POWERING THROUGH

Remembering Dr Squat

2017-05-18T15:09:00.002+01:00

Last week we lost Dr. Fred Hatfield, also known as Dr. Squat. First man at the age of 45, he set a squat world record by lifting 1014 pounds in the 100 kg weight class, the first person to squat more than 1000lbs. You may recognise the hands supported safety bar squat I sometimes use or as its sometimes called the 'Hatfield Squat'.

I remember coming across Dr Hatfields work when researching strength training for boxers nearly 17 years ago, I was 17 or 18 I came across this http://www.sportsci.org/news/news9709/hatfield.html in all its pre Web 2.0 glory details his training routine with Evander Holyfield before his dominant win over Buster Douglas, Holyfield was a lean 208 where as Douglas was a heavy 246, a watershed moment for physical preparation for boxing. Dr Hatfield rightfully called out long distance running a poor conditioning choice, implemented strength training and plyometrics into the heavyweight boxers routine.

To quote Dr Hatfield himself "Ideally, the boxing punch consists of a synchronization between arm, leg, and trunk actions. The punching movement of a boxer consists of leg extension, trunk rotation, and arm extension, in succession. The more effective the coordination between arm, leg and trunk movements, the greater the impact force of a punch. The leg muscles play a vital role in the power developed in this sequence. Increasing leg force development and coordinating it with trunk and arm action is probably the most effective way to increase punching power.

Because boxing is an explosive sport, ballistic training methods are especially effective during weight training for boxing. This kind of training method requires the athlete to perform each repetition explosively, with maximal intended velocity. Finally, in my view, the best way to weight train for competitive boxing is via a cycled training schedule. This type of training schedule integrates workouts and exercises that will meet all the basic performance demands of boxing, strength, power, speed, agility, and strength endurance."

You have to remember at the time this was considered an enormous departure for boxing preparation. This was 1990.

Lets be honest not much has changed and we continue to build on the work of great coaches like Hatfield moving forwards. Thank you Dr Hatfield for your contribution to the field.

Sample Nine Week Conditioning Model

2017-05-11T09:09:00.000+01:00

Posted originally on twitter for those curious about the type of conditioning model I use for MMA/BJJ. just one of many ways we can sequence. Very dependant on sport training volume and athlete needs/ability. Highly inspired by @rugby_strength_coach and Joel Jamieson. Looking to run a similar model for combat athletes at the new facility.

Reflections on weight-loss from a fat guy.

2017-04-30T09:11:00.000+01:00

John Sanderson on the bench

*John is a Powerlifting client of mine. Who I have worked with for sometime. He put this excellent post together on Facebook which he has allowed me to share here.

I’ve existed in and around the fitness community for several years now, and in that time I’ve learned a few things about a few things. I am not a fitness model, nor am I am triathlon competitor or a CrossFit athlete. I am fairly strong for someone that’s lifetime drug free and has only been seriously training strength for a few years. I’m also fat. I’m not talking chubby, or “could do with losing a few pounds”, I mean fat, proper fat; I’m currently at about 34% bodyfat, and that’s not great. But I’ve also been a lot worse, and I’m making progress.

There are countless guys and girls that are sub 10% bodyfat telling you exactly what tricks you need to lose weight… why are you listening to them? They’re usually young enough that their metabolism is in overdrive, they’ve never been fat so don’t actually know what it’s like to try to lose it, or they’re “wind-assisted” in the gym and they’d find it hard to put on much fat if they tried!
Here’s a few things that I’ve learned, and I hope they can be of some use to you.

1. Calories in – Calories out. This is what it’s all about. There’s no such thing as a magic secret to losing or gaining weight, it’s just science. If you want to lose weight then you need to be in a calorific deficit, and if you want to gain weight then you need to be in a calorific surplus. It’s that simple. All those fancy diets that the celebrities use just follows that principle, they’re just dressed up in fancy gimmicks. Low carb – by cutting out 1 of the 3 groups of macros what they’re doing is actually having a calorific deficit… if you don’t follow that principle you can still put on weight without carbs… I’ve done it. Slow carb – the same. Atkins – the same. Intermittent fasting – amazingly enough, by limiting your food intake to a small window each day you’re not eating as much as you did before… calorific deficit again… but if all you eat in that window is chocolate and doughnuts you’re gonna put on weight… I’ve done it. 5:2 diet… the same as intermittent fasting. Juice diets – calorific deficit. Herbalife – have a guess? Yep, calorific deficit. Are you seeing a pattern here?
Regardless of what limits you place on your diet, if you’re not conforming to calories in – calories out you’re going to fail. I know because I’ve done it and failed every time.

2. If you eat alone you’re probably going to eat more that you would if you eat with company. This works 2 ways, by eating alone there’s no one there to judge you on your choices, so you eat the dinner you prepared, and then the lump of cheese in the fridge because, well, why not right? And now you’re on a roll so let’s have that chocolate you’ve got left over from Easter, and then the cake your nan made you go home with the other day… and before you know it you’ve had 2000 calories in 30 minutes and you ate it all so quick you didn’t really enjoy any of it!

The other benefit of eating with company is that, generally, we tend to chat when we’re with people, and that adds time on to the meal, this actually gives your body a chance to realise that you’ve put some food into your mouth and given your body some time to tell you when it’s had enough, we’ve all eaten so much so quickly that we feel ill for the rest of the night right? Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to go through that again?

