydrate

These shakes give 17g protein per serving which is half normal protein shakes and it's double the price, per weight of protein.

Their Study
A study was conducted on this drink versus, Water and isotonic sports drink. They found...

"The athletes drinking For Goodness Shakes recovered more power than the athletes consuming water or the isotonic sports drink – enabling them to do 40% more work on day three.

The results suggest that the combination and ratio of protein & carbohydrate in For Goodness Shakes reduced muscle damage by providing the material (protein) for muscle regeneration. The protein-carbohydrate complex could also help to re-energise the body by increasing the uptake and storage of carbohydrate by creating a stronger insulin reaction than carbohydrate on its own."

Compelling results, recovers better than "isotonic sports drinks" a clear jab at lucozade who have been sat on their laurels with the Loughborough set on that age old study of theirs. When they could have been all over the PWO market, but where beaten there by my goodness limited.

However, I have to say this is hardly a fair fight, we have known for a while that milk rehydrates and aids recovery better than water or isotonic sports drinks and that pairing carbs with protein post workout works better than either alone.

Simply put the reason why this happens is carbohydrates (some are better than others) in milk act to halt catabolism and shift you towards anabolism. Carbohydrates are used to refill your depleted glycogen stores. So some is used right away to refill liver and muscle glycogen, and then you still need surplus to be used as fuel to stop the catablolic state and help to begin to rebuild in an anabolic state, enter the protien aminos (the building blocks of tissue). Different kinds of proteins and carbohydrate mixtures can amplify or dampen this effect, depending on type (fructose, maltodextrin, sucrose etc) or ratio (2:1, 1:1 3:1, 4:1 etc).

Milk Protein as PWO

To maximize energy resynthesis and recovery after aerobic endurance training take a carb/protein supplement with between a 4:1 or 3:1 ratio. Research indicates that a potent carb/protein combination post-workout will lead to significantly greater muscle glycogen replacement in comparison with a carb-alone supplement. The Mixture in Forgoodness shakes drink comes in at about 3:1 all well and good, but what about Milk vs other supplements.

Milk versus water is hardly a fair comparison as milk will always come up looking better. There are plenty of studies that back up the usage of milk as a PWO drink. But against better engineered products milk protein comes up short. Whey protein is a better post workout drink. Whey protein is responsible for greater increases in protein synthesis upon ingestion, where as Milk protein does not digest as fast, the fat and choice of sugars Lactose, Sucrose mitigate the effect of the added Maltodextrin they have added to this drink.

All well and good for endurance athletes but what about those involved in sports that require anerobic energy systems well there is data to support the use of ratios between 2:1 and 1:1. One study using a 1:1 ratio was more effective at promoting muscle hypertrophy among both fast and slow twitch fibers than supplementing with protein or carbs alone. The 2:1 ratio is flouted by many sports supplement providers and with the addition of creatine this can only enhance recovery. It would be good if someone pitted this product against another PWO drink and tested the results.

The Long and short of it

When you buy one of these its basically boiled milk(UHT) with a sprinkle of vitamins, "optimal blend of carbs and protein to maximise recovery", it does however taste great! I can't emphasise this enough. But will be inferior in terms of its function to post workout drinks provided by other supplement companies, such as Recovery XS and Surge. Id rank this down with Mars "refuel" drink. If you can't get a whey shake then this maybe your next best option. What still confounds me is reputable sports science backed bodies would endorse an inferior product when there are so many other great PWO's about.

Pros

Tastes great

Off the shelf

Cons

Not as effective as whey and waxy maise/maltodextrin mix in my opinion.

Expensive per consumption vs tub of whey powder.

Effectively a well marketed milkshake with vitamins, sugar and flavorings

References

Tarnopolsky, M., Parise, G., Yardley, N., Ballantyne, C., Olatinji, S., Phillips, S. Creatine-dextrose and protein-dextrose induce similar strength gains during training. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2001. 33, 2044-2052.

