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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

Thoughts on Conditioning for Grappling Competition Part 2

by William Wayland ~ posted March 19th, 2013

In part one I went over, common issues I see with conditioning for grappling sports and application of TUF methods. This one will focus on planning your conditioning approach and how to effectively work in an “inseason” between tournaments to maintain conditioning. This is more or less a lose collection of thoughts and approaches I’m using with the athletes I work with.

Having a Plan

A plan or periodisation as its know in a sport context, allows us to know when and how long we have to peak for an event. If you decide to enter to a tournament with 4 weeks or less planning, in the words of Saint Kurt “you fucked up a long time ago”. Failing to plan is planning to fail as they say. Last minute HIIT sessions in a desperate bid to get game fit 2-3 weeks out because you hesitated on entering isn’t fun.

In terms of your approach, I like fighters designate an “in season” of sorts where their greatest competition focus is going to be this could be a period of 2, 3 or even six months. Look to build strength in the “off season” and work on conditioning up to and during the in season, strength takes a back seat and is merely maintained. Obviously this isn’t always the way the competition schedule will play out over a year but do attempt to leave at least 3 months where you can focus on strength building. Strength needs a decent build up, competing demands of conditioning and technical training make it a tough balancing act.

In terms of prep we can borrow the “Fast and Frugal Peaking Tree” and “Mesocycle Sequence from http://www.scramblestuff.com/workable-periodisation-for-mma/ TUF can be applied at 4 weeks or so out.

This covers pre-competition, but what about between inter-competition periods which I would argue would be 5-4 weeks or less between events. Basically we move into quality maintenance with the right planning athletes can carry on peaking and improve on an “inseason” template if training is planned and moderated properly.  Maintaining physical qualities is far easier than training to peak them, especially when usually this inter-competition periods involve plenty of hard sparring.

Strength work effectively becomes something like this

Strength In Season

Weeks 5-3 out 2 days

Main movement (bench, squat, deadlift, olift variant) (55-80% of 1RM)

2-3 Prehab, Accessory movements

Main movement (bench, squat, deadlift, olift variant) (55-80% of 1RM)

2-3 Prehab, Accessory movements

Weeks 3-0 out

Main movement (bench, squat, deadlift, olift variant) (-55% of 1RM) (using bands, chains, AFSM, Oscillatory method etc)

2-3 Prehab, Accessory movements

Main movement (bench, squat, deadlift, olift variant) (-55% of 1RM)

2-3 Prehab, Accessory movements

Conditioning In Season

But what about maintaining conditioning between competition? You need to understand the concept the of training residuals, this is the time over which a physical quality lasts after being trained to a high level. Many combat athletes fail to understand this concept and will often try to training all physical qualities all at once often right up a fight.

A number of studies (Neufer et al. 1987; Hickson, 1982) indicated that if the frequency of training is reduced by two thirds, that endurance capacities can be maintained for up to around 14 weeks. So often athletes can get away with as few as one session a week conditioning.

This can take the form of Complexes, running workouts, TUF style workouts, Fartlek. Your conditioning selection depends on your game fitness, fatigue levels and how much intense rolling you may be doing during practice. E.g. if you are beat up from sparring, TUF or HIIT circuits maybe unwise, where as running workouts or Fartlek maybe a better choice. This is context specific and a perceptive S&C coach can help a lot here. Learning to break the addiction to conditioning can be tricky especially when athletes do it year round, multiple times a week.

So for a dedicated 5 day a week BJJer with 4-5 weeks between comps may plan their week like this.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Strength Conditioning Strength Skills Skills Skills Rest
Pm Skills Pm Skills

We could even reduce load further by having only 1 strength session a week. This obviously depends on variables like schedule, access to facilities, available training time.

Wrap -up

But what is important to understand is most sports are determined by more athletic qualities than can be trained at once. This is the key I feel is often missed with upper intermediate athletes, beginners get caught in the trap of mixed methods, e.g. heavy strength work, power work, hypertrophy work, conditioning all in the same session, means all these qualities will be built poorly simultaneously. Beginners progress doing pretty much anything, because like much an unmolded peice of clay anything you do initially will start to shape it, whether you switch to a scapel later on or keep using a hammer will shape you as an athlete further down the road. Often athletes will succeed in grappling sports in-spite of their S&C because of high variability in opposition/skill ceiling in BJJ.