3. If you want to lose weight then just reducing your calories isn’t always the best option, sometimes you need to increase your activity instead. I know loads of people that seem to think that dropping their intake to 1200 calories per day (or even lower) is the only way they’ll lose weight, but when you’re intake is that low you’re more likely to do even less than you were because you’re tired, so you drop the calories some more, and some more and then you fall into a pit of despair eating – I’m talking pizza, cake, chocolate, nachos, cheese, more cheese, anything bacon flavoured, ice-cream, doughnuts… and why wouldn’t you? You’ve basically tortured yourself with meniscal portions and endless salads that taste of tinned tuna and hatred. But take a step back… from the chair and then a step forward, and then another step forward, and then another one… I’m pretty sure you see where I’m going with this. Try just walking more, and not meandering, I mean actually walking, with purpose and a decent pace; this is going to increase your activity for the day on its own which means you drop have to drop another 300 calories. Go to the gym, lift some weight, use some machines, do some HIIT classes, just do something that gets the heart rate up. There are so many different activities available out there now, there must be something you enjoy, and if you don’t have time for classes then try to fit something into your normal routine, go for a walk at lunch, spend a little less time sat in one go, walk back and forth from the water dispenser a few more times each day.

4. Monitor your calories honestly. This is something I’ve struggled with before, not the act of monitoring them, but doing it honestly. Apps like MyFitnessPal and the like are great tools for recording your food, there’s a massive libraries of information on there so pretty much everything you eat is a barcode scan away from going in the diary… but sometimes we don’t like the numbers it’s coming back with… surely that tiny bit of chocolate isn’t really 212 calories? That must be wrong… how much for a biscuit? Nah, must be a glitch. Well, if I don’t put in that I had that doughnut at lunch then I’ve stayed under my calorie goal for the day, so… it was a one off, I’ll leave it out. What’s the point of recording the data if you’re going to filter what goes in there? You’ll get 4 weeks down the line and you won’t see the progress you want to see and assume that there’s something else wrong because you’ve stuck to what the app told you to do… except you haven’t really have you? I’ve you’ve had a bad day then put it in, I’d love to say you learn to not have them, but that’s just not true, what will happen though is that you’ll look back over your dairy and realise why you’ve not seen the progress you want to see. It’s not the fault of the method, it’s just that doughnuts are really tasty and willpower is a lie. I think I’ve found a way to deal with that though… for now…

5. Routine is your friend. If I plan my food for the week, or even just for the day, then I know what allowances I have for stuff. For example, I tend to have the same thing for lunch a couple of days in a row, so I put that in my diary ahead of time, and I also tend to have the same breakfast every day, so I put that in ahead of time, and now I know how many calories are left for the rest of the day, which means that when I get offered that chocolate biscuit later one by one of my co-workers I can make an informed decision about it… sometimes I’ve say “thank you very much” and swallow that damn chocolatey treat whole and then have a few less calories for dinner, and sometimes I’ll politely decline because I’d rather have that extra bit of cheese on my spag bol for dinner, because cheese. Routine also means that you can find some things that you really enjoy and that fill you up without spending all of your calorie tokens on them. I’m not saying you should eat the same thing for every meal every day, I’m just saying that all plans fail if you fail to actually plan.

6. Cheat days are a lie. It’s good to have a planned deviation every now and then, a day where you get to eat the things you’ve been craving so that you get it out of your system and can be good for the rest of the time, but when that happens every week, or even every few days, are you actually maintaining a deficit? I’ve known people, and I’m included in this, to have a nice little 500 calories deficit Sun-Fri and then overeat by 3000 calories on a Saturday… what’s the math there? (6*-500)+3000=0

So you’ve not actually achieved anything there have you? If you’re gonna have pizza for dinner, try to reign it in a bit, the same with ice-cream or cake, all of it really, just make sure you actually think about how much you’re gonna eat that day and work it in properly. You can’t actually CHEAT!

Simpli Faster Interview

2017-03-25T07:36:00.000+00:00

Earlier this year I was interviewed by Simplifaster we discussed Squatting, Combat Sports, Monitoring using peakpower and Motorsport.

https://simplifaster.com/articles/raising-bar-iron-game-william-wayland/

[Video] Triphasic Tactical Training Manual Part 1 & 2

2017-03-07T19:17:00.000+00:00

I've written about my usage of the triphasic with service men here.http://www.powering-through.com/2017/01/example-triphasic-tactical-approach.html

For those of you hungry for more and are interested in learning more about the triphasic system in tactical situations. Cal Dietz has put together a great video covering the method.

Grappling with depression

2017-03-03T16:39:00.001+00:00

Let me start by saying this is probably one of the hardest posts I've ever had to write but one that I feel will be cathartic. Another point I want to make from the start is that my experience is in no way representative of anyone else's. Working in an industry that thrives on outward physical mastery or projection of strength itself, I feel I'm not the first or probably the last to suffer through a situation like this.

Blue's vs Depression.
I'm a pretty anxious, introspective person, I always have been and probably always will be. I to can also be up tight analytical and very contemplative, these seem to me to be the types of people predisposed to anxiety or depression. Like anyone else I have highs and lows. But this wasn't a bad mood easily fixed by a gaming session, a workout or a well earned holiday. I was stuck. In early May I was beset by a few sleepless nights. Initially I thought nothing of it. But a sleep deprived brain is an anxious one. Suddenly one night I was beset by a sudden mental collapse, a 'dark night of the soul'. Beset with anxiety I started to question every choice I'd ever made every thing I had ever done and was found wanting. Now a rational mind would be 'what you on about mate? You train UFC fighters, national champions and do a pretty good job and have worked to get there.' Pretty much my mind-set imploded, what seemed like an unsatisfactory past came crashing into an uncertain future, my ego and sense of self and purpose was shattered. I was 33 and have what can only be described as an existential crisis. My anxious brain was agonizing over everything! Pulling up long forgotten memories and asking unanswerable questions about the future, self loathing and self defeat was setting in fast. I wasn't going to be bench press my way out of this one.

