2. Eat breakfast like a King, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. I really can’t tell you why this works for sure but I’d speculate is has something to do with you being more active earlier in the day. I can tell you from personal experience it works. (I learned this tip from Dr. Jonny Bowden).

3. Eat three main meals with two to three snacks. You need to keep your metabolism revved up and maintain stable blood sugar. Here’s a good analogy: Think of food as a log and your metabolism as a fire place. You throw a fresh log on the fire and the fire goes up. Once the fire burns the log down the fire dwindles down a bit. Now throw another log on the fire and back up it goes. What I’m currently doing is eating three main meals with two to three shakes in-between. The protein that I like is Designs For Health’s Whey Cool. It comes from grass fed cattle, there’s no artificial sweeteners in it that are neuro-toxic, and it’s produced at low heat so the protein is not denatured.

4. Eliminate gluten from your diet. Humans aren’t meant to eat grains. At this time there are over 55 associated diseases that can be linked to gluten. A good book to read on this is “The Paleo Solution” by Robb Wolf.

5. Eliminate plastics from your diet. BPA or Bisphenol-A is a chemical used to make plastic and it is very toxic. BPA can leach onto food and liquid and get into your body and do a lot of nasty things. For one thing it is very estrogenic and therefore disrupts hormone levels. You can forget about getting lean if estrogens are high.

6. Drink only water, unsweetened teas, or organic coffee (early in the day) period. No diet beverages and nothing with dyes in them. Most artificial sweeteners are neuro-toxic (bad for your brain) and they, along with dyes (such as red dye 40 and yellow dye 5), are carcinogens (they are attributed to cancer).

7. Eat a lot of vegetables. Vegetables are loaded with vitamins and fiber, but also make you more alkaline. The more alkaline you are the healthier you are. Plus being alkaline will improve your work capacity in the gym. If you have a hard time eating enough vegetables like I do, consider drinking them. I use and have my clients use PaleoGreens by Designs For Health.

8. When eating meat make it grass fed as often as possible, organic free range chicken, and only wild caught fish. Animals and fish that are grain-fed have an altered fatty acid profile. Grains increase omega 6 fats, which are pro-inflammatories. More omega 3 fats in your diet will get you lean fast.

9. Don’t count calories. Excerpt from Dr. Jonny Bowden: “Once upon a time- around 1890 actually- a scientist named Wilbur Atwater got the bright idea of putting food into a special machine, burning it and measuring the amount of heat it produced. The machine was called a calorimeter, and old Wilbur decided to call the energy produced by burning the food into ash “calories”. Thus he was able to figure how many calories were contained in just about any food you could think of. Shortly afterwards, scientists applied the same concept to exercise. Using a few calculations, they soon figured out how many calories were “burned” doing everything from sleeping to cross-country skiing.  Within no time, an idea was born: weight gain happened when a person took in more calories than he burned up. The body, it was reasoned, behaves like a calorimeter. Put in calories (from food) use up calories (from living, exercising, digesting, etc) and look at your balance sheet. If more is coming in than going out, you gain weight. If more goes out than came in, you lose. Simple. Especially if the body behaved like a calorimeter. But it doesn’t.”

If you’re going to count something make it your protein intake. I’ve found that the closer you can get to eating 2grams of protein per pound of body weight the leaner and more muscular you will get.

10. Don’t be afraid to eat a lot of food. Believe it or not, most people don’t eat enough food, they just eat the wrong foods. I remember reading an article on “The Rock” in a Mens Health magazine several years ago. He was getting in shape for a movie and he was utterly surprised how much food he was told to eat and how lean he got in doing so. What shocked me about this was how surprised he was. I thought he would’ve known this considering he is an athlete and very jacked.

So here’s a quick video on that topic.

I know what you might be thinking. “Man that’s a lot of supplements. Do you really need to take all that?”

The answer is a loud NO. As I mentioned in the video, I take a few things all the time ( Fish oil, vitamin D, chelated multi-vitamin, zinc, and magnesium (either magnesium chelated to the amino acid glycine, or chelated to threonic acid. If I take anything else it’s relevant to either a specific issue, such as where I’m storing body fat (using Charles Poliquins’ Biosignature modulation) or just to try something to see how well it works.

You also might be thinking “can’t I just get all my vitamins and minerals from Food? After all, paleolithic man didn’t take vitamins.”

