Picking The Best Bang For Your Buck Exercises

Sometimes I guess I take for granted what I know about training and assume people that do train with weights (I don't know much about jogging since I think it sucks) should know more. After all, this is the information age. That's probably a big part of the problem though. To much garbage information out there.

When it comes to weight training, you need to pick the right exercises that are going to give you the biggest return on your investment. It really doesn't matter much if your goals are to build muscle, gain strength, or lose body fat. Take the right tool out of the tool box that will do the best job.

It drives me crazy when I see someone paying a personal trainer and the trainer has them sitting on machines attempting to isolate muscles with pathetic poundage due to poor leverage.

If you want results, and you want them fast, you need to utilize the big, compound exercises that require lots of muscles to perform the exercise.

For example:

Squats over leg extensions

Dips over tricep kickbacks

Barbell curls over concentration curls

Barbell or Dumbbell Bench Press over flyes

I could go on forever.

One thing that makes it easy is think of the amount of weight you can lift in each exercise. Most of the time, the amount of weight you can lift will be greater with the better lift.

Nobody should be married to the gym and if you're spending more than an hour there you're either socializing or need a little help with your training.

Like I mentioned in some older posts, training longer than one hour becomes counter-productive from a hormonal stand point. Cortisol, one of your body's stress hormones is SO elevated and your androgens have already declined to the point of no return.

Get in, hit it hard, and get out and start the recovery process... eating clean food with high nutritional value and get plenty of rest.

Now all we need to discuss is loading parameters. How many sets, reps, and rest to take.

I cover that in the next post.

Stay Focused,

Chris Grayson

http://www.fastresultsfitness.com

Structural Balance: How To Stay Aligned To Avoid Injury And Ugliness

One of the most important facets of program design is keeping your body balanced. Doing so will help prevent injuries, aid in your continuous improvement towards progress in the weight room, and keep you from having horrible posture, and therefore, an ugly, unbalanced body.

One of the simplest ways to go about doing this is to pair up your exercises with ones that are the exact opposite of other ones.

For example. If you're doing a flat barbell bench press, pair that up with a seated row.

You can take it one step further by using the same hand position as you used with the bench press. In this case, that would be a pronated grip. So the palms of your hands would be facing the floor.

Now, to make it easy, we'll use the same repetition range and number of sets as you did with the bench press.

So, if you do four sets of the barbell bench press with 6 to 8 reps, you would match that up on the seated pronated-grip row exactly the same. Four sets of 6 to 8 reps.

I'm keeping this very basic to make it as simple as possible.

If you did a pull up for 5 sets of 4 to 6 reps, you could match this up with the standing overhead barbell press for 5 sets of 4 to 6 reps.

If you did a standing barbell curl for 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps, you could match this up with lying dumbbell tricep extensions for 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps.

Are you starting to see the pattern here?

Most people I see at a regular gym (I say regular because it doesn't happen at my facility since I'm training or at least over looking the training here) or people that ask me questions about training, don't do this. These people typically do one exercise at a time, sit or stand there in between their sets doing nothing, and sometimes don't even bother thinking about the opposite motion or the opposite action of the particular joint/joints being used.

Here's another explain to illustrate what I mean:

• Flat Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets of 10 reps
  
• Rest: usually long enough to have a conversation with someone at their gym or stare for awhile at the other people training. Their rest is never timed, and therefore never measured.
  
• Another set of the flat barbell bench press.
  
• Repeat.
  

After the three sets they have planned, they usually move onto another chest exercise because that's what the body building magazine or one of their buddies told them to do.

Soon they start having the posture of a eighty year old woman with osteoporosis accompanied with shoulder pain whenever they bench press.

Why?

Because of poor structural balance between pushing and pulling muscles and the joints involved.

That's the quick and easy readers digest version.

Keep striving for improvement,

Chris Grayson

Overcoming Your Fear Or At Least Failing Forward

Nothing will always come easy to you. But just because of this, don't be afraid to fail. Just like anything else, the simple act of doing IT, even if you flat out suck at IT, will make you better at IT. 

It doesn't really matter what IT is.

John C. Maxwell, an amazing author and life coach, refers to this as failing forward.

This Video motivates the hell out of me and shows that even the best in the world have to fail forward.

What separates them from the rest of us is that they aren't afraid of the forward.

Are You Short On Time: Full Body Workouts Is Your Warranty

Don't let the title of this post deceive you. If you have all the time in the world to train, full body workouts might still be the best way for you to train.

One big mistake I see people making when it comes to working out, is splitting up their body parts and training like your typical body builder does. What works for a genetic lottery ticket winner on steroids won't work for the regular guy, with a real job, and who's not a walking pharmaceutical billboard.

When I first started training with weights, I also made this mistake. This was back when I was 13 years old. Long before the internet. The only resources I had then were, unfortunately, body building magazines.

Although they did motivate me to train my ass off (I wanted to be a mass monster back then), I made modest gains at best. I can recall being at the gym for over three hours doing every exercise I imaginable for one or two muscle groups. A workout back then looked something like this:

Leg Day:
4 sets of Squats
4 sets of Hack Squats
4 sets of Leg Presses
4 sets of Leg Extensions
4 sets of Lying Leg Curls
4 sets of Calves

This was performed after training shoulders the exact same way.