Rasmussen, B., Tipton, K., Miller, S., Wolf, S., Wolfe, R. An oral essential amino acid-carbohydrate supplement enhances muscle protein anabolism after resistance exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology. 2000. 88, 386-392.

Jason R. Karp, Jeanne D. Johnston, Sandra Tecklenburg, Timothy D. Mickleborough, Alyce D. Fly, and Joel M. Stager. Chocolate Milk as a Post-Exercise Recovery Aid: International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2006, 16, 78-91

Elisabet Børheim, Kevin D. Tipton, Steven E. Wolf and Robert R. Wolfe.Essential amino acids and muscle protein recovery from resistance exercise: Metabolism Unit, Department of Surgery, Shriners Hospital for Children/Galveston, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77550. American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology Metabolism 283: E648–E657, 2002; 10.1152/ajpendo.00466.2001

Exercise programming without equipment

2011-10-27T15:58:00.000+01:00

I get asked from time to about how to workout without equipment, I was recently posed this question by slideyfoot. While understandably not keen on a comprehensive strength & conditioning program he is keen like many people on staying injury free and healthy. When equipment is unavailable your options are limited to bodyweight or simple pieces of equipment like horizontal bars or bands. Now there are those that would tell you body weight training is the be all and end all goodness know I ran into many when dealing with the parkour and freerunning community, now some of best freerunners are lifting weights. You certainly can get stronger doing bodyweight training, but lacking variation in resistance means the body overcomes the training stress and only option is exercise abstraction in order to continue to get stronger. While I was hoping to record the exercises myself, I just didn't have time to do so. Why put in the hard work when there are tons on you-tube.

Exercises I like to use.

LowerBody

Glute Bridges - Great for posterior chain strengthening and injury prevention. This targets the largest muscles in the body, including the glutes, the hamstrings, the adductor magnus, and even the quadriceps, albeit from an isometric contraction. Can be made harder by popping a box under the foot.

Pistol Squats - Great for building leg strength, mobility and flexibility at the knee and ankle. Most people struggle initially, so assisted ones can be done before moving on to unassisted. Check steve max well video (tiny pants are crucial to getting this right)

Honorable mention GHR - Difficult to do without a good set up, possibly one of the best hamstring exercises available to you. Start with trying to control you decent, catching with your hands at the bottom. then push your self back up to starting position.

If you have a band

TKE's - This exercise is great for making sure the patellar tracks properly.

Other exercises - BW front squats (elbows high), Lunges, step ups

Upper back

Pull ups - if you have a pull up bar or high horizontal bar

Scapular Push ups - These are often used in shoulder rehab and prehab settings. Stick with high reps on these; a few sets of 15-20leading on to YTLW

YTLW

If you have a band

and

These exercises will focus on scapular retraction, to fix that slumped posture and strengthen your rotator cuff. Fixing common problems like internally rotated shoulders, where standing up you can see 3 or more knuckles in the mirror, probably means you chest and shoulder tight and your back is over flexible, leading to slumped cave man posture. When put under athletic stress this predisposes us to injury.

Other exercises - Supine rows (if you have a low bar), single arm band rows,

And the rest, Sure things like press-ups are avilable to you, put if anything these are over done and with the wrong hand placement can be bad for the shoulders. If you have the capability to do dips then they would make a great addition to your program.

Proper push ups - If your going to do push ups do them like this.

Core work

Core-work should consist of Anti-rotation, anti-flexion and stabilisation exercises and there are tons to choose from, these will ensure good core and spinal health if done properly.. Inlcluding, Planks, hanging leg raises, L sits and so on, heres some of my favorites

AB Walkouts

Pallof Press (band required)

V-sit variations (tiny dog needed)

BW exercises to Avoid

Bench Dips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OAGJGx5zD0&feature=relmfu Places alot of stress across shoulders.
Wide push ups http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4kWo6MbFV8 (popular in gay fitness community?) for the same reasons above. Most people do not need to do a lot of anterior shoulder work as they already tight here.