This is true. But a lot of things have changed since our prehistoric ancestors wondered the Earth. Unfortunately food alone, regardless of the quality, won’t cut it today when it comes to optimal health and performing at your best, whether it be in the weight room or in your sport. We put ammonium nitrate on our soil, don’t rotate crops, and spray herbicides and pesticides on everything. Because of this our soil in pretty devoid of minerals. Not only that but it’s estimated that we have over 10 times the amount of stress in our lives than even our grandfathers generation did. That too depletes certain vitamins and minerals.

But the issue with supplements is not only what to take, but what’s the proper dosage needed, and is the integrity of the supplement company solid. There really isn’t any governing body in charge of checking. At least not to my knowledge. Because of this, you get a lot of unethical companies out to just make money. The reason why this post even got started was because a body building company that makes claims that their product(s) is/are superior to others and acts like they care about their customers, yet put artificial sweeteners, which are neuro-toxic, and dyes in their said product(s). Both of which are known carcinogens. That fact is they only care about the bottom line, their pocket book. Or they don’t know those things are harmful for you, and therefore, have no business making products to begin with.

At USI we use and offer only the best supplements to get you the fastest yet safest results. Our protein powders aren’t denatured by being cooked at high heat, nothing we use has artificial sweeteners that are neuro-toxic (such as aspartame and sucralose), our vitamins are all albion mineral chelated to ensure optimal absorption, and everything is from a health practitioners line that manufactures in a GMP certified facility.

For your average person just training in the weight room I’m not a big believer in overtraining, but rather under recovering. Just look at the circus de soleil guys. They perform this show multiple times a week and I’m sure train multiple times too and look pretty damn good. A healthy human being can tolerate a lot of work, but if their lifestyle doesn’t support their training demands then results will suffer. Not because they shouldn’t be able to tolerate their training frequency, but because their nutritional needs aren’t being met and more often than not, their sleep quality sucks. Fix these things and the quality of their training sessions will improve and more than likely they’ll be able to increase their training frequency and volume even more.

One exception to this is when you train athletes. I have several grapplers that train on the mats A LOT. When you factor in up to six training sessions on the mats plus up to three training sessions in the weight room and a belief that more is better, overtraining can happen even with good nutrition, good supplements, and good sleep.

One way to know if someone is training to much is based off their perception or mood. If their normally energetic, happy, and love to train, then all of a sudden they have a lack of enthusiasm, they’re probably overdoing it. But, since this is intangible it doesn’t always work. I’ve had guys in my gym that look like the walking dead and still enthusiastic because they love training so much. Since this is not constituting or represented by a physical object and of a value not precisely measurable, it can sometimes be difficult to see. Because of this, I like to use some tangible information that’s measurable.

One great test is with a dynamometer to monitor grip strength. Your grip strength can be correlated to your central nervous system. First you must get some normative data on someone, then if you suspect that they’re overtrained see how much strength they lose with this. Supposedly, if they lose 4 kg. of strength or more they need a reduction in their training. Here’s a quick video.

Another great test involves p.h sticks. These sticks will tell you how alkaline or acidic someone is along a spectrum. The more alkaline you are, the greater your work capacity is (meaning you can tolerate more volume in your training). Before training someone have them use one of these sticks and see where they’re at. If they score poorly their diet needs some work. One quick fix that we use at USI is a greens drink called PaleoGreens by Designs For Health (a great health practitioners brand). This equivalent to taking in six servings of vegetables with a ridiculously high ORAC score.

Your nutritional needs must match and support your training demands. To leave you with something applicable, here is a PDF attachment with some great dietary advice to get you lean and enhance your performance in the weight room and your respected sport. It was initially written for the competitors of the Gracie Barra jiu-jitsu school in Chicago, where I train and coach many grapplers (strength and conditioning coach, not jiu-jitsu coach).

You can become a certified personal trainer with an online test that requires only 70% to pass. Since it’s online it’s open book. And even if it requires you to take the test in person, no previous experience is necessary.

So the obvious answer is a loud NO. Certified does not make you qualified. Yet this is probably the first question asked by someone seeking out a personal trainer or a strength coach.