Hi I'm your brain and I'm in charge.
Suddenly mental & emotional fatigue set in, being in a hyper anxious state is tiring your can't come down. Fight or flight response being on 24/7 breaks you. I could barely muster the effort to get into work. I didn't show my problem outwardly but when I got home I felt like collapsing in a heap. Everything I once enjoyed became a chore, jiujitsu, gaming and reading became tedious, I barely had the energy to cook. At my worst showering felt like an achievement. I did however act quickly I knew this state of being was not 'normal' I sought medical help. Was given SSRI's anti depressants and a relaxant by my GP, she understood that exercise and changing my diet was going to do little in my case. She then referred me to a CBT scheme and that was that. My experience on SSRI's was initially very unpleasant I suffered many side effects and felt worse at least initially (like a wally looked up side effects). By initially blocking serotonin (responsible for feelings of contentment) receptors which forces the body to make more available you are awash with negative emotional responses that can result in despair and helplessness. Not a pleasant place to be.

Brain meet existential crisis.

Hitting reset and sharing a problem.
Being a computer nerd at heart I likened my experience to that one time I overclocked my old intel e6600 and had pretty much barbequed it. My brain was having the equivalent of a BSOD. That sucker would not boot until I went and pulled out the CMOS battery and then it restarted. I felt like hardware was intact, heck I even managed to train barely, the software however was corrupt, I needed to reboot and reprogram. Aka I had to change my thinking and habits in order to manage my situation.

My next step was to open up to a few people I knew I could trust. The surprising truth is people are more understanding and empathetic than people realise. Rationalizing your problem with others is incredibly useful. Unsurprisingly the most helpful people being those that have had similar experiences. Having these friends to call on, sound off with and check in with is invaluable.

The other thing I felt helped, despite my entire body telling me to just quit and hide under the covers. I never stopped going to work, I didn't stop training and I didn't stop trying to find a solution, this is where having a problem solving mind-set comes in useful.

At this point the SSRI's started to work, they evened out my moods, but made me feel forgetful, stupid and emotionless. Preferable to being a quivering wreck. My appetite came back. SSRI's sap your motivation because you feel fairly apathetic about everything. The other key thing about this experience is I became an overnight expert in neurochemistry. I learned everything I could about the brain and its chemistry that I could. Dopamine, endorphins, serotonin, cortisol & oxytocin to name a few and their complicated relationship. Your amygdala (responsible for fight or flight) has had is fun time for rational thought to step-up. You also learn the difference, between mild & serve depression, anxiety, Bipolar, manic depression and an array of other conditions. I also discovered premature babies are more likely to suffer depression as are people with high IQ's. I'm the former but not sure about the latter.

Step-in Stoicism aka ancient cognitive behavioural therapy
I had taken some guided CBT courses offered by the NHS which are useful and fairly productive. The main aim being to change ones thinking about a situation or problem. The ancient Greeks had put quite a lot of thought into this. The school of stoic thought being the principle thought system dealing with issues of managing ones response and expectations to situations outside of ones control.

"The problem isn't the problem, its how your react to problem that is the problem"

Famed philosopher of stoic thought, Epictetus postulated that; all external events are beyond our control; we should accept calmly and dispassionately whatever happens. However, individuals are responsible for their own actions, which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline.
Putting stoic thought into a nutshell is difficult, when people ask me I often use the serenity prayer as an example in a Judeo-Christian context.

"God, give me grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other."

The past has happened we cannot change it, the future is yet to happen. What we do have however is now. Being present become a focus of what I was looking to change. I now take stock when I'm feeling wound up or anxious.

Self care

For someone who trains regularly, exercise which gives a big endorphin hit wasn't going to cut it for lifting depressive symptoms. I had to look more closely at my self practices. Meditation, sauna's, massage and getting out into nature became methods of minimising negative stress. There is excellent evidence for all of these things being useful in combating depression. Sauna's for instance being surprising useful. The post sauna 'zen' as I call it being particularly nice sensation. For many post-depressive people the fear of relapse is very real.

Rebuilding & Upsides

At the time of writing I'm roughly 10 months removed from my 'lost May' experience as I call it. Depression was until now one of those things that's happens to other people. The experience has made me more empathic but also hardened me to some extent. When you hit bottom and grapple with more fundamental questions of life, your blinkers get pulled off, your see things for the often absurd way they are. This I think this has made me far more patient and philosophical. You pick up the pieces of who you where and move forwards. You give far less emotional energy to things that are not worth your time and can focus on the things that really matter. For anyone going through a similar experience I hope you find this post useful. Remember to reach out if you can don't suffer in silence.

Strength coaches are often framed as characters that exemplify strength & hard resolve. Believe it or not we are allowed 'feels' and thoughts beyond banging and clanging of the weight room. Taking ownership of our mental state is important being aware of the signs and symptoms of depression is the first step to good self care.

Further reading and articles I found useful.

Depression answers for athletes - Elites FTS

Living and Training as a Bipolar Narcoleptic: Lack of Sleep and Depression

Must Triumph - Modern Philosophy

Doing better by Female MMAfighters

2017-02-20T20:27:00.000+00:00

Female MMA strength and Conditioning practice is still somewhat embryonic mainly because women's MMA is still very developmental. Good practice is starting to coalesce however. When introducing female combat athletes to S&C I find 3 main flaws persist.

1. Avoidance of heavy resistance training and over reliance on HIIT, endurance and high rep protocols. Lift twice a week, pick 4 exercises or anything that works as a strength KPI. Front Squat, Romainian Deadlift, Dips and Chin-ups always works well you could even do the first 2 day 1 and second 2 day 2. Carry stuff. Chase standards considered 'strong enough' by the strength and Conditioning community. Pay me later.

2. Training in an energy depleted state often due to body composition concerns or over consumption of junk science pushed by clean eating advocates, anti carb experts et al. Figure out your calories required and take ownership. Or pay someone to do it for you. Ideally with a track record over great social media presence. Exposure doesn't equal experience.

