A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

After finishing Dan John's 10,000 swing challenge last Tuesday and then taking a day off, I did my first Starting Strength session today. This program, created by Mark Rippetoe and described in detail in his seminal book - which is, incidentally, called Starting Strength - makes a nice general purpose plan for the off - season. Basically, you'd do three sets of five on the following exercises: Session A: Squat Press Deadlift (1 x 5) Session B: Squat Bench Press Power Clean (5 x 3) The days are alternated in an ABA BAB fashion. That means you're training three days per week. In the first week, you're doing session A twice and session B twice. In the next week, it's the other way around. Starting Strength is - at least in the beginning - a linear progression model, so basically weights are increased from day to day. Needless to say, that isn't something you can sustain indefinitely. Hence, I've decided to do a six week block and then decide on what...

Today, I got a gem for you. Well, maybe it's more of a raw diamond, as it's still in beta stage, but still, today you might take away something. This is an idea that came to my head after quite a couple of ends met. I won't pretend that I had any revelation on that one, so first, I'd like to summarize of of the sources and inspirations that led me to come up with this one. In [this] episode of the [Industrial Strength Podcast] Joe DeFranco said something along the lines of "the one thing you have to know about hypertrophy training is that variety is key". He also went on to talk about how muscles don't have emotions, so the term "muscle confusion" isn't all that smart, but still, the workout you get most swole from is the one you never did before. That's part of the secret behind beginner gains and the whole "everything works for about six weeks" thing. Still, it's imperative to have a plan and a structure to training. Y...

Disclaimer: Geeky stuff ahead. If you're afraid of physics, do not read. Also, I don't have everything in order just yet, but I wanted to release this before going to Poland, so the missing Figures will be inserted ASAP. Now Anna, a good friend and student of mine, decided to work on her high kicks. Determined, she told me she was going to stretch a lot. That's the point where, as a trainer, I felt the need to intervene and set things into persepective. You see, while some people might definitely benefit from some targeted flexibility training, what most need is actually mobility. Where's the difference? Well, in a nutshell, flexibility measures the "length" (or rather, the ability to relax) of your muscles, whereas mobility measures the range of motion (ROM) you can take a joint through under control. For my german speaking readers, this is pretty much the difference between "aktive Beweglichkeit" and "passive Beweglichkeit" [WEI2010]...

Time for an update, I guess. A week ago, while attending a [Luta Livre] workshop with Daniel D'Dane (watch the video above for some info on that guy. Note that obviously, it's not the workshop I've been to.), I ruptured the extendor tendon in my left pinky finger. No big deal, but then again, the doc says 16 weeks no grappling or boxing. Now that's a big friggin' deal. Especially since we're about to go fight in [Poland] again. Great. Another tournament where I'm sidelined and just attend as a coach. Well, nevermind, though, since four of my youngsters are going to compete, so there'll be quite some work for me anyway. Ok, now what do I do with no boxing or grappling? Pout and sob - a lot. But when I'm done with that, I'll be going to work. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are     --Theodore Roosevelt I can still kick, so that's what I'll be working on. No rocket science here. I can shadow box and I can wo...

  Disclaimer: This one's going to be a bit lengthy, so I tried to include as many videos as possible to keep things fresh.  Since December, 2014, I'm in charge of the athletics class we run at the Shinergy[base] here in Vienna. In a nutshell, the athletics class is pretty much a functional strength class for small groups. In contrast to other systems out there (which all have their benefits in their own sense), out athletics class follows a simple periodization and is preceded by an individual assessment of each athlete. Our assessment usually doesn't take as long as, say, a full [FMS] , but then again, we screen for the selection of exercises we're actually planning on employing in the current program. This means that, although it might be beneficial for general health or long-term improvement of a functional movement base, there is no pressing need to screen for overhead competency if the plan calls for a horizontal upper body push. We can ḱeep our initial screens...

So tomorrow my journey to China begins. I'm really looking forward to this. As I've pointed out in [this post] , I was pretty busy over the last time. Therefore (and because of my shoulder impingement) I focussed strongly on S&C work. Guess I'll be able to equalize a lot of things (when training in China) by bringing strength and power into play... Below you'll find a table roughly summarizing what I've been doing over the last couple weeks. This is basically the continuation of [this halfway report] . Might not seem a lot, but then it was hard work, I can tell you that... Week 4 Session 1 Date 2013-06-10 Warmup / Power Power Snatch from hang 30 x 3 35 x 2 40 x 3 45 x 2 50 x 2 50 x 2 50 x 2 Strength Front Squat 72,5 x 5 82,5 x 5 92,5 x 6 DB Press 22,5 x 5 22,5 x 4 22,5 x 4 Assistance Deadlift 130 x 3 (1' rest) 130 x 3 (1' rest) 130 x 3 (1' rest) 130 x 3 (1' rest) 130 x 3 (1' rest) 130 x 3 (1' rest) 130 ...

The situation My shoulder has been giving me severe issues for quite some time now. Depending on who I ask, I get a different diagnosis. Already took anti-inflammatory drugs to rule out a bursitis. Didn’t help. Now I’m still waiting for my MRT to clear things up… however, Monday, I decided to work through the pain and just do some kettlebell cleans and presses. I have to say, everything worked like a charm. Yesterday, I could even do a handstand without pain. Not bad, considering I haven’t slept well a single night since the [XX Open Polish Taekwon Do Championships] due to shoulder pain… This somehow fortifies the theory that my shoulder suffers from a lack of stability. Guess it’s time to address that issue… The solution So today, I started following a (slightly modified) [5/3/1] routine again. The program worked well for me, I only stopped doing it because it takes quite a high toll when it comes to recovery. Can’t have that prior to a fight. Since I don’t have any fights ...

[A couple of days ago] I posted that in the near future, I’ll deviate from the pragmatic reality of combat sports competition and the related training for a while and instead ponder some philosophical ideas. That’s still the plan. However, this particular issue is on my mind right now, so I don’t see a point in postponing it… You see, sometimes, we (instructors, trainers, coaches, …) don’t practice what we preach. Sometimes, we just lack the motivation and/or dedication to fully commit to our own principles and instructions. That’s why top-level athletes can still learn from their trainers. While the latter possess a superior level of knowledge, it is the former who actually put that knowledge to good use, train hard and compete. There’s a gazillion reasons why someone might choose not to devote his life to hard training and proper nutrition at 100%. Amongst others, that’s family (a luxury many top-level athletes just can’t afford), past injuries, athletic burn-out (in the sense tha...