Got this question posted about overtraining posted on my Facebook page a couple days ago:

Dan Gable was quoted as saying, “there is no such thing as overtraining.” Do you agree because science would seem to suggest there is. But, Gable would work out like seven days a week and he has the Olympic gold medal and his college team won numerous NCAA wrestling titles so how do you argue with him. Any thoughts?

Overtraining is a common buzzword in the fitness industry. Too common, in my opinion.

Everybody and their brother is worried about overtraining. And with good reason – if you train too hard and don’t recover, then not only will your progress stall, but you’ll actually regress and get worse. (This means getting weaker, conditioning and endurance will worsen, etc.)

The problem is (and I discussed this thoroughly in the “Overtraining Report” you get with my Championship Edition 2.0 MMA workout program), is that every time somebody is tired, fatigued, or feeling lethargic, they want to jump the overtraining bandwagon. And I can’t exactly say as I blame them, as the supplement industry has been pushing the idea of overtraining on trainees for years.

See, the idea of any supplement (at it’s most base level) is to help the body recover more quickly. They all accomplish this by different means, but that’s what they’re trying to do – help you recover. And if you can recover quicker, you can train harder and more often. And the first step in all this (especially as the supplement companies tell you) is to avoid overtraining.

The main problem isn’t overtraining, though. Again, as I detail in the Champ Edition 2.0 Overtraining report, the problem most people have isn’t overtraining – rather, it’s under-recovering. This happens not because you’re training too hard, but because your diet sucks, you don’t sleep enough, or one of many other possible reasons.

Now, all that aside, everybody likes to scream overtraining as it relates to overall training volume. Up until the ’80s, it was no problem for guys to do long, marathon-style workouts 4-6 days/week. Then in the ’90s, things radically reversed and many trainers and coaches started advocating super-abbreviated, low-volume training.

Problem is that neither camp is completely correct.

The long, “Arnold” type workouts (think what you might have seen prescribed in any of the old Arnold Schwarzenegger books) that take 2+ hours, twice/day, 6 days/week are *far* from optimal. But at the same time, going to 20 mins workouts done just twice per week is going too far in the opposite direction.

The low-volume advocates like to say that doing too much doesn’t let the body recover adequately – and to an extent, this is true. But the question is, how did guys like Arnold, Franco, Louie, Draper, and the rest do so well on such programs?

Before you scream “STEROIDS!!!”, lemme stop you. Did these guys all use drugs? You bet they did. BUT, if you think what they took and the dosage in which they took them is anywhere close to what you see pro bodybuilders (or even most pro athletes) taking today, you’re crazy. The stuff the guys did back in the ’60-’70s (and even in some cases, up until the ’80s) is child’s play compared to today.

So how could all these guys make gains then, if we’re saying those programs are such a bad idea now?

Simple really – the same reason that Gable said there was no reason as overtraining…they worked up to it.

If you know anything about Gable, you know the guy was a machine that literally was always doing something. If he wasn’t in wrestling practice, he was in the gym. If he wasn’t in the gym, he was running. He’d run from class to class. He’d use grippers during class. He was always doing something.

Bruce Lee was the same way – always finding a way to be accomplishing something.

Both of these guys (and yeah, Bruce used drugs, too – so what) were just absolute physical specimens. Physically strong, mentally tough, and more conditioned than anybody they worked with.

So how did they not succumb to this dreaded overtraining monster? Simple – they worked up to their workloads over years…decades even.

Do you think any of you could go from where you are to doing the sheer volume of work Dan Gable used to do? Sure you could. Do you think you could start doing it tomorrow? LOL – good luck. I’ll come visit you in the hospital.

Listen, you’re not going to go from barely running a mile today to running a marathon next week. Or from benching 185 today to benching 405 by the end of the month. You have to work up to those things.

Same goes with your work volume.

When you see guys that can do insane amounts of work, before you write it off as superior genetics, or call them on the carpet for using drugs (even if either is true), take a look at how hard they work, and how long they’ve been doing it. Then compare it to what you do.

It could be that you just don’t put the work in.

To learn more about the Championship Edition 2.0 MMA Workout program, =>CLICK HERE

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workouts | MMA Workout | MMA Training

So yesterday I get an email from “Juice” – another loyal and long-time customer. Apparently he’s on somebody’s email list, and he got a pitch for an “Elevation Training Mask”.