I could write a small book on why this is ridiculous but I'll save you the time by giving you just two reasons.

Cortisol and Recovery.

Training any longer than an hour is a waste of your time from a hormonal perspective. Cortisol, a stress hormone, gets elevated as you train (exercise is stress). So you want your workouts to be brief and intense. Get in and get out and start the recovery process.

Training the way I did in the above example, would take to long to recover, thus keeping you from making big gains. You'd be forced to rest those muscles to long, so they would start to atrophy or shrink. One step forward, one step backward = getting nowhere.

Full body workouts lasting no longer than an hour will keep the volume down, allowing you to recover faster so you can train again. Even though you're probably doing a lot less volume than you're used to; don't worry. By the end of the week the volume will be about the same.

Since we learn better by application, let me give you an example.

You train your legs every monday and you do 12 total sets for them.

You switch to full body workouts and pick one exercise for legs that gives you the biggest bang for your buck, and do four sets. You do this on monday, wednesday, and friday.

By the end of the week, you performed 12 total sets for legs. The same as doing all 12 sets in one day.

The difference is you don't destroy your legs from doing all the sets on just one day, they recover easily, allowing you to train them more often. They get bigger and stronger because of the law of repeated efforts. Just like learning a foreign language would require more exposure, so will getting bigger and stronger.

Here's the workout I did yesterday with my good friend Ben.

A1: Back Squats: 4 sets of 6 reps with a two-second pause in the bottom position (disadvantageous position)
A2: Dips: 4 sets of 6 reps with a three second eccentric
A3: Neutral Grip Pull-Ups: 4 sets of 6 reps with a 25 lb. weight vest on.

B: Prowler Push; Low End: 3 sets of 20 yards.

So the A's were performed in a circuit fashion, hence the numbers after the A. We rested the amount of time it took for each of us to do each set, which was roughly 30 seconds.



This took probably 40 minutes tops.

Stick To The Basics

“Creativity is over-rated. Most business success comes from doing boring, diligent work. From developing a system that produces consistent results and sticking to it.”

Ray Croc - Founder of McDonalds

Perhaps you’re wondering what this has to do with exercise, working out, training, or whatever it is that you call it. If you do it for a living like I do, it means everything.

I train a lot of athletes, especially young ones. Ranging anywhere from 10 years old all the up to the professional level. I often have parents say to me something like this, “We’ll have little Johnny try it out and see if he likes it.” I then explain to them that little Johnny might not like it…BUT DO YOU WANT HIM TO BECOME FASTER, STRONGER, AND BIGGER FOR HIS SPORT? That is the question they should be asking, not if he’ll like it.

I’m not in the entertainment business. If I was here for that I’d put on a clown suit and run around squirting water out of a flower on you or your kids. Maybe even kick you in the balls with an over-sized clown shoe (hey, I’d find it funny). I’m here to produce results in the fastest, yet safest way possible. I do this by picking the correct loading parameters, exercises, rest intervals, and frequency and it more often than not, involves your basic, complex exercises. These almost always produce the most bang for your buck. I say always because there’s always exceptions.

The majority of people I see training in gyms or talk to about training, confuse trendy with cutting edge. Perhaps they’re more entertained and have more fun balancing on a bosu ball or doing a bunch of unstable exercises thinking that it’s more “functional”. If you are just trying to have fun and this floats your boat, I ain’t mad at ya. But if you actually want results from your training, you’re wasting your time.

Here’s a few quick tips on how to design an effective results-based workout.

1. If you’re exercising with weights 3 times a week or less, do full body workouts.

2. Balance your body by training both sides of your joints.

3. Pick the exercises that are going to give you the biggest ROI (Return On Investment)

4. Choose the right loading parameters based off your goals.

5. Pick the correct rest intervals based off your goals.

6. Measure your workouts effectiveness by writing down what you do (keep a training log).

7. Make sure your workouts are progressive.

8. Stay laser focused on your goals.

One of my clients, and close friend, got caught up in training with all the fancy equipment at his gym. He started training with me and all I did was return him to the basics. The exercises that produce results. Here's what he had to say:

Before training with Chris:

250 lb bench press
305 lb dead lift
6 body weight pull-ups
305 lb squat
18% body fat

After training with Chris for four months:

285 lb bench press
425 lb dead lift
8 pull-ups with body weight plus 30 lbs hanging from me
360 lb squat
12% body fat

Enough said!”

Ryan Serge - Film Productions Assistant Manager


In the next post, I’ll go into detail on all 8 tips.

In the meantime, stay focused

Chris Grayson

Killer At Large

Protect yourself now before the killer gets you or a loved one.

THE REDNECK COMPLEX

For everybody that's ever asked me what the best exercise is to drop body fat, here it is. I must warn you however... it's costly.

Are you ready.... wait for it....

THE REDNECK COMPLEX



As you can see, it requires an over weight bulldog, and a two door garage.

You might want to read this twice. I said bulldog, not pitbull. if you use a pitbull, you're training a different energy system, unless you have some Xanex.

Interesting Study and Supplement Scamming Companies

Here's an interesting new study with surprising results in relation to how much protein produces an increase in muscle protein synthesis after lifting weights.

