Top 8 Kettlebell Movements For Fighters!
This is a prime example of why Dustin’s blog has been one of my favorites as of late. Got to shout out the fight geek for introducing me to the site.
Training Log: 3/25/09
So today was a day of wins and loses. My morning went fine, kicked out some Tabata’s first thing and headed to the gym for my strength session.
I started dieting down and cutting weight about 3 weeks ago, I was around 225 and stronger than I’ve ever been before. Today I stepped on the scale at 212. The thing is, as you lose weight, you also lose relative strength, the goal when cutting is really to minimize the loss. So today’s strength session really shook me when I was much weaker than I’ve been, coupled with the fact that I think I just had an off day. I’ve been focusing on my conditioning so much lately that my strength has really started to suffer. I was upset at first, but I looked at myself in the mirror and asked if I wanted to be a powerlifter or a fighter.
Fast forward a few hours (and a nice hand gun lesson + 300 rounds later) and me and my friend hit my garage gym for some Muay Thai training. I haven’t done too much technique work in a really long time, but since picking up my cardio, my conditioning has come back to me like riding a bike. Everything felt great and clicked.
Bag work, conditioning drills, sparring, everything. I was worried that my kicks would be tight but they were better than ever. So I realize that this past year is why I’ve been strength training in the first place, to make my fighting that much better. And from today’s session, I’m starting off better than I was despite dragging my body through Hell and back with cardio, strength, and conditioning.
Turns out I like powerlifting, but I am a fighter.
Oh, and if you’re not following me on twitter, you’re missing out some great, blurry cellphone pictures, like this one of my friend Brian blasting zombie targets at the gun range.
This is a warning:
I’m nearing the end of my one year strength experiment after which I will be transitioning back into fight training. In March I’ll start shopping around for a new fight team and training facilities as well as working cardio and conditioning into my weekly routine. Before the month is over I will have hopefully settled into a new school and I’m aiming to have 2-3 technique sessions a week to start out + 2 total body workouts + 1 long cardio day + 1 strength training day.
Okay, I’m starting to ramble. The point is that as I get back into combat mode, I’m going to be posting a lot more about training and fighting. I’ll be answering some common questions I get as well as posting personal stories and experiences in sport fighting and more. If you are a pacifist you’ll probably want to avoid my blog for a while because there is going to be a lot of discussions on punching people in the face. You’ve been warned.
Week 8 Update
It’s been 8 weeks since I started solely focusing on strength training and building mass. In 8 weeks I’ve put on approximately 20 pounds, going from 185 to 205.
At the six week mark I changed up my diet from the Anabolic Diet (sort of the opposite of what Soup is doing) to a more balanced split of 35%/35%/30% protein/fat/carb ratio. I was really lethargic being carb depleted during the week and I was taking about an hour and a half nap everyday. I feel much more energetic on my new split. I’m taking in about 3500kcals on non-training days and around 3800kcals on training days. My training has stayed the same although I’m going to start jumping rope everyday for about 15 minutes, just to make sure my transition back to fight training doesn’t completely catch my heart by surprise. I realize this will slow down my bulking, but I’ve already put on more than I expected. I’m going to stay with my current program for another 6 weeks at which point I’ll be in Europe for about 3 weeks and my training will be limited to body weight stuff (plus a ton of walking).
So It’s Official
I won’t be fighting in Thailand in November as originally planned. I’m taking some extra time and really focusing on my strength training. I figured I would strength train for about 10 weeks, just enough time to be able to really throw someone into a fence, but now I want to work for a few more months and maybe go up a weight class or two. I’ve sort of caught the strength bug. I’ve put on about ten pounds in 5-6 weeks and I’m really interested to see what I can do with some serious power.
I’ve got about 6 more weeks on my original routine, then I’m going to move to Medhi’s advanced program which is 8ish weeks I believe. That’s about 3 and a half more months of dedicated strength training. Once that is complete, I’ll need to get back into my MMA program (striking, grappling, conditioning + less focused strength training).
On the upside though, this frees up vacation time I was hording so now I’m going on a(n?) European excursion in July which is exciting. More on that laterz I suppose.