If you’ve never heard of an Elevation Training Mask, it’s basically one of those stupid-looking things that looks like you’re wearing a gas mas designed to save from from a biological attack. Hell, I don’t know what it is about this one, but it even has the look of something a WWII futuristic German super-soldier would wear or something…like it was straight out of a ’40s comic book or something.

Juice’s question wasn’t out of line as he’s seen the vids on youtube of Sean Sherk wearing one during some of his training. And I’m sure most of us saw the UFC All Access some years back when we were likely first introduced to somebody doing this, when Wanderlei Silva was wearing a snorkel during his training.

The idea behind wearing one of these things is kinda simple – it makes it harder for you to breathe. You go then go train hard, just like you always would. Because it’s harder for you to breathe during your normal, hard training, your body has to work just that much harder at maximizing oxygen uptake and therefore you become much more efficient. Then, when you take the mask off, breathing is much easier, and you can perform even better.

Cool idea…in theory. In the real world…not so much.

Lemme ask y’all this – have any of you ever actually worn a gas mask? Not one of these stupid-looking contraptions, but the real thing? I have – several times. I had to go through training on how to don them in crisis scenarios during the training to go to Iraq back when I was doing govt. contract work overseas. And lemme tell you – wearing one SUCKS.

I don’t know what the difference is between the real thing and this “elevation mask”, but breathing in the real thing is an absolute bitch. And the companies (the ones I had were made by 3M, if I remember correctly) that construct these things don’t care – as long as you can breathe proficiently enough to be able to get yourself to safety, continue moving, etc, then that’s fine. The first order of business for these things is keeping you alive.

I’ve also spent time at higher elevations – and if you never have, breathing there can be tough, too. But it’s a much different thing.

In the latter, you breathe freely – as much as you want, and as hard as you want. You just feel (in my experience) a little more drained, and feel that way a little more easily. With the mask, though, it’s not like that. You are literally restricted on your breathing – as if somebody was cutting off your air supply.

One is hard – the other is stupid, in my opinion.

Here’s the funny thing – I’ve read where a couple guys actually did studies on these sorta masks. And not only did they not make the body more efficient – they actually made it worse! See, at elevation, the body performs as per normal, but produces more red blood cells to make up for the lack of oxygen it can take in during normal operation. (Then, when the athlete goes back to a normal elevation, his red blood cell count stays increased for up to a couple weeks, giving him an advantage.)

However, as I remember and understand it (I could be wrong, but I don’t think so), the gas mask doesn’t have the same effect. And this is because of what I mentioned before – the gask mask doesn’t treat your body the same as training at elevation…it just restricts your breathing. So, instead of increasing the concentration of red blood cells (to make up for a lack of oxygen during normal breathing), your body sees a lack of oxygen, but it’s due to a lack of breathing (see the difference?). In fact, I want to say that I read one coach went pretty in-depth studying this type of training, and actually found that red blood cell count went *down*…all because the athlete wasn’t breathing at proper levels, so the body figured it didn’t need as many.

I know it sounds counter-intuitive, right? But think about it for a second – just because you have to breathe hard doesn’t mean your body is going to naturally increase red blood cell count. If this was the case, then every fatso that was 100 pounds overweight would have awesome red blood cell concentration. And they don’t.

Besides – if making breathing harder was all you needed to do, then fine. Go put duct tape over your mouth the next time you do a set of MFD rounds or power complexes. Lemme know how that goes for you…

(YES, I’m being a sarcastic bastard – NO, I’m not telling you to actually go do that. Don’t be a moron.)

If you want to get into better shape, instead of going for the latest contraption or gimmick, why not just…oh…you know…TRAIN HARDER? Crazy idea, huh?

So instead of dropping $90 + shipping (yeah, they cost that much) on one of those dumb looking masks, why not spend LESS THAN HALF of that on a full 4-phase, MMA workout program that was originally designed for a UFC Champ? You get everything laid out (workouts, exercises, sets, reps), demo videos, printable workout logs, and even a separate book on how to create your own personalized programs from 6-8 weeks long, all the way up to 16+ weeks long.

…and no gas masks required.

=>Click here to check out the Championship Edition 2.0 MMA Workout

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workouts | MMA Workout | MMA Training

Woke up this morning, and had a guy ask me the following question on my Facebook page:

What are your feelings of doing a power clean to push press for athletic performance and for that overall bad ass strength people want?