3. Not training according to their own physiology. MMA is a sport where girls often have to be one of the boys. Admirable but potentially problematic. Menstrual cycle, engendered injury risk such as ACL risk and sparring related risk (some high profile female athletes have been seriously injured by over zealous training partners) are all considerations, good coaches will take the time to mitigate these risks and communicate with the athlete.

Good practice is starting to proliferate especially as athletes empower themselves to take greater consideration of their training choices. Considerate coaching and conduct is the way forwards.

The Importance of Muscular Strength in Athletic Performance [Study]

2017-02-13T19:41:00.000+00:00

How Strong is strong enough for Jiujitsu and MMA? We've asked this question on scramblog before. In this post I suggested "Strength addicts will say you can never have enough, smart athletes however need to know if pursuing more strength worth diminising returns and time cost. We are not trying to produce strongmen, powerlifters or olympic lifters. What we want is strong powerful combat athletes."

A study from Dr Suchomel et al found that "Based on the extant literature, it appears that there may be no substitute for greater muscular strength." The study goes on further to state " Further research indicates that stronger athletes produce superior performances during sport specific tasks. Greater muscular strength allows an individual to potentiate earlier and to a greater extent, but also decreases the risk of injury." Fundamentally this is what a good strength coach is trying to achieve.

How strong?
Well the crux of what is strong enough seems to peter out at about 2.0 x BW squat for men and probably around 1.5 x BW for women. I also discussed this in the video here.
As you can see based on the above strength gains and performance effect really do seem to diminish at around twice bodyweight back squat. The squat being a good aggregate movement and a great measure of systemic strength. I often use front squats, deadlifts and pull-up standards to a similar effect.

This seems to run contradictory to common discourse we hear from some elite BJJ/MMA/Golf (insert sport of with concern about strength training here) practitioners. This is also covered in the study "If the strength characteristics of an athlete did not transfer to the performance of the athletes in their sports or events, sport coaches may be less inclined to incorporate resistance training as a method of preparing their athletes to perform." In short if the strength training you where doing provided no transfer to your sport you where probably doing it wrong, receiving poor coaching or focusing on the wrong elements.

If strength really made no difference why would accusations and occasional positive examples of steroid use rear its ugly head so regularly in both MMA and BJJ. We have all heard the cliched notion that 'between two equally skilled athletes, the stronger wins' while a tired notion, the study also appears to support this idea. "Comparisons between stronger and weaker athletes pro-vides substantial support that stronger athletes within a relatively homogeneous (similar) level of skill perform better in comparison to weaker athletes."

Example Triphasic Tactical Approach - Training Ops with Javelin

2017-01-10T19:01:00.000+00:00

A while ago Cal Dietz put out Triphasic Training Tactical a variant on the original triphasic training model that accounts for the multi modal challenges that face service and military personnel.

"…you must remember that tactical athletes aren’t powerlifters. They must be strong but only to the extent that can benefit them in their professions."

As a coach, I have to choose the most suitable approach to given demands. Working with a member British army who has lifted and been following my program regularly. Proved a convenient opportunity to flex my brain muscles when I was asked to adapt his program for training operations using the Javelin missile platform over a period of weeks. He described the demands to me as follows:

"The Javelin missile system is heavy (missile 18kg, tripod 5kg and launch unit 8kg with normally 2 x missiles, 1 x tripod and 1 x launch unit carried per pair, plus digging tools, heavy duty thermal sheet and camouflage netting, plus personal kit/rations/ammo/water/etc). I think the hardest parts are probably getting up and down when moving (obviously when moving tactically and needing to stop, we don't just stand there, we take a knee)-this resulted in basically doing something like an eccentric/isometric (up to a couple of minutes) Bulgarian split squat and then standing again.

Often, packing kit away is done frantically and in the dark the missile is heavier at one end, etc,
and it is near impossible to get everything neatly packed and well balanced when rushing. To then have to move with kit not sitting near the centre of gravity could have the potential to be very uncomfortable on the back"

With only a few weeks to prepare, I pulled out my copy of triphasic tactical training and took the time to identify Performance Zones/TTQ (below) that would need to be prepared in readiness for the training operation.

Cal organizes athletes by their various qualities. Below we see a comparison of Marathon Runner, Shot Putter and Tactical Athlete.

As you can see tactical athletes have to be good at everything (not dissimilar to MMA fighters).

Looking over the description of the operation above we deemphasized Speed TTQ6 and TTQ2 seeing as most of activity involved:

Marches carrying anywhere from 20-45kg worth of gear
Maintaining static positions particularly half kneeling position for minutes at a time
Lifting and carrying from half kneeling position
Setting up and deconstructing kit rapidly

So I focused on building more TTQ3 TTQ4 and TTQ5 into his program. Using 5 minute work blocks borrowed from the lactate based GPP method to enhance strength endurance and auto regulatory max strength work, using daily maxes with subsequent back off sets. We worked on single leg strength endurance, specific carrying drills and direct and indirect core work. The manual also makes suggestions how to organise training each quality to minimise interference effect.

Sample week utilising various triphasic tactical qualities this is purely illustrative

Below is footage from the actual live fire operation its self so you can see first hand just how arduous this type of activity is. Like the athlete described a lot carrying, marching and kneeling.

The tactical athlete in question had the following to say about the program.

"Program has been great and was a big help I think in preparing for the course and the last few weeks. That is not to say the last few weeks were easy though! Although since my last few jobs have been staff work (i.e. commanding a desk!) it's been a few years (perhaps 4 years) since I've done anything like this, so the fact it was manageable is testament that we've got something right."

I thoroughly suggest getting a copy of triphasic tactical training if you work with military or service personnel. You can check out preview copy here

Reflexive Breathing Reset Parts 1-4

2017-01-05T21:12:00.000+00:00

Interesting insight in Reflexive Performance Reset method and its effects from Cal Dietz. Currently looking at implementing integrating elements of the method into my own work.

Cal Dietz Ankle Rocker Series.