Programming for this kind of training - Generally because of the low resistance you can do full body routines with bodyweight a few times a week. I like using super sets so a program might look something like this. You can use the set and rep schemes provided or just go AMRAP (As Many Reps as Possible). The number of sets you do will be determined by your training experience. Most very fit athletes would breeze through a program like this or do it continuously as a circuit.

Sample programming.

A. Pistol squats 2-3 sets of 8-12
B. Glute Bridges 2-3 sets of 8-12

A.Pull ups 2-3 sets AMRAP
B Push Ups or Dips 2-3 sets 8-12 reps

A. Scap Push ups 2-3 sets 20 reps
B. YTLW 2-3 sets of 15 sec hold in each position
C. band exercise

A. Walkouts 2-3 sets of 4-6 walkouts
B V-sits 2-3 sets of of 8-12

This by no means exhaustive in terms of scope, what you can do is limited by what you are capable of. A routine like this will hopefully help improve your kinaesthetic awareness, balance, stability and strength endurance. Don't like training alone these kids of workouts work well in group enviroment, especially when you need someone to sit on your feet for those GHR's.

My current lifting routine

2011-10-25T13:46:00.000+01:00

I get asked quite often what training im doing, so I thought id share my training outline for the next 4 weeks. I lift 3 days and perform 2 days of rowing sprints and what BJJ I can fit in around that. A variation on Wendlers popular 5/3/1. Occasionally I will switch to EDT style lifting when I need to work on repeat max strength expression. On alternate weeks I will put jumping exercises between warm-up lower body movements. Keep in mind this program works well for me, as someone who's goals include, staying strong, the occasional BJJ competition and avoiding injury/dysfunction.

Exercise selection, I think heavy pulling is key for BJJ attribute development, while other sports do alot of horizontal driving BJJ is one of the few that requires alot of upper body pulling. Pull ups are the order of the day, before you ask me why I do so many, well heavy lifting helps potentiate my muscles for regular pull-ups, so the first 3-4 sets of unweighted pulls im blasting them out.This month in cycling in Front Squats over my usual deadlifts for 1 cycle and throwing in high rep deadlifts. I find after this I come back to heavy deadlifts much stronger.

All lifts are calculated using 90% of 1 RM

Current Maxes for this cycle: Weighted Chin up 50Kg, Front Squat 152.5kg, Bench Press 150kg @ 95kg

Week 1


	Day 1 Weighted Chin	Day 2 Front Squat	Day 3 Bench Press
Warm Up	BW kgs x 5	50 kgs x 5	60 kgs x 5
	15 kgs x 5	60kgs x 5	80 kgs x 5
	20 kgs x 3	75 kgs x 3	95 kgs x 3
5/3/1	20 kgs x 5	80 kgs x 5	90 kgs x 5
	25 kgs x 5	95 kgs x 5	105 kgs x 5
	30 kgs x 5+	105 kgs x 5+	120 kgs x 5+
Assistance work	Chins 5 x 10	Deadlifts 5 x 10	Dumbbell Bench Press 5 x 15
Assistance work	OHP 5 x 10	Laying curls - 5 x 10	Standing one arm cable row - 5 x 10

Accessory work : Grip work/Band pull aparts/Bent over flyes/antiflexion/antirotation across the 3 days time pending.

Week 2


	Day 1 Weighted Chins	Day 2 Front Squat	Day 3 Bench Press
Warm Up	BW kgs x 5	50 kgs x 5	55 kgs x 5
	15 kgs x 5	60kgs x 5	65 kgs x 5
	20 kgs x 3	75 kgs x 3	80 kgs x 3
5/3/1	25 kgs x 3	90 kgs x 3	100 kgs x 3
	30 kgs x 3	100 kgs x 3	115 kgs x 3
	30 kgs x 3+	115 kgs x 3+	125 kgs x 3+
Assistance work	Chins 5 x 10	Deadlifts 5 x 10	Dumbbell Bench Press 5 x 15
Assistance work	OHP 5 x 10	Laying curls - 5 x 10	Standing one arm cable row - 5 x 10

Accessory work : Grip work/Band pull aparts/Bent over flyes/antiflexion/antirotation across the 3 days time pending.