Another question that I just personally got a few weeks ago is “do you have kettlebells?” This is a strange question to me because a kettlebell is just a piece of equipment or a tool to use. One saying I like in my industry is “you have to know what tool to pull out of the tool box”. If a kettlebell if the most appropriate tool for whatever the training effect is or for the proper exercise selection then you use it. If a dumbbell is more appropriate then you use that. A kettlebell is not necessarily a better tool all the time and vice versa. When someone asks me if I have kettlebells (and we do), that makes me think they’ve been fooled into believing that the kettlebell is what’s needed to train. In this particular case it was an athlete asking the question (someone who just recently started training jiu-jitsu), so they’ve probably heard that kettlebells are important for athletes. I make this assumption (even though I never asked because the conversation went elsewhere) because that’s one of the biggest problems in my industry. People are endorsing a dogma that one tool (such as a kettlebell) is the best tool. There are even kettlebell certifications. Barbells and dumbbells have been around for a long time yet I don’t see certifications for these tools. Like everything, you have to follow the money. People have a vested interest in this because they are selling something and benefit financially.

I am not saying that certifications aren’t good or important. I’m merely stating that one should not prescribe to a dogma that one tool is always the best tool. One should be about results and use the best tool to get the job done.

I asked my good friend Ted who is also a damn good strength and conditioning coach what his thoughts were on this topic and here’s what he had to say.

So what’s the right question to ask?

How long have you actually been training people for a living (very important, not how long have you personally been training)?

I (Chris Grayson) started training people for a living in 1999. Roughly a year after getting out of The United States Marine Corps.

How do you continue to learn in your field (and ask for evidence)?

By attending seminars (I attended the Poliquin Strength Institute in Rhode Island in April of last year to receive my Level 2 certification (this requires three parts and you must pass with a 92%). Investing in a ridiculous amount of books constantly (the last ebook purchased was on Nov 29th and was IFBB Pro Ben Pakulski’s M140. Below is a screen shot.

Many more books in my library (pic to the right).

And most importantly, ask for social proof. What results have you produced with your clients? And again, ask for the evidence. (If they have testimonials on their website with just words I would question the authenticity. Video proof is best).

For USI’s social proof you can visit our testimonial page where we have several video testimonials. Below is our most recent video testimonial from mma athlete, jiu-jitsu instructor, and muay thai competitor Cliff Hagerman.

Hey Chris,

Q: How are ya man? Got sick took time off, got somewhat better than sick again…got better back on the mats than got hurt (hyperextended right elbow)…with that being said…im still a bit uncomfortable on my elbow with weight and stuff so i have not trained in almost 2 months now…would like to get back in slowly…what would you recommend?

Jose

A: This is why you can never be too strong, especially in grappling sports. So first, get back to getting strong in the weight room and then don’t stop.

• You’ve probably laid down some scar tissue from the injury. I would get some soft tissue work done on it such as A.R.T (Active Release Technique).
• Get quality sleep for 8 to 9 hours a night (quality means no interruptions throughout the night).
• Avoid aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen to avoid interference with healing.
• Eat protein at every meal especially wild caught fish. If you do eat red meat make sure it’s grass fed to limit your omega 6 consumption. Also eat a lot of vegetables.
• Three products I highly recommend are MSM, a topical gel called ArthroSoothe Cream, and a high quality fish oil. I use Designs For Health products, which is a health practitioners line (if you want to purchase anything you need a health practitioners name. You can use mine, Chris Grayson). I get great results with their stuff (I’ve attached a PDF of the MSM and the ArthroSoothe).

ARSCream

MSM+Flyer

To protect your arm from hyper extension you need to make sure your elbow flexors are strong enough to decelerate elbow extension. Does this mean you can not get arm barred? No. But it will make it harder to do so and will give you more time to escape. To do this optimally you need to have balanced development between the biceps brachii, brachialis, and brachioradialis. You need to also train supination and pronation, radial and ulner deviation, and your grip. Below are two posts I’ve previously written and this topic.

Grip and Forearms 1

Grip and Forearms 2

One last thing worth mentioning. Our mission is to provide the highest level of training at USI (this is part of our mission statement). In that effort we are continuously adding to the gym. Two new training tools that are enroute and specific to this post are pictured below.

One of the first things that comes to my mind when I think of grip and forearms is Bruce Lee. Bruce was a fanatic when it came to forearm and grip training. He knew the importance of having these areas very strong. He had many custom made grip tools developed by one of his students. And after reading John Littles’ book “Bruce Lee: The art of expressing the human body”, he was way ahead of his time. Bruce kept meticulous notes on his training.