The key concept is maintenance versus development of physical qualities. Maintenance of strength qualities will require one to two sessions per week depending on your training experience (more advanced athletes need less I often find), whereas developing qualities such as hypertrophy or maximal strength will require the athlete to perform up to three to four sessions of strength training per week. Conditioning is a highly trainable physical quality, where as strength takes years of cultivation aerobic and anaerobic fitness can be mustered in a shorter time frame.

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

References

Hickson, RC, Kanakis Jr, C, Davis, JR, Moore, AM and Rich, S 1982, ‘Reduced training duration effects on aerobic power, endurance and cardiac growth’, Journal of Applied Physiology, 53, pp. 225–29.

Neufer, PD, Costill, DL, Fielding, RA, Flynn, MG and Kirwan, FP 1987, ‘Effect of reduced training on muscular strength and endurance in competitive swimmers’, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 19, pp. 486–90.

Thoughts on Conditioning for Grappling Competition

by William Wayland ~ posted March 4th, 2013

Common mistakes, Misconceptions and Using Technique Under Fatigue

Conditioning is often the poor relation in “STRENGTH and conditioning” it is hard, it mocks you, where as training for strength allows for a resplendent display of your badassery and curious looks from the folks on the eliptical. Where as conditioning belittles you, turns you into a sweaty exasperated mess, its general unpleasantness makes you groan about it to anyone with in earshot. Conditioning is often a victim of the too much, too hard, too soon approach to training, people often “deep-end” themselves and do high intensity work before they have built the capacity to handle this kind of work, general fitness is key. Get fit to train as they say.

General fitness for grappling is what I define as the ability to complete training sessions of a reasonable (RPE 6-8) intensity without fatigue becoming so bad it impedes your ability to complete a practice, cutting rolls or rapid technical training short etc.

Hopefully you have a resting hear rate of below 60bpm, if this isn’t the case then you probably need to work on your general fitness. This can take the form of moderate intensity rolls of a longer duration (you still get to practice sport that way), running, cycling rowing, barbell complexes or HICT. If your general conditioning is of a reasonable level then you look at getting specific in terms of round times and intensity when preparing for a tournament.

Now down to nitty gritty, often our technical coaches while meaning well have little understanding of energy systems or neurological demand of exercise and thus often issues arise in conditioning sessions

Common flaws I see;

  • Too much standing work.
  • Too much focus on concentric muscular action.
  • Not enough active rest.
  • Misuse of plyometrics.
  • Training longer than needed.

Work to rest ratio’s for BJJ are important to replicate, in a 2012 study Del Vecchio et al in a Brazilian study found that effort:pause ratios from other combat sports ranged from 10:1 (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), 2:1 (judo and wrestling), and 1:3/1:4 (taekwondo) and 1:2 and 1:4. A 10:1 ratio is dramatic and I can understand why based on my own observation, as soon as two grapplers make contact there is rarely any let up in activity and the two are actively working with very few breaks in play. While judo for instance there is often a slow down with grip fighting, sudden frenetic activity and pauses in contact to reset fighters and so on.

BJJ has a lot of isometric action, by isometric I mean positions that are held where muscular contraction is maximal but movement is minimal. Such as holding a top side control position with really tight head and arm control, fighting to keep an opponents posture broken or gripping up for passes and sweeps but holding the position. These isometric actions should be replicated because it is exhausting, whereas most conditioning is repeat concentric (explosive action). Often athletes when very fatigued doing this kind of activity will merely go through the motions all that explosive intent is gone, where as an iso-hold at the top of a pull up is hard to fake.

Pull up holds with scramble grip trainer make for a challenging isometric hold

Misuse of plyometrics is a massive problem in fitness right now, there is a certain fitness movement that thinks that box jumps for time are an intelligent training approach (enough to make a dead Russian sports scientists spin in their graves). plyometrics are a neurological bulldozer, short contraction times and short ground contact times are great for improving power output. However fatigue caused by excessive plyometrics destroys explosiveness and kills coordination, basically an accident waiting to happen.

