I actually find it strange that more hasn’t been written about cluster training recently. There was a period of time there when it was quite popular, but now it seems that it’s fallen back into obscurity, and I have no idea why.

Cluster training is an effective tool to shock your body into new gains, as well as break up the monotony of taking a straight sets approach to your lifting. Beyond that, it’s cool, it’s different, and it’s something that will have the other members of your gym asking you, “What are you doing?”

What Is Cluster Training?

Cluster training involves using short, inter-set rest periods (usually ranging anywhere from 10–30 seconds), which act to allow us to do more reps with a heavier weight.

Note: To help paint a clearer picture of how cluster training works, throughout the article I’m going to use the running example of doing a back squat with your 5RM to explain how it works.

Now, the difference between cluster training and traditional lifting is that in traditional lifting, using our example from above, you’d do your sets of squats for 5 reps, rest for 2-3 minutes between sets, and then move on to the second set.

In cluster training what we do is break that set of 5 reps down into 4 mini-sets of 2 reps, with a 10-15 second break in between each mini-set. This effectively allows us to do 8 reps of squats with our 5RM.

I know that being able to do 3 extra reps doesn’t seem like much at first, but when you realize it equates to a 60% increase in output, you start to notice how effective cluster training can be. By employing clusters into our training in this fashion we can effectively “cheat” a set and perform more reps than we would normally be able to.

What Are the Benefits of Doing Cluster Training?

All of the benefits of cluster training arise from the ability to do more reps with a heavier weight. Whenever you’re able to keep intensity high whilst doing more reps, you’re always going to see an immediate carryover to improvements in strength and muscle gains.

The beauty of cluster training is that you can easily manipulate the sets/reps/rest scheme to make it more biased to inducing strength or hypertrophy gains, depending on what your goal is.

For example, if strength is your main goal, you should aim to keep the load of the movement high (at or above 90% of your 1RM), and the reps low (mini-sets of 1-2 reps), with shorter rests (10-15s).

In the case of hypertrophy, clusters allow you to take a weight that you’d normally use for building strength (i.e. a 5RM), and push the number of reps you can do with it out into the more hypertrophy-friendly reps ranges of 8-12 reps – thereby increasing the total time under tension, and placing a greater degree of mechanical stress placed upon the muscle.

Another benefit of cluster training is its ability to break through strength plateaus. Seeing as most people haven’t been exposed to cluster training methods before, it stands to reason that they will see their biggest benefit from it the first time they do it.

How to Cluster Rest Intervals

There are a number of ways you can set up cluster training (and, as stated earlier, it can be altered to suit your goals), but the crux of the method lies in the short rest intervals between reps, or multiples of reps. Make sure you re-rack the bar when you rest, and utilize the entirety of the rest period – both during and after your set.

Below there are a few sets/reps schemes to get you started. Before we move onto that, it’s important to note that you can utilize cluster training on most exercises, but seeing as we’re looking for mostly strength and muscular gains, it makes sense that the best exercises to use are the bigger, compound barbell exercises.

Okay, let’s look at some ways to set up your cluster training. The first thing you’ll notice is that the set/reps for clusters are written in a weird way. Don’t freak out, they’re quite easy to understand, and I’ve given a detailed explanation on the first example so that you know exactly what you’re doing.

Strength Cluster #1

5(4×2)-10s w/ a 5RM

In this set up you’ll do 5 total clusters (the first number), and each cluster is going to consist of 4 mini-sets of two reps (the bracketed numbers). You’re going to rest 10-seconds in between each mini-set, and you’re going to use around your 5RM in load.

Using our squat example, this is what it’d look like:

1. 2 reps @ 5RM, rest for 10-seconds (remember to rack the bar)
2. 2 reps, rest 10s
3. 2 reps, rest 10 seconds
4. 2 reps, rest 2-3 minutes
5. Move onto cluster #2
6. Repeat as above for clusters 2-5

Strength Cluster #2

5(6×1)-15s w/ a 3-5RM

This follows the same process like the above example, except that you only do a single rep in each mini-set. The slight adjustment in reps allows you to use a heavier load, and make it a little more strength-oriented.

