You can train hard and you can train smart. There is such a thing. The key I see most people missing is they are not first building a base. Everyone wants to jump straight to the top of the mountain without taking the necessary steps to get there.

Sled Pushes and Drags are Great for Building Work Capacity

Training is like going to school. We start in pre-school, then move to elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and so on. School can go on forever. There are people out there with multiple PhDs and people out there always attending more training to obtain CEUs. That is how training should be – a constant evolution and growth.

Sometimes (or often times), you need to go back and revisit the basics or certain steps that you didn’t pay enough attention to. I’ve been training since 1989, and sometimes I find myself pausing and going backward, but in truth, I am moving forward. Let me explain and show you how you can use this approach to improve yourself, as well.

Have Goals, But Maintain Balance

After achieving a recent challenge to squat five days a week and get back to deadlifting over 500lbs and squatting over 400lbs, I felt like a train wreck. I leaned too far toward one end of the spectrum (strength), while ignoring other areas, such as mobility, adequate conditioning, and stability and joint health. After hitting a wall, I went back to the basics.

I balanced my routine out and added plenty of mobility and foam roller time. I added rotator cuff work. Remember, mobility isn’t just when you are using a foam roller, mashing on a lacrosse ball, or perhaps including some yoga into your training. Exercises like the windmill, the get up, and overhead carries will also help you stay mobile, as well as strong.

I am performing more kettlebell get ups, as well as kettlebell swings, and feeling my overall health improving on a daily basis. I am getting to bed early (usually by 10:00pm), drinking more water throughout the day, and on my days off, I dedicate about fifteen to twenty minutes to various forms of mobility.

Farmer’s Carries Work the Entire Body Efficiently

Stronger, Healthier, and More Energetic

During the next four weeks you might feel like you’re going backward, but in truth, you’ll be moving forward. You’ll feel healthier, more energetic, and stronger. Your body won’t feel like it’s beat up, and, in turn, you’ll be more pleasant to be around.

After these four weeks, you can modify all your training to this smarter approach. An approach that has you working hard, yet also helps you feel healthy. I urge you not to view this as a step backward. View it as getting better. Period.

Train three times per week on nonconsecutive days. On your other days, perform any type of physical activity that gets your heart pumping. My activities change according to the weather and the time of year. I might go mountain biking, running with my dog, surfing, swimming, body surfing, play tennis, or run around with my kids.

Also, on those days, get a foam roller and roll on areas that feel tight or sore. I keep it that simple. If it feels like it needs to get a massage, roll on it.

Warm Up and Mobility Work

Warm up with light calisthenics for all areas of the body and light cardio. I prefer sled drags, easy battle ropes, light jogging, and band pull-aparts from various angles.

After a good warm up, spend a few minutes performing soft tissue work on areas that feel tight or sore. Then, perform the workouts listed below. After each workout, revisit the soft tissue work on areas that need to be massaged.

Here’s a sample mobility mash up:

Training Plan: Weeks One and Two:

Day 1

1A) kettlebell goblet squat with 2 second pause at the bottom 5X5

1B) ring push ups 5X5-10

Make sure you externally rotate at the top of each rep. Add a weight vest or chain if 10 reps are too easy.

2A) 1-arm dumbbell row 3X10 per side

2B) side plank on forearms 3X30 seconds per side

3) sled drags 5X150-200 feet (half facing forward, half facing backward)

Day 2

1) Turkish get ups 5X1 per side

2A) farmer’s walk 4X100 feet – Use kettlebells, strongman handles, etc.

2B) neutral grip flat bench with kettlebells 4X10 reps

3A) Bulgarian split squats holding dumbbells at your sides 3X8 per leg

3B) battle ropes 3X25 arm circles + 25 slams

4) jump rope intervals: 5 intervals of 40 seconds work/20 seconds rest (5 minutes total time)

Day 3

1) front squats 5X3 – Increase or decrease the weight through the 5 sets, focusing on maintaining technique.

2) kettlebell windmills 4X2 per side

3A) mixed push ups 5X10-20

Change your push up variation every set by changing hand or foot position or by using rings or medicine balls.

3B) band pull-aparts – overhand/underhand/dislocators 5X10/10/5

4) kettlebell swings 5X10

5) side plank + front plank 2X30 seconds in each position

For week two, repeat the week one workouts, but progress by improving your technique and, if possible, adding weight. Only add weight if you can maintain your technique.

Training Plan: Weeks Three and Four

Day 1

1A) barbell Zercher squat 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

If you still feel you can hit a heavier single, add weight and do 1 more set of 1

1B) broad jumps 5X3

2A) double overhead kettlebell carry 3X100 ft.

2B) 1-arm kettlebell bent-over row 3X10 per arm

3A) double kettlebell rack walking lunges 3X8 per leg

3B) double kettlebell cleans 3X5

4A) ab wheel roll-outs 3X submax reps

Stop the set before you lose trunk stability.

4B) band face pulls + external rotation 3X10 each

Day 2

1A) bench press with 2 second pause on chest 5X3

1B) burpees 5X3

1C) chest-to-bar pull ups 5X3

2A) underhand bent-over barbell rows 4 X6-8

2B) underhand barbell shrugs 4X6-8

3A) thumbs up bent-over dumbbell shoulder raises 3X12

3B) scarecrows 3X12 Use rings, suspension trainer, or cable pulleys

4A) kettlebell lying triceps extensions 3X10-15

4B) kettlebell hammer curls 3X6-8

5) 2 sets: side plank 30 seconds per side + front plank 30 seconds

Day 3

1) double kettlebell clean + squat + press X5, 4, 3, 2, 1

2A) sumo deadlift 6X2

2B) lunge jumps 6X2 per leg

3A) vertical wall walks 3Xmax work – Start each set on your stomach.

3B) any vertical bodyweight pull – 3Xmax

For example, you could use rope climbs, pull ups, or ring pull ups.

4) 1-arm kettlebell swings 3X10 per arm

5A) jump rope 4X100 jumps

5B) heavy sled drags 4X100 feet – 50 feet forward, 50 feet backward

For week four, repeat the week three workouts, but progress by improving your technique and, if possible, adding weight. Only add weight if you can maintain your technique.

Pull Ups Build Back and Arm Strength With Very Little Equipment

Strength and Performance Without Sacrificing Health

The goal of these workouts is to blend strength and performance with overall health. The movements are varied, and you’ll be training your body from multiple angles.

One of the keys to staying healthy while also improving your physical strength is what you do outside of the gym. Remember the simple things – drinking enough water, getting eight hours of sleep every night, avoiding a stressful lifestyle, eating wholesome foods, and minimizing sugars and processed foods (or eliminating them altogether).

Give this program a test for the next month and see how you feel.

Since training all the way back to 1989, I am always reminded that more is not better – better is better. I am on a mission as I constantly evolve to rediscover just what “better” means. I am always learning and so should you. The man or woman who stops learning is not truly living.

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I do an adrenal test on almost every client I work with to determine what kind of stress and workout load he or she can handle. My focus is health, so the four weeks of programming I have provided is an example of what I would give to a client who is quite highly skilled, but has a later stage of adrenal burnout (stage two or three).

The program is meant for the person who is not efficiently secreting cortisol and feels tired and flat much of the time. This person is also destroyed by hard workouts – initially feeling great, but hitting rock bottom a few hours afterwards. This client also has a lot of soreness and unexplained aches and pains that no amount of rolling or mobility will fix. The significant reduction in cortisol secretion affects the body’s ability to reduce inflammation, and so recovery from workouts becomes difficult.

Workout Element #1: Strength

My main focus in this program is strength. Strength is the number two biomarker of health and muscle mass is number one, so I make it a priority. I use a lot of Mark Rippetoe’s stuff to facilitate an increase in strength. This is not a complex program. It is extremely simple. The first week is somewhat of an assessment week, and the following weeks I use sets of five across and three across to achieve strength gains.

The plan is easy. Do your 3×5 workout (3 sets of 5 reps) and then when the 3×3 (3 sets of 3 reps) week comes up, you increase the weight. For example, if you did a 3×5 at 185lbs, on the 3×3 week you’d up your weight to 195lbs. Then, the following week you use that weight (195) for a 3×5, and once again increase it for the next 3×3 workout. I have personally made huge strength gains in this way, and so have many of my clients. It is ridiculously simple, but it works.

Workout Element #2: Sprints

Sprints usually come up weekly in my programming. I have people warm up and do anywhere from six to twelve sprints of varying times with a very long rest interval. Sprints are great for people with adrenal issues especially, because they allow for recovery along with not completely depleting sugar stores, so cortisol is not wasted on low blood sugar (gluconeogenesis).

Workout Element #3: Walking

Walking is also a weekly or bi-weekly occurrence in my programming. It is an opportunity to get low intensity exercise and find peace of mind. If my clients are bored and need more from the walk, I recommend a twenty-pound weight vest.

Workout Element #4: Gymnastics

I consider Olympic weightlifting “gymnastics” along with traditional basic adult gymnastics. Let’s face it – a well-executed snatch can be like landing a back flip for many people. I included one pure gymnastic workout in this month, just so you can see what it might look like, too. These kinds of workouts are highly dependent on the skill of the client.