Week 3


	Day 1 Weighted Chins	Day 2 Front Squat	Day 3 Bench Press
Warm Up	BW kgs x 5	50 kgs x 5	55 kgs x 5
	15 kgs x 5	60kgs x 5	65 kgs x 5
	20 kgs x 3	75 kgs x 3	80 kgs x 3
5/3/1	25kgs x 5	95 kgs x 5	110 kgs x 5
	30 kgs x 3	105 kgs x 3	125 kgs x 3
	35 kgs x 1+	120 kgs x 1+	140 kgs x 1+
Assistance work	Chins 5 x 10	Deadlifts 5 x 10	Dumbbell Bench Press w bands 5 x 15
Assistance work	OHP 5 x 10	Laying curls - 5 x 10	Standing one arm cable row - 5 x 10

Accessory work : Grip work/Band pull aparts/Bent over flyes/antiflexion/antirotation across the 3 days time pending.

Week 4 DELOAD


	Day 1 Weighted Chins	Day 2 Front Squat	Day 3 Bench Press
Warm Up	BW kgs x 5	50 kgs x 5	55 kgs x 5
	15 kgs x 5	60kgs x 5	65 kgs x 5
	20 kgs x 3	75 kgs x 3	80 kgs x 3
5/3/1	BW kgs x 5	50 kgs x 5	60 kgs x 5
	15 kgs x 5	60kgs x 5	70 kgs x 5
	20 kgs x 5	75 kgs x 5	85 kgs x 5
Assistance work	Chins 5 x 10	Deadlifts 5 x 10	Dumbbell Bench Press w bands 5 x 15
Assistance work	OHP 5 x 10	Laying curls - 5 x 10	Standing one arm cable row - 5 x 10

Pareto principle

2011-10-21T12:21:00.001+01:00

"The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes."

Priority in your training is one of the keys to success and to guide this success ideas like the 80/20 Rule.

The idea of the 80/20 Rule is the idea that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your training stress, so that first exercise in your strength session is key to the progress you make. Your 20% exercises will be mutli joint compound exercise that lend them selves to max strength building stuff like, Deadlifts, Squats, Bench Press, Clean and Press and so on. When I program design there will usually be an exercise at the start that will take up 20-25% of your time and program, usually a max strength exercise set on building a a foundation. You can see this in wendlers 5/3/1, Defrancos programs, Westside barbell stuff.

This however is not an excuse to bust your balls on 20% of your workout alone and mess about for the other 80% doing curls with pink dumbells on a bosu ball.

Human beings are exceptional at needless abstraction

Conversely a rule I employ is that if you get 80% of your workout down doing important constructive exercises, you can use the remain 20% of your time doing things like arm isolation, calf work, additional core work and accessory work.

Those 80% exercises will be stuff like pullups, dips, lunges, squat variations, deadlift variations, rows and so.

Unfortunately I still see people doing 80% or 100% Isolation work, core work and balancing tasks. Ive bared witness to 100% arm workouts twice a week for trainees who probably could'nt do a pull up or squat their bodyweight. Tackle the big stuff and small stuff will look after its self. Build a solid base then add abstraction. Don't be dressing the windows when the house isnt built.

Assessment of Mobility Video by Mike Boyle

2011-10-19T13:23:00.002+01:00

Grabbed this off @KevinLarrabee twitter feed, excellent video by Mike Boyle about the intricacies of ankle mobility, quad length, mobility and assessment.

Applied Psychology and your training. Part 1

2011-10-18T14:35:00.000+01:00

Group Psychology

Much is made of the physical aspects of training, sets, repetitions, drills, conditioning, energy systems and how these things impact your training. But little is made of the psychology of training; we know much about the psychology of performance but not the psychology of training. In the post I hope to bring forward some psychological aspects of your training that you may have never considered are having an influence on you. This first post will look at the effect those you train with have on your psychology.Sport psychology is a subject I enjoyed teaching and learning about, mainly because it teaches you to ask questions of yourself.