Muscle Gain Cluster #1

5(3×3)-15s w/ a 6RM

Again, this follows in the process as the two examples above, except that in this set up you’re going to do 3 mini-sets each consisting of 3 reps, with a 6RM. This will allow you to do 9 total reps with a 6RM, and skew the training effect more towards gaining muscle.

Muscle Gain Cluster #2

3-4 sets of AMRAP until you hit 15 total reps – 30s w/ 85% of 1RM

In this example, you’re going to find a weight that’s around 85% of your 1RM, and you’re going to do as many reps as you can (without going to complete failure) before racking the bar and resting for 30-seconds. After the short rest, you’re going to again try and get as many reps as you can, before re-racking the bar and resting for another 30-seconds. Continue in this fashion until you hit a total of 15 reps.

Repeat for 3-4 total clusters. Typically you’d hit anywhere from 5-8 reps in your first mini-set, and then have the reps slowly decrease for each subsequent mini-set from there.

I like using clusters because they’re a change of pace from the regular training methods, they’re hard as hell, and they work. Bring them into your next training cycle, and I know that you’ll end up loving them as well.

The post Cluster Training: How to Use It to Build Muscle and Strength appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Thankfully, with the rise of the UFC and BJJ as more mainstream sports, as well as the influx of strength coaches who want to train MMA athletes, things are slowly starting to change – but we’re not quite there yet. Combat athletes still shy away from resistance training, often in favor of doing more cardio. I will always remember one occasion when I was taking two, decently-ranked, Bantamweight MMA fighters through their first training session with me, and neither one of them could deadlift 135lbs. with good form. In fact, neither one of them could do a decent push up!

If this sounds like you, then it’s time to embrace the iron.

Why Do Combat Athletes Need Muscle? Extra muscle provides the combat athlete a few significant benefits, including:

Added Strength and Power

Firstly, as a combat athlete, you want to be strong and powerful, and muscle is (in part) responsible for that. Being stronger than your opponent is a crucial advantage that can favor you in every aspect of fighting, from grappling, to wrestling, and striking as well.

Did you happen to catch Georges St-Pierre’s fight against Nick Diaz? GSP completely dominated Nick via his wrestling skill combined with a significant strength advantage. He held Diaz down, prevented many reversal and sweep attempts, dictated where the fight went, and ultimately won 5 rounds to 0.

Improved Knockout Potential

With the increase in strength and power comes improved knockout ability. Look at all the great knockout specialist in combat sports – most of them have a muscular frame from which they built their power. Guys like Hector Lombard, Junior Dos Santos, and Johny Hendricks are all walking examples of this.

Better Takedown Defense

For MMA, judo, or BJJ guys, more muscle will improve your foundational strength, making it harder for opponents to take you down, and making it easier for you to take them down. Not only that, but more muscle (especially in the lower body) provides you with a lower center of gravity, which means that you will be more likely to dictate where the fight is going to take place.

Decreased Risk of Injury

Think of your muscle as armor, protecting your body from nasty injuries. The more muscle you have, the more armor you have protecting you. That’s not to say that you can’t still get injured when you’re a muscular guy (or gal), but you’ll definitely be better protected with a layer of strong muscle tissue covering vital organs, such as your kidneys, as opposed to nothing but skin.

Fight Night Weight Advantage

Like it or not, weight cutting is a part of combat sports. More muscle gives a fighter the opportunity to outweigh his opponent (sometimes by a significant amount) come the night of the fight. The reality with these situations is that you can have a significantly heavier guy, who cuts weight really well, facing a guy that walks around daily at the weight of his division, and on fight night there could be 15-20lbs of difference between them.