Because of nature training culture in martial arts we often think more is better when it comes to conditioning. Coaches will make athletes do 8 or 10 minute rounds when you may only be a purple belt and require 7 minute rounds. Humans are excellent unconscious pacers and we will spread our selves energetically if we know we have the luxury of time. If your match last 7 minutes then train for 7 minute rounds, but make those 7 minutes as high a quality as possible.

Adding in more conditioning from the floor is also important, hip thrusts, floor presses and the addition of high intensity drilling intersped with formal conditioning work can make a world of difference, being tired on your feet is different to being tired on your back with someone on top of you. The very action of getting up off the floor repeatedly is tiring in itself.

Technique Under Fatigue

This where the introduction of TUF or Technique Under Fatigue training is important. I credit Brendan Chaplins writings for exposing me to this flexible method. My next point only at the sharp end 4 or so weeks before competition should formal conditioning in any start to resemble grappling, this is when we introduce TUF.

Examples of TUF would be;

30 second KB swings

30 seconds Pummeling (pummelling here works as active rest)

Or

30 seconds of Sprawl to Deadlift

30 seconds of mount escapes (mount escapes again working as active rest)

Or

30 Seconds of Hip thrusts or burpees

30 Seconds of Shrimping under top pressure

Or

30 Second pull up hold

30 Second back escapes (the person who just did the hold tries to stop his opponent from escaping)

Complete for a total of whatever your round time is. 3-5 Minutes Rest and Go again.


 
Sprawl to deadlift combined with pummelling makes for a favourite combination of mine

Bodyweight combinations work well in group settings but we can do more intensive work with small group or one to one settings. While I do like as a precomp method it can be used as general method if need be. Exercise and technical selection requires athlete coach cooperation.

Practising fundamental skills while fatigued allows us to sharpen those skills while under duress, smart coaches can come up with combinations that would be best for their students trying to eliminate weaknesses. The method is also more enjoyable than straight conditioning which is often high volume and does’nt allow for active recovery which generally will occur in game scenario. Advanced and intermediate level grapplers will get more out of this method than novices who may not have motor skills or the general fitness to derive a benefit from this type of training.

All out conditioning for prolonged periods does’nt work otherwise usian bolt would win the 400 and 800 meters it simply violates basic biology. I see this often in conditioning videos as fatigue sets in the quality of effort takes a nosedive, because no one is capable of sustaining high power outputs for prolonged periods of time.

Chaplin describes “the key points for TUF conditioning as this:

  1. Integrate conditioning with technical/skill work
  2. Be specific with the conditioning to suit the skills being trained. This requires collaboration with the coaches.
  3. The conditioning needs to be progressive just like general conditioning. The goal is to build technique in a fatigued state, not obliterate the athletes.”

Thats all for part 1, in part 2 I’m going to discuss periodising and planning your conditioning approach and how to effectively work in an “inseason” between tournaments to maintain conditioning.

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

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.

Fixing Common Postural Problems in BJJ and MMA

by William Wayland ~ posted December 4th, 2012

Do your Shoulders, hips and back hurt scrambler? You are not alone in your suffering. A lot of prolonged back, shoulder and hip pain is the manifestation of structural issues caused by the sports we play and postural habits we adopt. Ive talked before about uppercross syndrome in MMA fighters. This isn’t the same as the micro trauma you get from holding that arm bar a little too long or the friendly white belt who decided a can opener was a good guard escape. These are generally persistent aches and stiffness that never really seem to go away.

Shoulders forwards hips bent, doing this both at work and at play is a recipe for trouble, effectively turning you into some sort of human clam

Jiu jitsu and grappling athletes also usually have what’s called flexion-dominance in the lower back and pelvis.  Most training drills involve repetitive flexion at the waist causing the tightness of the hip flexors and weakness of the hip extensors. Think about how much time in a BJJ class you spend bent over or sitting, drilling hip flexion over and over.