Choose your training partners wisely

Beware the Crowd

Yerkes Dodson's Law Theory of Social Facilitation states that, “the mere presence of other people will enhance the performance in speed and accuracy of well-practiced tasks, but will degrade the performance of less familiar tasks. "

For example you may pull a simple deadlift PR lift in the gym when people are watching or hit that armbar again and again when sparring with a whitebelt. But however, if you were asked to perform a snatch with no instruction, while your peers watch or asked to do an inverted triangle, from upside down guard, while your instructor stands over you to assess your technique, chances are you won’t perform as well. Social Facilitation implies that people’s performance does not rely solely on their abilities, but is also impacted by the internal awareness of being evaluated.

Don’t worry though humans are not alone in this for instance cockroaches take a longer time to complete a complex maze in the presence of other cockroaches than when alone. So the simpler and better practiced a task, the easier it is to perform in front of others in high pressure situations. This possibly explains why the often told story of Roger Gracie, defeats everyone the same way, with the first choke he learned in Jiu-jitsu. And his tactics are extremely simple Takedown>pass>mount>choke, no fancy stuff, no pressure.

Could Benni move this much weight without the crowd?

The ability to control your arousal levels matter too, when tasks are simple, increased arousal helps performance, but when tasks are difficult, increased arousal can hurt performance.

“Micheals et al (1982) : Watched pool players at the university union to observe social facilitation. Good pool players, who made an average of 71% of their shots when playing alone, increased performance to 80% when a group of 4 people began watching them. Average pool players, who made about 36% of their shots when playing alone, decreased to about 25% shots made when 4 people started watching them.”

So skilled practitioners of any sport may actually do well with more people watching, where as lesser skilled ones fall victim to the sharp end of social facilitation. This could explain when moving clubs with expectations to prove oneself your first few sessions may well be suboptimal.

Are the people I train with affecting the amount of effort I put in?
Do people exert more effort on when training in large or small groups? This is where we can apply the theory of Social loafing. Larger classes are often considered more "successful" for a martial arts club, but its students can often see less progression than those in a smaller class. This is down to possibly two things, less one to one interaction with the instructor and two the effect of social loafing. Which states that in large groups there is a tendency to put less effort in when working in a large group and to hide that lack of effort behind other peoples efforts.

Essentially, what occurs in social loafing is that each member of the group feels that either others will make up for him if he slacks off or that his individual contribution is otherwise insignificant. If you happen to train in a very large class or group take a quick look around see how many people are chatting instead of training, this is generally less inclined to happen in small groups.

One of the reason small groups work better is because they are more cohesive, if you are an instructor with a very large classes try breaking the group up into smaller groups with and set individual goals for those groups or people. Social loafing is reduced to the extent a task is challenging, appealing, and involving, as an instructor it is important to find a balance with challenge. Too much and task difficulty will be considered too high and you will be landed with a group of frustrated students. Also, the commitment one feels toward a group can affect social loafing.

Self Presentation Concerns

Worried about your appearance in class, worried that your clothing looks bad? Worried that others are watching you when you train and when you roll? A lot of people (most of society) are concerned with the way others perceive them, strength and conditioning and jiu-jitsu/mma are no different. This affects beginners more than experienced trainee but can still have an underlying effect on the best of us. "The idea of the self-presentation perspective is about the process through which people monitor and control the impressions other people form of them in social situations (Schlenker & Leary, 1982)".

We want people to perceive us in a certain way. It’s a protective mechanism shielding our egos. It obviously boils over into our non training lives too. I have been guilty of when rolling at a different gym or a tournament not grappling like myself out of fear of looking foolish, I’ve been guilty of trying to preserve my self- presentation.

If you’re worried about what others think of you at the gym, on the field, or on the court, you’re not reaching your potential. You’re letting others control your abilities. Many people don’t even realize they are allowing this to happen. This partly explains the culture of BJJ/MMA gear to some extent by selecting a certain Gi or brand you are trying to suggest something about yourself.

