A closer look into training: High Frequency Training

HFT has caught my interest lately and it should catch yours too. I have a favorite quote that I've been applying to my own training recently; Train as often as possible without exceeding your ability to recover. The more you can train without exceeding your recovery abilities the more you will progress, regardless of your goal, be it size, strength, fat loss, endurance or sport specific. Now before you start planning 30 training sessions a week, you need to realise that you need to start with a few sessions and build up a high Work Capacity. In this context we are using work capacity in direct correlation to workout capacity, ie the amount of workouts someone can perform a week without tampering with their recovery. A high workout capacity is the key to fast tracked results. The higher your work capacity is the more sessions you will be able to fit in per week without affecting your recovery. The more sessions you can complete without exceeding your ability to recover the faster you will reach your goal.

But how do you increase your 'workout capacity' and how do you complete grueling workouts back to back on a daily basis? Stay tuned for part 2.

Sport Specific training for MMA part 3

Its time for a sample workout that MMA fighters, or any athlete looking for an increase in explosive strength-endurance can utilise to their advantage. There are 3 parts to the workout all are to be done as a single workout.

Warm up: 5 mins skipping dynamic stretching work eg linear and lateral leg swings, 10 sprawls with a squat jump at the end of each sprawl.

Main focus Explosive movements:
dead lift: 10x2 15 sec rest each set
rest 1 min
power clean: 10 sets of 1 rep, 15 sec rest each set
rest 1 min
split jerks: 10x1 10 sec rest each set
rest 1 min
front squat: 20 sets of 1 rep, 15 seconds rest each set
rest 1 min

Explosive strength-endurance circuit
 Super set 30 seconds of medium grip :pronated pull ups with 30 seconds of alternate dumbbell floor presses (a dumbbell press performed lying on the floor where you lift 1 dumbbell up at a time)
complete5 rounds with 60 seconds rest between each round

Sport specific Metabolic finisher:
30 seconds sprawling
30 seconds shadow boxing
30 seconds medicine ball floor slams
 all of the above are to be super setted with no rest bewteen each, once you complete all 3 intervals thats 1 round. Complete 3 rounds with 60 sec rest between each round.
Cool down with 5 min walk and static stretching for all the used muscle groups

A KILLER Leg exercise

The biggest mistake most trainees i know make is not performing enough, if any lower body development work. This is totally ridiculous as legs and glutes are the most powerful muscle groups in the body and make up approximately 40 % of ones body weight and . So when you disregard training legs, you limiting yourself to sub-par results.

Most trainees don't do lower body work because of a bad back. I've got an exercise that eliminates back pain is easy to execute, is possibly one of the best exercises for knee stability and injury prevention, is eccentric-less in nature so you can perform it regularly. All while providing your quads and glutes with an INSANE burn and pump. You don't even have to worry about hamstring flexibility too much because it solely focuses on your quads, and depending on depth glutes too.

So what is it? The weighted BACKWARD Squat Walk. Simply mark out a 10 m straight line, grab a pair of dumbbells, squat down to just above parallel and slowly walk backwards taking 6 inch steps (15 cm) with an emphasis on keeping your weight in your heels ( your heel striking the ground first instead of the balls of your feet) once you reach the end of the 10 m line straight away turn back and repeat (there and back counts as one rep). Give this ago and let me know how your legs feel afterwards.

Sport Specific Training for MMA Part 2

So the real question is how do you train a fighter sport specifically? Below is a method that is proving to be incredible at producing fighters who don’t get gassed, and are strong for the whole fight! It’s all about specificity!

