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The Floor Press

by William Wayland ~ posted April 23rd, 2013

 

Thick Grips and Dumbells make for great floor press variations

The Floor Press A Love Letter…

One of my favourite accessory movements for grappling is the heavy floor press. In BJJ S&C articles the Deadlift and Grip work seem to rule the day. Seeing as you are going to need to go from A2 to A3 pants, rather than looking like some sort of grappling T-Rex you may as well get some upper body work in and get that A3 Jacket to match.

The mainstay of powerlifters for years now, take one look at the position and you quickly see why this movement is a powerful addition to your BJJ program. The floor press was the original means by which old school lifters got the bar into position for a chest press back in the days before anyone thought to attach uprights to a bench. Before I talk about applicability, I talk about actually doing the movement.

Now you maybe thinking the floor press is pretty straight forwards, but there are some technical nuances you need to consider first.

Setting up

The press requires a stable tight starting posistion with a tight grip, lats activiated and shoulder blades should be pulled down and back. Once in position the bar should be pulled out of the rack. A huge mistake many make is pressing the bar of the j-hooks, this often kills all the tension you just tried building.

The decent

Once the bar is off the hooks, do not relax! Two cue I really like are “Tuck the Elbows” and “Pull the bar”. Tucking the elbow is crucial

 The Press

Depending on our focus I like the athlete to really squeeze and hold at the bottom or explode up when the triceps make contact with the floor

Below is a video detailing all this and more!

Floor presses really allow you overload the triceps without place undue stress on the elbows or shoulder. This is a common complaint among heavy pressers and it makes sense that floor pressing can give your shoulders a well deserved rest with shorter ROM. This shortened row means that stress across the anterior shoulder is kept to a minimum, which why I’ll use it out for athletes with shoulder issues

Applicability to Grappling

As I mentioned before anyone with a grappling back ground can see why it makes sense.  A pressing position off the back that requires powerful chest and tricep recruitment often from a dead start his applicability for making a frame when in the bottom position, sweeping and so on. With the addition of rotational floor pressing we can try make the movement more specific.

It teaches tightness and tension on the floor, the lack of leg drive and lack of any real arch mean that movement cannot be assisted, its just you your triceps, your chest and your shoulders. By varying your grip you can further increase tricep recruitment by bring your grip closer.

I usually use it as an accessory exercise for the bench press or sometimes cycle it in to a program as the main pressing movement, often with grapplers peaking them with reverse band floor presses done explosively, give it a try, experiment with it!.

In the video below you can see me doing floor press as part of French contrast complex.

This is an ongoing series of articles from guest blogger and Strength & Conditioning coach William Wayland of Powering Through, who offers online training planning for tournament peaking for MMA, Nogi and BJJ. Thanks to Brad Wendes of http://www.bradwendes.com/ for filming

[VIDEO] One FC Lightweight Championship: Kotetsu Boku vs. Shinya Aoki

by Matt - Scramble ~ posted April 7th, 2013

Not sure if you know this or not but… Boku vs. Aoki from the recent ONE FC is online! Watch now:

 

[VIDEO] Masakazu Imanari (Leg Lock Master) Music Video

by Matt - Scramble ~ posted April 2nd, 2013

It’s just so Zen.

Imanari’s creative spirit, the same spirit that embodies itself when he destroys people’s limbs in the ring, has found a new outlet – shouty thrash metal. (Sorry if I incorrectly described this kind of music, I have no idea what it is.)

He’s no Genki Sudo, but I think he could take Genki Sudo in a fight anyway.

Enjoy!

 

Press Release: AMERICA, F*CK YEAH! US Store is now LIVE

by Matt - Scramble ~ posted March 14th, 2013

Attention US Scramble fans!

You can now shop for Scramble goods in your very own USA-based Scramble Store.

Benefits include:

Prices in USD!

Shipping from within the USA!

Free SCRAMBLE USA sticker with EVERY purchase!

and MORE! (actually not more.)

The store will gradually stock most of our range and there will be one or two special items coming soon.