Self-presentation can influence people’s motivation to exercise, the level of effort they put forth. I’m sure when you receive a new Gi/gym clothes/training aids you are itching to train and train hard. Its clear that controlling your self-presentation can make you feel good (this goes into the deeper idea of personal appearance). The belt you have is heavily tied into your sense of self presentation, I’m stretching it a bit here, but there seems to be a large drop off in people competing at purple belt, is this self presentation preservation at work?

Consider Roger Gracie, his name brings huge weight (huge potential for performance anxiety), no flashy gi, simple tactics, trains mainly with a small number of other elite competitors.

Part 2 will look at arousal and anxiety in more depth

http://sonify.psych.gatech.edu/~walkerb/classes/intro/pdf/19-social-context.ppt.pdf

Schlenker, B. R., & Leary, M. R. (1982). Audiences' reactions to self-enhancing, self-denigrating, and accurate self-presentations. Journal of Experimental Social psychology

DSTRYRsg: Destroyer Submission Grappling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: BEST OF DSTRYR/SG: OPTIMIZING YOUR WEIGHT AND SIZ...

2011-10-17T13:58:00.000+01:00

This article takes a different approach to the cut weight for competition approach alot of fighters and recommends the more unusual steps of

1.Never compromise power and strength for reduced weight.
2.Listen to your body, and heed the warnings of increased fatigue and injury/pain.
3.De-emphasize competition weightclass and place greater emphasis on overall competitiveness.

DSTRYRsg: Destroyer Submission Grappling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: BEST OF DSTRYR/SG: OPTIMIZING YOUR WEIGHT AND SIZ...: Forward: DSTRYR/SG has been going strong for over 2 years now and we're only getting better. A lot of our newer readership missed out on...

2 day strength plan for fighters/BJJ athletes

2011-10-11T13:46:00.002+01:00

(And anyone else who needs to lift two days a week)

Fighters don’t have much of time for accessory training, between mma/standup/grappling/BJJ sessions. When time is so limited a fighter or strength coach has to carefully choose what training modalities to improve outside of their sports specific work. If you are time strapped this can work for non fighters too.

Sport specific lifting for BJJ

It is also the reason why steady state cardio is ill advised for fighters as they get large volume of low intensity cardio work from the sheer volume of sports specific training they do, this should only be a concern if tests indicate as such. I’m of the opinion with great strength coaches such as Martin Rooney and Chad Waterbury that maximum strength is the least worked component of fitness most fighters/grapplers possess (except wrestlers, these guys know the value of max strength) .

Current trends for fancy circuits and fancy youtube videos has pushed an obsession for fatigue. An obsession that leaves fighters weak and good at circuits. That is not to discount this kind of training when used specifically in targeted fashion it has its uses. But doing too much of this kind of training can be deleterious to your efforts in your sports specific training (Im going to a whole post on the current fetishisation of fatigue and how mixing methods ultimately dilutes performance). This is also true of strength training in general people will avoid heavy lifting and rather do a low resistance high fatigue workout because its easy. There is at the moment too much muddying of the waters when it comes to strength sessions turning into conditioning sessions.

I digress, keeping the time and competing demands element in mind often fighters only have 2 or even 1 day to do their strength work, so being smart in your approach is paramount. Choosing the “best bang for your buck exercises is important” these will be multi joint exercises that require coordination and stability. These will be movements like, Deadlifts, squats, clean’s, Over head press (OHP), pull ups, dips and the like. I especially like loaded bodyweight movements as accessory work.

Know your weaknesses

Another consideration is identifying your weakness and working to improve them. Your coach will point out weaknesses in your game, which you will work to improve, why would your strength or conditioning be any different? When time is limited in the gym natural bias pushes towards doing the things we like, no one likes being bad at anything.

Tests to include would be....

Strength Objectives: 1 rep max on OHP, Squat and Deadlift.