(Oh, and by the way, if we’re not friends on Facebook, go add me here.)

I thought that was a pretty awesome question, but the answer wasn’t quite as “cut & dry” as many people like to think. Here’s what I responded:

You’ve just brought up a question that needs a multi-part answer.

For “overall badass strength” (and more importantly, power) – the C&P is awesome.

For “athletic performance”, again, it’s awesome.

Now the “downside” (well, not not necessarily “downside”, but the thing you gotta take into consideration)…S&C coaches who are big O-lifting/quick lift fans like said lifts is because of the athletic capabilities they develop. Take the Full Clean for instance – the ability to pull with proper form, snap under the bar into a low squat (which is the most athletic part of the lift), flexibility in the hips/ankles/shoulders/wrists, etc.

Problem is, is that not everybody has the ability to do this movement in this kinda fashion. (There’s a big difference between doing a true Full Clean and Power Clean.) So the question at this point is what should the athlete do?

Training the athlete (or anybody else for that matter) to be able to Full Cleans takes time and a lot of work on skill/coordination. Athletes generally have a very fixed time to train (even out of season – in-season is even worse). So should an athlete take the time to learn the lift?

To answer that, you have to ask if the same kinda qualities can be developed in other movements without a ton of extra work, and allows the athlete to train at a higher level (because even if you can train the athlete to do a proper Full Clean, how long will it be before they can use any kinda real weight)? Because if you think about it, you could develop pretty much the same qualities by doing an explosive High Pull (which can usually be done heavier than Full Cleans) and high Box Jumps (there’s your flexibility and the ability to apply strength/power at extreme ROM – range of motion).

Now if you’re just sticking with a basic Power Clean, then these issues don’t apply. But you also don’t get the full athletic benefit many coaches like the clean for.

See what I mean?

Most other O-lifts / quick lifts are the same way.

And incidentally, this is also the same reason why I when I put together the Championship Edition 2.0 MMA Workout, there’s very little use of such movements. Instead, I felt it better for the athlete to be able to develop similar athletic capabilities by more “simple” movements – High Pulls, Deadlifts, Squats, Swings, Presses, Chins, Rows, etc.

If you wanna see how you can put these simple – yet highly effective – movements into a program that anybody can start right away, and get into extreme condition (remember – this program was originally designed for a former UFC Champ), then be sure to go check out the Championship Edition 2.0.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workouts | MMA Workout | MMA Training

So there’s another UFC this weekend. Man, having been a fan since the old days (aka – pre TUF), it’s crazy to see so many events going down so often.

Anyway, this Saturday is UFC 127 – main event is BJ Penn vs. Jon Fitch.

Lemme talk about BJ Penn for a minute.

With the explosion of MMA in recent years, there’s a lot of new guys in the sport, and a lot of the guys that were so dominant – even just a few short years ago – have literally just been surpassed.

(Whether or not Penn proves to end up being one of those guys still kinda remains to be seen, as he’s back at 170 after losing 2x to Frankie at 155.)

Penn has been around for a *long* time, though. And he’s been able to keep himself relevant.

Wasn’t always that way, though.

See, Penn is one of the best pure skill guys in the game. He’s got amazing natural ability, and his skills are just off the charts. I don’t need to tell you about his BJJ, and now his boxing is on par.

For as awesome as BJ is, and for as long as he’s been around, this is a guy that should have more championship wins than Matt Hughes and Anderson Silva combined.

But he doesn’t. Why not?

Simple – as awesome as his skills are, for the longest damn time, the dude just simply wasn’t in shape.

BJ is a 155-pounder. His body structure will also support 170 w/o too much trouble. But did you know he’s also fought at 185? Hell, a few years back, he fought at friggin’ 205 in Hawaii.

Penn is a guy that should literally have entire rooms in his house wallpapered with championships. I mean, this guy could redefined MMA dominance. But he didn’t and hasn’t b/c he never took getting in shape seriously.

One of the biggest fights in MMA history was his megafight with GSP. And BJ *still* gassed after the 2nd round.

It wasn’t until he started training w/the Marinovich brothers that he really went on a tear, and really became dominant for a time in MMA. Which, in all honesty, is something he likely coulda been doing all along.

Now, am I a fan of how the Marinovich brothers do S&C work? Not really – I think it’s kinda “out there”…lol. But at least BJ was finally focusing on being in shape for the first time in his career.