 

[VIDEO] The Grappling Dummy: Masakazu Imanari

by Matt - Scramble ~ posted March 1st, 2013

Check out this blast from the past, our video interview with the enigmatic Imanari!

 

[VIDEO] Happy Birthday to You, from Scramble

by Matt - Scramble ~ posted February 15th, 2013

A friend made this for us, and we can’t stop watching it.

Check it out!

 

The Raspberry Ape tests out the Scramble Grip Trainers!

by Matt - Scramble ~ posted February 11th, 2013

We stumbled across this amazing blog post from the Artist Formely Known as Scrambler Dan Strauss.

Some choice highlights in his review of the Scramble Grip Trainer:

Looks

Who gives a shit how they look?

 

and

 

As you can see when looped through correctly they were shockingly strong (the hard you pull the stronger they get).

 

There’s also a hilarious video. Dan loves to break stuff, that’s for damn sure, but he has some real trouble getting the grip trainers to split.

 

Buy them here! Scramble Grip Trainers

 

So you want to go up a weight class

by William Wayland ~ posted February 4th, 2013

We are going to need more meat

Size matters in contact sports, generally the bigger you are the better you take a hit and dish them out. In BJJ no one likes being on the bottom vs someone who is much heavier. Most of the time fighters and grapplers want to know how to cut as much weight as possible, to put the size advantage in their favour. But what about the undersized grappler who wants go up a weight category? Sports nutritionists often make their subject seem like the most complicated and fought over one in all of the realm of fitness and health, with so many methods it can a real mine field, paleo this, Intermittent fasting that, carb back loading etc. Often time I’ve found athletes just need to eat MORE! but go about doing this in a methodical fashion.

When gaining weight it is important to gain as much lean muscle as possible in the places where it is needed. A lot of folks use this as licence to eat whatever the heck they want, this will usually come back to haunt them is they struggle to shift the unnecessary fat they may have gained. Ideally you would be looking to gain 250g-500g a week depending on your frame, stage of development, genetics and a number of other factors.

The other key factor is you need to eat more a lot more, more protein, more carbs and more fats how much more generally we will try to establish a rough calorific maintenance and aim to be 300-500kcals over that. In terms of calorie sources, I really like the ratio of 40-30-30 carbs, protein, fat for athletes trying to add size.

Often serious trainees undereat! Busy schedules mean opportunities to eat real food are out the window and a dependency on sports supplements can arise. Some days consuming fewer than 1500 calories a day. The average adult needs 2000 calories a day, now consider the dedicated trainee who does 5-8 hours a week on top, pro’s will do 10-15 hours if not more. Often we’ll start small even if its just adding a protein shake to breakfast or committing to breakfast in the first place. A good rule of thumb for total calories is BW x 40 so for a 75kg fighter would be 3000kcals or in lbs roughly 20 x BW.

Protein

A big debate in the fitness and strength training world is “how much protein should I consume post training?” We have swung from “make sure you get at least 2g/lbs of protein” to the conservative “more than 20g of whey are a waste of money” put forwards by dieticians today (lest your kidneys explode). On top of this is the how much protein should I eat a day question, which I am asked semi regularly. To state the science here is a summation of what we know according to evidence at the moment.

Current evidence suggests http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2012-091100 , Phillips 2004

We need intakes higher than the RDA, to be precise, 1.2-1.6g/kg body weight a day

An emphasis on leucine rich protein sources (Leucine sources)

An additional protein shake immediately after your workout

Multiple servings of 20-25g of protein spread equally across the day

Training Approach

If you are already squatting and deadlift keeping doing that, i’ve found the key to gaining size is modifying your accessory work. High rep squats, Bulgarian split squats, bench and overhead pressing and upper back work. Specific exercises I really like are snatch grip deadlift, thick grip curl variations, higher rep front squats and dips for building mass. The aim is to stimulate functional hypertrophy, in areas that effectively armour the body, I find athletes who do a lot of hypertrophy work for their backs and hamstrings are generally less injured than those who do not. The key is not getting bogged down in isolation exercises, which works well for bodybuilders but not for time poor MMA fighters and grapplers.  Ideally you should be lifting 65-75% or two thirds of your maximum lift for 6 to 12 repetitions.