2016-12-19T12:12:00.001+00:00

I found this ankle rocker series for Triphasic Training Author Cal Dietz incredibly useful when it came to getting a handle on your choice of sports specific movements. Cal takes us through the process you can see conceptually when to apply what exercises for better transfer.

PART 2 Simple "readiness" test using peak power, the peaking (and winning).

2016-12-06T19:04:00.003+00:00

In a previous post I talked about simple readiness testing using PPower to determine athlete readiness. http://www.powering-through.com/2016/10/simple-readiness-test-using-peak-power.html
The test I learned from Dan Baker works as follows, using just a PVC pipe and performing 2-3 sets of 5 jumps in a row we can take the best peak power velocity score in m/s and track it over time measuring 1-2 times a week. Peak power on Jump is very sensitive to neural fatigue, with 5-10% drops suggesting a drop in performance. What is important here is that we are not generating numbers for the hell of it but creating actionable feedback.

The Biweekly data I was measuring and used in the previous post was part of Cory McKenna's in the run up to a December fight for the BCMMA Amateur title. Below is the full data up to fight week.

As you can see there is a big upward trend in peak power, as freshness improves moving up to the fight around 3-4 weeks out, you can also see the overall trend is an upwards one. She takes a bit of a knock around 4 weeks away but then it starts to improve rapidly. Why? Because this is when toughest sparring rounds really start to take their toll and I as a strength and conditioning coach focus on match specific velocities and modalities to prepare for the fight.

Excuse my school boy level chart skills, above is Cory's Trendline.

Here is Wendy McKenna's Data, less data points as we can only take measures once per week. We see that same dip as the hard sparring kicks in, it was even at this point I had to miss a measure because Wendy had a sore back from stress of training plus working stress.

Why is this tracking important? Because it shows that you are hitting the phases of suppression and super compensation properly in your approach to physical readiness.

Every chicken nugget who has picked up a training text book will have seen an image similar to this image below. Now compare this to the above images.

Ride the wave form bro!

Obviously over time if we carried on doing this for years we'll see far more marginal changes in PPower as training age matures, this is because to use the metaphor 'once the sword is forged it just needs sharpening'.

Wendy and Cory Both won their pro debut and amateur title fights respectively, this type of info doesn't predict fights but it does give an indication of training effect and general direction of stimulus. Any sudden drop offs and its time to turn detective, what has the rest of their training entailed? Speak to their coaches to find out what are they doing. What might cause a sudden drop? After all we are only using Peak Power when their are plenty of other measures we could be using, such as readiness questionnaires, RSI, Blood measures, sleep analysis, HRV etc. I like this one because it is simple and straight forwards and actionable. Hopefully you'll find this post useful.

Picture credits http://www.adambrightphoto.com/

Slam on the Brakes: Deceleration Qualities to Optimize Performance, with Shawn Myszka | NSCA.com

2016-11-24T10:18:00.000+00:00

Excellent video from Shawn Myszka, MS, CSCS,*D spoke at the NSCA's 2013 Coaches' Conference on the impact of deceleration on performance training. Those of you who read my blog regularly will know the emphasis I place on deceleration qualities in multiple planes.

Transfer of Speed Performance Presentation Cal Dietz Video Parts 1 & 2

2016-11-04T11:01:00.000+00:00

Excellent Transfer of Speed performance presentation from University of Minnesota Coach Cal Dietz

Simple "readiness" test using peak power, PVC pipe and PUSH band.

2016-10-16T19:52:00.000+01:00

Here is a simple readiness or recovery test we can use with PUSH band and a PVC pipe I picked up from a recent Dan Baker seminar here in the UK. Previously I was using PUSH apps built in RSI but found it far too inconsistent and easily gamed by athletes to produce reliable results. I found this test far simpler, using just a PVC pipe and performing 2-3 sets of 5 jumps in a row we can take the best peak power velocity score in m/s and track it over time measuring 1-2 times a week. Peak power on Jump is very sensitive to neural fatigue, with 5-10% drops suggesting a drop in performance. Below Pro golfer Jordan performs the test.

Below is about a months worth of tracking for a young female MMA fighter Cory, who over the last month was doing a twice a week triphasic program and also competed in a non essential ("for fun") grappling competition.

As you can see the day after her competition we see a distinct drop in peak power around 10%, so for that session and the next we back off on loading.

On the 10th as we left the Isometric phase and moved to concentric we see a nice super compensation posting better scores than when we started. Most female team sport athletes should be able to achieve a peak unloaded power of around 2.9-3 m/s. This can vary, which is why creating an individual velocity profile for your athlete is so crucial

I like simple and I like repeatable, along with asking the athlete how they feel. This test is quickly becoming one of my preferred.

5 for fighting, My Strength KPI's for combat athletes

2016-10-05T08:46:00.001+01:00

5 for fighting posts will about 5 exercises or ideas I use regularly with combat (and non combat athletes). This post is about KPI's in the biggest lifts I employ.

Strength Key Performance Indicators are way stones or development marks in an athletes strength profile. These usually represent a few lifts that cover the basic movement patterns, are highly tractable and act as performance indicators throughout a careers. For instance a common trivium we see is Squats, Power Clean and Bench. I've always believed Dan John's strength standards fairly reasonable http://danjohn.net/wp-content/uploads/Strength-Standards.xlsx below are indicators I prefer to use.

Front Squat

I back squat many of my athletes, especially if it comes with strong personal preference for the lift. Many also cannot front squat due to shoulder/wrist problems. However front squats require more abdominal involvement less lower back stress and lower CNS fatigue, yet most of the same stimulus. More over they can be restorative to over flexed grapplers by encouraging a neutral spine and good thoracic positioning, all things a lot of combat athletes can be quite bad at. Its not common to see these poor habits reoccur when they backsquat (goodmorning) reps because they are tired from last nights wrestling session. Additionally from a technical perspective the front squat is self limiting. A failed back squat often ends with a squished athlete where as a failed front squat means the bar just gets dropped. So safety gives some argument for preferential use points to front squat, this is especially important when you have a room full of trainees who may not have you to spot them every time. To quote Strength and Conditioning Research

"Comparing back and front squats, both Contreras et al. (2015b) and Yavuz et al. (2015) found that front and back squats displayed equal levels of muscle activity (with the same relative loads)."

