Strength & Conditioning training (part 1)

If you are an MMA athlete (or a surfer, a cyclist, anything) and you take it seriously, chances are you are doing Strength & Conditioning (S&C) training to improve your performance in your sport. In this article I will be sharing my views on the PITFALLS of S&C training - basically where it goes wrong, or how it is used incorrectly/inefficiently. I will use MMA as a running example in this article.

1 - spending too much time on S&C.

S&C training is there to improve your sports performance. It is not there to replace it or overtake it. S&C workouts are great, and the rush of getting stronger and better conditioned can become addictive, but remember, whatever you chosen sport is, is what you do FIRST. If you are an MMA athlete, you should be spending most of your workout time on the mat, honing your techniques. Your S&C is there as an add-on, a small percentage of your time will be carefully spent on specific drills designed to improve targeted areas of your game. Don't be the S&C guy who 'also' does MMA... Remember what your focus is.

2 - Doing the wrong exercises.

Why are MMA athletes still benching pressing and doing barbell bicep curls? The biggest advantage you will likely get from those 2 exercises is the ability to intimidate your opponent (which is unlikely. He's also an MMA athlete). Bodybuilding-style training for athletes just means you don't know what your doing. In your sport, your body is working as a complete unit, moving in several planes, and often with your weight predominantly on one leg. Squats & deadlifts are great exercises, huge bang-for-your-buck in terms of strength. But will the grinding strength of these lifts help you if you lack rotational power? Exercises should be sport-oriented and athlete-specific.

3 - Training too hard.

Yes, it is possible! Just because tire flipping, sledge hammer strikes and rope undulating are great exercises, it doesn't mean you should flip the tire 2,000 times, then hammer it with a 20kg sledge for 20 minutes and then undulate a 3" thick 30m rope for 10 minutes straight. Any idiot can 'design' a tough workout. A tough workout, just for the sake of tough, won't produce good results. Try 1,000 burpees - see? It's easy to come up with a tough workout. Your training should be designed to produce better results in your sport, not just make you throw up at the end of it. Some workouts will be gruelling, others can actually be relatively easy. Designed properly, the performance results will follow.

4 - Not addressing the athlete.

(This excludes group sessions where the training is sport-specific) When you train on your own, your training should be sport-oriented, but tailored specifically to YOU. If squatting strength is required in your sport, and you're already a beast on squats, your S&C workout should focus in other areas - specifically your weaknesses. That might be overall strength, it might be movement. It might be the ability to move with strength, or purely acceleration. When I train an athlete I don't enhance his strengths. There is no need - he's already strong there. I find his weakness and bring that up to be as good as his strengths. If you have a weakness it can be exploited. Train to eliminate your weaknesses.

Stay tuned for part 2...

Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer



Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.
Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT

I've been busy...

I do not spend a great deal of time creating an online presence, and this is something I hope to rectify someday. But not today. Not yet. There is a time for talk, and there is a time for action, and actions speak louder than words. Occasionally someone says something that resonates, and Elliot Hulse is always talking about becoming a stronger version of yourself. This year I got tired of thinking about it. I got tired of researching it. So I decided to do it.

Find a goal for yourself. Then don't think about it. Don't read about it. Just get off your ass and do it. Accept no excuses - only results.

I am not interested in just looking like an athlete - I want to be one. If you share my views and want real training that produces real results, contact me.

Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer

Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT

Top Tips for Health & Fitness

Here are some Top Tips to help get you positive results in your health & fitness!

• Add strength training. Think of your strength as a container, and all other aspects of training as the contents. The bigger the container the greater your ability will be to get results in all other areas. Don't limit your potential by avoiding lifting heavy – and get advice if you haven't trained specifically for strength before!

• Nutrition! A good diet is imperative – you can't out-train a bad diet. Top tips for nutrition are to avoid processed foods, high GI carbohydrates & alcohol, whilst making sure you include lots of vegetables, sufficient good quality protein & do not avoid fat in your diet! Fat won't make you fat!

• Rest & recover. Make sure you are getting a good night's sleep! This is the most important recovery & regeneration time for your body, don't skimp on it!

• Don't just move more – more better. One of my favourites! The video above is just a basic demonstration of movement. Learn proper technique, you can always go faster or heavier later. Going too fast or too heavy without good technique is a recipe for disaster. The Body-Flow class I will be offering soon will teach you proprioception – to become aware of your body's position and the level of exertion required in any given movement.

• Focus on long term – and periodise to get there. We all want results immediately, but create long term goals, then break them down into more short term goals, and formulate a plan (periodise) to get there. Some aspects of getting there will be harder & less enjoyable than others, but they are just as important – do not avoid things purely because they are harder or not as fun!

• Develop power! Explosive training (strength combined with speed) will yield fantastic results, and relatively quickly too. This type of training requires a good knowledge of safe training technique and the ability to adjust and scale exercises.