Obviously weigh yourself regularly, to ensure you are not gaining too much weight to rapidly (fat gain). Once your reach your desired weight you will probably have to increase your previous maintenance calories. It is easier however to maintain weight’ than it is to lose or gain it. The body’s homoeostatic tendencies are very good at maintaining the status quo. So while everyone else is scrambling (see what I did there) to lose weight some of your might be actually looking to pack on size, stick to the above guidelines and you should do well, just remember it’s a slow burn. So don’t send me angry emails if Krispy Kreme offers you a sponsorship deal. If supplementation is a consideration scramble offer a range of Q5 supplements right here.

Not a license to dine out on sundae’s everyday!

This is an ongoing series of articles from guest blogger and Strength & Conditioning coach William Wayland of Powering Through.

Squat and Carry

by William Wayland ~ posted January 23rd, 2013

I often get approached by time poor grapplers asking the best me what they should do in the gym, given what I posted about earlier this month its easy to be side tracked by the buffet of fitness options available, especially when magazines and websites layout protocals that honestly are mean’t for high level grapplers. Its not hard really to think of my next port of call which is to suggest this twice a week http://www.scramblestuff.com/bondarchuk-complex/. But some stamp their feet and demand something quicker or simpler. We can make the most of simple pairings, be it a simple push/pull, deadlift/press or in this instance the Squat and Carry.

A recent variation I really like has been the combination of Front Squat and chest height or overhead loaded carries. With a few clients who happen to be time poor, this combination has worked wonders in terms of productivity, I see clients both get stronger and lose excess fat using this protocol a few times a week. I have been programming like this. If you are sadist this can be used as a workout finisher.

Squat and Carry

Warm-up

Correctives (upper back work for  posture etc)

A1)5-8 reps Front Squat with 40-60% of 1RM. No rest
A2)30 secs of carry variation or for distance that takes about 20-30 secs  No rest (should be able to complete it without dropping the weight)

Repeat 4 times

Rest however long (between 1-2 minutes usually), do it another 2-3 times

Go home and cry

The Squat

Everyone loves a good squat there is a reason it appears in most the best training programs, it builds strength, packs and muscle and if programmed right can burn fat too. In this instance we will have to put back squatting to one side, I found that racking and unracking the back squat slows the pace of transition between exercises of the squat and carry.

The front squat is the end level boss of low body movements; I really prefer this variation to others for this exercise combo. The front squat requires flexibility and will helped groove a deep squatting pattern. The front squat is hard movement to cheat on, where as the back squat turns into an abomination rapidly when tired. And if heaven forbid things do really wrong ditching the bar is simple. Take your time on the squats as its the portion of workout where you dictate pace we are not against the clock here, obviously do not take 10 seconds between reps but don’t rush reps either, just full depth front squats with a fast movement out of the bottom. If you can’t front squat for whatever reason viable replacements are, Goblet squat, Racked Kettlebell front squat, Kettlebell swing, overhead squat.

The Carry
Carries are a highly underutilized movement. Carries are important because they are self limiting in that your posture, balance and breathing become vital to successful completion of the movements.

Dan John thinks loaded carries may be one of vital missing component from most programs.

There are a number of ways you can approach the carry ranging from farmers style walk with the weight held by the sides this can be kettle-bells, dumbbells and if you are really lucky farmers walk frame or bars. It can shouldered with the weight held about chest height, either with kettlebells or dumbbells. Finally it can be held overhead either with barbell dumbbells or what I prefer waiter carries. Waiter carries is probably my favourite variation, usually with around 17.5-25% of body weight in one hand.

Holding at the sides provides a grip challenge and overhead carries give us a core strength and balance challenge. Regardless of style carries teach you to engage the body as a single unit, especially a strong upper back and core.
By simply taking two simple exercise pairings and we can look to challenge our self in new ways. Despite on the outside this method looking easy, it is anything but. Simplicity in exercise can be liberating. Now go forth, squat and carry.