Bruce supposedly had 15 1/2 inch forearms, which is very impressive. Especially since he was not big boned. He was also said to be a fantastic wrist wrestler. The only one who could beat him was the actor that played the Green Hornet,  who happened to be an ex-motocross competitor (you develop tremendous forearm strength from the sport of motocross).

Many people might think strengthening your grip and forearms is unimportant or unnecessary, but to anyone seeking size and strength it should be a must. When these are strong it will carry over into increased strength in other exercises. This phenomenon is often referred to as the irradiation effect. Pavel Tsatsouline explained this concept very well in his book “The Naked Warrior”. {Excerpt from book:} “Whenever a muscle contracts, it irradiates a ‘nerve force’ around it and increases the intensity of the neighboring muscles’ contractions. If you make a tight fist notice how the tension in your forearm overflows into the upper arm and even your shoulder and armpit.” That is a perfect example of the irradiation effect.

Another thing that happens when you strengthen your grip and forearms is you lose less neural drive to those muscles. For instance, when you dead lift you must grip the bar. Your grip and forearm muscles are obviously a lot smaller than the bigger muscles that make up your back and your legs. Because of this you are limited to how much you can dead lift by your weakest muscles. You are only as strong as your weakest link. If you strengthen the weakest link (in this case your grip and forearms) than less neural drive has to go to those muscles. So you end up stronger from bringing up a weak link.

I train many grapplers at USI. If you’re in a grappling sport such as jiu jitsu, judo, or wrestling then strengthening your grip should be a high priority. The first thing that attaches you to your opponent is your grip.

Bruce Lee was way ahead of his time when it came to training, but he was still limited to equipment and knowledge. Now lets talk about how to strengthen your grip and forearms in the 21st century. I’m sure if Bruce Lee were alive during these times he would be utilizing these techniques.

Grip Training

Pinch Grip

Supportive Grip

 Crushing Grip

Forearm Training

Pronation and Supination

Radial and Ulnar Training

Wrist Roller (extensors and flexors)

Pronated and Parallel Grip Curls

Even though I’m not a competitive keirin racer and don’t train any (and you probably aren’t either), this video shed some clear insights on what it takes to achieve substantial results. Here’s what those “clues” or key concepts are to me, along with an explanation on why they’re so important from a strength coaches perspective.

1). Collects data. The dullest of ink is better than the best of memories. That’s a famous quote from Tommy Kono, an olympic weight lifting champion of the 1950′s. One of the biggest mistakes people make is not writing down and tracking what they do. If you don’t have a plan it’s way to easy to get side tracked for one, and how do you know if you’re making progress if you’re not measuring any data? You can’t base your training off emotions. How bad you sweat or how out of breath you get is not indicative to progress in the gym. You need something that’s honest. Writing down and keeping track of your loading parameters does just that. At USI we measure what matters; sets, repetitions performed, the tempo of the exercises, and the rest intervals. We keep meticulous notes on what we see, and we know what an athlete needs to work on. And when you’re not making progress based off of your numbers we tweak your program. Another very popular saying in the weight room is “you’re only as strong as your weakest link”. We collect data to identify what that weak link is so we can make it stronger, and this was actually mentioned in the video.

2). Trains at maximum effort every time. Hard Work. Those are the two most important words when it comes to results. To accomplish this the progressive overload principle must be applied. In layman’s terms this simply means your training has to get harder, more demanding, and somehow more challenging. You’re wasting your time if you’re not pushing yourself every time you train. If you lift the same weights for the same number of repetitions all the time there’s no reason for your body to get stronger because the stimulus hasn’t changed. If you can’t train at maximal effort you need to find out why. Are you not getting enough quality sleep? Are you training to long or to often? Is your nutritional needs not on par with your training demands? Do you need some soft tissue work? These are some of the things that could be affecting your performance and some of the questions you need to ask yourself.

3). Nutrition IS NOT enough. You must take some key supplements to train and compete at a high level or simply to be your best. To get someone in great shape today you practically have to be a functional medicine practitioner. Why’s that you might ask? Because we put fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides on our soil, we don’t rotate our crops, and we feed our animals foods they are not supposed to eat (for instance, cows are meant to eat grass, not grains). Because we do this our food is devoid of vitamins and minerals, are animals fatty acid composition is no longer healthy for us, our water is tainted with crap such as chromium-6, we are exposed to a ridiculous amount of toxins on a daily basis, we are stressed to the max, etc. You cannot out train deficiencies. Everyone that comes into USI gets a consultation on nutrition and we determine what is lacking in their diet. If these deficiencies are not corrected, good luck getting into the shape you desire. It probably won’t happen.

