A Blueprint for Solo Training (diary entry)

English: Arthur Saxon performing a bent press. Français : Arthur Saxon effectuant un dévissé à un bras (bent press). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

24.09.14   The purpose of tonight’s session was to go through ideas for my client’s private workouts. We covered a range of exercises and concepts for training. My general rule is to divide weekly workouts into upper body pure strength, lower body pure strength, two sessions of cardiovascular/aerobic training and two sessions of explosive and/or stabilizing strength training. In-between these workouts I might include sessions for technical training.   I see repetition number and cadence to be on a scale with pure strength at one end and very high intensity interval training at the other. Pure strength sessions include exercises with two sets of attempted maximum lifts for one to four repetitions with a slow and controlled rep cadence and high intensity interval training to go up to a maximum number of repetitions for very short timed rounds. Both very heavy lifts and very high intensity speed training require adequate recovery time, so the majority of training sessions should fall somewhere between these two extremities.   Pure strength sessions should include two of my “Four Pillars of Strength” exercises (weighted chest dips/press-ups/bench press and weighted pull-ups for upper body and standard dead lifts and back or front squats for lower body), with maximum lifts of no more than four repetitions per set. I advise three to four sets on these lifts. My approach to heavy lifts is to go for the heaviest weight possible as soon as your body is sufficiently warmed up. I don’t hold much with slowly increasing a weight resistance, as you robbing yourself of energy when your objective is to be able increase your heaviest lift. If you are on your first exercise of the session then one good high repetition warm-up set should suffice before you hit that heavy weight. When you do your next exercise you have already warmed up the muscles you are working and should attempt your heaviest lift whilst you have enough strength. In addition to these two compulsory exercises, the fighter should do one to two exercises with two other compound exercises, chosen according to the individual’s objectives, strengths and weaknesses. These exercises should be performed with a higher number of repetitions and usually all sets will be using the same weight. Pure strength, using “work muscles” in the right way, is very important for better development of fighting attributes, ensuring a solid structure for attacking and defending techniques. I favour high intensity interval training for cardiovascular/aerobic training with one especially high speed session performed on a regular basis. This type of extreme session is exemplified by the tabata workout, which consists of eight 10-25 second rounds with 5-10 second intervals plus a five minute warm-up and five minute warm-down. Intensity has to be properly trained for these sessions. As I did with my recent wrestling client, my objective here is to help increase the speed of correctly executed repetitions. These particularly extreme sessions must have correctly selected exercises. For example, the standard burpee is fine for a tabata, but I have found some of the more complex and weighted variations take too much time and should be reserved for other cardio sessions, where I am in favour of more complex exercises. I don’t see a lot of benefit and degree of health risk for most people to do more than one session per week of very high intensity interval training like the type I have just described. Cardio is a very important part of combative conditioning. It drives the proverbial machine and raises the bar set by the Central Governor Theory, toughening a fighter’s mental perspective.   Explosive and stabilizing strength sessions look at a wider range of specific movement. Explosive strength addresses the manner the muscles are generally used when a fighter executes a technique. Sometimes the exercise is in direct relation to a strike or grappling attack and sometimes it helps condition a fighter to absorb an attack from an opponent. Stabilizing strength promotes better balance, which is always required in a physical fight. It also helps prevent future injuries, which can incur unnecessary and time-consuming training set-backs. I try to divide these training sessions up into higher and lower body sessions, as I do with pure strength training. I don’t have any compulsory upper body explosive/stability training exercises, but I went through my blueprint for an explosive lower body routine.  

Explosive Lower Body Training

4 sets of Power Cleans A selection of two exercises from clean and jerks or snatch using kettlebell, dumbbell or barbell variations, jump-squats, seated jump squats, explosive curls or shrugs and plate jumps. 3 sets of Box Jumps – I always train the standard box jump for at least one out of three sets, going for my maximum height jump. However, I sometimes train sets of one leg.   We discussed warm-ups, which brought me onto the importance of technical training. Technical training must be done as often as possible. It makes sense to warm-up using more technical and complex exercises, as the mind is better suited to it at the beginning of a workout. Mo Teague always advised to address technique first then speed and finally power. I also encourage coordination exercises for the warm-up. We looked at bag-work and ways to isolate techniques and build combinations during the first 5-10 minutes of a routine. A points worth remembering. I encourage active recovery between sets. Whatever training you do it is important to keep things moving. Stretch between explosive and stability strength training, do light sets of resistance band work pushing muscles in the opposite direction they have been worked on the heavy sets in pure strength training and just keep the heart rate at an even pace between cardio sets. I have consistant exercises, but also vary every session and favour an improvisational approach to training. There is nothing wrong in training mid-range strength/cardio mixing up certain concepts. For example, here is a diary entry for "The Four Pillars of Strength" being used for mid-range strength conditioning.