Eight men averaging 21 years old trained one leg with leg extensions and leg presses at two separate workouts. After the first workout they received one of two drinks that contained the same number of calories. The first drink contained 10 grams of whey protein and 21 grams of fructose, a sugar that doesn't elicit an immediate insulin release. The second drink consisted of fructose and maltodextrin, a simple carbohydrate that does spike insulin. The workouts were separated by two weeks to determine the effects of each of the drinks in isolation. Measurements of muscle protein synthesis revealed that the whey and fructose combo led to a twofold increase in muscle protein synthesis after exercise.

Tang, J.E., et al. (2007). Minimal whey protein with carbohydrate stimulates muscle protein synthesis following resistance exercise in trained young men. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 32:1132-1138

What's interesting about the study was that only 10 grams of protein was used for both drinks. That's about what you'd get from one egg. This would be considered a ridiculously low amount of protein to elicit an anabolic response. I also find it odd that a simple sugar such as fructose would produce more protein absorption than maltodextrin since it doesn't spike insulin.

Although studies don't always mean much to me for several reasons I won't go into, I do believe based off of research, personal experience, and yes, studies, that you don't need as much protein as the supplement companies would have you believe.

At our facility we use a product called Whey Cool. It's produced with minimal heat so that the protein isn't denatured, which allows the good enzymes that are immune-enhancing like lactofferin and immunoglobulins to remain intact. Because of this you don't need a ton of protein due to the fact that you'll absorb what you're taking. It's also void of any artificial sweeteners that are neuro-toxic such as aspartame and sucralose. It might not sound sexy but it works better than any of the bodybuilding brands out there that have no integrity and don't seem to know much about good nutrition. Unfortunately, you do have to be a health practitioner to get it.

The majority of the bodybuilding supplement companies market to the high school kid that is naive enough to believe that the guy on the bottle that is juiced to the gills on pharmaceuticals got that way because he drinks the protein shake he's on. Or better yet, this one's my favorite, the guys in the ads for these products wearing lab coats holding up beakers and claiming they just discovered some secret way to cryogenically freeze certain molecules thus making them more anabolic and swearing that it's the biggest muscle building breakthrough ever. Yeah...you said that last month when you were selling liquid piss from a frozen neanderthal that scientists discovered in the Himalayas.

Don't believe everything you read and know that most things that are heavily marketed don't work.

An Anabolic Primer

A few weeks ago my good friend Jeremy called me as I was walking into the Apple store for an appointment with one of their computer geeks (I love those guys). He was going on and on about how sick he was. He asked me if I was sick because apparently, everyone out in the Detroit area is. I responded with my usual comment, "Jeremy, I never get sick." The very next day I was sick as hell. That was roughly two weeks ago. I haven't been able to train and was starting to feel like a skinny fat man. I was finally able to get back at it today.

I needed to get a mind blowing pump in order to feel like a man again so I decided to do a hypertrophy workout or an anabolic primer if you will. Here's what I did:

A1: Donkey Calf Raise: 3 sets of 8-10 Rest:0
A2: Standing Calf Raise: 3 sets of 12-15 Rest:0
A3: Body Weight Calf Raise: 3 sets of 30 Rest:90 Secs (These are performed with a quick bounce and as fast as possible)
B: Clean Grip Dead Lifts: 3 sets of 10 Rest:120 Secs
C1: Flat Dbell Presses, Neutral Grip: 3 sets of 8 Rest:90 Secs
C2: Supinated Pulldowns: 3 sets of 8 Rest:90 Secs
D1: Low Pulley Fat Bar Reverse Curls: 3 sets of 6 Rest:90 Secs
D2: Lying Dbell Tricep Extensions: 3 sets of 8 Rest:90 Secs

I planned on starting with dead lifts, but both power racks were being used by guys doing barbell curls (typical for a commercial gym). So I had to do something, so figured I'd knock out some quick calf work. After all, summer is hopefully coming and you gotta have jacked calves if you're gonna wear shorts.

I finally feel alive again. Tomorrow I'll probably go back to splitting up lower and upper body workouts. I'll start with legs and do a moderate volume workout.

I'll keep you posted,

Chris Grayson

Show Me The Passion And Education And I'll Show You The Money

Q: I'm a personal trainer out in Arizona. I've been training people for 5 years and I'm starting to get really bored training average people and I'm considering advancing my knowledge so I can train athletes. I talked to another trainer who mentioned you and your blog/website because you are doing what I would like to do. My question is, there's several athletic facilities out where I live and many of them advocate completely different training philosophy's. Is there a way to know which one would be the best? I want to learn as much as I can and as fast as humanly possible.

A: I feel your pain. I had the same problem about four years ago. But there shouldn't be anything to consider. If you're bored and you want to train athletes then do it. Don't stand in your own way. Here's some things you must know.

First and foremost, to be great in this industry you must continue to learn, so reading a lot is paramount. This should be common sense, but to my surprise, most trainers I've come in contact with in my area don't do much of this. This tells me they don't have much passion for this industry and in my opinion, need to get out. Next, find a mentor. If you find out down the road that they aren't that knowledgeable, find another one. So if you take this job and find out it sucks, leave it. That should pretty much be a no brainer.