Workout Element #5: Sport Day

I am not a gym rat, nor should you be. People who train with me are training to feel good, look good, be healthy, and support their passions. So, Saturday is a “sport” day where you get outside and play tennis, go golfing, hit the surf, ride your bike, or slay dragons – it is your choice. Just don’t let me see you in the gym!

I have given you four weeks of programming that is an example of what I would give a person with adrenal issues, but it is also for that person who doesn’t want to wear out to begin with. The minimum effective dose is all I train, and all I recommend. Strength is the pillar of the program, and metabolic conditioning is done with safe, easy movements. You will not see big strength moves or complex motor skills in my metabolic workouts because I believe those exercises should be done as skill work and not against the clock. Sprinting and walking take up a good chunk of the week, and make for health and fitness gains. I hope you enjoy this sample of my programming!

Click Here to Start Your Free 4-Week Program From Eva Twardokens

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Many of today’s American Olympic weightlifting coaches hold degrees in exercise science, having studied biomechanics, exercise physiology, and other sports science subjects with the intent of practical application to our sport. Unfortunately, many college kinesiology or exercise science programs do not specifically address strength sports. Instead, the majority of research is directed towards physiology of conditioning and biomechanics of more popular sports. The result is that the Russian training manuals have become the cornerstone of many coaches’ education. My development as a coach was largely influenced by these manuals. Additionally, I had several coaches of different nationalities, including Hungarian, Bulgarian, Russian, and American. They all added significantly to my practical education.

The Systems

Not able to find any one system that I preferred or felt superior to another, I, like many other coaches, started the trial-and-error practice of programming using basic principles borrowed from the likes of Vladimir Zatsiorsky and R. A. Roman. The simplest of the concepts being progressive overload training, which I learned via my formal education but in practice from John Coffee. This has been overall basis for my programming.

I have also borrowed suggestions from Roman’s The Training of the Weightlifter, in which he suggests training phases of two to three months each. He starts with the preparatory phase, to create a base sporting form. This lasts one to two months and is the cycle characterized as having large volume with a gradual increase in intensity. I usually refer to this phase as the strength conditioning phase and will typically build the load for five to six weeks before lowering. Roman then suggests a transition phase, in which the coach must avoid overtraining the athlete, while maintaining sporting form. As suggested, I use this cycle to raise intensity while maintaining the condition of the athlete.

Then, this is the point at which I introduce the Bulgarian wave method into the program. I usually refer to this second cycle as a strength phase since there are more high intensity lifts attempted, and there has been a transition from lower intensity-high volume work to higher intensity work with a lowering of volume. In the third phase, which Roman calls the competition phase, there is a gradual transition with a goal of a “realization of results.” This is typically called a competition, pre-competition, or power phase, where there is an attempt to have the athlete recover from both the volume and intensity of the previous cycles so that he may perform in competition. The product should be an “improved organism” that can produce better results on the competition platform. Roman also suggests rest after four months of training. I too think this is important in prevention of injury and for both mental and physical recovery of the athlete.

The Challenge of Clean Athletes

Although I attempt to implement principles borrowed from both Bulgarian and Russian systems, I have to also acknowledge one deficiency in the American athletes that I train – they are clean. I think to ignore this obvious difference between my athletes and those who have trained in the aforementioned systems would be a failure on my part to recognize the truth. I have worked to alter and adapt the programs to address the lack of performance enhancing drugs and the benefits that would come from them.

In general, if performance-enhancing drugs will make you stronger and better able to recover, we can assume that without them these two areas will suffer. My adjustments to programming therefore include overloading the pulls and squats to make athletes stronger. Second, my athletes train four to five days a week since most work a full-time job and train. Without recovery aids being used regularly, I must rely on their natural abilities to adapt to the various stresses of training and life. I do advocate adaptogens as part of their supplementation but these, although somewhat effective, pale in comparison to the recuperative qualities of banned pharmaceuticals. In response to this difference, I have reduced the number of training sessions from the norm of nine-plus sessions a week down to four or five.

Below are four weeks of workouts, two weeks of conditioning and two weeks of strength. You can also download the entire four weeks in a printable PDF.

Sample Workouts – Conditioning Phase

Here are samples programs from the conditioning phase. These are the working sets and the athlete does warm up to these percentages. The weights, reps, and sets are written in the standard international form with % as the numerator and # of reps as the denominator with the numbers of sets to the right.

Sample Workouts – Strength Cycle

Click Here to Download the Entire Four Weeks in a Printable PDF

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Most coaches have devised their own method for teaching the snatch and clean to their athletes and thusly, so have I. Many older-generation coaches have utilized a bottom-up approach, but in more recent decades the top-down approach has prevailed.

Most coaches have devised their own method for teaching the snatch and clean to their athletes and thusly, so have I. Many older-generation coaches have utilized a bottom-up approach, but in more recent decades the top-down approach has prevailed.

It is, for example, the method used by both USA Weightlifting and the CrossFit Olympic Lifting Trainer Course. By most accounts, it is effective and prepares the athlete for reception of a bar overhead.

I do, however, believe there is still merit to using the bottom-up approach and have therefore incorporated it into teaching beginners, as well as heavily relying on it to fine tune veteran athletes. I prefer to call my method of teaching the “Pause Method.” (Yes, I have foregone naming it after myself. Call me a fool.)

Before I begin, I would like to explain my basic conceptual understanding of the snatch and clean. The snatch and clean can be dissected into three basic movements:

From the floor to the hip, the athlete is simply standing the bar to the hip, positioning himself for the explosion.

This standing phase requires acceleration of the bar and is initiated by a drive through the floor with the legs to bring the bar to below the knees.

The transition from below the knee follows, with the knees extending slightly as the athlete continues pressing against the floor so the bar can pass without clipping the knees.

The result should be that the athlete is in the hang position above the knee. This stand is followed by an extension of the hip using the posterior chain and ends with the bar in the hip crease. These are often referred to as the first and second pulls.

The “explosion” occurs when the bar reaches the hip and is a pressing of the legs through the ground violently to acquire the requisite force to propel the bar so the athlete can get under it.

This is often described as the jump. To properly execute the jump, the knees are slightly bent when the bar approaches and contacts the hip. The athlete pushes against the ground, utilizing the extension of the hip, knee, and ankle, resulting in a full-body elevation that thrusts the barbell upward.

The explosion is followed by an action of the wrists and elbows functioning to maintain the proximity of the bar to the body and preparing for the reception of the bar in the final or bottom squat position.

The receiving position must coincide with the height of the bar in order to meet the bar in a coordinated fashion. When this happens, the bar will land on the lifter, timed so that the centers of mass and gravity combine and seamlessly continue moving downward in concert.

My goal is to teach all the requisite positions as well as how the athlete should move so that these positions are moved through on each lift. The Pause Method allows the coach to segment the lift so the athlete can develop his spatial orientation and find these same positions on his own quickly, as is required for lifting heavy weights.

I begin teaching with a light barbell adding weight conservatively. I would estimate the athlete is working with anywhere from 40% to 60% of maximum capacity when learning, but since we often do not have a max yet, I watch the speed and movement to determine whether an athlete should add any weight to the bar. I err on the side of too light.

Over the next four weeks, I will be sharing an example of a Pause Method program I have used for teaching the lifts.

The goal is to ingrain the proper positions, encourage the athlete to slow down in this initial learning phase, and teach the athlete how to time the receiving of the weight to avoid losing the bar in space.

In the receiving of the bar overhead or on the chest, the pause aids the athlete in meeting the bar, learning to turnover quickly, and allowing him to feel his balance before the squat portion of the lift. It also encourages a complete extension in the pull.

I have witnessed many athletes whose snatch is simply a power snatch with a cut pull-and-dive under the bar. I often have to correct this and I find the Pause Method is helpful in both teaching and re-teaching.

I additionally want to ensure that athletes find the contact of the bar at their hips with their knees slightly bent in the jump position so they can learn to transition with minimal deceleration into the jump.

The athlete should bring the bar towards themself and maintain pressure on the heel in the pull from the knee to the hip or upper thigh, as opposed to moving towards the bar. I can reinforce this by having the athlete pause repeatedly at the hip/power position in the snatch and upper thigh/power position of the clean.

This allows me to watch how the athlete places pressure on the foot and to keep him or her on the heels longer in the long term, avoiding the problem of the early jump that is often seen in experienced athletes.

In the first two weeks of this program the pauses will be abundant.

I will begin to remove them for athletes who are moving well. For others, I may choose to keep them until they can move through all positions correctly.

In the final week, I teach a complete pull with chest/torso/shoulder elevation. I have found athletes will also rush into the extension and teaching them first to pull to the point from which they jump and then adding the shoulder elevation helps them with timing in both the pull and the actual lifts. I allow them to speed up the pulls once they have learned to contact before elevating the torso.

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Wrestling with Fitness

As a kid, I was a huge pro wrestling fan. There is just something magical about watching larger-than-life musclemen kick the crap out of each other (or at least pretend to in a way that’s convincing enough for a child to accept). As a result, I idolized guys like Hulk Hogan, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig. Even once I figured out that pro wrestling was staged, I still admired these men for their strength, power and charisma. Of course I wanted to be just like them!

For me, it was never a question of trying to motivate myself to work out, it was only a question of trying to convince my mother that I could do so without getting hurt or stunting my growth – that old wives’ tale is still so pervasive.

