Exercise seleCTION
Where should you start?
Damn, I'm starting with “it depends” again!!! So to answer the question of where I should start, it depends on your lifting age. This might be a phrase that you've never heard before, your lifting age is how many years you have been lifting (this is not the only factor but it is a big one). This doesn't mean that if you've been lifting a long time that you will automatically be a stud in the gym and know what to do when you scan into your local Globo gym, in fact, I've seen some guys who have been in the gym for a long time but have little to no knowledge on the “why” behind the “what”. Your lifting age just gives a good reference point on all things lifting. I'm going to keep the blog post primarily on grappling/fighting sports today. Hopefully, you'll get a better understanding of how you should approach your workouts but also how you can sift through the muck that is the internet.
So let’s sift through some of the B.S that you likely see on the internet, I'm not going to call anyone out on this post, that is not my style. I'll never try to discredit someone unless I see it being dangerous or a blatant lie. So I'm going to just focus on common things that I see. First thing I see a lot of is the overly specific moves for a sport like fighting/grappling. Let's use the landmine hip escape press, now this looks really cool for a reel on Instagram or a short on youtube and likely got a lot of likes, this doesn't have a real carry-over to combat sports, and here is why. The hip escape for those who don't know is a way to get out of the bottom position in fighting. The reason this doesn't carry over is very simple: the line in which we are pushing the barbell is linear. We will never be pushing in a linear pattern on your back in a grappling exchange. So the question becomes how do I develop strength when on my back? This is the only time I ever suggest this next exercise, “the glute bridge” I think people over the program this movement for glute growth, it is my opinion that this move does not help with glute growth but does have a carry-over for the grappling athlete because of the position that you are generating force. Let me dive a little deeper into the glute bridge and why I feel this way. The glute bridge works well for BJJ and not developing a dump truck is very simple, ROM. to get a bigger muscle no matter where it is on the body you need a full range of motion, in the glute bridge you never get full flexion or extension at any point of the lift, BUT when on your back while grappling the goal is to explode in the shortest distance possible. Another red flag is being overly vague or too specific to another sport like powerlifting or bodybuilding, there are definitely some athletes that get really far training like a bodybuilder or a powerlifter. These people should be considered the exceptions not the rule because while there should be a tremendous focus on strength we still have to consider recoverable volume. “What the hell does that mean”? Very simply put its not what you do in the gym, it's what you can recover from. So for example if you are a BJJ athlete training in the gym 5 days a week, hard practices 4 days a week, and 2 easy sessions, when the hell is the body going to recover? The answer is it doesn't, this is why and how injuries, sickness, and a whole list of other things happen. Even guys in a bunch of gear need time to recover.
SO WHAT THE HECK DO YOU DO!? Hire me! But in all seriousness, you start with a general look at how long you've been training, your goals, your body composition, and your overall ability to handle the load. How long you have been training, this one ties into a lot. How long you've been lifting is going to help gauge how hard or easy it will be to gain size and strength in a particular mesocycle. For example, if you've been lifting weights for 10 years consistently, getting stronger is going to take more effort than the guy who started 1 year ago. But the plus side to this is that the more senior lifter is going to have much less effort in maintaining what has already been built. Why in the world do you wanna lift weights? That is a question really for you as an individual. I can help you get to your destination but I don’t have the answer to your goals. I do think it is incredibly important to strive for something when you are going to the gym to work out. Something that a lot of trainers don't take into consideration is the body composition when looking to create a program for a client or when someone is doing it for themselves. This is important because it helps us look at the body honestly, if you're a guy 5’11 240 at 20 percent body fat it's not going to be a good idea to program the same for a girl 5’2 110 at 12 percent body fat. The rubric should be the same but the volume and plan should be drastically different. What can the body handle? To sum this up, everyone should have the ability to run but not everyone should run. To touch on the functional movement screen or FMS if you DO NOT have a normal range of motion in dorsiflexion you shouldn't be squatting under load. And this goes for several movement patterns the hurdle step being another if you don't have a stable system when doing a hurdle step it is not a good idea to ask you to do hill sprints. This is going to put us at a higher risk of injury.
If you've gotten this far and want more on how to program for yourself or want to have a conversation about online coaching feel free to make an appointment with me so we can see what we can accomplish together!!