Another must on education is attending seminars. Last year at this time I lived in Chicago. I was an independent contractor at a gym in the downtown area. Perform Better had a 3 day seminar from Friday thru Sunday. I knew several trainers in the Chicago area and I saw none of them there. I asked a few of them why they didn't go and they told me they hadn't even heard of it. My jaw hit the floor. How in the hell could you not know one of the biggest personal training organizations in the United States.

This tax year I handed my account receipts totaling just over $25,000 on books, cd's, dvd's, and seminars. Over a third of my income. This year I'm opening my first private sports performance facility with my business partner and it's because I'm great at my job. Why? Because of passion, which equals education, which equals knowledge, which equals money. I'd like to state though that I don't do it for the money. I do it because I love it which makes the money come. If you're in it just to make money and not because you love it, you won't excel at it. Don't put the cart in front of the horse.

Here's a few things I would make sure of before hiring on to this performance facility you're looking into:

1. A structural balance assessment: If there not doing this then I'd question there education and therefore their passion. There's a lot of info out there on assessment or screening tests.
2. Collecting Data: Workouts must be progressive. Without this, the body has no reason to change since there's no adaptation required. Loading parameters must be written down and tracked to know when there no longer working. This is evident by math. If you're not getting stronger, you need to change your workout.
3. Soft tissue work and dynamic mobility drills: Bottom line, if there's any problems with fascial tissue and length tension relationships in muscles, the body won't function properly. Again, there's lots of info out there on this topic so there should be no excuses. Yet I still see people doing static stretches before lifting weights.
4. Energy System Development: Picking the right energy systems that are appropriate for the sport. For example, having a high school football player doing aerobic based training is wrong regardless of his position and you should be shot.

To Eat Carbs Or Not To Eat Carbs, That Is The Question

Q: I wanted to know your opinion on daily carb intake. I've been reading these books (Protein Power, Dr. Eades) and they seem to be very negative on any insulin in the system. I'm wondering what you think is the role of carbs especially for someone weight training.

A: We at GTS do Biosignature readings with a 10 site skin fold reading. Biosignature readings are the best non invasive way of finding out what's going on hormonally in the body.

The subscapularis and the suprailliac identify how carb tolerant you are. The subscap is a marker for genetic carb tolerance and cardiovascular disease (CVD). If you're not carb tolerant and yet there's a lot in your diet, your liver will increase triglycerides and thus increase your chances of CVD. The suprailliac is a environmental marker for carb tolerance. So even if your subscap reading is low (telling us you're carb tolerant), we still monitor your suprailliac to make sure you're not eating more carbs than you can metabolize.

Even if you're carb tolerant, we advocate carbs with a high phytonutrient (PN) value. So pop tarts and rice cakes are out. Some of my favorites are sweet potatoes, yams, quinoa, couscous, and brown rice. If you're carb tolerant, you should eat carbs at every meal or you won't achieve your leanest potential. If you're not, we typically only recommend them post workout and occasionally your last meal of the night to raise gaba and serotonin, which will help you relax and, therefore, improve your sleep quality. Keep in mind, how lean you are in the two mentioned sites would determine if and how much carbs you get. If an athlete's body fat is above 10mm, we have them consume glutamine and glycine with their post workout shake instead of carbs. This will replenish glycogen without spiking insulin. We only have athlete's spike insulin postworkout, and only if insulin is their friend. If your body fat is over 10%, insulin is not your friend.

A Return To My Roots

I, along with my close friend, colleague, and business partner Ben, have been anxiously anticipating our sports performance center to open so we can train athletes and ourselves with the best tools and techniques that we know.

We're currently training at a Powerhouse Gym in Canton, Michigan. Since we've been extremely busy with our new business escapades, we've decided to incorporate some great old school body building workouts into the mix:
1. To put on some much needed muscle mass since we've lacked consistency and
2. Because of boredom of having to train in a commercial gym.

We trained shoulders and arms last night and both got a sick pump from this workout. If your workouts haven't been anything but great, give this a try. I guarantee a mind blowing pump or else your testosterone levels are in the toilet.

A1. Seated DBell Press, Neutral Grip: 3 sets of 6-8 reps Tempo: 4010 Rest: 0
A2. DBell Side Laterals: 3 sets of 8-10 reps Tempo: 3010 Rest: 0
A3. Cable Rope Upright Rows: 3 sets of 10-12 reps Tempo: 2010 Rest: 2 Minutes

B1. Close Grip Supinated Chins (hands 4-6 inches apart): 3 sets of 4-6 reps Tempo: 4011 Rest: 0
B2. Standing Barbell Curls: 3 sets of 6-8 reps Tempo: 3010 Rest: 0
B3. Incline DBell Curls (60-70 degrees): 3 sets of 8-10 reps Tempo: 2010 Rest: 2 Minutes

C1. Dips: 3 sets of 4-6 reps Tempo: 4010 Rest: 0
C2. Close Grip Bench Press (hands 10-12 inches apart): 3 sets of 6-8 reps Tempo: 3010 Rest: 0
C3. Seated EZ Bar French Press: 3 sets of 8-10 reps Tempo: 2010 Rest: 2 Minutes

If you decide to give this a try, let me know how it went. And if your testosterone is as low as a pre pubescent girl scout, I can help.

What I've Been Up To

For those of you who might find my blog interesting I apologize for the long delay in posting.