When I was around eleven years old, we made a deal that I would be allowed to start lifting weights when I turned thirteen. In fact, my parents even agreed to buy me a weight set, a bench, and a pull-up bar for my thirteenth birthday. Since I had older brothers, we already had a rusty old barbell and a couple of dumbbells lying around in the basement that had been passed down from one of my uncles. I’m don’t remember them really getting much use, though. Besides, I wanted to get my own set of weights! I knew very little about strength training at the time, and like most people I was convinced that a skinny kid like me would need to lift weights in order to get big and strong.

Big? Maybe.

Strong? Not so much.

Growing Pains

I waited for my thirteenth birthday with great anticipation. I probably nagged my mom about the weights every day for the next two years. She didn’t budge though. I had to wait it out for what seemed like an eternity. At the time I hated it, but in retrospect making me wait was one of the best things my mother ever did for me.

I went through a growth spurt when I was twelve and by the time I turned thirteen I was already my full height of 5’11’’ – but I barely weighed 130 pounds! It was finally time to put some muscle on this frame. (At least we didn’t have to worry about working out stunting my growth anymore.)

Since I was really into the idea of getting huge and muscular like my wrestling idols, over the years I dedicated myself to bodybuilding and tried every (legal) supplement I could find in an attempt to make that happen. Though weight training was a lot of fun, I never got quite as jacked as those guys. No matter how much I tried and how many supplements I ate, it never seemed enough. Years later, when I decided to pursue a career as a personal trainer, I was concerned that my lack of mass would hurt my chances. After all, most of the trainers I saw at gyms back then were a lot bigger and stronger looking than I was.

Turns out I wound up doing pretty good as a trainer in spite of not being as huge as the Macho Man. In fact, a few years into my career, I abandoned the idea of building mass altogether, instead choosing to focus on having fun with my training. By that time I had bulked up to 190 pounds but I didn’t feel as good as I thought I would. Bodybuilding made me stiff and slow. I could leg press almost half a ton but couldn’t do a back bridge, a handstand push-up or even run a respectable mile. I always had stomach aches from drinking protein powder and eating excessively in an attempt to build mass. Eventually my objectives changed from lifting heavy and getting as huge as possible to feeling good, enjoying life and performing better. I’ve found that pursuing bodyweight training allows me to do those things more than bodybuilding-style weight training ever did.

Jacked Or Ripped

Different people naturally have different body types. While nobody can gain muscle without some effort, some people can put on bulk easier than others. As much as I desperately wanted to get as big as possible when I was younger, I was fighting my body type. Though I didn’t want to accept this truth in my formative years, genetics is an undeniable factor in how our bodies look. Just like I can’t do much to change having been born with brown eyes, I’ve also always had small wrists, narrow hips and narrow shoulders. These bony reference marks are good ways of measuring a person’s frame. Frame size and body fat percentage are two very different things, however. You can’t just look at the size of someone’s body, as most people are carrying more fat than you might realize.

If you are having a hard time finding your wrist bones, shoulder blades and/or hip bones, it means you are carrying a lot of excess body fat. Someone can have a large frame but still be lean while another person with a small frame may still be fat (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in Twins come to mind).

If you want to test the size of your frame, locate any of those areas and give a good hard squeeze. Try to grab as much of your flesh as you can. If you get a hold of anything more than a few centimeters thick, it isn’t part of your frame – it’s fat!

“Lean” On Me

People who practice calisthenics come in all different shapes and sizes; some are big and some are small. The one thing that all the advanced practitioners have in common, however, is that they are all relatively lean. Calisthenics is about building strength relative to your size. Performing bodyweight exercises will gradually shape your body to its most functionally efficient natural state by building muscle and shedding fat to accommodate the specific demands of the training.

Because I have a lanky frame, I’m still fairly small and light for how much muscle I am carrying. Obviously the thirteen-year-old me was way too skinny for his frame at 130 lbs. but the 190-pound me at age 25 was too big! Now at age 33, I am a lean, mean 160 lbs. I’m pound-for-pound stronger than I’ve ever been and I feel the best that I ever have.

People are sometimes surprised to find out how light I am. I meet lots of athletic guys with less muscle than I have who still outweigh me by ten or twenty pounds. The reason I am light in spite of having a lot of muscle is that I have practically no fat on my little frame! Many people are carrying a lot more excess weight than they realize. A man who is my height doesn’t need to weigh anywhere near 200 pounds to look strong and muscular.

Beginners and intermediates can experience muscle growth from calisthenics training, but at a certain point the body will level off size-wise. There is only so far that you can go naturally where aesthetics are concerned, however strength gains can continue indefinitely. Since a large part of strength actually happens in your brain, there is seemingly no limit to how strong one can become. Your muscles can only get so big, but the brain has an amazing way of learning and reinforcing movement patterns that goes beyond the physical playing field, and into the neurological. Strength isn’t all about muscles – it’s about knowing how to use your muscles.

Besides, if you could continue to keep getting bigger forever from bodyweight training, I’d finally be the size of Hulk Hogan by now!

Ironically, many of the wrestlers I looked up to as a kid wound up with serious health problems (or worse) as they got older. By eating clean, staying supplement free and training for fun and functionality, I’m hoping to avoid those pitfalls.

Total Body Strength

If you’ve spent much time in a commercial gym, you’ve probably noticed most of the people in the strength training areas using weights and/or machines to try to work each body part separately from the others. Though performing isolation movements is a cornerstone of bodybuilding training, in calisthenics the opposite approach is more effective. 

I want you to use every muscle in your body for every rep of every exercise.

Sure, a push-up places more emphasis on the upper-body, while squats are more of a leg workout, but the rest of the body must support what those muscles are doing. There is no such thing as a true isolation exercise. If you’re going to work towards a one arm push-up or pistol squat, you need to understand the concept of total body tension from the get go. It is the key to performing advanced calisthenics with power, grace and control. I want to help you bring awareness to how your muscles are interconnected and use them together to be as efficient as possible in your movement.

For The Ladies

There are a lot of misconceptions about women and strength training. For starters, a lot of women are unnecessarily concerned about gaining mass, but without testosterone supplementation, it is very unlikely to happen. The women you see in bodybuilding magazines have worked very hard to achieve that aesthetic – they want to look that way! It’s a bit insulting to all their hard work when weak, chubby women say things like “I can’t do squats or my legs will get huge!”

In reality, push-ups and squats are the two best exercises for strengthening and toning the parts of the body my female clients tend to be most concerned with: the backs of the arms, the thighs, and of course, the butt. Women who consistently practice calisthenics usually wind up with lean, toned physiques – not huge, rippling muscles like bodybuilders.

The Big Three

In my last book, Raising The Bar: The Definitive Guide to Pull-up Bar Calisthenics, I broke down pretty much everything there is to do using my favorite piece of workout equipment, the pull-up bar. In this one [Pushing the Limits], I’ll show you all the essential moves for strength training with no equipment at all. All you need to start building strength right now is the floor you are standing on. And if you don’t have any floor, well, then you’ve got much bigger problems!

In Raising The Bar, I told you there are basically only three exercises to do on the bar and everything else is just a combination or variation of those moves. Though there are more than three types of exercises to do on the floor, I’ve chosen to focus this book on the three that I deem most essential: push-ups, squats, and inversions. While you can build a strong, aesthetically appealing body with just these exercises, the ultimate bodyweight strength training program combines elements from both books.

Don’t get me wrong, you will work every muscle in your body by following the advice in this book; the lats and biceps work as stabilizer muscles during push-ups (especially one arm push-ups) and all of your back muscles do a considerable amount of work during bridges. Heck, you can even get your lats firing during pistol squats if you focus on keeping your chest upright, but there’s simply no substitute for pull-ups.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s start Pushing The Limits!

Train with Al Kavadlo – Click here for four free weeks of bodyweight progressions.

Curious about the rest of the book? Read our book review.

“Pushing the Limits” is available for $39.95 at DragonDoor.com.

The post Pushing the Limits: Wrestling With Fitness (Book Excerpt) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I had coffee. I drink mine mostly black, but occasionally I may dot it with cinnamon. My acquaintance, well, he had an apple turnover or something sweet like that, and with each bite flakes fell from his pastry like casual dandruff onto the table. It looked pretty good, I guess. But I minded my own.

This fellow, he was set to puttin’ on muscle with the kettlebell and would have it no other way, as he fancied working out in the privacy of his dorm room and had already acquired himself a pair of 20s and 24s.

He asked me how to do it. How to put on muscle, that is.

Said he never used kettlebells before. Said he’d been skinny all his life. Said he’d do whatever it takes.

So, seeing what I had to work with, I reached across the table, snatched up one of his unemployed napkins, and scribbled a few notes on it.

When it was done, I slid it back across the table to him. My masterpiece was complete.

I told him he was to do just two exercises, two days a week. I told him that it’d be tough, and that in all likelihood he’d probably fail. So we shook hands and he left. I stayed, however, so that I could finish my coffee.

Here, I break no new ground. What you see above is a subtle variation on German Volume Training (GVT), a time-tested and apparently Deutschlander-approved muscle building protocol. The starkest difference, aside from the fact that it’s to be done with a set of kettlebells rather than a barbell, is that I have reduced the overall daily volume by 50%.