GSP is reported to have his walk around weight being near on 20lbs heavier than his weigh in weight. It’s the same for Jon Jones, and Anderson Silva. They all cut significant amounts of weight to ensure that they stay at the top of their weight division, and never allow another fighter to have a weight advantage.

Rules For Adding Muscle To Combat Athletes

While building muscle is important for combat athletes, doing so isn’t a matter of picking up the nearest Flex magazine, and following Phil Heath’s latest program.

No, there are certain rules that you must follow to ensure your athletes don’t lose their athletic ability, or get big just for the sake of getting big. Remember, as as coach, your goal is always to make them a better fighter – it just so happens that sometimes this means packing on the pounds.

1.  Be careful of super high volumes: Combat athletes generally train themselves into the ground. The philosophy of ‘more is better’ definitely has a stronghold of the industry. While I disagree with this mindset, this is a tradition that doesn’t seem like it’s going to die any time soon. With this is mind, often fighters will enter the gym already feeling overworked and a bit banged up. The last thing they need is a training program that has a ridiculously high volume, which will only lead to them being run down even further.
2.  Build the muscle where it’ll count the most: Let’s make this real clear – combat athletes don’t need biceps the size of Schwarzenegger’s or traps to rival Mt. Everest. That is why bodybuilding programs don’t work for them. When you’re trying to add weight to a combat athlete, you need to preferentially add it to the areas where they’ll get the most benefit. From my point of view this means the legs, hips (glutes), core, upper back, and shoulders.
3. Unless pressed for time, opt for the slow build: You should never add too much extra weight to an athlete too close to a fight. They need to be given time to adjust to carry the extra pounds around. Anyone who’s added a bunch of weight to their body over a short period will testify that, at least initially, you’re slowed down while the body adjusts to the new weight. If you’re in a technique-intensive sport, sometimes it can take a bit of time to get your timing back, so proceed slowly.
4. Always be cognizant of their weight division and how much they’ve cut weight in the past: This is rather obvious, but has to be said. You don’t want to add so much weight to a fighter, only to have them being caught not being able to make weight, or worse, arriving to the fight completely drained of energy because they’ve had to cut too drastically. If need be, do a trial weight cut before the real weight cut, just to be sure that you’re going to make it, and that the fighter will still have the energy to fight at his or her best.
5. If a fighter is going to be jumping up a weight division, ensure there is enough time between fights: In my opinion, the worst place for a combat athlete to be is at the lighter end of their weight division. This goes for MMA, BJJ, judo, or muay Thai – the discipline doesn’t matter. Every time you give up a weight advantage, you’re selling yourself short. This gets more important the higher up the ranks you get.

So if you’re a fighter who’s looking to make the jump to a heavier weight class, give yourself enough time between matches in order to add enough weight so that you can comfortably sit on the higher end of the weight class.

Sometimes as a combat athlete, you’re going to have to seriously look at adding some weight to your frame. Make sure that you build it right the first time, and don’t commit any of the common mistakes that make gaining muscle a hindrance, rather than a much needed boost to your fighting skill.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Why and How to Build Muscle – for the Combat Athlete appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

As a coach who works pre-dominantly out of commercial gym, I get a wide variety of clients, who come with a wide variety of goals. These goals vary from being more athletic, to looking better naked, and even training for a half-marathon (because your husband said you couldn’t do it and he’s offered you a $3,500 hand bag if you complete it) has come up.

What’s funny, though, is that despite the main goal that clients come in with, almost every one of them either a) wants to get more athletic as a side goal, or b) falls in love with the idea of being more athletic once they’ve felt what it’s like to be so.

It’s as if inherently we all feel as though we’ll be better evolved as human beings if we can lift more, run faster, jump higher, or have better fitness levels. If that sounds like you then I’ve got good news. You can start building better athleticism with some simple exercise tweaks, and you can achieve this even if you train in a commercial gym.

It All Starts With Strength

From being a better athlete, to looking better, or to running a faster 21km time, everything begins with a solid foundation of strength.