I've moved back to the suburbs of Detroit from Chicago to open up a performance center with my business partner and close friend Ben Knapp. We finally got our lease signed two weeks ago after haggling over the terms with the landlord. Now we're waiting on the permits so our architect can build the bathrooms.

The facility is 4300 sq. feet out of a possible 6900. Hopefully we'll get clients quickly so we can take the whole 6900. I won't bore you with all the details but I am excited that we'll have 1800 sq. feet of astroturf.

I'll be very busy working on the campaign and logistical issues for awhile so I don't know how much writing I'll be doing on training. I will keep posting on the progress of my facility though, and once it's open I'll have a lot more to talk about as far as training goes (videos will be coming). Here's some pics of the facility so far. I'll add more so you can see it transform.

Clarity Is Power

If you haven’t seen results in your training since Bill Clinton was in office here’s some pearls of wisdom for you.

Use your subconscious mind

It’s said that Thomas Edison used to lock himself in a quiet room, give commands to his subconscious mind, and, as he described it, “sit for ideas.”


Have a plan

Obviously nothing new, but I’m amazed at how very few people do this. Next time you’re working out just look around at the personal trainers in your gym. Most have no planned workout or write anything down on their clients training; they just free style with each one, often taking them through the exact same workout as their previous client. I can’t figure out why these people think they need a trainer.

Define your purpose

The programming tool for unleashing the full powers of your subconscious mind is definition of purpose. The clearer your picture of what you want, the more activity you inspire inside your subconscious system. There are three main ways to put this to work, and they all involve writing.

1.Continually develop your goals in writing. If you are not making the progress you’d like to make, it is probably because your goals are unrealistic or not clearly defined. Saying, “ I want to get stronger, put on some muscle, and get my body fat down to six percent is not a clearly defined goal. Saying, “ I want to increase my deadlift by 25 pounds, gain 5 pounds of muscle, and drop my body fat from twelve percent to six percent within two months is clearly defined.

2. Write out your plan on how you’re going to achieve your goals. A written, detailed plan should combine goal setting, action planning, and problem solving. This makes your ideas believable.

3.Create and use daily checklists. You would never want to jump out of an airplane before reviewing a step-by-step process on how to put on and use your parachute. Make your training and the use of your limited time as equally important.

Every single workout on every client should be wrote down with some form of progression planned out. We collect data on EVERYTHING that is done in our facility. Without doing this you’re violating arguably the most important rule in training, progressive overload. Remember this: what gets measured gets improved.

These three action steps have great practical value, but they also serve to communicate to your subconscious mind, in an organized manner, the seriousness of your objectives. There is power in continually sharpening the definition of your goals on paper. Clarity is power.

The Right "Cardio" for MMA and Grapplers

I’ve had countless MMA fighters and jiu jitsu competitors ask me about cardio to improve their conditioning. After some detective work on my part to see what they mean when they say “cardio” and what they’re currently doing, I almost always come up with steady state cardio (oxidative system or aerobic training) being explained. Most people, including athletes, don’t understand that cardio and aerobics are not interchangeable terms. Aerobics is cardio but cardio doesn’t have to be aerobic. So telling me you do cardio doesn’t tell me much. Cardio is just a medical term used to reference the heart. Unless you’re dead, your heart is always working. So according to the medical definition, walking to your local grocery store or a full out sprint for 100 yards is cardio, but the later is much harder.

There are five different types of energy systems and all of them are cardio but only two are aerobic. Training an athlete as opposed to training your average Joe or Jane that just want to be lean and healthy is a lot more complex. Understand this: Fitness and sports science are two different things. With sports, you have to know what to train that will benefit the sport, as opposed to aiming for overall fitness goals. The majority of people that exercise think they know what they’re doing but the reality is, they have no clue.

While every activity in which we participate requires the cardiovascular system, the article at hand will focus on the predominant energy systems involved in training to become an endurance machine.


The 5 Energy Pathways

0 sec 12 sec 90 sec 15 min 60 min
ATP (6-10, depending how fit)
ATP-CP (after 12 sec, some glycogen)
ATP-CP & Glycogen (12 sec – 2min)
Aerobic & Glycogen (12-20 min)
Aerobic Oxidative (20+; explains 2nd wind after 20 min)


Depending on how long the duration of activity and how intense that activity is performed dictates what energy system you are training. The first three energy systems are important for MMA fighters because of the different strength qualities needed and the time limit involved in a fight. Aerobic training is a waste of time. There is nothing in MMA (or any grappling sport for that matter) that is done aerobically – it is done at high intensity, explosively, and at full speed – predominantly without oxygen.

I’m only going to talk about the anaerobic lactic system because that’s arguably the most important and the hardest system to train correctly. When I’m asked the cardio conditioning question, this is the energy system they’re asking for improvements in without knowing it (improving this energy system will have a ceiling effect on the aerobic system). One thing not mentioned the above graph are the two components within each system, power and capacity. I didn’t include these because I’m not trying to write a book or attempting to confuse you, but to shed some light on the complexity of training the energy systems.