That is, I’ve cut the original prescription of ten sets of ten reps down to ten sets of five reps. I’ve done this, mainly, so that you may operate with a higher intensity (weight) and subsequently, build the strength to match the muscle.

I really don’t know how to make it any simpler: One hundred reps per workout. No exceptions. Go as heavy as you can and rest as little as you need between sets. Whether you perform the squats or the double clean and press first is no concern of mine, so long as you get all of your reps in. Also, sleep hard, and dispatch a copious amount of calories.

So, you might wonder, how does this all work?

Well, in short, I don’t know. Does anyone know, really? You pick up something heavy and you do it often enough until things start to grow – harder, stronger, and hopefully outward. This much I’ve figured out. But I’m not smart enough to understand all the minutiae just yet. So I’ll quote Dan John (one of the smartest men I know) on how it all works: “I have no idea how anything, really, in the body works. And, it doesn’t matter.”

And to that, I say amen. It doesn’t matter how it works, it only matters that it works.

So then, Pat, if it does work, what are we to expect from all of this? Will I really gain two pounds of muscle per week?

Well, I make no guarantees, as a large part of that will depend on too many factors outside of my control. However, there is strong evidence in your favor. I, for one, put on over 20lbs of muscle in just under three months with this program. The weight gain was mostly clean, too. I ate Chipotle every day, guzzled shakes in between, and went to the bathroom a lot.

And here’s an email I got from Henrik Andresson, a subscriber of mine from Sweden who followed this program a while back, where he talks on the gains he made:

I’m really amazed at how fast I’m gaining (muscle) weight! So far it’s been a little more than 1 kg/2.2 lbs per week!

I have never ever in my whole life been as heavy as I am now, and I love it! If I continue gaining like this I will be around 82 kg/180.4 lbs at the end of the challenge.

(Ladies, please note that this program is just as much for you, as it is for the sirs! You will accrue no undesirable weight, I assure you. Expect lean, dense, tasteful muscle)

And what about strength, will I gain that, too? Now this is certain. 200 heavy reps a week – of two colossal movements, no less – generally makes people pretty strong, or so it seems to go.

My only admonition is this: Come set seven or so, it will feel as if someone has driven railway spikes into your quads, and you’ll feel almost poisoned by the flood of lactic acid. Consequently, you may start to slow down a bit.

Dare I encourage you to push through? Yes, I do dare, but let us not be imprudent about this. Rest as little as you need, but as much as you have to, so that you may (1) keep your faculties about you and (2) complete each set with faultless form.

Now, I’ll say it again, even at the risk of coming off as overly repetitious: This program, I imagine, is about as pleasant as a spell in the stocks – and ought to be applied judiciously. That is, don’t try to follow this year round, as that’d be a wholly unreasonable thing to do. A one to two month stint is more than plenty.

And if somehow you make it through and you still haven’t had your fill, then you know just one thing: you ought to have gone heavier.

You can also try Pat Flynn’s four weeks of free workouts.

The post World’s Strongest Napkin: How to Add 2lbs of Muscle a Week with Kettlebells appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Now training like this is, of course, wholly unsustainable. I believe Dan John would call it unreasonable. And he’s right. You ought not to train so intensely year round. But I believe there’s something to be said about it – getting that lean and training that hard. Honestly, I’m not exactly sure what that is. I just know that there’s most certainly something to be said about it.

Now I have this theory that any exercise program will improve in direct proportion to the number of things you can keep out of it that needn’t be there. That’s to say that the secret to any good exercise program is simplicity. And so, these four weeks of workouts – which, I should mention, are dedicated in whole to getting you maximally lean and super muscly – will focus on one thing mostly, and that’s metabolic conditioning.

Over the years, I have damned metabolic conditioning up hill and down dale as the most fiendish instrument of torture ever devised since the days of the rack. But alas, I return to it again and again, because I’ve found nothing more effective for rapidly chopping fat and building muscle than metcon – specifically, metcon via kettlebell complex training.

Kettlebell complexes, for anyone unfamiliar, are like sandwiches. They are layers of exercises stacked upon one another. These exercises are to be performed successively and uninterruptedly – that is, with little to no rest in between. Typically, complexes tax multiple muscle groups and energy systems simultaneously – the system is kept under a prolonged period of stress – much is demanded from the heart, lungs, kidneys, and other such organic etceteras. Consequently, a colossal caloric afterburn ensues.

And it is to this end that you can expect that each workout will be short, intense, and somewhat upsetting – like a proper licking from the old man’s belt. And at times – especially in the later rounds – you may even find yourself pleading with divinities. One does what one can, I suppose.

And how are you to know when you’re done? How many licks does it take, you ask? Well, when you reach the point where you think you can’t possibly do another rep, when your arms feel heavy as lead and your legs go limp as linguini, when you start to bellow the pathetic and unmanly yells of a flogged schoolboy – when you reach this point, well, I think that means that you are pretty much done.

Click here to start Pat Flynn’s four weeks of free workouts.

The post How to Get Maximally Lean and Super Muscly with Pat Flynn appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The training program I’m sharing here on Breaking Muscle has been prepared for a professional MMA fighter, Richie J. Edwards. The first eight sessions are part of his strength phase. The sessions have been presented exactly as they happened without modifications, so you will be able to see when they had to be changed or when Richie was under-recovered. I have used a linear periodization method this time and trained Richie two times per week. Following his strength phase, we moved into a power phase. For you, we will be posting three sessions per week, but you can adjust them to fit your own MMA or BJJ training schedule.

Before you look at the training sessions themselves, lets look at the way I structure my strength phase. First of all, you will not see any sledgehammers, battle ropes, tire flips, or training with a gas mask or snorkel. It doesn’t mean I don’t see a place for these (maybe apart from gas mask and snorkel – as these have no place in my sessions). We do use tires and ropes, however I use them more during the power and endurance development, which happens closer to a fight.

When I create programs for and train my athletes I consider the following factors:

1. Always follow a Hippocratic oath to do no harm.

There are still some strength and conditioning coaches out there who train the fighters as if the gym, not the cage, was their main sport. If your athlete gets seriously injured during a conditioning session and you jeopardize his/her career because of it, it means you failed as a trainer. Therefore the selection of exercise and equipment according to athlete’s ability is so important. The gym is not a place to take risks.

Let’s take a sledgehammer as an example. Who remembers David Faulkner from The Ultimate Fighter U.S. versus U.K., when he missed the tire and instead hit the concrete and his leg with a sledgehammer? Does it mean that sledgehammer exercises are bad? Not at all, it just means he shouldn’t have been doing it, as he had no idea how to use the sledgehammer. Sometimes the exercises that look cool are not the best choices. I am not saying they are not effective, but the problem is that if you can develop the same qualities using much safer options, so why not do that? If as a coach you do decide that smashing a tire with a sledgehammer will give your fighter an edge, make sure he/she knows how to use the tools before they attempt to do so. Your job is to make sure the sessions are effective and safe and they contribute to your athlete becoming a better fighter, which brings us to point number 2.

2. Repeated from a great coach, Dan John: Remember that the goal is the goal.

Seems pretty obvious, but how often do you see trainers who have an ambition to make their fighters the best deadlifters, best sprinters, marathon runners, or even Olympic lifters. The goal is the goal. I know only one example where the gym became a sport and that is CrossFit. If you want to be good in the CrossFit Games, CrossFit training is the way to go, but it doesn’t mean it is a good way to train a fighter. Quite the opposite. To give another example, what works for a powerlifter will not necessarily work for a fighter. Work on the programs with the goal in mind, remember to test and assess your athletes. If you find out that poor mobility is what stops your athlete from increasing strength, address the mobility first before putting more weight on the bar.

3. Strength and conditioning should not dominate the fighting practice and technical sessions.

Strength and conditioning sessions are supporting sessions to all other training. If because of your training the athlete is so sore for a couple of days that they have to miss their fighting practice, you did fail as a trainer. It may happen that you want to increase the intensity of your strength and conditioning sessions, but always make sure it does not conflict with the fighting practices.

Also, if it happens that you pushed too hard (which most likely will happen or has already happened to all of us at some point), make a note in the training log and adjust the intensity. The more you know your athlete, the more you can fine-tune the training. This is why I do not believe in six of eight week training camps. To know your athlete well, you need to work with them on a regular basis.

4. Look at the situation and adapt.

The training has been going great and your athlete is responding well to the sessions. All is going according to the plan. Then one day, the day you have planned a heavy session, the fighter comes in completely battered and says he just did a heavy sparring session, as he had to help his friend, who is getting ready for a fight. How many times has a similar scenario happened to you? Would you even consider sticking to your program on such a day? The answer is that you have to adapt. Sometimes the fighters come to you and their bodies are completely broken. Your job is to build them back up, not to exhaust them even more. You still need to remember about your goal, however. So whatever you do on the day has to contribute to the goal itself.

