"Discussion - Complexes & Overtraining"
(originally published at workingclassfitness.blogspot.com)

There was some good dialogue over at mma.tv. It started with the posting of a circuit workout done by former UFC Welterweight Champion George St. Pierre. Here was the workout posted:

GSP circuit workout:

In his video, He claims he does this full workout 2-3 times a week, intermixed with fight training every day, as well as HIIT sprints 2x/wk. All circuits are 4X10, 1 min active rest between each.

Chest:

Bench Presses
Swiss ball pushups
Dumbell flys
Bent over barbell rows

Legs:

Barbell squats
Dumbell lunges (5 forward, 5 backward)
Swiss ball leg extensions
Squat jumps (jumps as high as he can)

Core:

Circular back extensions
Twisting double crunches
Bent dumbbell rows (10 each side)
Swiss ball crunches

Shoulders/Arms:

Seated dumbbell presses
Barbell Clean & Press
Barbell bicep curls
Barbell tricep extensions

Enjoy! Train hard!

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After that, I posted my thoughts and was asked subsequent questions, which led into the topic of overtraining. The questions will be in italics and my responses in bold.

If you decide to do something like this, just be sure to start off with VERY light weights - you'll burn yourself out in a hurry if not. Martin Rooney does complexes similar to this (as opposed to Randy's circuit which is more along the lines of a Javorek complex) with the guys at Renzo's, and IIRC, they'll do five rounds with only up to 75 lbs. or so...

wiggy, what are the pros/cons to this type of circuit as opposed to a javorek complex? is this circuit geared more towards explosiveness/speed as opposed to strength?

The difference between this type of complex/circuit and the Team Quest/Randy/Javorek type complexes is that these involve more "traditional" (for lack of a better term) type exercises. While TQ/Javorek complexes are made up of primarily squat/lunge variations, vertical pulling exercises, and the occasional vertical push, these will have more horizontal plane movements, more isolation exercises (curls, triceps, etc.), etc.

Javorek type complexes (depending on exactly which exercises are chosen) can generally be done with a little more weight. The limiting factor (as far as weight goes) in these type of circuits is your weakest exercise. In a Javorek type complex, it's usually an upright row. Here on the other hand, it might be a curl or the like.

I wouldn't say *any* of these types of programs are for strength, in that you have to use such light (comparitvely overall) loads to complete them. Javoreks are good for overall body conditioning, muscular/strength endurance, as well as cardiovascular fitness. Rooney's complexes are generally longer in that they consist of more exercises, though with the lighter weights, the overall work (in terms of pounds lifted) will probably be pretty close to a Javorek complex. GSP's circuit (as listed) would have it's main benefit in specific muscular endurance (as you're putting so much training at one time into specific muscle groups rather than training the entire body).

Personally, while GSP's program obviously works great for him, and I wouldn't tell him to change it, for us regular folk, I'd recommend a Rooney or Javorek type of complex instead.

In my Program #1 of "Working Class Fitness - The Programs", I actually designed a good overall strength/power program combined with a good set of complexes that are (what I feel) the best of both worlds. For what that's worth...

aren't you typically suppposed to just work out each major muscle group once a week?

^^Too broad of a question. You have to take into account what is the goal of training, type of training being used, the experience of the trainee, etc.
It's an extreme example, but Bulgarian Olympic lifters are known to workout up to 3x/day with near maximal loads, 4-6 days/week. And they're some of the best O-lifters in the world. Of course they've been in a nationalized training program forever, are almost assuredly (sp?) "enhanced" etc., but just throwing it out there...

I see. I just keep getting told that overtraining is worse than undertraining and that your muscles generally need at least 48 hours to rest between workouts. Obviously everyone is different and there are exceptions, but I always believed this was the general rule for any type of weightlifting.

While overtraining is a valid condition, I wouldn't worry about it as much unless you're doing a lot of work overall (complete strength program, conditioning, MMA a few times/week, etc.).

Overtraining was pushed really hard back in the '80s by the supplement industry in the bodybuilding magazines. They were pushing very volume-heavy training routines that “regular folks” couldn’t really make gains on. When they did start overtraining, instead of just dropping training volume, it was b/c the trainee wasn’t recovering. And how do you recover better/quicker? By taking XYZ supplement.

For many of us, overtraining is more a case of resting/recovering too little (which can be affected by not just training volume, but lack of sleep, high stress lifestyles, etc. – I actually wrote about this in my own training recently on my blog) rather than training too much.

In fact, overtraining some is actually good for you. Push into the basic area of overtraining a little, then backoff. This will train your body to be able to handle more work. When overtraining becomes a real problem is when you stay in that overtrained state for a continued period of time...

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.