Issue 094

November 2012

In the final part of FO’s Olympic treble, it’s time to get stronger

Barry Gibson

Strength & conditioning trainer

Barry Gibson BSc and MMA-CSCC is the owner/founder of GrappleFit Training, and an S&C coach focusing on combat sports.

So, by now, you should be moving faster and jumping higher. It’s time to complete the Olympic motto and work on getting you stronger, too. Here are my top-five drills to make you a beast inside the cage. 

Build your strength to ridiculous fighter levels with these exercises I use day in, day out with my fighters and athletes, with incredible results.

Zercher Squat

The squat is the king of all exercises in the strength world, so it’s only right it be included here, but I’ve made this a variation on a theme. The Zercher squat hits the upper body in a special way, too; the upper back is stressed to the max and the muscles involved in grappling and clinching are utilized too. 

Dead lift

What can be more satisfying and masculine than to grip and rip a barbell off the floor? Or in my case, grip and strain, drag and pull the barbell off the floor. Add these in if you want to remove your opponent’s arms from their sockets! Or at least if you want to have a higher testosterone level than your little sister.

Sledgehammer chopping

Grab a heavy hammer or an axe and go do some manual labor. Get out in the fresh air and swing the aforementioned heavy object very hard into a tire, if you use a hammer, or a tree stump, if the axe is your weapon of choice. Just don’t get them mixed up! At Grapplefit Towers I use a tractor tire and a specially made hammer, courtesy of my good friend and blacksmith Stan Pike. ‘Big Blue’ weighs in at 18kg and would probably suit Thor himself. Blast away to your heart’s content and see the results. 

Weighted Pull-ups

The pull-up is known as the upper-body squat, all on its own. Add a weighted belt and you’re really going to get Matt Hughes-style strength. Vary your grips with this so you hit the angles, go for chin-ups, pull-ups, mixed grip, even recline rows. Work the angles with all drills but especially the pull-ups. Go steady with the weight, and start off slowly. Aim for three sets of three or five sets of five, and watch your strength climb through the roof.

Overhead Press

It goes without saying I’m not putting the bench press in simply because it’s done to death by everyone. The standing overhead or military press used to be the gold standard upper-body push years ago. So don’t insult this great movement by sitting on your ass and doing it. It incorporates a whole host of muscles in the body; not just the pushing groups either. The core is strongly involved in the standing overhead press. So you’re getting more bang for your buck here. To get truly strong you need to be utilizing big compound movements and hitting whole groups of muscles. The overhead press does just that.

So there you have it, 15 movements to help you achieve awesome athletic potential in accordance with the Olympic motto, ‘citius, altius, fortius,’ or in English, ‘faster, higher, stronger.’ Add these variations into the routine you’re doing now and you’ll be manhandling your weight division in no time at all.