ANAEROBIC LACTIC SYSTEM

The reason why this system can be the hardest to train is because of the waste by-products it produces and because it meets the point where anaerobic training ends and aerobic work begins, which is where an MMA fighter has to be conditioned at if the fight goes deep into the rounds. Because of this, the workouts aren’t fun. I’ve had many athletes throw up while training this system. Usually this only happens upon starting this program because you don’t know how well the athlete can remove the waste by-products yet. The good news is that once you know where they fall on the conditioning continuum if you will, you can start progressively making the workouts harder forcing the athlete to adapt by increasing their ability to remove and/or tolerate the waste by-products. Maybe that didn’t sound like good news, but come fight time; the athlete will not gas out. You MUST train harder than you are going to compete, otherwise the training will not transfer. This is why aerobics suck for the MMA fighter or a grappling athlete.


One of my favourite ways to improve this system is with death circuits. These are circuits where you take compound lifts that recruit a lot of muscle and therefore, give you the most return on your investment.

DEATH CIRCUIT SAMPLES:

Back Squat x 12RM, TEMPO 30X0, 60s rest
Supinated Chins x 12, TEMPO 30X0, 60s rest
Bent-Knee Deads x 12, TEMPO 2010, 60s rest
Dips x 12, TEMPO 30X0, 3- minute rest

Bulgarian Split Squat, 12RM, TEMPO 2010, 60s rest
One Arm DB Row, 12RM, TEMPO 2010, 60s rest
Trap Bar Deadlifts, 12RM, TEMPO 2010, 60s rest
Incline DB Press, 12RM, TEMPO 30X0, 3-minute rest
• Repeat 2-4 circuits
• You will most likely have to reduce your weight on each set.
• 10 is the lowest reps you could do with Death Circuits, but 12 is best
• If you can’t do 12 chins/pull-ups, do pull downs

THE TRAINING BENEFITS:
1. Makes possible a higher volume of work at a higher VO2 max (you can work harder)
2. The rest is used to rebuild the energy substrates and to restore oxygen in the muscle
3. Permits a greater specificity of training
4. Simulates the pace of competition with incomplete rest/recovery
5. Improves aerobic capabilities of the fast twitch fibres (which is important for MMA athletes because of the explosive nature needed for long durations of time).
6. Because it leans people out, you could also use it to move a fighter down in his weight class

BASIC RULES TO FOLLOW FOR BEST RESULTS:

• Maximum 12 weeks to train this system because most of the gains happen and you can’t drive quality up with a longer time. If you have more time than this, work on a different energy system/strength quality or whatever else the fighter needs (I haven’t found any that couldn’t use more max strength or that didn’t need any structural work).
• Train two to three times a week max so adequate recovery can take place.
• With the anaerobic lactic system, a 20 % drop off is allowed in performance from the beginning set; while only a 7% drop off for ATP/CP. After this critical drop off point, cease performance (you can’t beat a dead horse).

• To progress energy system training, increase effort and/or reduce rest by 15 seconds every other workout.
• After warming up, spend no longer than an hour on training, as we’re interested in quality of work with athletes. After an hour you’re so low on fuel (glycogen, glucose) and stress hormones are so high that it’s counter productive to continue.
• If the fighter is not showing improvements in their ability to recover between sets/rounds, check the metabolic pathways involved and see if there’s something lacking in their diet.


If you only have a short time (example: 6 weeks) before a fight, you won’t have time to mess around with different work to rest ratios to determine the athlete’s level of conditioning. This could take to long and jeopardize your training and timing to peak before the fight. In this case, to determine their level of conditioning, I recommend using a heart rate monitor and seeing how long it takes for their heart rate to return to a specific percentage based off their max heart rate (can’t tell the percentages and give away my secrets). This is, in my opinion, is the best energy system/conditioning test you can use for fighters. And without performing tests or knowing how to interpret the data collected from the tests, you’re programming blind. If the athlete just needs to lose body fat to increase performance, the tests aren’t necessary.


Hopefully this has explained to you why saying “cardio” means pretty much nothing and that designing energy system programs for athletes requires extensive knowledge and attention to detail. Just jumping on a treadmill, running around the city, or training in your sport like a wild animal isn't going to cut it. The training must be progressive and therefore, must be measured.

Chris Grayson
graysontrainingsystems.com

Body Building Workout Program for an MMA Fighter?

Question:

I'm an aspiring MMA fighter. I currently train jiu-jitsu and kickboxing for a total of three to four times a week. My question is in regards to weight lifting/cardio. I want to make sure my training is appropriate for my goals. Here's a break down of what I'm currently doing. Does this look good?

Day 1:
1 hour of cardio before I train
Chest and triceps:

Flat bench dumbbell press 3 x 14-20
Incline dumbbell press 3 x 14-20
Decline press 3 x 14-20
Cable fly 3 x 14-20
Dips 3 x 14-20
Cable pushdown 3 x 14-20
One arm pronated pushdown 3 x 14-20

Day 2:
1 hr of cardio 2 hours before I train
Shoulders and abdominals

Smith Military Press 4/5 x 10-12
Lateral raise 4/5 x 10-12
Front raise 4/5 x 10-12
Shrug 4/5 x 10-12
Abs

Day 3:
Same cardio as day 1
Back and biceps

Lat Pull down 4/5 8-12
Seated Row 4 x 8-12
Cable row upper 4 x 8-12
Back Extension 4 x 12-20
Preacher curl 4 x 6-10
Dumbbell curl 4 x 4-8
Seated curl 4 x 8-10
Cable curl 4 x 8-12

Day 4:
1 hr cardio

Day 5:
Same Chest routine as Monday

Day 6:
Legs

45-degree leg press 4 x 8-12
Leg extension 4 x 8-12
Leg curl 4 x 8-12
Calf raises 4 x 8-15

Answer:

This is a typical body building style program and it's not of much use for an aspiring MMA fighter, any grappling sport, or any other sport for that matter. Here are some problems with your current program:

1) You're training too often. You don't get stronger while lifting weights but rather from the recovery process that should take place. Based on your program, you only rest one day and for all I know you're still doing jiu-jitsu or kickboxing on that day since you didn't specify what days you do those on.