Think of other guys that are just always known for being in shape and not getting tired – GSP. Matt Hughes. Randy. Tito back in his prime.

Now are all these guys on top still? Nah – not even close. They all just got old (except GSP, of course) and the younger dudes just got better. But that’s even happened to BJ (see my line about him losing 2x to Frankie).

I’m not trying to bag on BJ…well, at least not too much. I mean, he’s had an amazing career, after all. But think about how awesome his career coulda been had he really and truly put the time and effort into being in shape since Day 1.

Personally, I think he’d have been one of – if not *the* – most dominant champs in MMA history.

But because he didn’t…we’ll never know.

Do you lose things in life because *you’re* not in shape? Are there things in your history you could rewrite if you were bigger, stronger, faster, or in better condition?

Don’t let that continue to happen. Go check out the “Championship Edition 2.0″, and get yourself in shape…

…and make sure your history gets written the way it should be.

=>CLICK HERE NOW TO WRITE YOUR OWN HISTORY

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workouts | MMA Workout | MMA Training

*sigh*

Somebody always has to be a jackass.

You know by now that I’ve been telling you the past few days about pulling movements, and why they’re important to MMA. In fact, they’re so important to MMA (and grappling in general) that when I designed my specific fight prep workout – Championship Edition 2.0 – that I made pulling movements a priority.

And by ‘a priority’, I mean many times, I made them the primary exercises in a workout.

And most of you ‘get’ what I’ve been saying, what I mean, and why I’ve been saying it.

Which is cool.

But then there was this one guy…guess he thought he was gonna outsmart me or something, b/c he sent me a real smartass email, about how I’d written a blog post a couple months back about how pulling movements – rows, curls, etc - weren’t really well suited to being treated as primary movements.

He thought I was contradicting myself…and in no uncertain terms was he gonna tell me all about how wrong I was.

Sure dude…whatever.

When it comes to treating a major pulling exercise as a primary movement, it’s not that difficult. If you want to build up to a 3-5RM – you can do that. Just pick a chin or pullup variation, as when you do those weighted, you can’t really swing or cheat (which means good form).

If you wanna pick a rowing movement, just do a set number of sets of say 6 reps or so…no RMs. (That way you don’t get into ‘cheating’ territory on your form for the sake of pulling more weight.)

Then you just add other pulling movements in your assistance work to increase the overall volume and tonnage.

If you’re talking about lower- or full-body stuff like cleans, rack pulls, high pulls, deadlifts, or whatever, then you just treat them as you normally would. Feel free to build up to an RM to your heart’s content.

Not that tough to figure out.

(But I guess for some people it is…LOL.

Either way, you don’t have to worry about it…you could just click the link below, get the “Championship Edition 2.0″, and not have to worry about anything…

…you can just do what I outline (b/c it’s all there: exercises, sets, reps, etc). All you have to do is show up and work.

Pretty cool, huh?

=>go to WorkingClassFitness.com to learn more about “Championship Edition 2.0″

Have a kickass weekend.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workouts | MMA Workout | MMA Training

The past couple days, I’ve been telling you why your MMA workouts should heavily involve exercises that will help you build a lot of strength and power in pulling movements.

You know – rows, chins, pullups, shrugs, cleans, deadlifts, rack pulls…that kinda thing.

When it comes to MMA and grappling, there is a lot more ‘pulling’ done than pushing. (This is why the pulling stuff is so important.)

But either I presented it wrong, or a few of you got your wires crossed, b/c I’ve gotten a few email responses asking if it’s Ok to just get rid of pushing exercises completely.

NO!

I’m *not* saying pushing exercises (like benches, overhead presses, etc) aren’t important – because they sure as hell are! They just shouldn’t be the focal point of your workouts (like so many strength coaches design their programs).

For other sports, general strength training, or even muscular development, this is fine. However, for MMA, you need to do things differently.

Example.

An upper body strength workout for another sport might look like this:

1 – bench press to 5RM
2 – pushups: 2 x max reps
3A – lateral raises or seated cleans: 3-4 x 10
3B – row variation: 3-4 x 10
4 – direct arm work

See how pushing is dominant in that workout – both in how much weight is used (building to 5RM) and in overall volume (2 different exercises, more overall sets and reps, etc)?