4). He’s not afraid to push his training to where he feels like he’ll puke, take a dump in his pants, or black out. You can’t hold back or be afraid to take it to the next level. You will probably feel uncomfortable, your brain might want to quit, your muscles will probably hurt. You will be sore. Good. You’re not training for entertainment, you’re training for results. And maybe this will transfer into other areas of your life and you’ll achieve more success with other endeavors. Exercise can be a very powerful vehicle for success. Everyone needs to be doing it, and everyone needs to learn what is going to give them the biggest return on their investment, which is their time.

Sol Kim has been training at USI since September 1st of 2010. He’s trained twice a week and has been very consistent. Every time Sol walked through the doors he brought his all. Never once did he complain or take it easy. He also wasn’t looking for a “quick fix”. He knew that what he wanted would take time and he never once asked how long. He seemed to appreciate the journey.

He was very easy to train.

Most athletes have some serious structural imbalances that need to be addressed at the onset of training. Sol was very balanced with great mobility and flexibility to boot. This qualified him for many exercises. If you cannot do any exercise with perfect form than you shouldn’t be doing it. You’re either not qualified for the lift, or you’re getting some poor coaching. If it’s the former, you don’t want to cement in any poor recruitment patterns. Doing every repetition perfect is critical to make someone structurally sound. This is why performing a structural balance assessment is so important. You need to know where an athlete is weak in order to correct it.

There are many strength qualities involved in the sport of jiu-jitsu. From high relative strength and explosive strength, to hypertrophy and strength endurance. It’s critical to know which ones need work and when. With Sol, we trained them all with an appropriate periodization model. We didn’t necessarily focus on all of them at the same time. We focused on the right one(s) when we needed to. For instance, if you’re not going to be competing in grappling tournament then I recommend you get your conditioning from your sport. After all, nothing will transfer to your sport better than the sport itself. You need to be working on a strength quality your sport might not be providing enough of, such as explosive strength and power. Sol has developed very high relative strength (strength respective of his body weight such as a gymnast), has become very explosive, and has done some very intense Endurance Machine workouts of up to eight tough exercises in a row with no rest. We’ve gotten his heart rate over 180 beats per minute (which we measured by having him wear a heart rate monitor), and we’ve used USI as a lab to see where we could make his training better.

It’s been a great pleasure training Sol and I’m looking forward to refining our training to better serve him in the future.

Oh, and he just happened to take 1st place at the IBJJF Tournament in Chicago of August 2011. So that makes him a champion. A very humble one.

Never confuse something that’s simple in complexity with being less effective. I constantly see people putting up videos on Youtube of ridiculous exercises that they’ve invented just to be different. Many people see these videos and assume that since these exercises are different than more traditional ones then they must be cutting edge, and therefore better. But they’re not. They’re just trendy.

Case in point, Sprints.

Sprints are simple to do (as far as complexity goes), but brutally hard physically and mentally. You don’t need fancy equipment, just a pair of good shoes and some balls (not literally). But before going any further, I want to emphasize sprints, not jogging or running. I’m talking about getting after it, not some stroll in the park. If you were to rate on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being effortless (like walking) and 10 as hard as you could possibly run, you need to be at a 9 to 10. This scale can be thought of as a rate of perceived effort or RPE for short.

Why running sucks

When I say running I’m referring to steady state aerobic based running or jogging. Running where your rate of perceived effort (RPE) is at a 7 or lower. Here’s a few quick reasons why it sucks.

• DOES NOT improve your VO2 Max or your ability to train at a higher VO2.
• DOES NOT improve or increase explosiveness. In fact, it makes you less explosive.
• DOES NOT elicit EPOC (Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption), which means in english that there’s no benefit once you stop running (and not much of a benefit while you are either).
• DOES NOT build or even maintain muscle. In fact, this will decrease muscle in an effort to make running easier on your body. Simple homeostasis at work.
• DOES NOT build any true mental toughness.

Sprint Conditioning

At the bottom of the PDF I mentioned warming up with some dynamic mobility drills followed by percentage-based sprints. This is important to do so you don’t pull a muscle such as a hamstring or a groin. Mobility exercises are much better than traditional static stretching because they prepare your body to move by causing excitation to your central nervous system. In simple terms this means your body gets amped up. Static stretching prepares your body to relax by activating your para-sympathetic system. That should be done several hours after doing the sprints.