5. Do not use more than two heavy lifts per session.

During my strength training sessions I do not use more than two heavy, multi-joint, compound lifts. Sometimes I use only one. It all depends how much time we have for a session and the athlete’s ability on the day. All other exercises done are supplemental work that complements the training and contributes to the strength development

6. Observe and record your athlete in detail.

Whilst training and assessing I look at the load, technique, the number of repetitions, and the speed at which the weight is moved, which is very important. All of the above are always logged for the future information. For example, let’s say that Richie deadlifts 80% of his 1RM x 5, but the bar moves slowly. He struggles with the last 2 reps but manages to complete them with correct technique. I have made a note in his training log, “1x 5 @ 80% 1RM DL.” A couple of sessions later, he repeats exactly the same drill, but this time the bar moves quickly. He doesn’t struggle and there is no decrease in the speed at which he moves the bar. Does it mean he got stronger? Yes, but if I only make a note “1×5@80% 1RM DL” it doesn’t tell me that there has been an improvement. I must also note the speed of the bar.

7. Do not test often for 1RM.

I don’t test for 1RM more than two times per year, as it is a huge stress for the central nervous system (CNS). Most of the fighters I work with need to cut weight for competitions, so we mostly work within 1-6 reps, 80-95% 1RM range, to target the CNS.

8. Keep it simple.

I like keeping the strength training pretty simple. Exercise selection for strength phase includes deadlift, front and back squat, overhead squat, military (strict) press, bench press, different modification of rows, pull ups (weighted or bodyweight), and various core exercises. The basic principle is to include movements like pull, push, lift, squat, and twist/rotate.

9. Observe and compare your strength standards.

At my gym, CJS Combat, we set standards for our combat athletes to make sure they are well rounded and developed in all areas. Our standards for strength are as follows:

• Deadlift – 2xBW
• Back Squat – 1.75xBW
• Front Squat – 1.5xBW
• Overhead Squat – 5 reps @ 1xBW
• Bench Press -1.5xBW
• Military Press – 0.9xBW
• Pull Up (Weighted) – BW + .5BW

Please note the standards above do not include Olympics lifts and their derivatives, as they are included in our standards specifically for power development.

This is only a short introduction, but it explains the basics upon which we structure our strength sessions. Training is based on science, but it is also an art. In the end there are no right or wrong answers. In the end whatever works is what works, and sometimes it is not what you read in the books.

Watch one of Sabina’s sessions with Richie:

Week 1, Day 1: Strength Phase, Day 1

Warm up with joint mobility

A.
3 Rounds:
Barbell Russian Twist: 20kg BB + 15kg x 10 (L&R counts as 1)

Every round change the level:

• Round 1 – Top of the thigh
• Round 2 – Just below the knee
• Round 3 – Down to the floor

B.
Build up to Front Squat 1RM: 95kg

3 Rounds of 3 reps at 45% 1RM (See notes on time under tension below)
Rest 3 mins between rounds

Looks like: 

• Eccentric: 16sec
• Bottom hold (thighs parallel to the floor): 8sec
• Concentric: 1sec

C.

4 Rounds:
8x Stiff Legged Deadlift (off a box): 30 % 1RM – 50kg
16kg Dumbbell Isometric Ab Work x 8: Sitting on a bench, hook one foot against a bar on the Smith machine, press against the bar with the other foot. Lean back until you feel most tension in your abdominals. Maintaining this position, Richie did 8 dumbbell presses per arm.

D.
Flexibility work

Notes on Time Under Tension (TUT): Time under Tension method is well known as very effective in increasing strength, muscle size, or muscle endurance depending on how you use it. When you look at TUT you look at the total amount of work you place on a muscle and the total time muscles resist weight during each set. For example, you could do 5 chin ups with the tempo of 1 sec up, 2 sec hold at the top position, 3 sec lowering down. The time to perform each rep will be 6 seconds, with a total of 5 reps. Therefore the total TUT for this set is 30 seconds.

The traditional protocol for TUT when looking at improving STRENGTH is:

1-6 reps

TUT: 4-24 sec

Load 50% 1RM +

Seconds per rep:

1 rep: 4 – 20

2 reps: 2-10

3 reps: 2-6

Strength and conditioning coaches have tweaked these values based on their own experience, so you may see different numbers out there depending what literature you read. Here is what I have come up with for Richie.

This is first time I used TUT with Rich and the goal was to improve his Front Squat 1RM and also his chin ups. Chin ups followed the traditional protocol with a small change, so I am not going to elaborate on that. However, with squats, the story was completely different.

The protocol I have followed for squats over 3 weeks time was:

Session 1: 

3 sets of 3 reps @ 45% of 1RM

16/8/1 **

Rest 3 minutes between sets, short rest up to 30 seconds between reps allowed to correct the grip.

Session 2

3 sets of 3 reps @ 47% of 1RM

14/8/1 **

Rest 3 minutes between sets, short rest up to 30 seconds between reps allowed to correct the grip.

Session 3

3 sets of 3 reps @ 50% of 1RM

12/8/1 **

Rest 3 minutes between sets, short rest up to 30 seconds between reps allowed to correct the grip.

** Eccentric (lowering down)/isometric (hold – thighs parallel to the floor)/concentric (stand up)

As you can see, it differs from the traditional programming. I have decreased the load but increased the time and also allowed for a short break between each repetition. Again, the numbers above are based on experience and they may differ for other athletes. I found this range of time, rest and reps very effective when introducing TUT for the first time. I wouldn’t use it more than 2x a year for big exercises like squat and bench press. I haven’t used it for deadlifts and would not recommend doing so, as I personally think it puts too much stress on the back.

Always remember that the form is crucial, so if technique is compromised, decrease the time per rep or load. When you use TUT for the first time, you will be stunned by the results, which leads to the temptation to used it more often. I have tried different scenarios, and the one that has worked best so far was TUT 2 times each year for big lifts. I have not noticed any significant improvement in strength when I increased the frequency of TUT sessions.

Give it a go, play with it, and always remember training = science + art. There are always new ways to explore. I like using TUT with fighters for a couple of more reasons, one of the most important is that using lower load for few reps puts less stress on the joints and you still get the benefits and improvement in strength.

Week 1, Day 2: Strength Phase, Day 2

Warm up with joint mobility etc

A.
2 x Pull Up Ladder 5-1
Tempo:

• Concentric: 1 sec
• Isometric (hold at the top): for 2 sec
• Eccentric (lower down to full extension): 3 sec

B.
Deadlift
Build up to 100 kg then:

• 5 x @ 100kg
• 5 x @ 110kg
• 3 x @ 120kg
• 2 sets of 3 x @ 128kg (80% 1RM)

C.
Assisted Glute Ham Raise: 4 rounds, 6 reps

D.
Leg Raises x 6 per side @16kg

Tempo:

• Concentric (up) 1 sec
• Eccentric (lower down) 3 sec

E.

16kg Dumbbell Isometric Ab Work x 8: Sitting on a bench, hook one foot against a bar on the Smith machine, press against the bar with the other foot. Lean back until you feel most tension in your abdominals. Maintaining this position, Richie did 8 dumbbell presses per arm.

Week 1, Day 3: Strength Phase, Day 3

Today’s session is still a part of the strength cycle, but the load is not sufficient for strength development. For us, strength phase is all about getting the athlete stronger through improvement of various qualities. Today, as it is our third strength and conditioning session this week, we have decreased the intensity and will now focus on improving mobility and structural awareness, which will help you tolerate a heavier load.

Warm up with joint mobility.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of each
Overhead Squat (OHS) @ 30 kg – Focus on technique and alignment
Pull Up
Strict Press @ 30kg – Focus on technique and alignment

Looks like: 10 x OHS, 10 x pull up, 10 x strict press, 9x OHS, 9x pull up, 9 x strict press, down to 1 of each.

Cool down and stretch.

Click on the number below that corresponds to your training week.

Week 2, Day 1: Strength Phase, Day 4

Warm up with joint mobility

A.
3 rounds of 3 reps at 47% 1RM: 45kg (Time under tension as below)

Looks like:

• Eccentric 14sec
• Bottom hold (thighs parallel to the floor) for 8 sec
• Concentric 1 sec

Rest 3 mins between rounds

B.
Build to 1RM strict press – 60kg
4×3 @ 80 % of 1 RM – 48kg

C.
4 Rounds:
6 x (per side) @20kg Dumbbell Isometric Abs Work

D.
Neck conditioning drills

Week 2, Day 2: Strength Phase, Day 5

Warm up

A.
3 Rounds:
Single Legged Deadlift (body weight only ) x 8 per leg
Kettlebell swings @ 16kg x 10
Knee Jump x 5

B.
Build up to heavy Deadlift
2 sets 2 reps @ 120kg
4 sets 3 reps @ 130kg

Rest 2 mins between sets

C.
Pull Up Ladder
3 x 5-1 tempo (1-2-3) Up on 1, hold for 2 sec, eccentric 3 sec.
3 x 1 min Static Hold + body weight and 10kg +
Rest 1 min between

Cool down and flexibility work

Week 2, Day 3: Strength Phase, Day 6

Warm up with joint mobility

A.

Front Squat

3 rounds of 3 reps at 50% 1RM: 47.5 kg (Time under tension as below)
12/8/1

Looks like:

• Eccentric: 12 sec
• Bottom hold (thighs parallel to the floor): 8 sec
• Concentric: 1 sec

B.

Strict press: 4 x5 @ 48 kg (80% 1RM)

C.

Rowing interval

5 x 30sec @ > 135m; 1 min rest

1. 142m @ 32 s/m (strokes per minute rate)
2. 134 @ 32 s/m
3. 134 @ 30 s/m
4. 137 @ 34 s/m
5. 137 @ 34 s/m

Cool down and flexibility work

Click on the number below that corresponds to your training week.