Compare that to this upper body strength workout that would be better suited to MMA*:

1 – weighted chin to 5RM
2 – bench press: 4 x 6-8
3 – bent barbell row: 4 x 6-8
4A – plate raise to overhead: 3 x 8-10
4B – seated power cleans: 3 x 8-10
5 – armpit raises: 3 x 8-10

*this is actually a sample upper body strength workout from Phase 1 of the Championship Edition 2.0

See the difference? Much more pulling than pushing.

This is the kinda thing I’ve been talking about…

…and this is the kinda thing (and more) that I wrote into the Championship Edition 2.0 MMA Workout. See how much different it is than other workouts?

(And if you think that’s different, you should see how Championship Edition 2.0 approaches density training, intervals, and complex training!)

If you’re not doing this kinda workout, then you’re really selling your MMA skills work short…don’t let that happen.

=>CLICK HERE NOW to get the Championship Edition 2.0

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workouts | MMA Workout | MMA Training

One of the biggest misconceptions when designing an MMA Workout is that all you have to worry about is what kinda qualities to develop.

(In other words, do you work on building strength, speed, cardio, endurance, etc?)

Now, while that question is of vital importance – you should know that being in shape can make or break any fighter – there is something else you should worry about, and that’s what kind of exercises you’re doing?

However, I’m not talking about that quasi ‘sport specific’ crap you see peddled out there. You know – those stupid, made-up movements where you replicate the stuff you do in the cage in the gym. Stupid exercises where you mimic punching, or holding somebody down, or that other junk. All that stuff is not only stupid-looking, but most of it is pretty useless when it comes to actual fighting. In fact, many times, it’ll completely screw up your mechanics and could actually make you a worse fighter.

*gulp*

Instead, I’m talking about making sure you target movement patterns, motions, and certain muscle groups. Building these things in a general sense is good – then when you do your skills work, drilling, and sparring, your body learns to apply all those new qualities (that strength, speed, etc – with the correct musculature) to your actual fighting.

See the difference?

When designing strength and power workouts, most strength coaches center upper body workouts around pushing exercises – stuff like the bench press, incline bench, or overhead press. This is because those exercises all use multiple muscle groups, can build a ton of muscle, and you can move a bunch of weight when doing them (which means you get stronger).

However, if you’re a fighter, there’s a better way to do it.

See, many combat sports – including MMA, wrestling, submission grappling, and more – have a very big pulling element to them. There’s a lot of it in grappling, sinking in submissions, and ground control. Even the clinch in your stand-up game is largely pulling.

You pull a helluva lot more than you push…

That’s when why I put together the “Championship Edition 2.0″ MMA Workout, I made pulling exercises a focus of workouts. You’ll see a lot of pullups, chins, rows, and other pulling movements – for max weight, max reps, and as ‘assistance’ type exercises.

In fact, there are entire phases in which even the lower body workouts utilize a lot of pulling work – stuff like deadlifts, high pulls, rack pulls, cleans, and more. Sure, these exercises all target your lower body, but they still make you pull – building a strong and powerful back, neck, traps, lats, arms, etc.

All stuff you need to be a competitive fighter. And all stuff that many other workouts (even good ones for other sports) leave out.

I wanted to be sure that with the Championship Edition 2.0, that you’re getting all the pulling work you need…something most other MMA workouts just don’t have you doing.

(And I sure as hell don’t want you doing any of that “hey, look at me – I do this dumbass-looking exercise that’s gonna screw up my MMA skills technique and maybe even get me injured because I’m a fighter!” type crap.)

Tell you what – what don’t you just click the link below, and find out more for yourself?

=> CLICK HERE for the MMA Workout that has all the pulling exercises you really need

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Cardio Workouts | MMA Workout | MMA Training

So not long ago, I get an email from this guy, and he’s telling me that he’s got my Championship Edition 2.0 MMA workout programs, but they just don’t work for him.

????

Was kinda surprised, as most people rave about how kickass the workouts are, and the awesome gains they get.

But not this guy.

He tells me that while he likes the workouts, he’s an amateur fighter, and in trying to get all the experience he can (plus, being a sort of ‘throwback’ to the early days of MMA), he fights as often as he can – often just on a few days notice.

Good as the Championship Edition 2.0 is, it’s just too damn long. He can’t build up to being in shape to fight – he’s gotta be as close to ‘fighting shape’ as he can be all the time. He doesn’t have 3 months to get ready.

Hmmmmm.

