"IT'S ALL PART OF THE PLAN..."

This is a quote from the Joker in the latest Batman flick. I like this quote because it's a great answer to many training and diet questions. I find a lot of people have training and or diet attention deficit disorder (including myself at times). Everyone is always looking for a new program or new diet plan to jump right into before finishing the program they're currently following (i'm assuming that you have a program or some general principles at the very least in the first place).

Well, let me tell you something folks; you have to stay the course to reap the benefits of your current program. If you're training for maximal strength with 4 strength training workouts per week you're probably not going to be as strong as you possibly can if you jump to another program or try to combine a westside split with a body composition program. If you find another program you are interested in, I suggest you ride out the one you're currently using and then devote your full attention to the new one when it's completed.

The same thing goes for diet; if you're using my rather primitive eating principles to shed body fat then stick to the plan until you reach your desired percent body fat and then go try this other plan you've been interested in. Stay the course people!

Affliction T-Shirts Annoy the SH** Outta Me!

(Zach this is dedicated to you, my friend Chris Grayson is the authority on this as he trains guys at Gracie Barra in Chi-town, but here is my two sense to help spread the word.)

Ever notice that most guys who wear Affliction shirts are NOT fighters. They're usually some fat boner that hangs out at the bar 4 nights a week and does a dumbbell press/ cable fly routine three times per week. Most of these guys talk a big ball game and end up getting their ass kicked or not even fighting at all (this is what I've observed at the bar I work at anyways). Well, they would get their ass kicked because they're not strength training properly for MMA and are not training the right energy system for MMA.

Here's my general thoughts on developing a well thought out plan to get into fighting shape:

1.) control body fat with your food choices primarily (you should use your training to improve relative strength and improve the body's ability to remove waste products, also known as conditioning... you can't out train a bad diet to lose body fat)

2.) train to improve relative strength. this means various sets of 1-5 reps using big compound movements (squats, deads, cleans, presses). For this use weights 80% of your one rep max or above for "max effort" work and use roughly 30-55% of your one rep max weights for "dynamic effort" work. For more details on these strength training methods read my old post at the bottom "methods of madness" If you can move up a weight class, do a higher volume of repetition effort work. If you are trying to make a lower weight class, focus on the max effort/dynamic effort work and lactic acid conditioning.

3.)Include the correct type of conditioning work. The volume and duration of the conditioning can be determined after examining the actual mma skill practices themselves. I'm not too familiar with the actual skill practices but I know they're is a great deal of conditioning going on here. So once we know how much more we can condition without over training we'll set that up. Aerobics are totally unncecessary for MMA. The long runs you hear wrestlers, boxers and mma guys doing are completely worthless and a waste of time. MMA is anaerobic (without oxygen) primarily. It relies and short intense bursts of energy over and over again. This means we need to be strong and able to recover quickly to display this strength again and again on your opponent. So you want to focus your efforts on intense intervals of oh lets say 30 seconds all the way up to 75 seconds (this is not precise, just a general guideline). Some activities you could use to do this are: sprints, prowler pushes, sled drags, tire flips, hill sprints, body weight circuits, jump ropes, heavy bag flips, "death" circuits, etc... The key to this is to keep the rest periods rather short between sets (i.e. 30-60 seconds) to allow lactic acid to build up rapidly. Start with a longer rest period and every couple of workouts decrease the rest period 10-15 seconds.