If the systemic effect of two lifts is the same but one is somewhat safer than the other it does'nt take a genius to realise which you should be doing.

Weighted N-Grip Chin-up

Conventional pullups seem to place more stress on the lats (some studies document similar activation) chin-ups hit the biceps and generally gets used as learning movement for overhead pulling as it comes more naturally. Neutral grip pull ups make athletes tap into their upper back musculature, I'm going to use a dirty word here, it FEELS like its working mid back musculature more. For those that need added scapular stability neutral grip lowering offers intensive means of getting the upper back long and strong, versus the half baked lowering we see on regular pull-ups and chin-ups. I find often the athlete has better head positioning also, there is no chin reaching at the top. Weighted chins being ideal for grapplers it add grip, brachioradialis and brachialis work (especially with thick grips) without having to sweat it over excessive extra grip work.

Bench Press
The current whipping boy of strength programs for some reason bench press gets a lot of hate, regularly beaten up by the 'functional' training bullies. Provided its balanced with overhead press and ring pushing work which allows for better scapular movement. The bench press is an excellent exercise to create an overload on the upper body muscles to improve strength. In terms of overload not many upper body pressing movements allow for heavy loading of eccentric component of the press, except maybe floor press. Dips often place too much stress on anterior shoulder and forget overloading anything overhead especially for fighters. The other issue is a cultural one athletes like benching, they'll

If an athlete can achieve parity on the above with 1.5 x BW for men and 1.2 x BW for women for all three, I generally consider that very strong, the only occasional concession is that is ok for FS to be above the bench and pull-ups but never below!

Romanian Deadlift
Is a pet lift I have spent a lot of my time exploring both personally and with my athletes. Any exercise that adds a stretch reflex to the deadlift is a winner in my book. The main reason I really like this lift is the fact that I can apply both effective Isometric, Eccentric and oscillatory means to the RDL where its difficult and or risky to do this to the conventional deadlift. Mark Ripptoe argues "It offers a completely different way of strengthening the posterior chain than you would find with any other pullling exercise. It’s its own exercise, not DL variation." Much like the front squat I find the Romanian deadlift can be restorative when applied well mainly because Its a truer hip hinge than the conventional deadlift. Because it is a top down lift I find athletes set themselves better which leads to better execution. Romain deadlift is however an exercise you should never max out on. If an athlete can perform 2 x BW for men and 1.5 x BW for women for reps I'm generally pretty happy.

Weighted Rollouts
For the longest time I've tried to find 'heavy' core exercises and find a lot of what passes as core work simply too easy for fighters who are given a plethora of corework by eager combat sports coaches. Power lives in the transverse plane and anything that stops the ribcage flipping open like a bin lid is going aid is transfer from feet to hands. I took their addition for more seriously after reading this

Carl Valle had this to say;"Abdominal rollouts are a total body exercise, and it’s hard to imagine any motion without involvement of the shoulders and hip joints. I believe building up the ability to roll and hinge is a great way to make the tissues rugged and durable. I am not aware of the research to confirm that it reduces injury, but exposure to stress is the only way to be able to tolerate stress. I know anti-fragile is popular now, but Friedrich Nietzche first explained the value of what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. If something poses a risk to injury, that mechanism is likely the antidote and a submaximal dose may be a cure for the injury. "

I find athletes that can own rollouts, need not worry too much about talk of serapes, lateral slings and dynamic core stability. I generally use a progression as follow hand walkouts > Kneeling rollouts with band assist > Kneeling Rollouts > Standing to a wall or band assist > standing > weighted rollouts.

Why so important? We'll those of you who regularly read my blog will be familiar with triphasic training and simply put these methods are the easiest measurable basic lifts I can apply triphasic training methods too. Or more importantly the application of stress! Regardless of what loading or tempo scheme you use all these movements can be loaded heavily when the athlete is ready.

PUSH V3 update thoughts

2016-10-02T16:51:00.001+01:00

I've been using Velocity measurement for some time and love the valuable feed back that it can bring. I recently switched to an apple device to make the most of updated PUSH app which via an arm mounted band can measure movement velocity with a pretty high degree of accuracy. I started out using the android version and had done so for nearly 2 years, the android version however clunky gave me what I needed in terms of measurement. Unfortunately they decided to discontinue support for Android devices due to far greater variance in android devices and subsequently more problems. That aside I'm really liking the changes that have been made to the app in a recent update. I went with PUSH early on as it offers excellent value for money versus other systems and with recent updates continues to do so.

Version 3 has taken away a few features I liked such as 'free mode' which allowed me to start establishing values for throwing exercises which is very useful for golfers and fighters the main athletes I work with. Talking to Dan Baker in a recent seminar he suggested it would soon be added back in.

Things I really like; about V3 is the improved athlete groups and individual profiles and how easy it is to hot swap between multiple athletes. This works well with groups of 2 or 3 and keeps tracking rest periods in the background. Profiles now are much easier to edit then in the past.

Real-time beeping was more useful than I expected, when you set a velocity range you get a chime every time you hit that target range or a dull buzz noise if you miss it. In practice it actually can be a powerful motivational tool training alone or with athletes, as one athlete put it "chasing dings". Anything that gets athlete moving the bar faster is a winner in my book.

Trying to make this thing ding @trainwithPUSH handy real time beeping. O.75+ or bust pic.twitter.com/wbB6yEleVc
— William Wayland (@WSWayland) September 6, 2016

Improved Real-time feedback allows me to monitor rep to rep velocity changes focusing on either drops in peaks or average velocity depending on what I'm working on.