Then, two days later, I’m talking to a buddy of mine – a guy that has literally every single program I’ve ever put out. And he tells me that while he likes my programs, they just don’t work for him.

(Jeez…I’m getting this 2x in one week? WTF?)

His problem, he tells me, is “Workout ADD”. Or in other words, though he knows he shouldn’t, but with all the information and programs and stuff out there, he gets distracted *way* too easily, and never sticks to a program for more than a few weeks.

Like the fighter, he just can’t (or won’t) stick to a program for 90+ days like mine require. He wants something that he can focus on for a few weeks, and get done. Sort of a “get in and get out” kinda deal.

Hmmmmm again.

That’s when I decided I had to create something that was pretty much “excuse-proof”.

So, I put together Wiggy’s “4-Week MMA Blast”

This 4-week MMA workout ebook has:

–4 workouts/week

–everything spelled out for you (workouts, exercises, sets, reps, etc…just add effort)

–uses “micro-periodization” (remember that recent blog post?) to cycle your strength work, power training, complexes, roadwork & sprints, “Singles & Doubles” work, “Power Complexes”, and more

–can be done in any gym (no fancy or special equipment required)

–progression to increase you work capacity

…plus a bunch of other cool stuff.

And you can get it all for a cool $9.95. =>CLICK HERE TO ORDER RIGHT NOW

You gotta know this kinda offer ain’t gonna be around forever. Come Friday night at midnight, the offer as it stands now goes away. Not quite sure how yet – either I strip some of the cool stuff away, the price goes up, or I just simply pull it down completely…

(…which is what my marketing mastermind buddies are telling me to do – bring it back next friggin’ year sometime…what is it with them wanting me to keep all my stuff to myself? sheesh…)

Either way, the deal goes away Friday night at midnight. So you’d better jump on it while you can.

=>CLICK HERE before the deal goes away

Have an awesome week and I hope you enjoy the new workouts!

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Muscle Building Programs | Cardio Workouts | Cardio Fitness | MMA Workout | MMA Training

With the growth of my businesses, websites, and blogs in recent years, I know there are a number of y’all that have only come to start reading my articles, posts, newsletters, and such fairly recently (like as in the past couple years or so). Many of y’all might not know that I actually put out my first training manual back way back in 2003.

Geared toward MMA, it was called “Singles & Doubles”. The original book was originally written with sandbag training in mind, but the driving force behind the program was using a lot of sets of just one or two reps (hence the “Singles & Doubles” name) while reducing rest periods over time.

I had a few articles published around the intranetz at the time, one of which at the T-Nation site (or T-Muscle or Testosterone.net or whatever they hell they’re calling themselves right now). The article was called “Staying Power” and I’ve re-printed the article over at my site.

If you’ve never seen my old “Singles & Doubles” style of training, go check the article out:

=>CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

It’s a pretty cool method of training that can lead to some pretty awesome work capacity gains with near maximal weights. I think alot of y’all will like it.

HOWEVER, I will advise you – don’t use this S&D protocol for either you entire training program, or if you do, not for an extended period of time. While it can build some pretty kickass capacity with near maximal weights, and even though you are resting very minimal, because you’re never doing more than two reps at a time, if you do only this style of training for too long, you shoot your muscular endurance straight in the ass.

(I had to learn this the hard way after training like this for a good 1.5+ years, only to come back to more medium to high rep training, only to realize my muscular endurance would crap out – even with fairly light weights – in as few as six reps. So don’t let this happen to you…)

=>CLICK HERE to give the article a read – I think y’all will like it.

Oh and watch out in the coming days…I’ll be revealing a method (actually, a MMA-specific workout) that utilizes this style of training as a part of an overall program. It’s pretty kickass. But all in good time…

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Muscle Building Programs | Cardio Workouts | Cardio Fitness | MMA Workout | MMA Training

If you’ve followed me, my style of training, and the kind of programs I design for any real length of time (say, oh, anything longer than 5 minutes or so), you know I’m a fan of getting a lot of different things done at one time – or at least with one program.

I’m also a fan of being good at many things rather than being great at any one thing. The reasons for this are several, but here are a couple of the most important:

1 – the first venture into “real” strength & conditioning training (instead of just the pumping routines listed in many of the bodybuilding magazines) I had was trying to figure out how to design workouts for MMA fighters. Remember, this was back in the late ’90s and early ’00s – back when MMA was still banned on cable/PPV, tape trading was the norm (though “hush, hush”), and very few guys fought full-time.