Ideally you should be able to

OHP 80% of your BW (bodyweight)
Squat 175% BW (unless HW)
Deadlift 200% BW,
a single pull up with 50% BW strapped to them

Pull ups for max reps (most fighters can do push ups for max reps with ease)

Rating	Pull ups
Excellent	13 and above
Good	10-12
Average	5-9
Poor	0-4

Obviously if you fall short on these lifts prioritise which ever lift you are relatively worse at. All these lifts have good carry over into sport and should form the base of your training for better maximum strength.

And finally strengthening the antagonists, every muscle has an antagonist muscle that opposes its force, when we perform movement repetitively the prime movers get excessive stimulus and their antagonists subsequently learn to relax and become weaker by comparison, this however can lead to injury this is important for martial artists especially to quote Charles Staley:

“Many athletes often reinforce this inequity every time they train, thinking they are respecting the principle of specificity by training only the prime movers (or "agonists"). An example would be a martial artist who reasons that since the quadriceps muscle extends the leg during kicking, the quadriceps should receive the brunt of the training focus. Soon, the hamstrings (which are the antagonists in kicking movements) become weak in proportion to the quads, and power output declines. The student understandably (but incorrectly) concludes that weight training "slows you down," because for him, it did.”

So for your accessory work training main antagonists is important, examine your training see what the prime movers are and train the opposing muscle group. I had seen this commonly with Taekwondo players with snappy quad powered kicks and over flexible weak hamstrings usually leading to injury disaster.

Organising your work out

I personally prefer upper and lower body splits, but you can use two full body sessions with pull vs pushing emphasis if you like. The key to work out is the maximum strength component once you have worked that you are entitled to work on your weaknesses, if you’re having a bad week and don’t feel up to it you can however skip accessory work. How you plan the maximum strength training can vary but the one thing that has to happen is HEAVY lifting. You can either

1. work up to a percentage of your 1 repition maximum or
2. lift a set number of times at a given weight for time know as EDT or
3. use Joe defrancos simple Westside for skinny bastards max effort method.

This is a rough outline of the method I prefer to employ for building maximum strength on a two day template.

Main movement could be either working at percentages, EDT style work for time (15 minutes) or simple WS4SB method.

Day 1 Sample Lower session

1 1. Deadlifts

	Conventional (% of 1RM)	EDT style 15 minutes 1 rep every 3 minutes	Super simple method
Week 1	65 75 85 85 85 85 85 3 reps	7 sets of 3RM for 1 rep	Work up to 3-5 rep max
Week 2	65 80 85 90 90 90 90 2 reps	7 sets of 3RM +5% for 1 rep	Work up to 3-5 rep max
Week 3	70 80 85 90 95 95 95 1 rep	7 sets of 3RM +5% for 1 rep	Work up to 3-5 rep max
Week 4 (deload)	55 65 75 55 65 75 5 reps	7 sets of 8RM for 5 reps	70% 1RM 5 x 5

Accessory work (depending on what you need)

2. Quad emphasis (unilateral)
Reverse Lunges 3 x 10

3. Hamstring emphasis (knee flexion or hip flexion again dependant on what you need)
Glute Ham Raise 3 x as many reps as possible (if you cannot do these do iso holds)

4. Wind Screen Wipers/ Ab wheel roll outs 3 x 8

Day 2 Sample Upper Session

1. Over Head Press or Pull ups from dead hang (like using this for grapplers)

	Conventional (% of 1RM)	EDT style 15 minutes 1 rep every 3 minutes	Super simple method
Week 1	65 75 85 85 85 85 85 3 reps	7 sets of 3RM for 1 rep	Work up to 3-5 rep max
Week 2	65 80 85 90 90 90 90 2 reps	7 sets of 3RM +5% for 1 rep	Work up to 3-5 rep max
Week 3	70 80 85 90 95 95 95 1 rep	7 sets of 3RM +5% for 1 rep	Work up to 3-5 rep max
Week 4 (deload)	55 65 75 55 65 75 5 reps	7 sets of 8RM for 5 reps	70% 1RM 5 x 5

Accessory work (depending on what you need)

2. . Pressing Emphasis

Floor press or weighted dips 3-4 sets 6-10 reps

3. Horizontal row (scapular squeeze)

Barbell rows 3-4 sets of 6-10 reps

4. Optional arm work or grip work

Power Curls 3 sets 8 reps

This just a sample, you can however tweak it to suit your need, I like using bodyweight variations for accessory work, this useful for deload, those who need a break from heavier poundage’s or people who are time strapped e.g.

