Have Your Workouts Been All Wrong?
From Elliot Hulse's newsletter titled "800 lb squat... useless?"
Below is a short article that Chris wrote for me to
share with you. It's about why being big and strong is
Yea... weird, I know. But he explains really well in the
article.
Before you read it though, I just want to remind you that
the Strength Camp Scholarship program ends tonight.
You can still enter here:
http://www.hulsestrength.com/total-power
During my career, it became evident to me that the best
athletes were not only the most skilled, but the most powerful
and capable. No matter how many hours I spent practicing drills,
on game day, I was often bested by stronger, faster athletes.
It wasn't until I changed the way that I trained that I finally began
to level the playing field.
Somewhere between 17 and 18 years of age, I finally saw the
light and started training for power and performance instead of
strength and mass. It made all the difference in the world.
Total Power Training brings you the best approach to improving
your performance on the field. Sure, it'd be nice to have an 800
pound back squat in the gym, but if you can't produce force on the
field, what good is it?
This is why power is so important. Power combines speed with
strength making you a more capable and better adapted athlete.
Stop wasting your time in the gym with workout programs written
by bodybuilders and powerlifters. When was the last time you saw
Mr. Olympia run a 40 yard dash in under 4.5 seconds?
In our world, the world of the athlete, strength is king, but speed kills.
When you have both, you are a force to be reckoned with.
Total Power Training is a progressive program where each workout,
you will address dynamic movements and motor patterns, power
development, strength training, core exercises, and auxiliary movements.
You will perform speed work, strength work, plyometrics, mobility,
and flexibility training all specifically focused on improving your
athletic performance on the field where it counts.
It is a complete program, and can be performed alongside your sport
specific training and practice. Four days a week of training with a balance
of recovery and injury prevention movements.
This program will give you tools, skills, and ability to practice and play
harder. Pick up your copy of Total Power Training today and see what
separates the elite athletes from
Grow Stronger,
Elliott Hulse
For those who don't know who Elliot Hulse is, he is strengthcamp on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/strengthcamp and he covers a whole variety of things regarding health and fitness, so I recommend you go check his stuff out.
Excluding the marketing pitch, there are some useful things we can take from this. Notice the item focused on here is power, in Physics we have the equation:
Power = Force * Velocity = mass * acceleration * velocity
Mass is the amount of stuff you have, velocity is speed, and acceleration is how much your speed changes in a given interval of time.
This reminds me of Tim Larkin's, a self defense trainer, recommendation to people to hit very fast. But if you read Elliot Hulse's article, Elliot recommends that strong people move faster. It seems like a contradiction between the two, but there is a way reconcile the two tips. Tim Larkin is working with people who hit very fast but use only a small portion of their body mass, such as those who just fling their arm at someone but nothing else. Elliot Hulse works with those who have their entire mass in motion, but don't move with that same force fast enough. Algebraically we see that in order to be strong, we have to get our whole body moving very fast with whatever resistance we put on it.
The second thing that got me wondering was about exerting force on the field. "In the field" refers to one's end goal in training. For me I wanted to become a better martial artist and build more "substance" when I trained. When I say "substance" I mean that there's some power behind the muscle. If you look at most online trainers today, they show off their six pack abs, but don't always mention their performance. Personally I put performance over appearance although lately I'm beginning to take on the looks of a bodybuilder, but that's beyond the point. Why I chose martial arts is that no matter what kind of movement from something like the jump turning kicks to the simple arm strikes, if done correctly all require you whole anatomy to go behind the move. My coaches back then emphasized "explosive power" which meant every shot had to be strong, fast, and meant to knock out your opponent at any given moment. So that's strength and speed in those words.
While I'm not officially in mixed martial arts anymore due to college and other commitments, I still try to train strength and the martial arts movements, but now that I do much less cardio and free body movements in place of plain strength and resistance, it gets me wondering if the changes I made to my regiment actually help my end goal of substance and martial arts. Strength is one thing, but if you see some training documentaries of mixed martial artists, you see they don't put on much resistance. I'll use George St. Pierre as an example. He can only bench press 2.5 plates, 1 plate =45 lbs, add the 45 lb bar and that gives you 160 lbs. However on Sports Science he punches with over 2800 lbs and kicks with over 3400 lbs, contrary to common logic. While his simple motion wasn't too good (bench press), which he put his whole anatomy into his motion, he gets record results. And what is George's training program? Track and Gymnastics or free body movements and cardio. I wrote on my site minutesfitness.com in my free downloadable report about how too much cardio can hamper your progress, but that assumes you don't get enough nutrition.
So I hope after this long article at least if nothing else we reconsider our final goal and check if what we do actually furthers us to get there. I mean if you're just training to do simple movements like squats and bicep curls and that's what you want to be good at, then go for it, but if you're like me, Elliot Hulse, and Tim Larkin who want to go beyond that, we have to take our workouts to another level and mix it up some more. I know I'll have to add back the cardio and free body movements to my training, and I hope to be able to do some online training where I can share my workouts with you all. But in the meantime, stay tuned for more articles. God bless you all and you all have a blessed day.
For more information, you can download my free report at
http://www.minutesfitness.com/
support.minutesfitness.com/contact-us if you have questions or would like to schedule a free private consultation.
Another version of this on Youtube: http://youtu.be/Fqzx3BRdOec