That's it for now, if you're going to be a tough guy in an Affliction t-shirt please train correctly...


http://strengthcoachdan.blogspot.com/2008/11/methods-of-madness-basics-of-building.html

Recent FAQ's

I've gotten a few requests since the new year has began. Guess what they ALL deal with? You guessed it, BODY COMPOSITION! A desired improvement in body composition is a concern of many individuals because they're so many great benefits. The first reason is why most people have this desire; to look better in the flesh, duh... The next reason is to be more "mobile, hostile, agile" (Remember the Titans) in your sport since you'll be carrying around less bull shit weight, and the third and probably most important reason is the great health benefits (such as improving insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, thyroid function, adrenal gland function, etcetera). These question's have come from 3 different walks of life; a hopefull mma fighter in 8 months, a body builder who is 10 weeks out from the Kalamazoo Body Building Championships, and a regular joe (he's a bad dude though). So for the sake of this post we're going to focus on the common things these guys all need to do in order to reduce body fat. And some of these things are repetitive from my previous posts but sometimes you need piece information together in different ways for different people to understand. This may seem very basic and at times sarcastic but here we go with my recommendations (follow them and get ripped, or half ass it and make no progress!):

-Don't drink anything besides water (and not just a few glasses, keep a bottle on you all day) and tea(not the pre-made sugar filled ones, but one's you brew yourself)

-Eat a shit load of protein (I'm sick of all of these so called "experts" saying that eating a shit load of protein is unnecessary and dangerous. The studies that say lots of protein is harmful to your kidneys were performed on people with pre-existing kidney problems. I'm all about trying methods out for myself and keeping what works, and eating a rather large amount of protein keeps me pretty damn lean and energetic year round compared to the FDA's recommendations of whole grain asshole, salomenilla jiffy peanut butter and prescription medications. Sorry for the rant, eat protein every time you eat and eat as much of it as you want.

-If your protein source does not contain some quality fats in it (i.e. grass fed beef, wild game, whole eggs, salmon, etc...) then have some raw nuts, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, or organic butter (not that smart balance hoaxy shit). It also goes without saying that you should have fish oil with all or most feedings besides your post workout drink. My friend Chris Grayson recommends about 12 grams of fish oil per day for most individuals and says to divide that by how many meals you'll be having. So if you eat 4 main meals besides your post shake then you'd have 3 grams per meal. I've also learned from Chris that mega doses of fish oil can be very beneficial but 12 grams is a good starting point and keeps people faithful to the plan.

-I haven't met anyone that is overly carbohydrage tolerant yet. By this I mean that they're skinfold reading of the subscapularis (below the shoulder blade) and the suprailiac (love handle) is usually relatively high. These two sites are correlated with insulin resistance and determine what type of carbs you should eat and how much. These guys should avoid wheat, grains, most starchy foods basically, dairy, etc... (all foods that have a major effect on insulin secretion) and focus on green leafy and cruciferous vegetables (for this I like making salads with romaine and baby spinach). After they've cut out of these insulin promoting foods and followed a regimen of mainly greens for awhile, they can now have some berries and other fruits like apples and oranges here and there.

-Basic supplementation: We've already touched on fish oil (if you aren't familiar with fish oil I'll assume you're living under a rock). I'd recommend some vitamins and minerals such as a chelated multi-vitamin, chelated magnesium, and chelated zinc. I say chelated because it ensures that these products are actually being absorbed (so stay away from the gnc mega man or the meijer vitamins). You can obtain these from Jonny Bowden's webstore or preferrably from my friend Ben Knapp at Power Nutrition in Westland, Michigan (shoot me a message for contact info). I'd recommend some drinks for around your training to keep stress hormones at bay and keep muscle glycogen full. This would include a branced chain amino acid (bcaa) powder, glutamine powder, and a whey concentrate powder. Split your bcaa drink into 3 servings: 10 grams pre-workout, 10 grams to drink during your workout, and 20 grams post workout with your protein. Add anywhere from 25-60 grams of glutamine post workout (this is converted to glucose by the liver and acts likea carbohydrate to replenish muscle glycogen). And then mix in 2 scoops of a whey concentrate powder.

-Stop eating about two hours before bed. Have the last meal or snack of the day consist of lean protein and some fish oil. This will ensure proper growth hormone secretion while sleeping (the more growth hormone secreted, the more body fat being used).

I'll be back with my training guidelines for these three different endeavors...