Over time, the lower back muscles become underutilized while the hip flexors become shortened. This is further compounded by our habit of sitting, all the time in our day to day lives! Sitting shortens hip flexors and weakens the glutes, compounded with the flexion-dominance (active sitting, imagine sitting in guard) I mentioned earlier. Over time adaptive shortening due to sitting leads to tight hip flexors.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ROrYPYq-UMU/Tw7j0JdAjQI/AAAAAAAAAkY/XBSvO1-vwo0/s1600/uppercross.jpg

Upper Cross Syndrome in action

Meanwhile up at the shoulders we slouch and crane our heads forwards which causes our upper back muscles to weaken and shoulder muscle to tighten, we wind up with the bent forwards posture, often we assume this position when sitting or guard or even trying to pass guard, I see the development of UCS in MMA fighters too who take to the posture because its great for defending the chin.

Another thing to consider is tonic vs phasic muscle groups and boy does BJJ tend to strengthen Tonic muscles. Where as sitting for long periods does’nt help by encouraging weakness in the phasic muscles.

Muscles That Get Tighter
(Tonic)		 Muscles That Get Weaker
(Phasic)
Upper Trapezius Rhomboids
Pectoralis Major (Chest) Mid-back
Biceps Triceps
Pec Minor Gluteus Maximus
Psoas Deep Abs
Piriformis External Obliques
Hamstrings Deltoids
Calf Muscles

Solutions for fixing structural balance

Simply Stretch, mobilise and strengthen. So what can you do to straighten yourself out? Hip Flexor stretch variations are a good start for opening up the hips. There are quite a few muscles that actually flex the hip, but two that are specifically referred to as hip flexors. The Illiopsoas group consists of the Psoas and the Iliacus. As mentioned before, hip flexor tension is exerted on the pelvis pulling it into excessive anterior tilt.

Most Hip flexor stretches are predicated on achieving the position pictured above, Kneel with one leg in front of the other and place left foot flat on the floor in front of you, knee bent and aligned with ankle. Place hands on opposite thigh. Press hips forward until you feel tension in the front of your thigh or where the crease of your hip would be. Optionally you can extend you arms overhead, Hold for 30 seconds, then switch sides. This can be done for sets of 2-3 and during workouts I sometimes suggest doing them between sets of jumps, squats or cleans.

There are also plenty of exercises for fixing poor posture and flexion dominance, below are some of ones I have been putting to use.

Split Squat Sots

A lot of people struggle with the sots press so for hip and shoulder mobility I started having clients do the split squat sots. Despite looking like a shoulder press you should feel this largely in your upperback. This open the shoulder engages the back and core and forces correct posture in the upper back, combined with static stretch of the hip flexor it is one hell of a warm-up. Most people feel looser immediately.

Sots Press

Simply a behind the neck snatch grip press, terrific for opening the shoulders. The squatting version is harder and needs balance and good upper back extension.

Modified Batwing Rows

This is great for fixing a slouched posture, hitting the mid and upper back with every rep im trying drive my thumbs to my arms pits like on an ordinary batwing row. You are looking for higher reps here with an exaggerated squeeze at the top

Band Pull Aparts and No Moneys

This targets the external rotators of the shoulder, which can be left weakened in those with a tight chest and shoulders.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but there are tons of variations that can be added to your training. Relating back to idea of phasic and tonic muscles, it does’nt hurt to think stretch tonic muscles and strengthen phasic for fixing postural issues. If you want to enjoy your sport for longer recognising and addressing these issues can help go towards living a longer and happier BJJ/MMA training career. Even if you don’t try these exercise im sure some of you are sitting up straighter after reading this.

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

Sprint Interval Training

by William Wayland ~ posted November 14th, 2012

BKK Fighters looking worse for wear after 200m sprint session

I have always believed sprinting to be one of the best conditioning tools available to any athlete involved in a high intensity sport. BJJ and MMA luminaries like George St Pierre, BJ penn and Roger Gracie all have documented usage of sprints in their conditioning approach. Don’t take my word for it, the science stacks up too. A group of scientists late last year decided to apply a similar protocol to trained wrestlers. The Sprint Interval Training (SIT) consisted of 6 35-m sprints at maximum effort with a 10-second recovery between each sprint. The SIT protocol was performed in 2 sessions per week, for the 4 weeks. The SIT subjects did everything else the same as the control group, their training consisted of learning and drilling technique, live wrestling and weight training for 4 weeks. The subjects experienced an increase in VO2 max (5.4%) and a increase in testosterone and decrease in cortisol.