Strength is what ties all of the specific fitness-related goals together, and it’s the one true constant throughout each of them.

This lies in your favor, because it means that we don’t need to take the focus away from your main training goal in order to build better athleticism. All we need to do is to modify some of the exercises that you’re using to get there.

Before we move on, I have to say that any exercise that builds strength will make you more athletic.

Getting stronger, as I said above, is a path to being more athletic in and of itself. Ergo, any movement that you grow stronger from (yes, even bicep curls) will make you more athletic in some way, shape, or form.

That being said, when you only have a limited amount of time to spend in the gym each session, you need to choose the exercises that are going to give you the most bang for your buck.

Which Brings Us To The Exercise List

The following exercises have been chosen because they either a) use a larger amount of muscle, b) are more explosive in nature, or c) make you work in more planes of motion than conventional gym exercises.

To make the most of these movements (while still staying on track with your own goals) ideally you would replace a current exercise (of similar nature) that you’re doing already, with one of the ones from the list below.

For example, if you’re already doing reverse lunges, then it’s easy to swap them over for front squat-grip reverse lunges. Likewise, if you’re a hip-dominant movement, such as a back extension, you might want to look at replacing it with the kettlebell swings – and so on.

1. Front Squat-Grip Reverse Lunge

The front squat-grip reverse lunge places a greater demand on the musculature of the core and upper back than a regular reverse lunge, as when the weight is on the front of the shoulders, maintaining posture becomes crucial.

This movement is effective for those sports that need to maintain good posture whilst utilizing leg drive (i.e. rugby players, or MMA athletes when executing a takedown).

2. Kettlebell Swing

The kettlebell swing is one of the most effective hip-dominant power exercises going around. It requires you to absorb force (on the swing back), and reverse this force into an expression of power.

More hip power means better jumping ability, and faster sprint times (amongst other things).

3. 1-Arm Rotational Row

The 1-arm rotational row is one of those all-encompassing, hard-as-hell exercises. It combines a row and a lunge, as well as rotary/core strength, too.

The main benefit that the rotational row provides us with is improving total body coordination and control, which is sadly missed when trainees stick with only conventional resistance exercises.

4. Plyometric Push Up

The plyometric push up is one of the simplest upper body power exercises to start implementing into your training. It will lead to better explosive power in the upper body, and, of course, will help build bigger bench press numbers.

Try adding 3 or 4 sets of 6 reps before your bench pressing for the day, and start to benefit from the neural facilitation that will take place.

5. Medicine Ball Floor Stomp

Floor stomps are one of the best stress release total body power exercises that can be done with only a medicine ball, and a floor. Simply grab a medicine ball and throw it as hard as you can at the floor (it helps if you picture the ball as the head of someone you really don’t like).

Oh, and make sure you catch it on the rebound, otherwise you and I won’t be friends anymore.

6. Dumbbell Bench Jump

What’s a simpler way of building leg power than grabbing a pair of heavy dumbbells, and then jumping onto a bench with them? The trick with these is getting dumbbells that are heavy enough for you to be challenged, but also light enough for you to safely land on the bench with each jump.

7. Rear-Foot Elevated Split Squat Jump

The benefits of single-leg training have been touted all over the Internet for the past four years, and with good reason. Single-leg strength is important to everyone, but even more so if you want to be athletic.

What is often overlooked in all of this talk of single-leg strength, however, is single-leg power. The rear-foot elevated split squat jumps fixes that problem for us.

8. Inverted Row with Hip Lift

Everyone in the entire world has a weak posterior chain, right? At least that’s what we’re told. That problem will be a thing of the past for you if you start implementing these bad boys into your training. hip and upper back strength combined into one movement? Yes please.

Improvements in athleticism can really be as simple as exchanging some of your more conventional exercises for some that require a little more creativity.