• Don't be fooled! Fit flops, ab gliders, detox diets, shake weights, etc – all junk! There is no short-cut to health, fitness, strength & mobility. There are only good ways & bad ways. Use common sense or ask the advice of a professional if you are considering spending money on something to achieve your goals.

• Make it a lifestyle choice. Almost every exercise & diet regime out there that has failed has done so for one reason – it has been temporary (either by design or default). Any plan to change that is temporary, will only ever yield temporary results. Period. If you go on a 30-day diet, or join the gym for 2 months, or attend training (group or private) sessions haphazardly, your results will always be short-lived or disappointing at best. Make the decision for your life, and then watch how much your life improves!

Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer

Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT

Kickstart 2012 with some REAL training!

And now for a taste of things to come...

With the start of a new year, most people will be looking to burn off those extra pounds that have appeared over the last month... :) The clip above shows you just one of the fun & challenging ways which guarantees you results! I can show you how to achieve twice the results in half the time!

If you have a few pounds to lose, come on down to my studio - I will help you achieve the results you desire using training that is a lot more fun that the treadmill! We use kettlebells, ropes, bodyweight exercises, Olympic lifts, Indian clubs and a whole lot more.

Every new person is entitled to a FREE class, as well as a FREE PT session (30 minutes consultation Q&A, and 30 minutes training). Free tuition is available before every class as well, and available to anyone, new or not.

What are you waiting for?!

Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer

Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT

There is no spoon

1 - I have not invented a "new style," composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from "this" method or "that" method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds. Remember that Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a mirror in which to see "ourselves". . . Jeet Kune Do is not an organized institution that one can be a member of. Either you understand or you don't, and that is that.

2 - Styles tend to not only separate men - because they have their own doctrines and then the doctrine became the gospel truth that you cannot change. But if you do not have a style, if you just say: Well, here I am as a human being, how can I express myself totally and completely? Now, that way you won't create a style, because style is a crystallization. That way, it's a process of continuing growth.

- Bruce Lee.

Bruce believed that there was only one way of fighting, and the separate martial arts or subdivisions of styles were merely parts of the whole. The same can be said about strength & fitness; or just 'exercise'.

All forms of exercise are merely stresses being applied to the body in different manners. Cardio tends towards applying rapid movement with little resistance, strength training tends towards applying slower movement with high resistance. Isometric work applies static stress using varying levels of resistance – anything from bodyweight to whatever you can take. Plyometric work utilises dynamic movements with varying levels of resistance to adjust the amount of stress applied to the body. All exercise is just applying stress to the body in different ways. Do not get hung on one method. Apply movements. Use static postures. Vary resistance from nothing to a lot. Be dynamic. Be slow & steady. Isolate. Compound. Combine.

There is no one form of exercise. Merely indefinite methods of applying stress to the body. Make use of all of them to truly set your body's potential free.

Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer

Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT

Want results? Train with intensity.

All too often I see people training, doing the right things, but they fail to get any results and wonder why. The answer is not what they are doing, but rather how they are doing it – specifically; without intensity. It doesn't matter if they are swinging a kettlebell, deadlifting a barbell or undulating a rope – without intensity you may as well be watching paint dry. Okay sure, it's better than nothing, but only marginally so. The accepted definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. What should you change? The intensity! Start with learning the techniques are perfectly as you can, then make sure you are (and are going to be) consistent with it, then apply the intensity. Too many people exercise just by going through the motions. Most people do not even know how to push themselves hard enough – largely because they never have. Train like you mean it. Train like a bear is chasing you. Train like you're swimming for the shore in shark-infested waters. But don't be the nut who goes wild, throwing the weights around like a crazed gorilla in an ego-induced machismo fit. Practice perfect form with intensity. That's the 3 things you'll need: 1 – technique (perfect form), 2 – consistency (practice), and of course, 3 – intensity.

Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer

Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT

Occam's Razor

People make things more complicated than they need to be.

When it comes to losing fat, gaining muscle, improving athletic performance, or anything similar, there's certainly no shortage of methods out there, and people trying to sell them, promising you amazing results. The more complex they can make their methods, the more 'scientific' they seem, and through a leap of false logic, the more credence we give them.

Look back 100 years. There were plenty of people in fantastic shape, and they didn't have half the dietary & exercise science that we do now. (People like Arthur Saxon had never even heard of the food pyramid, fad diets, aerobics or toning...).

My philosophy is to keep things simple. At BodyQuest Kettlebell Gym I use the simplest methods which often elicit the best results. I don't have a diet that requires a degree in nutritional science to work it out. I don't have a training plan that Einstein would have difficulty following. Yet I can lift another human being above my head with one hand.

Do not be fooled by bells & whistles. The more complex something is, the more chance it has of falling apart when the going gets tough. The simplest methods are often the best. Using the simplest method to a goal is efficient. The more efficient you can become, the better you can apply yourself to any given task. The better you can apply yourself, the more you can challenge yourself.

Challenge everything, especially yourself.

Alex Kay Grimmer

Contact me for Kettlebell classes and Personal Training in Southend-on-sea.

Contact & location details are on my website: BODYQUESTPT