RPE scoring is a great addition as it allows me track athlete feedback on workouts which can then be tracked over time. A simple subjective test but worth tracking.

Favourite exercises is such a simplistic addition but saves a lot of time instead of having to search or scroll exercises every time it also handily likes the favourite to each athlete profiles, which is useful if you use different primary lifts for different athletes.

Things I'd like to see improved; RSI testing I currently find it too inconsistent (maybe a problem with RSI testing and not PUSH app) and instead have moved to Peak power testing on Jumps as per Dan Bakers suggestion which is now giving more consistant results with attributable changes in PP on Jumps.

Eventual return of free mode, as potential to test throws and punches could be extremely useful to combat sports.

Improvement of deadlift metrics, apparently this is a know issue.

Expansion of Exercise lists which seems to be on going anyway, Zercher Squat variations would be useful.

Set to set velocity drop off would also be useful.

More 1RM tests, front squat please!

The big three are prominent for each athlete profile on the training screen, this is great for most people who are mainly interested in tracking the Bench, Squat and Deadlift, but it would be cool to be able to swap these out for other main exercises, such as front squat or trap bar deadlift for example.

Final shout out to the guys who keep the blog updated, as its great to see good information put out on such a regular basis especially with contributors such as Carl Valle and Eamonn Flannigan contribute regularly. Check out their blog here http://www.trainwithpush.com/blog/

More Oscillatory Exercise Demo's

2016-09-17T12:02:00.002+01:00

Oscillatory is strange to the uninitiated observer but has uses in both GPP and in High performance peaking.

"Oscillatory training is utilized in this block to prepare your muscles to fire as rapidly as possible, and also train your antagonist to relax more quickly, allowing an even faster contraction. This is the final peaking phase applied before a season due to its specificity to each individual sport."

Below are a few variations I've been using consistently in recent peaking cycles. You move the weight back and forth explosively over a very small range of motion (3 or 4 inches or .10 meters), then pull the weight back and forth very fast. The duration of which can be energy system specific or sport duration specific.

3 Rules of General Specificity

2016-09-04T09:56:00.001+01:00

Neat Info Graphic from Dan Coughlan turning something I talked about here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2klJRjzH63E

"How specific should we be? Generally specific! Squats and cleans may not relate too closely to the movement of any athletic event but they do give a balanced development base upon which highly specific exercise can be built.

Specificest Grappling Strength & Conditioning http://youtu.be/nCSwk4PMPy4

https://twitter.com/WSWayland
http://www.powering-through.com"

Recovery Options : Danney Ball Instructional Video

2016-08-25T10:51:00.000+01:00

I've recently introduced this to a few of a my group sessions. Its a great way to build competitive element into recovery work, train core strength and build basic fitness. We've been playing this using a make shift net and 6kg ball. Popularised a few years ago by a few NFL players its does the rounds a social media during the off season.

Danney Ball Instruction Video from Alex Semenik on Vimeo.

Timed sets, holds and throws for BJJ peaking.

2016-08-16T13:41:00.002+01:00

I thought I would share a little on my approach to BJJ peaking. It should be similar yet different to peaking we see for Judo, MMA and Stand-up Combat sports.

When it comes to peaking for BJJ we are aiming for AMRAPs at high velocities or Holds with sets lasting 10, 15, 20s or determined by athletes plays style (BJJ has a high W:R ratio) the athletes aims to beat the number each set, this idea isn't new and is taken from triphasic training high velocity method.

Quoting Matt Van Dyke "This phase is designed to continue to increase power outputs and rate of force development utilizing light intensities at a maximal velocity, and is undulated just like the previous blocks. This is the most sport-specific training done in the weight room with training velocities at just above, below, and right at game speed, which can be accomplished by training athletes with light weights, at body weight, and accelerated speeds respectively. This block also uses timed sets, training an athlete’s specific energy systems used in their sport. Oscillatory training is utilized in this block to prepare your muscles to fire as rapidly as possible, and also train your antagonist to relax more quickly, allowing an even faster contraction. This is the final peaking phase applied before a season due to its specificity to each individual sport."

To accomplish these ends I like using timed sets, holds and extensive medball work for timed sets also. BJJ has quite long work periods with high time under tension, so I often contrast timed sets with isometric holds and ballistics (we'll be sure to cover throws in a number of directions). Direct hamstring work, hip flexor and grip work being of particular importance, local fatigue is a big factor in BJJ and we can't afford to hands and hamstrings give out.

Few exercises below to show what I mean.

Push-up Hold

Timed Banded Bench Press

We'll arrange usually 3 exercises into blocks with limited rest between blocks. We can perform 4-5 blocks per workout, sometimes more.

Sample block.

Block 1 Less than 55% loading
Exercise	Time	Loading	Sets	Notes
Bar Push-up	10s	BW	3	AMRAP
Pull up iso	10s	BW + load	3	Use grip mod
Lateral Throw	10s	6kg med ball	3	Each side r90-120s

We'll run this block from 3-6 weeks depending on the athlete, generally the stronger and more powerful they are the long we'll spend in this phase.

Below is Masters BJJ Athlete Jolie performing various components.

A video posted by Powering Through (@poweringthrough) on Aug 13, 2016 at 3:00am PDT

Paused Back Squats With MMA fighter Sean Carter

2016-08-01T15:41:00.000+01:00

Below Lightweight MMA Fighter Sean Carter (the TUF and Cage warriors vet fighter not the rapper) performing paused (isometric) squats with 150kg (330lbs). Paused squatting is very effective at building leg strength by removing the contribution of the "bounce/stretch reflex" you get at the bottom of your squat. I don't see many novel squat variations performed by fighters so I thought I would share what we get up to in the gym.