Luckily for us there’s a little thing called YouTube, and it has thousands of weird and wonderful exercises for us to trial and experiment with. Now it’s time for action. Go and get after it!

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post 8 Commercial Gym-Friendly Exercises To Increase Your Athleticism appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Sleep, along with training and nutrition, is one of the three pillars of a healthy body. Each pillar is as equally important as the others, and if even one of them is neglected, your body will never function to it’s true potential.

Despite the importance of a restful night’s sleep, the statistics made available to us from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a large percentage of the U.S. population simply doesn’t get an adequate amount of sleep each night. In fact number of sleep deprived citizens is estimated to be between 50-70 million people.

This is a problem because a lack of sleep will quickly mess up your hormonal profile, including the lowering of key muscle-building and recovery hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone.

This alone will leave you more prone to putting on fat, slow your recovery, and make gains in both strength and muscle hard to come by.

The key to improving both your quantity and quality of sleep is developing better bedtime habits.

By doing this, you will teach your body that it’s time to shut down for the night, and markedly improve your sleep quality over the long term – without the need for pills, prescriptions, or even expensive sleep apnea tests.

Outlined below are actionable steps that you can take immediately in order to better prepare your body for sleep.

Give these wind down tricks a trial for at least one week and I’m sure sleep quality will improve out of sight. If it doesn’t improve in the first week, don’t worry. Different people respond to habitual intervention at different rates, and you might just need to give it a little longer.

1) Set a regular bedtime

Remember, building better habits is a crucial part of improving sleep quality, and one of those habits is going to bed around the same time each and every night.

When sleep becomes a part of a regular routine, then falling asleep on time becomes infinitely easier.

2) Make your bedroom as dark as possible.

Think about it – we were designed to sleep in dark caves, with no artificial light around us. Our sleep is markedly improved when we lay in a room that is pitch black.

The less light you can let in to your room, the better. Sometimes, even a dull glow from an alarm clock is enough to disrupt our sleep patterns, so aim to get rid of every little bit of light from your room.

3) Turn off all electronic devices an hour or two before bed

This means no laptop, no TV, no iPad/Pod, or anything else before bed. The luminous displays from said electronic devices have been shown to suppress melatonin production – a key ingredient to a good night’s rest.

4) Apply some magnesium oil

Magnesium is a known sleep-boosting mineral. The problem with most oral-based magnesium supplements, however, is that they aren’t absorbed optimally.

To get the most out of magnesium you need to rub it into your skin, and that’s where magnesium oil comes in. The best time to do it is right after your nightly shower.

5) Read before bed, but nothing too stimulating

I personally find that autobiographies are great bedtime reads. They help you wind down, but don’t get your mind racing like some fiction novels do, which can be counter to a deep sleep.

6) Stretch

Going through a series of static stretches, preferably after a warm shower, will help mellow out your body and make you feel good in general.

This will translate to better sleep, and you’ll also start to get rid of those niggling areas of pain.

7) Get out in the sun

Get at least fifteen minutes of direct sunshine every day. This will help increase your melatonin levels, which will improve your quality of sleep.

It will also save your from having to turn to melatonin supplements in order to sleep better.

8) Drink some chamomile tea half an hour before sleep

Chamomile has been shown to reduce anxiety and help relax the body. Outside of that, I don’t know of many things more relaxing than sitting with a warm cup of tea and slowly sipping away at it as you prepare for bed.

Getting a full night of quality sleep will lead to better gains in both performance and aesthetics.

Remember that getting a better night’s rest is built upon good bedtime habits, and actively seek to improve these. You’ll end up with a clearer mind during the day, and a better body, to boot.

References:

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://web.archive.org/web/20120401012304/http://www.cdc.gov/features/dsSleep/

2. Wood, B, MS Rea, B Plitnick, and MG Figueiro. “Light level and duration of exposure determine the impact of self-luminous tablets on melatonin suppression.” Applied Ergonomics 44 (July 31, 2012): 237-40.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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