Week 3, Day 1: Strength Phase, Day 7

Warm up with joint mobility, swings, jumps, etc.

A.

Build up to 80 % Front Squat – 76 kg

4 sets of 5 reps @ 76kg

2 mins active rest between sets.

B.

Deadlift: build up to 80% 1RM (130kg)

4 sets of 3 reps @ 130kg

Rest as above.

C.

4 Sets:

Smiths Machine Isometric Abs work 8 x @ 20kg

30 m Farmers Carry @ bodyweight (½ bodyweight per arm): 2x 35kg Dumbbell

Then cool down and flexibility work.

Week 3, Day 2: Strength Phase, Day 8

Warm up with joint mobility.

A.

3 Rounds:

10 x KB swing @ 16 kg

5 x Knee Jump

5 x Squat Jump

(Focus on explosive hip drive)

B.

Barbell Russian Twist – 20kg Barbell x 10 (Left & Right counts as 1)

Every round change the level:

Round 1: Top of the thigh

Round 2: Just below the knee

Round 3: Down to the floor

C.

Front Squat 1 RM test

New PR – 105 kg

Richie’s weight is 73kg at the moment, which makes him nearly reach the Front Squat standard, which is 1.5x Bodyweight. I have not tested deadlifts, as we worked up to 160kg in the past, which means he already is able to lift required weight. I look more at the speed at which he moves the bar when performing the deadlift and I will focus on building him up to be able to complete more repetitions at 80% -90% his 1RM.

D.

Strict Press

Build up to 50 kg (83% 1RM)

4 x 3 reps @ 50 kg

2 mins active rest between sets.

E.

Light Overhead Squats (Structural, working on opening up the chest)

3 x 8 @ 30kg

F.

Box Jumps @ 24” 3 x5 reps (Focus on controlled landing)

G.

Mobility work

NOTES: Today marks the final day of the Strength Phase. We have tested Front Squat 1RM. I have tested Front Squat only because this was the lift that was hard for Rich to improve. It was also the first lift with which we used TUT method. Today Richie got his new personal record – 105 kg (his previous 1RM was 95kg). What was even more important for me, is the fact that he could comfortably squat 95kg for 3 repetitions at a very good speed. The new 1RM was clean with good technique.

Week 3, Day 3: Power Phase, Day 1

Warm up with joint mobility.

A.

3 Rounds:

10 sec work/1 min rest

Warrior star jump (aim for 10 reps)

Round 1 – 8 reps

Round 2 – 8 reps

Round 3 – 9 reps

Rest 2 mins

B.

3 Rounds:

10 sec work/1 min rest

Sprawl (aim for 7+)

Round 1 – 8

Round 2 – 7

Round 3 – 8

C.

Hang clean technique recap; build up to 57.5kg Hang Clean

4×3 reps @ 57.5kg Hang Clean + 5x Tuck Jump

Active Rest: 2 mins in between rounds

D.

4 Rounds of 20 sec work and 10 sec to change the position (4 mins in total):

1 round looks like:

V Sit Up: 20 sec

Gecko: 20 sec (In the plank position bring one knee to your elbow and alternate – aim for 1 rep per second, right knee to right elbow, left knee to left elbow etc)

Cool down and flexibility work

Click on the number below that corresponds to your training week.

Week 4, Day 1: Power Phase, Day 2 (Video Below)

Warm up with joint mobility.

A.

3 Rounds:

10 seconds Warrior Star Jumps (aim for 10)

10 seconds Sprawl (aim for 8 +)

Round 1:

Star Jumps x9

Sprawl x 9

Round 2:

Star Jumps x 9

Sprawl x 7

Round 3:

Star Jumps x 9

Sprawl x 9

Then

3 rounds of

6 x jump over 24″ box

B.

3 Rounds:

6 x Jump Over to Shoot

Round 1 24″ box, round 2 26″ box, round 3 26″ box

C.

Work on Power Clean (PC) and Hang Clean (HC) technique

Then:

3 x PC + 3 x HC @ 52.5 kg

3 x PC + 3 x HC @ 57.5 kg

3 x PC + 3 x HC @ 60 kg

3 x PC + 3 x HC @ 62.5 kg – 80% 1RM for PC (2 rounds)

Rest 2 mins between rounds.

D.

5 rounds of 30 sec work; 1 min work

Deadmill (Run on a treadmill without switching it on)

Cool down and flexibility work.

Week 4, Day 2: Power Phase, Day 3

Warm up with joint mobility.

A.

15 sec, work 50 sec rest (15/50)

3 Rounds:

Ball Slam @ 5kg medicine ball (not bouncy)

Round 1 x 12

Round 2 x 13

Round 3 x 15

Rest 90 secs

B.

3 Rounds of 15/50

Warrior Star Jump (Aim for 15reps)

Round 1 x 14

Round 2 x 15

Round 3 x 14

Rest as above

C.

3 Rounds of 15/50

Sprawl (Aim for 11+)

Round 1 x 10

Round 2 x 12

Round 3 x 13

Rest as above

D.

3 Rounds of 6 reps:

Ball Chest Pass (w/5kg medicine ball) to Sprawl: Focus on speed

Rest 90 sec between rounds

E.

Build up to 62.5kg Power Clean and

5 x 3 reps @ 62.5kg (80% 1RM)

Rest 2 mins between rounds

F.

Split jerk technique recap

4 x 3 reps @ 42.5 kg – focus on speed.

Cool down and flexibility work

Week 4, Day 3: Power Phase, Day 4

Note: Richie was pretty tired after hard sparing session a day before. He said his legs felt heavy, so the session focuses mostly on pushing . 

Warm up with joint mobility

A.

4 Rounds:

Push Ups x 6 (+ 10kg disc on Richie’s back): Controlled down, fast up ( hands remain on the floor)

Clapping Push Up x 6: Explode as high as possible each time

Rest 2 mins between rounds

B.

Build up to 80% 1RM Jerk and @ 62.5kg

4 Rounds:

Jerk x 3

Medicine Ball Slam x 6 (6 kg med ball)

Medicine Ball Chest Pass x 6 – focus on speed

Rest 2mins, 30 sec between rounds or longer if the form and/or speed is compromised.

C.

3 rounds of 8 reps (controlled)

Inverted Row (Parallel to the floor, chest has to touch the bar)

D.

3 Rounds of Cable Column Wood Chop

8 x each side @ 41kg (90lbs)

E.

3 x 100m row @ 20 sec or below pace

Rest 1 min in between

1. 20.03 sec @ 38 s/m
2. 20.04 sec @ 38 s/m
3. 20.01 sec @ 36 s/m

Cool down and flexibility work

The post How to Train Strength and Conditioning for MMA appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Being vegan in the strength world has always been one of Mike’s unique qualities. Many people say it can’t be done or that being vegan or vegetarian inhibits performance, but Mike feels otherwise. He thinks being vegan has actually aided his success in the fitness industry:

That was something I actually came into the fitness industry with, and that was a unique selling point for me. You didn’t really see too many people who were strong and were doing a vegetarian diet, and then later for me a vegan diet. So that was one more mystique around me. People were saying, “Wow, this guy’s strong, look what he can do, and he doesn’t even eat meat!” People often ask me, “Do you think that works against you because people take you less seriously?” But actually I think it works in my favor, regardless of what people think of a vegetarian diet, because if they like it, then it works in my favor, and if they don’t like it, then it still works in my favor because they think, “Wow, if he can get that strong on that diet, imagine what I can do with this system,” while eating meat or paleo or whatever you do. So it works in my favor either way.

For Mike the main problem with nutrition isn’t which eating plan people are choosing, but whether or not they are examining their food sources. Mike encourages people to educate themselves – for their own health, and for the health of the planet – because ultimately Mike doesn’t think most people are even asking the right questions:

I think one of the biggest issues we have right now in the U.S., and of course something that no politician ever talks about, is the degrading food supply. We actually have a crisis of genetically modified foods that are proliferating and taking over the food supply, and then most of the meat people eat comes from factory farms. These are places where the animals are eating the genetically modified crops, so you’re getting it there, too. I think we’re going to see our country continue to get unhealthier because our food supply is so poor. It’s one of those things that people don’t want to talk about. We don’t have a population that’s asking the right questions, such as “What are we going to do about the food supply,” because it’s not even an issue to the average person. They’re not thinking about that.

The kinds of questions people do tend to ask are about performance and how nutrition can help their performance. Mike learned the hard way, though, that even with excellent nutrition the stresses of life and training can take an incredible toll on the body:

I went through a serious adrenal burnout back in 2003 where I nearly died from a case of pneumonia. It made me realize that just because you’re training hard and you think you have diet dialed in, that doesn’t mean you’re necessarily happy. What happened was I had too much personal life stress, too much financial stress, and then I was trying to stay on top of that by working out really hard at the same time and taking stimulants and all that. So I just crashed really hard.

That’s what got me to learn about hormone optimization, because I wanted to rebuild myself better that I ever had been before, and also learn how to balance my own energy so I don’t burn out like that again. Then as I started talking about it to friends, people were extremely interested in it. Now if I go to a friend’s party where there aren’t a lot of fitness people, and I talk about kettlebell training, nobody cares. You don’t get a lot of people saying, “Really, what’s that? A workout system? I want to learn about that!” But when we’re talking about hormone optimization and how, if you have zero sex drive and you’re holding a lot of stomach fat, and you feel like crap and have no energy, if you start getting into all these symptoms, all of a sudden you draw a huge crowd because most people feel that way. It made me realize that the average person out there feels terrible, but they think it’s normal to feel that way.

