Fighters Only

Issue 095

December 2012

Strength, cardio and size gains made simple

Paul McVeigh

Pro fighter & sports scientist

TUF 14 cast member Paul McVeigh is a sports scientist and coach. He’s also one of the leading bantamweight fighters in Europe.

As much as I like to advocate picking up massive weights and concentrating on improving strength and power, sometimes it just isn’t appropriate for the combat sports athlete. When time is a factor, getting through eight sets of dead lifts with three minutes of rest and all the associated accessory work, is not an option. Similarly, if the athlete is competing in the near future the high central nervous system cost of maximal strength training makes it the wrong tool for this training cycle.

When my athletes are short on time but still want to develop or maintain numerous physical qualities, I look to density training for the answer. Density training’s key feature is to do more work – in the form of reps, sets or loading in a specified timeframe – each time the workout is attempted. Therefore adhering to one of the most important principles in strength and conditioning theory: continually increasing the demand on your body, aka progressive overload.

This protocol will allow you to maintain strength gains, become much leaner and develop some outstanding work capacity in a very short period of time.

The premise behind density training is a simple one: choose five exercises that make up a total-body workout, select 10–12 repetition loads for each and try to perform as many reps and sets as you can for a set time period. If you’re having trouble thinking of exercises consult the table pictured.

We take our selected exercises with their 10–12 rep maximum loads and set off for 10–30 minutes of disgustingness. The exercises are preformed as a giant set, going from one to the other in a circuit training fashion. Take as little rest as you can and aim to average a set per minute.

Attempting to hit 10–12 reps on every set with such little recovery time is a recipe for 20 minutes of hating life and is not even possible if we are using true repetition maxes. Do as many clean reps as you can comfortably without approaching failure. For most people this is usually in the six to eight rep range for the first few sets. You should be working hard but you should not be questioning whether

you will get the number of reps you have set for yourself.

By the end of the allotted time you will probably find yourself managing to crank out singles and doubles as fatigue accumulates to crush your spirit.

WHY DENSITY TRAINING ROCKS

Your body doesn’t really know how many sets of 15-rep preacher biceps curls you did the last time you trained. Your musculoskeletal system responds to the work it was forced to do. If you continue to do more work in the same time period you will get favorable adaptations. Did you get two extra sets compared to last week’s density training workout? Great, that’s the progression we are looking for.

You can progress from week to week by doing more sets, more reps per set or increasing the loading. Traditional strength training programs only tend to encourage an increase in load as a marker of progression.

If you have the mental clarity while knackered to record the load used, the number of sets completed and the total number of reps performed, you have three indicators of progression to choose from. Having an easily quantifiable target combined with a set time frame is a great motivator. Density training makes progression easy as you can switch your brain off and train hard.

As always, you get out what you put in, if you push yourself hard you will get a host of physical adaptations as well as a heightened ability to overcome adversity.

EXPLOSIVE/HIP DOMINANT

Jump squat

Dumbbell snatch

Hang clean

UPPER-BODY PUSH

Weighted push-ups

Push press

Dumbbell alternating bench press

KNEE DOMINANT

Front squat

Walking lunge

Bulgarian split squat