2) You're doing too many sets per muscle group. On day 1 alone there's 12 sets just for chest. This is way too much. You should focus on the minimum amount required to elicit the desired training adaptation. Any more than that and you're just cutting into your energy reserves that could be used for recovery.

3) Several of the exercises chosen are poor choices (leg extension, smith machine press, front raise, cable flyes, etc.) or redundant. For instance, all your elbow flexor exercises (bicep exercises) are with a supinated grip and again, you don't need 16 sets to get the job done.

4) The strength qualities needed for MMA or any grappling sport are: Relative strength, explosive strength, and strength endurance. (Functional hypertrophy could also be included unless your body fat is very low and you're already within your weight class.) The majority of your repetition ranges are for strength/endurance. There's no work done for the other two strength qualities.

5) You're performing straight sets when you should be super setting antagonistic muscle groups. This will allow you to get more work done in a shorter given unit of time and will assure that your body is balanced on both sides of joints so you're structurally sound.

An example of straight sets is doing a set of a barbell bench press, resting, and then doing another set of barbell bench presses. An example of super setting antagonistic muscle groups would be doing a set of the barbell bench press, resting the desired amount of time based on your goals, and then doing a set of seated cable rows.

6) The cardio workouts you're doing are way too long and close to your weight training workouts. Stop doing cardio before lifting weights and don't do any steady state, traditional aerobic based cardio. You should be getting plenty of effective conditioning while training in your sport. If you're not, you should time your rest intervals between rounds and make sure that they're progressive. If you can't do this, have your coach do it for you.

Since there's no off season for your sport and you're training in it three to four times a week, you need to be concerned with time so you don’t over train, therefore, you should select exercises that give you the most return on your investment. I would also only weight train two to three times a week. I can't promise that you still can't over train since I don't have enough information form you (namely diet) but there's certainly less of a chance than what you're currently doing.
Here are some better exercise choices. Select only one exercise from each group:

Pressing Exercises:

Incline dumbbell press, palms facing each other
Parallel-bar dips
Close grip barbell bench press, shoulder width grip
Barbell or dumbbell floor press
Standing barbell press

Upper-Body Pulling Exercises:

Parallel grip chin-ups
Supinated shoulder-width chin-ups
Wide grip pronated grip chin-ups
Incline dumbbell rows
One-arm dumbbell row
Rope face pulls
Parallel grip seated rows

Leg Exercises, Hip and Knee Dominant:

Back squats
Front squats
Dead lifts, clean-grip, sumo, or snatch-grip
Romanian dead lifts
Power cleans
Split squats
Lunges, decelerative or accelerative

Assistance/Remedial Exercises:

Elbow flexor family (bicep)

Elbow extension family (tricep)

External rotator family

Calves family

Abdominal family

So here's a three-day sample routine that shouldn't take more than an hour. (Listed are exercise, sets x reps, tempo, and rest interval):

Day 1

A. Power Cleans: 4 x 3-5 x 11X0 x 240 second rest
B1. Standing barbell press: 4 x 3-5 x 20X0 x 120 second rest
B2. Parallel grip chin-up: 4 x 3-5 x 3010 x 120 second rest
C1. Lying decline dumbbell tricep extension: 3 x 6-8 x 3010 x 90 second rest
C2. Seated zottman curls: 3 x 6-8 x 3010 x 90 second rest

Day 2

A. Clean-grip dead lift: 3 x 6-8 x 2110 x 180 second rest
B1. Dumbbell floor press: 3 x 6-8 x 31X0 x 90 second rest
B2. One-arm dumbbell row: 3x 6-8 x 3110 x 90 second rest
C1. Incline bench powell raise: 3 x 10-12 x 60 second rest
C2. Incline garhammer raise: 3 x 10-12 x 3020 x 60 second rest

Day 3

A. Telemark squat: 3 x 12-15 x 2010 x 75 second rest
B1. Parallel dip: 3 x AMRAP (as many reps as possible) w/body weight x 2010 x 60 second rest
B2. Pronated grip seated cable rows: 3 x 12-15 x 2011 x 60 second rest
C1. Seated dumbbell external rotation, arm on knee: 3 x 10-12 x 3010 x 60 second rest
C2. Seated calf raise: 3 x 15-20 x 2210 x 60 second rest

Take one day off between workouts. Once every four to six workouts you should change all loading parameters: sets, reps, tempo, rest interval, and exercise selection. Keep in mind that this is only a sample program and there are many other great exercises you could do that will help you, also, in order for a weight lifting program to be more specific for you, I would have to do a structural balance assessment on you and get more detailed information.