What is hormone optimization? It still starts with the basics of good food and proper exercise, but then it builds up to another level many people might not realize they have control over. Explained Mike:

You do the things that we all know to do, such as clean up your diet, get rid of the processed junk and focus on good, clean, organic food. Then you get into physical training to reduce your body fat. And then you have to look at things that are a little harder to change, such as, what kind of career are you doing? If you’re miserable in your career, it has really negative effects on your hormonal system, because the message you’re sending yourself is that your life is boring and unfulfilling. You’re not going to have a thriving hormonal environment when that’s the case. But the flip side is also true. When you start doing what you want to do, and you surround yourself with really good people that make you a better person, that has a very powerful effect on your hormonal system.

I don’t really want to be a life coach either; I don’t want to fall into that domain. I don’t want to try to tell people how to live their life. I plant that seed of “Look, if you’re miserable in your personal life or professional life, then everything else is only going to help so much. But let’s not worry about that right now. Let’s get you healthy, let’s get you strong, let’s get you physical, because when you feel empowered physically, and you feel good from the food you’re eating, and you’re sleeping well at night – which is critical for hormones as well, you don’t have anxiety now – you’re naturally going to have much more energy to take charge of other areas in your life, without someone telling you that you should or shouldn’t. It happens to all of us who really get into physical training and feel energetic and empowered. Now you start thinking, okay, I don’t want to be someone who just works out a couple times a week and feels good and has a job I hate. I want to be someone who is fulfilled across the board.

In pursuit of his own fulfillment and helping others find theirs, Mike has created a nutrition supplement wing to his business. While good eating and exercise are the foundation for hormone optimization, due to the declining qualities of foods, sometimes a little boost is needed. Explained Mike:

I designed a topical magnesium MSM zinc product this year that’s doing really well. I have an herbal-based testosterone booster that will be out probably before the end of the year; it’s something I’ve been working on for awhile. These are things that don’t take the place of any of the things I just mentioned [nutrition and exercise], but help add extra fire to that, to make sure that people achieve their goals, and enjoy their workouts, and get more benefit from what they’re doing.

Ultimately Mike does believe that in each of us is a happiness waiting to emerge, if we treat our bodies properly, if we ask ourselves the right question. His slogan, “Live Life Aggressively,” isn’t about being angry or only about strength training. It’s about seizing the life and opportunities in front of you, which requires exploration of what’s inside you. Said Mike:

It’s about taking charge of your life on multiple fronts. What you learn from physical training, whether it’s kettlebells training or any discipline, using that and taking it and applying it to other aspects of your life, whether it’s personal life, your community, your professional life, etc. I think that’s really the most important thing I can get out there, is to encourage people to have that inner self dialogue, where they actually think about their life instead of just distracting themselves and get them thinking, “Hey, is this the life I want live, and if it isn’t what can I do about it,” instead of, “Yeah, well I’m miserable, but everyone I know is miserable too, so let’s all be miserable together.”

To learn more about how Mike discovered kettlebells:

Featured Coach: Mike Mahler, Part 1 – An Endless Experiment

Click here to get started on your four weeks of free workouts from Mike Mahler.

Photos courtesy of Jess McDougall.

The post Featured Coach: Mike Mahler, Part 2 – Live Life Aggressively appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In an attempt to understand the concepts of MovNat, people first learning about it often ask how it differs from parkour. Ironically, Erwan Le Corre and the founder of parkour, David Belle, grew up just a few miles apart in France. Their physical and ideological lives took very different paths, however. Erwan created what he believes to be an entire system with MovNat. In parkour he sees only one element in the bigger picture of human movement. Said Erwan of parkour:

I think parkour is awesome and there are some amazing athletes there, as well as a fantastic community. There is a common origin and some overlap between parkour and MovNat, but what I’m trying to do is to restore in modern time a sound, complete physical education system that would be based on overall practical performance. Unlike parkour, if you have a practical performance mentality as in MovNat, you can’t just focus on jumping skills and some other moves, mostly done in urban environments. You also need to address manipulative skills, such as lifting, carrying, throwing, catching. These don’t exist in parkour. Swimming skills – don’t exist in parkour. Combative skills – don’t exist in parkour. Those skills and many techniques are completely left behind. Not a critique, but a simple observation. It makes it a rather specialized discipline, broader than most, but still emphasizing specific and limited movement skills.

Using a historical metaphor it’s kind of like parkour is the karate of modern martial arts and MovNat is the old samurai way, the entire martial system. MovNat is more complete, and it’s also more systematized in the sense that there is a lot of work on the pedagogy, the teaching and coaching system. What we’re trying to do is make it possible that people can learn techniques the same wayusing a similar methodology everywhere, and last but not least that they are also training the full scope of human movement skills.

Erwan sees this system he is creating as being useful worldwide. A student of human movement history, he would like to see a return to the physical education systems of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, where practical movement was taught in the schools. “It started with the vision that one day we would see people of all ages exercising this way, solo or together, on the beach, in parks, in homes, in the backyard, at home, and even in some gyms adapted for it,” shared Erwan.

To Erwan, MovNat is an easy option for people to undertake because it is based on natural movement. It feels good to both our bodies and our brains. It is something our we were built to and desire to do, unlike most modern fitness methodologies. Erwan explained:

Something unique to MovNat as a philosophy and a practice is that it’s really based on natural movement. Nothing beats nature. Nature is something that is familiar to your body. If I tell you, “Today you’re going to have to do bicep curls or workout on an elliptical,” you’re going to be like, “Oh my goodness. That’s a chore. You want to punish me for being fat, or lazy, or too skinny? You want to make me do this and suffer.” It’s a chore. Some people – most people – approach the idea of fitness and exercise in this biased way. I have to do it because I’m a bad boy or a bad girl. I didn’t do my fitness or whatever. People are desperate. I’m not criticizing anyone; it’s just an observation.

This desperation, according to Erwan, is incited by a fitness industry based on the wrong principles.

The commercial fitness industry, what we see on TV and in magazines, has most people believing that being in shape is about looking fit and not being fit. It’s about discipline and pushing yourself hard so you can burn calories for a weight loss kind of thing, mostly for cosmetic, superficial results. It is mechanistic and reductionist. It is such a radical impoverishment of our true potential.

I’m sorry, but it’s absurd. What is the way a wild tiger, eagle, or horse stay fit? Do they go to a gym, isolating muscles and doing cardio on a treadmill? I know it makes people laugh because it is laughable. I have a question: why would it be any different in us? What they do is they practice a full range of their own species-specific movement. The horse will run and jump. The tiger will also walk and crawl, balance, climb, jump. The eagle will fly. That’s all because of evolution, or creation if that is your personal belief. In any case, the reason those animals are the way they are and move the way they do is that it’s just their nature. They don’t come up with super complicated, sophisticated drills presented in fitness experiments. It’s something completely basic, yet powerfully effective and real.

Our modern lifestyles have made this basic approach to fitness challenging, though. People have lost flexibility in their bodies, mind, and schedules. Movements that once were “natural” have become unfamiliar. According to Erwan:

Because it’s natural, people think, “Oh if it’s natural I don’t have to learn it.” But the way you jump can be effective but not efficient. The way we jump is loud, stiff, heavy, a heavy landing. People need to learn to move humanly again, with grace and power and agility, the same way a tiger has learned through instinct to become this amazing, powerful tiger. The thing is, we have become zoo humans, so it’s not so easy for us modern people anymore. You can’t just say, “Okay, I’m going to throw you in the jungle,” and I’ll have an amazing athlete after a few days. It doesn’t happen that way.

To give people access to relearning natural movement, Erwan created MovNat workshops. He is also busy certifying coaches in the system so they can teach people in more geographically diverse areas. Currently there are over three hundred certified MovNat trainers. For the future, Erwan has a book and DVD planned, as well as an online learning portal with videos and lectures.

These channels for learning are important for the success of both MovNat and its students. More than anything else, Erwan believes in technique and efficiency as the path to effective movement:

There is a great emphasis in our program on proper technique, because to us, physical competence is not just conditioning, and it’s not just movement skills either. It’s the combination of movement skills and conditioning. In most of the fitness industry, there is a heavy emphasis on general conditioning and not as much on skills, if at all. Skills are left to specialized sports training. The way we approach physical competence in MovNat is that we don’t dissociate conditioning from skills, or expect the former to produce the later. We’re going to accomplish it through the mindful, progressively challenging practice of movement skills. It is our observation that the most applicable conditioning will be developed in the process of skill practice, while conversely movement skills are rarely the by-product of general physical preparedness programs only.