You don’t want to just start doing sprints at 100% effort. You need to do a specific warm up, hence the percentage-based sprints (all of which are in the attached PDF).

The Benefits

• WILL increase skeletal muscle oxidative capacity and endurance performance and alter metabolic control during aerobic-based exercise.
• WILL create a ceiling effect on the oxidative system (improves your aerobic capacity without ever training it directly).
• WILL burn a profound amount of calories during and post exercise (EPOC).
• WILL improve local adaptations to your legs as well as systemic adaptations to your cardiovascular system (heart, lungs).
• WILL increase muscle mass or at the very least maintain it.
• WILL lower your body fat (especially around your midsection) without any dietary changes.
• And WILL build some serious mental toughness. Like Drill Instructor Sgt. Keihle used to say, “the mind will always quit before the body”. Strong mind, strong body.

But just like any good training program, the devils in the details. Progression is the key. If you do the same thing over and over again without making any changes your body has no reason to continue to make adaptations. Simply put, your body won’t change. Effective program design to take you from point A (where you’re at now) to point B (where you want to be or need to be) is paramount. To do this you have to write where you want to be first and then write the progressions backwards. It’s not just about doing something, but about how you do it. 

References:

Gibala, M.J., McGee, S.L. Metabolic Adaptations to Short-Term High-Intensity Interval Training: A Little Pain for a Lot of Gain? Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews. 2008. 36(2), 58-63. READ

]]> http://urbanstrengthinstitute.com/2011/08/sprints-conditioning-fat-loss-and-mental-toughness/feed/ 0 http://urbanstrengthinstitute.com/2011/07/40000-views-on-youtube-the-evolution-of-usi/ http://urbanstrengthinstitute.com/2011/07/40000-views-on-youtube-the-evolution-of-usi/#comments Sun, 10 Jul 2011 17:16:34 +0000 Chris Grayson http://urbanstrengthinstitute.com/?p=647 I Moved back to Chicago from Michigan the summer of 07. Didn’t have a job. Slept on my friend Greg’s couch and often ate only Mac & Cheese from Trader Joe’s.

A few months later my friends and jiu-jitsu professors Eddie and Adem Redzovic gave me a job working with them at the Gracie Barra Chicago Jiu-Jitsu school as a program director. I moved above the school and started training a few people in the basement of Gracie Barra. The space was small (only about 500 sq. feet) and the ceiling was low (I’m 5″ 6″ and could touch it). The equipment was very limited, but you make the most of the resources you have.

In the beginning of November of 2009 Urban Strength Institute opened down at the other end of the block from Gracie Barra. The square footage went up to about 1100 usable space with a much higher ceiling. More equipment came and the training evolved due to better resources, staying in academia, and in the trenches experience. I continued posting videos on Youtube to showcase the training, as well as turn USI into a business to be proud of.

I now have 108 videos on Youtube, and one of them just passed 40,000 views. That one was filmed more than two years ago in the basement of Gracie Barra with Cliff Hagerman training. Cliff was training for an mma match. Here’s the video.

Cliff is still training with me at USI and so are a number of other grapplers. To celebrate the 40,000 views with the above video, below is a current training session with Sol Kim. Sol is a four stripe blue belt with an incredible jiu-jitsu game and also a good friend. He’s been training at USI since February of 2010. Here is the video with some explanation below it regarding the training and evolution.

• 100 lb. Log press for reps
• 15 second concentric and eccentric pull up (this puts you under roughly 30 seconds of tension time for each repetition, and seriously trains strength endurance for upper body pulling). With grappling, you may be pushing or pulling your opponent for several seconds before something happens.
• Explosive jumps. 10 reps of jumping lunges followed by 10 reps of jump squats. When you’re done with this your legs will feel heavy as hell. This will work explosiveness with the earlier reps and strength endurance as you get deeper into the set.
• Backwards Sled Drags. This is a great exercise to strengthen the VMO (vastus medialis oblique) and also adds to some serious mental toughness.
• Jack Hammer Swings. Makes a traditional kettle bell seem like a joke. Really gets the heart rate cranked up and works the posterior chain a lot.
• Battling Ropes. We often use these as a finisher to get the heart rate through the roof. Combining this with a few other killer exercises has gotten heart rates over 180 beats per minute.