In another study on elite level Korean Judo athletes undertook sprint interval training with 30 second sprints and 4 minutes rest. The results were compelling “anaerobic peak power and mean power in SIT group was significantly increased by 16% and 17% at 4 weeks and by 17% and 22% at 8 weeks compared to baseline values.” Additionally the blood lactate was lower and ability to clear metabolites was higher in those who did SIT. Jens Bangsbo performed a study in 2009 showing that if you want to run, cycle or swim faster at any distance, you have to train at a pace that is almost as fast as you can move. In 2005 and 2006 Burgomaster et al performed studies looking at the effect of sprint training on endurance. They concluded that short sprint interval training (approximately 15 min of intense exercise over 2 wk period) increased muscle oxidative potential and doubled endurance capacity during intense aerobic cycling in recreationally active individuals. In 2005 Gibala reported that 30 second bursts working at 250% of VO2 max had significant improvements on endurance.

So what explains these changes in performance? Well SIT style training sets the stage for improvement in the long term by improving the capacity of the trainees mitochondria (these generate ATP) to handle / utilise nutrients, also with an increase in GLUT-4 activity (GLUT4 is the insulin-regulated glucose transporter) indicating a profoundly increased capacity for glucose uptake and we can also see a +20% increase in citrate synthase activity, indicating an increased capacity for substrate oxidation (energy usage). An additional increase in citrate synthase means higher turnover of the Krebs cycle (the cycle that allow us to generate energy).

Now before you blow the dust off your biology text books, you can take my word for it too. I have run the same protocal as the korean judo study and seen decreases in resting heart rate and improvements in power output of 15-23%. We will run a cycle of sprints from 4-8 weeks generally during a general conditioning phase or the first 8 weeks of a 16 week pre fight.
You are probably wondering how to apply the method to your own training. Well with sprint training you can make gains with as little as twice a week with very few intervals. The intensity needs to be high, each sprint you should be putting in an honest 100% effort with every attempt. Sprints are hard and by the 4th or 5th interval you will be wondering why you thought it was a good idea. Fitness battles are never won by seeking comfort.

In terms of number of sprints generally aim for between 4-8 intervals with 2-4 minutes rest. Sprints should be between 20-30 seconds worth of 100% intensity work. This can be done on a track or on a rower or on a bike if you have the right kind of exercise bike with reasonable resistance. Track sprints tend to leave you with soreness in the hip flexors, quads and glutes where as cycling tends to really hammer the quads. One observation is that track sprinting appears to be stressful in terms of soft tissue injury, a 2012 study released just in feb confirmed my suspicions. For this reason I prefer rowing to cycling and track sprinting, after-all its the effort not the method that is important, so consider this when approaching your planning. Personally I like the rower or bike as this allows us to track power output in watts (some bikes can do this too), with the athlete trying to put in the highest wattage every sprint and beat bests from week to week. A good beginner set up is a follows.

Warm-up sprints 50%, 70%, 80% followed by 6 Sprints 2-3:30 rest between sprints.

If you where planning on being the next Usian bolt or Yohan blake, complete recovery would be needed. However we are pushing to build tolerance to metabolites so you become more accomplished you can begin to cut down rest periods. So with a bevy of benefits it is well worth adding sprints to your conditioning plan.

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

Thoughts on Core Training for Grapplers and MMA Fighters

by William Wayland ~ posted October 23rd, 2012

Nothing causes more consternation in strength and conditioning than core training, MMA and Grappling athletes are obsessed with core strength lets face it. Trainers tout the term like it means something. Core training is effectively your ability to maintain posture and center of gravity, it does’nt strictly mean abdominal muscles, but the hip and trunk too. Right now in fitness we are going through a static core training trend, you’ll see many a trainer give out plank variations by the fist full, I don’t think I have seen an exercise administered so many different ways before. And boy are they boring and not to mention easily mastered by anyone with any sort of athleticism.

Pro Sean Carter working on plate passes, an effective way to make planks more challenging

The rise of the static core exercise means spinal flexion has been left out. It was Dr Stuart McGill’s research that caused this shift in core training, showing use that spinal flexion can be rough on lower backs. Problem is MMA fighters and grappler actively spends a lot of time in spinal flexion especially when going for submissions. Should we train this movement in addition to static and anti rotation work too? It depends on the athlete and their lower back health, if they are already performing spinal flexion as part of their sport then do we need to do more to further lock in tightness of the lower lumbar and hip?