Chris Grayson
Graysontrainingsystems.com

Cutting Edge Training or Entertainment Training

Just the other day I was training one of my jiu-jitsu guys and we saw a trainer having his client stand on a bosu ball while performing a dumbbell lateral raise with one hand and an over head dumbbell press with the other hand. This is ridiculous. The first problem is your forced to stand bow legged. This puts a lot of stress on the ligaments of the knee and ankle. If you stand on one foot this wouldn’t happen but you still have the second problem, reducing the load because you’re unstable, therefore recruiting fewer motor units and not properly loading the prime movers of the lift. If you did the same exercise on the ground you would recruit more motor units and thus get stronger because you don’t have to perform this balancing act. But even if you’re on the ground still don’t do the exercise mentioned above, it still sucks. Hopefully you already know that.

As far as training the abdominals or “the core”, which I’m so tired of hearing it called.There are a some good exercises that you can do but recent research has shown that direct “core” training only works for about six weeks anyways. You’ll actually build stronger and better abs from squatting and dead lifting over any direct abdominal exercise because you have to stabilize the spine through abdominal bracing.

Some people think you will develop better coordination and reaction time..... Wrong. You will get better at the specific lift, however, it won't transfer into better coordination in other places. The fact is coordination is 90% established by the age of 12.

I believe most trainers have poor resources for information. They find these so-called expert trainers doing all these unstable exercises on these devices, call it "functional training", and claim it to be cutting edge. The one’s making these outrageous claims simply do not know how to get someone strong. What’s trendy often gets confused for cutting edge and that’s hardly ever the case.

Chris Grayson
graysontrainingsystems.com

Circus Training for Ass Clowns

This is a bad idea regardless of why you train but I'll stick to the fighting sports (mma, jiu jitsu, wrestling, judo, etc.) since that's what this blog is for.

First of all you should be training with free weights and not machines. Machines will have little to no carry over to your sport. Movements should always conform to your body and not your body conforming to movements that are in fixed positions.

There is chaos in fighting sports. You never know where your opponent and therefore you are going to be from second to second. You constantly have to make subtle to major adjustments. This is the same way that you need to train. How you train will determine how you'll perform. 



Also, the man in the video is forced to go into spinal flexion, which puts a lot of compression on the spine. Going into flexion with a lot of weight on your back is a recipe for injury. If this guy continues to perform these circus training exercises he'll probably find himself in a chiropractor's office or even worse, under a surgeon's scalpel. 



Stick to the basics. Don't try to think out of the box until you're a black belt, so to speak, in biomechanics, physiology, and kinesiology.

Chris Grayson

graysontrainingsystems.com

"Nothing Happens Untill Something Moves"

"Nothing happens till something moves"
Albert Einstein

When Einstein spoke these words it was said that he had a twinkle in his eye. He wasn't just talking about physics but about life in general.

I've pondered this idea often lately and I can't think of anything currently going on in my life where it doesn't apply. If you think about it in regards to the fighting sports it really makes sense. If you're stalling or waiting for your opponent to act, most likely you'll be defending more than attacking. Like the saying goes, "the best defense is a good offense". I've noticed from my own experience that as long as I'm moving I'm better off than just sitting there. Perhaps this is common sense to most people and I'll admit, it's certainly not rocket science. But I'm often surprised how people can know something but still seem powerless to change what they know.

Last week during a jiu jitsu class I got choked out from a guy I can usually beat. He used my own gi. I got pissed off and complained about how much I hate the gi. I was tired and instead of moving and making my opponent play defense, I let him control the match and cried about it like a little bitch after getting my ass kicked. My point, if not obvious is, own up and control the situation you're in. Don't let you circumstances control you. Whenever I feel tired and don't want to go the extra mile I think about the people out there creating the life they want through hard work and persistence. These are the people I admire and want to emulate. We are our own worst enemies and are usually the one's standing in our way own way.

Get out of your way.

Chris Grayson
graysontrainingsystems.com

Predictor Lifts For Grappling Sports

For every sport there are certain key lifts that once performed by the athlete will tell you how well they will do in the sport. Once a predictor lift is improved it will correlate with an improvement in performance. Different sports have different predictor lifts. So a soccer player and a swimmer should not be tested the same. These lifts will tell you the optimal strength for the sport in relation to percentages of body weight. For grappling sports like jiu-jitsu, greco roman wrestling, and judo, here are the best predictor lifts to test:

Close Grip Incline Bench Press with fat bar: Grip should be about 12 inches from thumb to thumb.

Medium Parallel Grip Chin-Up with thick handles.

Back Squat: The more you can back squat the easier it is to throw someone.

Grip Strength with various grip tests: The relationship between grip strength and performance in judo and wrestling is as high as 96%. The hands are the first thing that connects you to your opponent. The guys with the best grip had the best performance.

You do not necessarily have to do the predictor lifts to improve them. You can train accessory exercises that target the muscles that are used in the key lifts. I've found the best results if you change the accessory lifts every 2-4 weeks or once your weights aren't going up by at least 2% or reps by 1 every workout. If you're not training the predictor lifts directly, make sure you're testing them every so often. I usually test my athletes every 4-6 weeks.

Chris Grayson
graysontrainingsystems.com