Bodyweight Variations

Lowerbody

Accessory work (depending on what you need)
1. Quad emphasis (unilateral)
Pistol Squats 3 x 10 or as many as possible

2. Hamstring emphasis (knee flexion or hip flexion again dependant on what you need) Back extensions holding plate or against a band 3 x as many reps as possible

3. Straight leg raises 3 x 8

Upper Body
Accessory work (depending on what you need)

1. Pressing Emphasis
Bw tricep Extensions or Low bar press ups

2. Horizontal row (scapular squeeze)
Supine Rows

3. Optional arm work or grip work
Towel bar hangs (wrap towel around pull up bar or better yet throw it over and hang from it for time)

Considerations for difference between Grapplers and MMA athletes, grapplers should largely look at upper body pulling strength, grip strength and incorporate more static holds/positions as priorities where as MMA fighters need look at improving ground forces and exercises that involve triple extension. Again it depends on your strengths and weaknesses. Sure there is a large amount of overlap but basically 2 different sports.

What about extra conditioning?

Unless you are super lazy in your sports sessions you should be getting enough low level aerobic conditioning. I suggest testing your resting heart rate, it can telling if your general aerobic capacities are what needs improving, most fit fighters should be somewhere between 40-55 BPM. If however you feel need some extra conditioning I recommend sprints workouts for improving fitness. For athletes that find endurance training has a detrimental effect on their skill and technical sessions, I suggest sprint training as a great method for preserving general conditioning without compromising force output in other activities. When competition nears you can make it far more sports specific and add in specific sparring plus, pre fatiguing methods and technique under fatigue.

Wrap up

Sessions can be done once a week, with two Max strength exercises paired with antagonist accessory exercises. It is not ideal but it can work. Keep mind nothing is set and stone and workouts can be modified and tweak according to your needs and what your testing throws up as weaknesses. Knowing how to make substitutions in strength and conditioning programs to maintain a training effect is something a good coach can certainly help with. Max strength work should be a Key stone in your physical preparation, the main benefit of max strength work is that it allows you to perform your sport with less effort.

Is it measurable?

2011-10-10T15:02:00.001+01:00

What training are you doing? are you improving? Where were you when you started? Where do you want to be? These are questions you should be able to answer. If not you should carefully think about how you quantify your training approach.

You see, you’ll have no idea whether any program or lifestyle is working for you unless you measure the important variables and keep track of what’s happening to these variables over time. I'm constantly shocked at the amount of trainers that don't assess their clients. As a sports science lecturer we would cover methods of assessment and constantly restate the phrase "if your not assessing you are guessing". Despite being taught about these things most have a go "athletic" trainers would never test their clients energy systems, or know where their anaerobic threshold is, what their maximum strength is or Heart rate variability dependant on their sport. Maybe its because by testing clients they worry they'll lose them unless they throw them in the deep end with a bevy of novelty exercises in order to "hook" the client.

To quote Dan John "initial “intervention” is finding where the zeroes are in there training, then building the program from there!" "we become some single focused on our strengths that we need to have a bunch of people point out our flaws."

A good fitness coach much like in sport will pick up on ours flaws, some more obvious than others, someone will generally know they lack strength where as most people couldn't tell you their resting heart rate or anaerobic threshold. When training judging improvement don't base it on "feel" ask someone elses opinion or better yet get them to test you and then later on test you again.

On an unrelated note im looking into starting strength and conditioning coaching out of Braintree in the UK. Given the expense of opening my own facility im looking at coaching out of another. If your interested in improving your performance, and want a completely individualized program based on a very thorough and honest assessment. If you are interested email me at williamwayland@hotmail.co.uk