This is an ongoing series of articles from guest blogger and Strength & Conditioning coach William Wayland of Powering Through.

S&C Lessons from 1908 for the 2013 Grappler

by William Wayland ~ posted January 14th, 2013

You scrambler, yes you! Firstly Happy new year! Secondly you are into your old school grappling aren’t you? Of course you are, names like Frank Gotch, Billy Robinson, Karl Gotch, Masahiko Kimura should be familiar to you. If not I suggest you Wikipedia these names and come back. Wrestling and physical culture have always gone hand in hand, wrestlers and free fighters of the old days carried a reputation for their prowess in the gym and on the mats. At some point in martial arts the two divorced each other and we wandered through a wilderness where weightlifting was bad, worse yet would make you slow and gas like a flatulent hippo. Its now 2013 and we are under-going a physical culture renaissance. Suddenly everyone is kettlebelling, olympiclifting and TRXing, functional training-ing, armflailing and it’s topped off with the internet, a fitness resource so vast it has more pages dedicated to the subject than Gangnam Style has views on youtube.

While this isn’t bad, it often leads to a scenario of athletes and trainees who have read too much, seen too much and subsequently try to do too much. Something gets lost, everyone does a lot and winds up showing very little for it. I get emails from eager grapplers and mma fighters asking me to look at their program and what I see often is just a lot of “stuff”. A program chock full of exercises and modalities matched by a periodisation scheme only MIT grads can understand (or the exact opposite, no plan at all). I’ve mentioned before often when a program has a lot of volume we see intensity plummet, this is why apart from the untrained circuits often don’t yield much of a strength or power improvement. And yet often trainees stop and admire their currentness, the fact they are doing “X and Y” because it is current or trendy, assaulted by the power of choice these are also the people that program hop like mad and then complain about their general lack of strength or athleticism.

Full Cirle
Coming back to our old school grapplers, I want to tell you about one in particular that I draw great inspiration from. Georg Hackenschmidt was a strongman and professional wrestler known as the Russian lion, he was one of the greatest whom ever lived. President Theodore Roosevelt, himself a proponent of physical culture and exercise (not to mention early adopter of judo and jiujitsu), proclaimed, “If I wasn’t president of the United States, I would like to be George Hackenschmidt.” Hackenschmidt at the time had access to traditional Barbells and Dumbells, no racks, benches or machines. In the book “The way to live” written back in 1908 many of the things that Hackenschmidt talks about are considered modern, cutting edge things today. The fundamentals have not changed in 110 years.

To borrow Jim Wendlers analysis of hackenschimdts writings “before you begin a workout session, perform a general warm-up including full mobility work; always eat moderately and drink plenty of water; that bodyweight exercises are good but they won’t get you strong; always use full range of movement when exercising; and rarely go to failure on any set.” Startlingly this is surprisingly modern in approach.

Hackenschimdt was also an advocate of heavy lifting.
“For it is only by exercising with heavy weights that any man can hope to develop really great strength.”

“it is quite impossible to improve strong muscle groups, as, for instance, the hip muscles, with light-weight exercises.”

Hackenschmidt suggested that jump rope and gymnastics could be added to the plan, but his overall approach was that of heavy lifting. He also advocated running “Run as much as you can and as often as you can, and whenever you come across a hill, run up it. This will force you to inhale deep breaths and will also accustom you to breathe through your nose. Besides the chest and lung development resulting there-from you will soon appreciate the benefits which your leg muscles will derive”. Hill sprints anyone? It need not be any more complicated.

Keep in mind this was all before the discipline of sports science, before even the bench press (everyone did floor presses), before racks/stands, machines, creatine, protein powders and even before performance enhancing drugs. It is sad that athletes like Hackenschimdt and his teachings are being lost to the mists of time. Very little in strength and conditioning for grappling, honestly, has not been done before.

This is an ongoing series of articles from guest blogger and Strength & Conditioning coach William Wayland of Powering Through.

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