The training method is based around the following equation:
Strength-Endurance= Heavy load, Short rest periods and High volume.
But I thought endurance was 15 reps and over? Wrong. If we were training with 15 reps and over we wouldn’t be able to use heavy weights and we would be training athletes to be weak over a set time frame.
You NEED to lift heavy weights, 80% of your 1RM and over. Why? Because you need a high strength base. An opponent should not be easy to manipulate, but if you possess a high strength base they will be.
Short rest periods are crucial. 60 seconds should be the most rest used and you can progress that to be as little as 10 seconds. The whole reason behind training strength-endurance is that a fighter needs to be able to exert force over a prolonged period of time whilst having the ability to perform this whilst not being fully recovered aerobically. Short rest periods force the body to adapt, leading to a fighter being able to recover quickly both during the fight (after executing an explosive combo followed by a takedown) and in between rounds. Whilst lifting these heavy weights, having a short rest period in between gives the exercise an aerobic base, and due to the low amount of rest the fighter will be performing at a fatigued state, just like you do in a fight. It’s Sport Specific.
Last but not least, volume. If you’re not performing a high TOTAL of reps and sets then improving any type of endurance will be exceedingly difficult. A high volume of work, with short rest periods and heavy weights is what will lead you to the greatest sport specific physical attribute a fighter can possess; strength-endurance.
On the next part of the series I will cover a program and in future, some need to know methods on preparing fighters for competition, stay tuned!

Sport specific Training for MMA Part 1

Weight training in any combat sport is absolutely crucial. On the most part, the fighters who perform weight training programs are performing non specific types of training in relation to their sport. “Bodybuilding” weights are regularly performed by fighters. The problem is that combat sports like MMA require a dominant strength to bodyweight ratio. Bodybuilding does little to enhance such a ratio.

Then you’ve got your strength orientated lifters, they lift low reps and heavy ass weight. Although its important to acquire strength as a sport specific attribute, its not brute strength that wins fights, its endurance-strength, the ability to exert max and sub maximal forces over a prolonged period of time. Conventional strength training entails heavy weights for low reps with long rest periods. But when in a fight are you going to get a 5 minute rest? Being strong is of little use unless you have the ability to keep it up over the full distance of the fight.

Then we have our bodyweight trainees. Bodyweight exercises can be fantastic when used correctly. Problem is the exercises are too basic. Conventional push ups are a great warm up exercise but there not going to make an elite fighter any stronger. The key is to progressively overload bodyweight exercises by making them more and more difficult, for example elevating your feet on a higher surface to make your push up harder, then you might even progress to handstand push ups against a wall, perhaps even a one handed push up. Conventional Push ups, sits ups and body weight squats are just not going to cut it. Remember the goal is to become fight-strong you need to be pushing yourself through progressively difficult exercises in order for your body to adapt thus constantly improve.

Chicken: A meat staple!

Whether your cutting or bulking, when it comes to meat consumption chicken breast fillets are always the best option! Its cheap, low in fat, high in protein and a staple food source in any nutritious diet. I suggest cooking all your chicken at once then seperate your serving sizes into plastic containers and chuck them into the fridge so you dont have to worry about making food later in the day, pre planning is the key to long term dieting!

The two essential phases in training and nutrition

Catabolic and anabolic are the two different states that are used describe whether the body is building tissue or breaking it down. For the most part of the day we want our body's to be in an anabolic state. But your body is in a catabolic state when you wake up, this means that it may break down muscle to use as an energy source. The... best way to combat a catabolic state is to consume carbohydrates because eating carbohydrates makes the body produce the hormone insulin, which is an anabolic hormone!. This makes eating carbs crucial when both gaining and even loosing weight. This also makes breakfast one of the most important meals as it kicks off the fueling of your body for the day ahead!

An awsome Biceps finisher!

Your at the end of your workout  you've done every curl variation in existence with an excessive volume but you still have that urge for a bigger pump, something that can produce an even more significant stimulus to elicit that extra growth. I have an exercise that will satisfy such an urge: A gravity fighter chin up! It has lots of names but that's what I like to call it. Grab a chin up bar with your hands about 6 inches (15cm) apart, palms facing towards you. Perform a chin up and isometrically (statically) HOLD the very top portion of the exercise whilst squeezing your biceps as hard as you can. Hold this top position for as long as possible until you start to drop, this is where you fight gravity all the way until the bottom. Once your fully outstretched then its time to stop the exercise rest 60 seconds and repeat for a total of 2-4 reps. Its crucial that you really focus on feeling the connection with your biceps whist squeezing the ENTIRE time.