In this squat I'm encouraging Sean to stay very tight and maintain good position underload, keep complete tension rather than just "hanging out" in the position. This type of squatting can be great for those that don't feel comfortable in the bottom of the squat, with submaximal loads it can be used to build comfort in an otherwise stressful position. We can also use near or supramaximal loads provided I spot Sean out of the hole. Here we perform 3x3 with 80-87.5% of Sean's max as per triphasic training layout.

This stress position leads to tissue adaptations particularly in the tendons. It also improves motor unit recruitment providing an increase the number of muscles fibers that fire. And rate coding which gives an increase the rate at which each fiber fires, which increases muscular tension. More subtle is need for torso stiffness, holding is just as hard as lifting, so it quite common to really "feel" your abs the next day. If you are going to do these I suggest below 80% for 3 reps with 2-3 second pause.

If you have ever grappled or wrestled you rapidly appreciate the benefit Isometric strength offers not just, in just a position specific strength applications, but through bracing, tightness and need for a little grit that matches well for combat sports.

With 140kg 1st week With 150kg 3rd week

Developing Explosive Strength w/ Cal Dietz and Dr. Andy Galpin - 217

2016-07-13T09:35:00.000+01:00

Great to see Cal on a popular podcast like Barbell Shrugged. Hopefully bring more exposure to Triphasic method.

The 30% rule of sprints for non field athletes

2016-07-06T10:50:00.003+01:00

If you are a non field athlete and not sure how much sprinting to do in a session for metabolic conditioning? A good rule of thumb for a session is total effort should be 30% of game duration.

So 30% of a 3x5min MMA match would give us 4m30s so you could divide this into 9x30s sprints for longer duration or 18x15s for higher quality. A boxer with 6x3min rounds would be a total of 18mins so around 5m30s.

Crucial to what sprint durations you want depends on what you are trying to achieve.

Anaerobic-alactic power — < 8 seconds
Anaerobic-alactic capacity — up to 20 seconds
Anaerobic-lactic power — 20 to 30 seconds
Anaerobic-lactic capacity — up to 90 seconds
Aerobic power — 90 sec to 2 min
Aerobic capacity — > 3 min

Another way would be to look at reported work:rest ratio which for MMA is 2:3 so 40%. Whereas BJJ for instance has 10:1 work to rest ratio so total sprint time would be nearly the duration of a match be it 5,6,7min etc. For instance Superbike rider Danny Buchan who works with me will perform 10 mins of sprints total because most race distances are 30mins.

This generally falls in line with proven protocals for improving conditioning and fat loss.

Protocals used to achieve increased mitchondrial density, citrate synthase and fat loss.

8-12 x 60 seconds - Little. 2010
7 x 30 seconds - Psilander. 2010
4 x 30 seconds - Giballa. 2009
6-8x 30 seconds - Kim 2011

If you need reasons to do sprint interval training checkout this post from 2012

Answering Questions About Hand Supported Supramaximal Squatting

2016-06-17T14:42:00.002+01:00

Supramaximal training is one of toughest methods out there, using numbers in excess of your 1 rep max always put fear into the heart of the seasoned lifter and athlete a like. Supramaximal training like it implies means using loads above your maximum usually a percentage from anywhere from 105-130%. The reason we can do this is because the body can usually accommodate loads in excess of our concentric maximum during eccentric and isometric movements.

I'm currently just finished with Eccentric block of this 6-8 week program, I'm currently on my first deload week. Current maxes sit about 165kg Bench 230kg Back Squat and 180kg Front Squat.

How does it work?
For 1-2 weeks you will perform eccentric squats at 120%-110% of your max on Monday, perform normal 90-97% squats on Wednesday and 110-105% eccentric squats on Friday. Deload for 1 week and perform the same with isometric squats. This is then followed by two concentric weeks at 80/90/72 as per normal triphasic training undulation.

Weeks 1-2 Eccentrics @ 110-120%
1 Week Deload
Weeks 3-4 Isometrics @ 110-120%
1 Week Deload
Weeks 5-6 Concentric @ 80%

Day 1 2reps with 7 seconds of time under tension.
Day 2 Doubles or Triples @ 90%
Day 3 1 Rep with 10 second of time under tension.

Usual Questions I Get about this method.

1.) Why use hand supported method?

The hands supported helps with keeping the back neutral, in a supported position, with the chest up will ensure that the lower back is well protected against harmful injuries. The support of the arms also takes balance out of the equation as supramaximal loads are being used. Increased support and the use of the arms allows for even more weight to be used than a barbell conventional squat would allow, leading to even greater stress being applied to the entire body. More stress means more adaptation. The use of the arms, along with the increased load, stresses the core to a greater extent.

2.) Why Supramaximal and not 'normal' eccentrics?
Remember that eccentric muscle (yielding) actions are stronger than isometric and concentric muscle actions. Eccentric movements cause both muscle and tendons to absorb very high amounts of force . This means stress on muscular structure can be amplified further if we use supramaximal loads vs submaximal loads, basically all the benefits of eccentric training but turned up to 11. A 2010 study suggested "The enhanced eccentric load apparently led to a subtly faster gene expression pattern and induced a shift towards a faster muscle phenotype plus associated adaptations that make a muscle better suited for fast, explosive movements." This training led to significantly increased height in a squat jump test versus conventional training. This was accompanied by significant increases in IIX fibre CSA

3.) Could this work for powerlifting?
In theory yes, this obviously isn't as specific to back squatting as the technique is slightly different. I have measured transfer to back squat and front squat, vertical jump and broad jump. This however was with highly trained athletes with a good level of strength.

4.) Could you do this for upper body?
Possibly, but risk of injury is enormous, lowerbody can tolerate enormous loads where as upper body in my opinion has a lower eccentric tolerances especially in pressing more in pulling. If you do I would suggest a 4 or 5 day upper lower split.

Below are my days 1 and 3 on the supramaximal squat.