Due to repeated sitting we do in the sport plus the plenty of sitting in our daily lives our hips muscle short and tight our glutes weak, hamstrings short. We need to think about doing more to open the athlete up rather than turn them into a human clam. I have mentioned in the past how a lot of grapplers and fighters suffer from upper crossed syndrome due to functional shortening adaptations in the sport. That is not to say I’m throwing crunch like movements on trash heap just take more thought when dishing them out. Just consider the risk reward value and the state you or the athlete are in.

We can look at training the core with full body movements in addition to our stricter holds, flexion and anti-rotation work. Also if your core is pathetically weak, its an idea to train it FIRST, sure you will be able to lift as much in successive exercises but if it is worth doing then it is worth doing at the start not as an afterthought.

So What core exercises do I like? Well these are a few I keep coming back too. No Swiss balls needed.

Anything Over Head

Overhead movements require the body the function as a single coordinated unit, because the weight is held over and away from the center of gravity this causes terrific instability which can only be cancel out by bracing the core and staying tight.

Wide stance anti rotation chop


Terrific exercise I nabbed off Eric Cressey  this allows us to get out of saggital plane of movement (forwards and backwards) and “work on rotary stability and getting some hip mobility at the same time.” I usually pair this with another exercise.

Ring Roll outs

A core exercise from your head to your toes! Provided you do not butcher the technique and allow the lower back to sag during the movement or the shoulder to hyper extend too much. For those you starting out you can look to begin on the knees.

Obviously this is by no means an exhaustive list of “core” exercises. The key thing with these is they are loadable or represent part of a progression of difficulty, these two keys are important when trying to improve strength, think about that while you do your next set of 200 crunches or flutter kicks.

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

A few Grip Trainer variations

by William Wayland ~ posted October 11th, 2012

I have had my grip trainers (I have the Navy first run in case you were wondering) a fair while now and I have found them an useful tool cycled in and out of training, the type of grip you use determines the loading so, Bunching type grips will allow for more loading that pinching or pocket type grips. Bunching type grips are great for compound pull type exercises where as more tenuous grips work terrifically for lighter accessory back work. I generally cycle grip trainer usage every 4 weeks with thick bar work as I find this gives my fingers and joints time to recover. These are a few of the grip trainer variations I keep finding myself reusing beyond just straight forward pull-ups and seated rows.

Pullups are cool and all, but there is so much more you can do!

 

Single Arm Cable row

This kind of row teaches the athlete to both retract and posteriorly tilt the scapula. If you are someone with suffers with shoulder pain I have found this can be performed without aggravation. You can either take a staggered stance like Tim in the picture or stand with both feet about shoulder width apart.

Eagle lat row

Keeping an upright posture and a proud chest you kneel and pull the shoulder blades together before initiating the pull. This is great for teaching the athlete to squeeze and retract the shoulder blades.

Facepull

The facepull is great for strengthening  your rear deltoids and lower trapezius, pulling your upper body into its natural alignment, with the shoulder blades back and down. The grip trainer takes the place of conventional rope. You can either double up on handles like we have or use the rope attachment.

Supine Row

Supine Row finally a use for the smith machine! It is a terrific back builder and excellent for those that suffer from back issues bent over rowing. Just be sure to not let the hips sag. You can put your feet on the floor or to make it more challenging on a bench.

Suitcase Row

Suitcase row with lighter loading allows us to use pocket grip. By using a Barbell this eliminates swing, which doing the same lift with a kettlebell or dumbbells. You can anchor the barbell either in a landmine attachment or in a corner much like a T-bar row, just be sure there is something between the bar and the wall you don’t want gym management to kick you out for scuffing the paint work!

Band Press Downs

I like to use this as a finisher on upper body training days, high rep press downs combined with grip trainer misery. While pressing down I try and resist ulnar deviation as much as I can.

So there you have it my favourite grip trainer variations. If you have any you want to share drop over to the scramble facebook page and let us know!

This is an ongoing series of articles from guest blogger and Strength & Conditioning coach William Wayland of Powering Through. And thanks to Tim Stokes of BKK fighters colchester for modeling!

 

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