This was formative to how I wanted to design programs, as MMA had such a wide need of different physical qualities, and most guys had to work a full-time job (sometimes more than one) just to put food on the table and support their families, much less train. And in those days, it wasn’t going to the local MMA gym to train – it was doing BJJ, boxing, wrestling, kickboxing/muay thai, and maybe more – all multiple times per week. Workouts had to be short, to the point, highly effective, accomplish a lot of different things, and not drain recovery.

2 – A lot of the people who do my programs are the “regular guy” (or gal). While they might not be professional fighters, they are in much the same position as the old school MMAists I mentioned above. They want (and need) to get complete and all encompassing workout programs in – ones that make them stronger, more explosive, keep them lean, build a strong heart and lungs, promote flexibility, increase vitality and health, etc.

Most of all, these are folks that not only want to look good, but want to be able to “be” good. There’s not much point in looking like the guy in the fitness ad if you get winded doing yardwork, or bringing in the groceries could be considered a maximal effort.

And, like the fighters, most “regular guys” (and gals) lead pretty busy lives – full-time jobs (and let’s face it – “full-time” these days many times means 50+ hours/week), kids, a spouse, honey-do lists, school events, and more.

They don’t have all day to train, either.

So when I put together programs, I like to get a lot done, do it all at one time, and accomplish many different things if I can. On a scale from 1 to 10, I’d rather be a 7 or 8 across the board, instead of a 9 or a 10 in a couple different things, and a 3 or 4 at everything else.

That’s where I have to return to one of my old bodybuilding-based books.

I’ve mentioned these guys before, but back in the ’90s, there was a company called Optimum Training Systems. The company was headed by Leo Costa, Jr., and in some capacity, he worked with a guy by the name of Dr. R.L. Horine. In fact, for a while, the “Golden Eagle” Tom Platz even partnered with them.

I won’t bore you with the long story, so here’s the cliff notes – Costa had built up a fairly successful personal training business in California, and, as the story goes, was supposedly invited overseas to attend a symposium where Bulgarian Olympic lifting coaches (who had some of the most successful lifters in the world) would reveal the secrets they used to train their lifters. After learning as much as he could (and with supposedly even a return trip to Bulgaria, I think – but don’t quote me), Costa came back to the States and wrote a series of books, applying what he’d learned to bodybuilding.

If memory serves me correctly, the first book was called “Bulgarian Power Burst Training”, then “Serious Growth”, then “Big Beyond Belief”, and I can’t remember what the fourth one was called.

Now since that time, I’ve come to learn that the stuff Costa wrote about in his books didn’t really mimic what the Bulgarians did, and the programs he had int he book were so damn volume heavy overall that they’d kill most folks.  But really, that didn’t matter a whole lot to me, as I learned some pretty good stuff from Costa’s writings that I still use to this day.

One of the things he wrote about was what he termed “micro-periodization”.

Basically, micro-periodization was just compressing the entire concept of periodization into very short timespan. So, while using traditional linear periodization, an entire cycle might take a year or longer, spending a few months (or at least several weeks) in each phase of training, you would actually complete an entire cycle in just one week, performing a day or two of training each week in each phase or style of training.

So, if you had a phase dedicated to endurance training, a phase dedicated to hypertrophy, and a phase dedicated to strength development, you’d do workouts dedicated to each phase each week. It’s pretty similar to conjugate and concurrent forms of periodization.

However, the way I liked to use micro-periodization was to incorporate different movements and lifts into athletic-based programs (that would also involve some vanity work now and again). And by no means are you limited to endurance, hypertrophy, and strength training – you could pick any three forms of training you wanted.

For instance, say you did a workout devoted to bodyweight exercise, a workout devoted to strength work, and a workout devoted to complex training.

Or a workouts that went from high volume, low intensity (i.e. – lower weight used), to medium volume, medium intensity, then to low volume, high intensity, rotating exercises and/or movement planes with each workout.

Or workout that concentrated on maximum power, then intense conditioning, then ending the week off with adding some additional muscle?

See what I mean – as long as you’re smart about it, there are a whole variety of ways to implement this type of ‘do-it-all’ protocol to your programs.

Try it out and see what you think. And be sure to leave a comment below if you hit upon a combination that works for you!

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
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