Issue 054
September 2009
Paul McVeigh is a sports scientist, professional fighter, Cage Warriors champion and is ranked the number one bantamweight fighter in Europe. He fights out of the Dinky Ninjas Fight Team in Glasgow, Scotland.
Strength training will hurt my performance
Seriously, if I hear the “I will get bulky and slow and inflexible and stupid and develop a big red tan and a wardrobe of tank tops” argument one more time, I’ll start punching myself in the crotch. Strength training (done correctly and with proper supervision) can only make you better at your sport. I have even heard of Olympic pistol-shooting guys doing snatches to improve neuromuscular coordination and recruitment. Then again, you are reading the Performance section of Fighters Only, so I suspect you get this already.
I need to increase my ab work
Worldwide spine expert Dr Stuart McGill likens the spine to a coat hanger. If you wanted to wreck a coat hanger, you would flex it back and forth until it snapped. This is similar to what happens when you are on your 998th rep of crunches. We have enough ways to mangle our spines without adding to the problem by doing loads of crunches or sit-ups.
While grappling, your spine is already flexing a lot when you are playing guard and getting stacked. Do we really need the extra ab work if it is potentially harmful? We are only really doing crunches to get chicks anyway; eating less cake seems to be much more effective. Not wanting to criticize something without recommending an alternative, I would use the time saved to do front and side planks, ab wheel exercises, anti-rotational exercises, Turkish get-ups and medicine ball slams.
Roadwork is the key to conditioning
All methods have their place but, due to the blind acceptance of early morning jogging (long, slow, distance cardio, or LSD) in combat sports, I feel it is my duty to say something that restores a happy balance. LSD cardio will ensure that you will die painfully, alone and unhappy.
Okay, so maybe I exaggerated a bit, but here are some proven side-effects to regular LSD training:
Decreased immune function
Higher cortisol / lower testosterone
Strength and power reductions
Aggravates existing muscle imbalances
Takes longer than the alternatives
No additional improvement in aerobic parameters than the alternatives.
The alternatives are things like tempo running, shuttles, high-intensity intervals, tabata protocols, complexes and so on. These intense methods have been shown to be superior to LSD cardio in developing aerobic and anaerobic endurance, and they are a hell of a lot quicker to perform.
That being said, I like this sort of running but more as a recovery method as opposed to my main source of conditioning, and never for more than 20 minutes. My hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Squats are good, “pass me that 200kg barbell”
A good strength and conditioning program is progressive. I have seen too many well-intentioned people place a heavy barbell on the back of an athlete who lacks the ankle or hip mobility to correctly perform a bodyweight squat. Start with your bodyweight and move up the scale of difficulty in subsequent phases. This applies to all movements, an example is given below.
Knee dominant single-leg movements
Level 1: Bodyweight split squat
Level 2: Loaded split squat
Level 3: Front foot elevated split squat
Level 4: Rear foot elevated Bulgarian split squat
Level 5: Single leg squat / pistol
The same progressive logic applies with conditioning. As combat athletes we tend to start hard, drag ourselves through it for weeks, never fully recover and only really feel human again the week before a fight, when training volume decreases. But by then you’re probably cutting weight, so you feel crappy anyway.
Start at a comfortable level and increase volume and intensity as the weeks go by. You’re athletes and your performance will thank you for it.
Snorkel training will make me a better fighter – YouTube said so!
Popularized by a psychotic Brazilian, this form of training is definitely super hard, but is it helping improve performance in any way? Snorkel training decreases the volume of air being inhaled and exhaled; therefore less oxygen is being exchanged with the blood. Consequently you aren’t going to be able to work as hard. The purpose of a conditioning program is to maximize force production for as long as possible to bring about greater adaptation. The snorkel forces you to work sub-maximally and limits this adaptation. Just because it is tough does not make a method effective. Snorkel training while aflame and taking crotch punches is tougher still, but I don’t see it making you a better fighter.