Stronglifts 5x5 Day 1 Thoughts
I did my first day on Mehdi’s program on Friday after warming up my anterior deltiod pretty significantly. The lifts for the day looked like this:
Squat: 5x5
Bench Press: 5x5
Barbell Row: 5x5
Dips: 3xf
I felt pretty good despite the minimal weight I used. The new gym I’m going to is huge, almost as big as my college gym (with an indoor track, pool, basketball courts, etc) but it STILL only has 2 power racks and 1 (yes 1) dip-station. Luckily everyone there is busy doing curls on the machines so I had the power rack to myself the whole workout.
What I like most about this program so far is that it really energizes me. Instead of feeling drained I feel really pumped. I think this is the perfect program to combine with my HIIT training.
Monday’s schedule looks like this:
8 am: Lifts
Squat: 5x5
Overhead Press: 5x5
Deadlift: 1x5
Pull-ups: 3xf
9:30 am: MMA training for 1 hour
I don’t like to do strength and cardio this close together, but I have to work tomorrow night so I try to sleep from 12 pm - 4 pm which means I have to train everything early. Hopefully my deltiod is strong enough to handle the overhead press, if not, I may need to adapt to a push press or something similar to still work that range of motion.
Some Next Level Ish
I’m working on my new training schedule for the next 2 months. I will be focusing largely on improving strength and conditioning and incorporating all of the following:
Strength training: I have pretty much settled on the Stronglifts 5x5 program. It’s simple, focusing mostly on the squat which is essential if you want to say, pick a man up and throw him into a cage.
HIIT - Sprint Training: Necessary for explosive movement, also a good cardio tool.
Plyometrics: Jump training, mostly using this for cardio/core training. At 6’3 fighting at 185 I can pretty much kick anyone in my weight class in the head without trying too hard. Note that I can kick someone taller than myself in the head when I am trying hard. Even though I don’t need to be able to jump per-see, it still helps with explosive power.
Yoga: Flexibility for grappling. Also I find that it calms me down and helps me focus. Not to mention it’s really hard.
Actual fight training - kickboxing, BJJ, Muay Thai, Shorin-Ryu: Goes without saying. I may tone down the actual fighting however until I get my solid conditioned base back. I need to slowly incorporate more and more fighting into the routine. After the 2 months I need to be fight training every weekday if I want to survive in Thailand later this year.
This essentially means I’ll be training twice a day on most days. My schedule is weird and I work on weekends (6am - 7pm) so those will be tricky to figure out. I at least need to do some HIIT on those days.
My eats are clean. I’ve been on the Anabolic Solution for a couple months now and I really love it. I was easily able to lean back down to 185 (from 195) pretty quickly which means I can probably bulk up to 195 and then go into a cut phase (probably using the V-Diet) in order to add about 10 extra lbs of lean muscle overall. The only change I foresee here is upping my caloric intake due to all the extra cardio. I’m currently consuming about 2700 calories daily. That should probably jump to 3200-3600. I’ll up it to 3000 next week and see if I put any weight on.
My supplements are pretty basic: 2 caps fish oil (x3) daily, 4 caps Garden Greens (x1) daily, 2 caps multi-vitamin (x1) daily, 1 tsp creatine after workout, 8 caps l-glutamine after workout.
Should be a fun 2 months if I can just figure out how to schedule everything. No doubt my first draft (next weeks schedule) will need to be tweeked accordingly. Ok, back to the task at hand.
I think I can punch again
I tore my left anterior deltoid last week weight training. It’s basically the muscle that connects the arm to the shoulder. So for the past week I have been unable to throw my left jab.
Keep in mind, I am left handed and although I typically use an orthodox stance, my left jab is essentially the cornerstone of my stand up game. I am considered primarily a kicker but I use my jab to set up my knock out kick (left roundhouse - to the head, usually) and as the fulcrum for my knees. If I am unable to keep someone in my clinch, my knees are no longer an option.
This had a weird mental effect on me when it first happened. I consider myself a fighter above everything else, and with a primary weapon gone I had a minor crisis of identity. It was strange, like a good friend was gone.
Anyway, I’ve been focusing on strengthening the muscle, and now I feel really good. I need to go work the heavy bag just to confirm but for the most part, I feel whole again. Weird how little things like that can make you feel incomplete.