Once people have an understanding of the basic methodology behind MovNat, the second confusion that can come to mind is that it must be done outdoors. This is not the case, according to Erwan:

A lot of the type of physical actions you would do in nature, you can reproduce indoors. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’m not saying you have be in nature whenever you train. However, I advocate moving naturally when you train, even when you’re not in nature, because if you’re a zoo human and we put you in the woods, it doesn’t mean you’re going to behave like a hunter-gatherer. If you take a Chihuahua out of his apartment and plunk them in the woods, it’s not going to become a wolf. Now if you were a wolf and put them in an apartment, you can’t expect them to behave like a Chihuahua. So what’s your inner nature? What mindset drives your behavior? Are you a Chihuahua or a wolf? It doesn’t matter where you will find yourself. What matters is how you will behave and perform where you are. What’s your nature, and what do you expect for yourself? What you do is an expression of who you are. Moving naturally is not like something you have to do, like I have to exercise. Moving naturally is an expression of who you are as a human being.

This expression of your being through movement speaks for the underlying, yet bigger theme in MovNat. This is the theme of personal expression – of freedom – both mentally and physically. For Erwan more and better movement relates directly to more possibilities in life.

You want to know that you possess physical competence for yourself, but also others. You’re strong, and potentially strong and helpful to your community. That is walking through life with an enormous self-confidence. With self-confidence and even self-esteem. You know what you’re made of. You know what you’re capable of. You also know where your limitations are, unless you are unrealistic about them. In any case, you know you could help in a pinch, not just in thoughts, but in physical deeds.

As you get more advanced you can climb more, jump more, lift more, and do all these things. So it’s not only an idea of freedom, it’s an experience of freedom. It’s an experience of freedom through movement. Because think about it: movement is the first experience of freedom. If you cannot move anymore – and especially if you can’t move well because you neglected your body for years and years, never moved, never ate right, and let your body become degraded – you’ve lost a big chunk of your freedom. You may have freedom to think, freedom to vote, freedom to travel, freedom to buy stuff, but you don’t have freedom to move any more.

Walking from a chair to another chair, a couch to the bed, that’s not really what I’m talking about. It goes beyond that. When you hear freedom of movement, it’s a metaphor used for other things in life. I have the freedom to do this and to do that, but it’s not just a freedom to move the way you want. I like to tell people when they practice MovNat, they’re not just exercising the body and they’re not only exercising the mind, but their whole being. You have to be mindful of the way you move, because movement has to adapt to the environment. What I like to say, and it is more philosophical but very true in my views at least, is you are exercising your freedom.

You can’t ask for freedom, you need to take it, to nurture it within yourself and cultivate it both physically and mentally. Nobody can do that for you. You see, it goes way beyond the size of your biceps and how much you can bench press. We are meant to shine, to soar and elevate ourselves. Of course it takes some commitment and hard work. MovNat is like a toolbox, you learn how to use the tools in the box and build yourself, recreate yourself according to our common, ancient biological design. In the end, what matters is an improved experience of yourself, a liberation and empowerment. Because if you can’t empower yourself, who will?

Click here to get started on your four weeks of free MovNat workouts. To learn more about the philosophy behind these workouts, read Erwan’s article, An Explanation of MovNat.

To learn more about the origin of MovNat, read part one of our interview:

Featured Coach: Erwan Le Corre, Part 1 – The Roots of MovNat

The post Featured Coach: Erwan Le Corre, Part 2 – Freedom of Movement and Mind appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Benefits of MovNat:

• Improved mobility.
• Improved stability.
• Improved movement skills.
• Improved balance.
• Improved focus.
• Improved applicability of the strength you already possess.
• Improved physical competence for practical performance.
• At the end of the day, that makes a whole lot improved you.

MovNat is a school of physical competence for practical performance. To us, physical competence is for the real world and involves the symbiotic development of movement skills and physical conditioning both. If we were to use a metaphor, making the body stronger is like getting stronger hardware – but the movement skills are the software essential to be able to use the hardware. You can’t make one work without the other.

Let’s take an example from a classic strength and conditioning standpoint. A pull-up is an upper body strength conditioning drill. To us, from the perspective of MovNat, it is primarily a component of a particular climbing action. While being able to perform several pull-ups in a row is certainly an essential aspect of overall fitness criteria, it doesn’t necessarily automatically make you a great climber. To be good at climbing, it will require from you both the climbing skills and the specific conditioning necessary to perform every particular climbing technique effectively.

That specific conditioning, how do you acquire it? Through isolation drills that don’t even resemble climbing patterns, or mostly through the practice of those varied movement patterns, or through conditioning drills that closely resemble the type of movement and effort you will need perform? That’s right. Conditioning is specific to the type of physical action you need to perform. If you were to apply this reasoning to every real world physical action you’d like to be able to perform effectively and efficiently, i.e. with physical competence, general conditioning might not suffice if skill practice is missing.

This simple observation explains the MovNat approach to strength and conditioning. Indeed, we make sure to primarily condition through the practice of movement skills in a progressively challenging manner. Rarely do we dissociate the two, except if we need a particular emphasis for a specific outcome.

What are the practical applications of training heavy lifts? Probably the ability to carry heavy stuff, right? It implies that to be adept at manipulating, i.e. moving external objects through space, you are very likely to need to be adept at locomotive skills as well, and actually in the first place. If I was to put it bluntly, before you can move “heavy shit,” you must be able to move the “heavy shit” that you are. No offense, I guess you got my point.

We all have to move our whole body mass everyday throughout our entire lives, correct? It means that locomotive skills precede manipulative ones, and if you want to excel at manipulating – heavy – loads, including carrying them through complex environments, you will need to make sure you can perform unloaded movement patterns with sufficient ease and control. Yes, the ability to move your own body well comes first, always. In a nutshell, moving and manipulating loads is a skill that requires not only strength, but also and primarily a functional body that is mobile, supple, and flexible. Unless you want to put the cart before the horse, but does that take you far?

Maybe the most frequent issue “strength seekers” are dealing with is an all-around lack of mobility. Those limitations not only easily reduce your ability to put your strength to use for practical performance, but also can cause a series of related injuries. I know, “mobility drills” can be easily disregarded and then discarded because they often sound or look boring, as if they were optional. The point is, they’re not.

So here’s the deal: the drills I present in this 4-week plan are not mobility drills. They are actually natural, useful, adaptive movements that happen to improve mobility when you practice them frequently. Conversely, you happen to lose mobility when you stop practicing them because of the comfort of modern life or the specificity of your fitness regimen has rendered them accessory – or so it seems. Got the point? Such movements are not optional; they are a biological duty for your body to remain fully functional. So please, give those natural movements a chance. What looks like “mobility drills” at first will soon evolve towards natural, practical, and adaptive movements that will challenge your strength in unexpected ways. And you might catch yourself enjoying them! Or maybe even finally acknowledging their value and importance.

If this makes sense to you, then this 4-week MovNat training plan is for you! And if it doesn’t, then please, give it a shot still.

Maybe you will find new challenges and reap new benefits in the process. Do you possess physical competence for the real world? Can you put your muscles and strength to real use? Try this plan and you will find out.

By Erwan Le Corre
Founder of MovNat and Master Instructor

Click here to get started on your four weeks of free MovNat workouts.

To learn more about Erwan, read our feature interview:

Featured Coach: Erwan Le Corre, Part 1 – The Roots of MovNat

Featured Coach: Erwan Le Corre, Part 2 – Freedom of Movement and Mind

The post An Explanation of MovNat from Erwan Le Corre appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

To learn more about Kevin, read our feature interview:

Featured Coach: Kevin Kearns, Part 1 – Blowing Up With the UFC

Featured Coach: Kevin Kearns, Part 2 – Everybody Has a Good Fight

Workout 10: “Suspension Superman”

Suspension training is on the scene full force in the fitness world. Chuck Liddell even used it for MMA conditioning on the first season of the TV show The Ultimate Fighter.

Since the days of circus acrobats this type of training has been around and people have become really fit with it. Basically, you suspend yourself with some form of cables or other strap device. Thus, you are using a certain amount of your bodyweight in a free-flowing, suspended environment. In the almost any position this is killer on your core, not to mention some other muscles you didn’t know you had.

As with any new piece of equipment innovative ways to approach this training evolve. The product we have been using at my gym with our fighters is the PurMotion AirFit. Here are some of our favorite exercises:

1. Inverted sit up

This one is real cranker on your gut. Put your arms in the AirFit in a plank position, then roll your upper body towards your knees.

Volume: 3 sets of 20 will having you say hello to your core.

Pro tip: Make sure your feet don’t slide on the surface.

2. Ground and pound

This is the closest motion I have found to not actually pounding someone. Put your arms in the AirFit up to your forearm. Then in an alternating motion begin striking the ground lightly.

Volume: 1 minute on this one for 3 sets will make you realize what a burn feels like in your shoulders.

Pro tip: Take care not to over-rotate your arms.

3. The grind

…is what I call this one, because it grinds your grip! Grasp the fabric in your hands. Lean back to a 45-degree angle or greater, then slowly pull from one side to the other. This is a real fryer on your grip and your BJJ buddies won’t like you for it.

Volume: 20 reps 3 sets is enough on this one.

Pro tip: Dig your heels into the floor on this one.

4. Push up

This looks easy, but it is not that simple. Since you have the pulley there is a lot more core involved .

Volume: 3 sets 20 reps

5. One-legged squats

If you ever wanted to be able to perform a one-legged squats well this is your chance. Simply back up until your arms are extended and then raise one leg and squat down.

Volume: 20 reps and 3 sets

The post Strength & Conditioning – Kevin Kearns, Workout 10: Suspension Superman appeared first on Breaking Muscle.