Physical Subculture

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I’ll be posting the Lift of the Day for anyone who wants to get there max force development on, especially Team Bodytribe, who are training hard for our upcoming September RAW meet. But then you, kind lifter, get to be creative with that lift. If today is Squat Day, you pick the squat. Also conveniently posted will be the initials ME or DE, meaning you’re either going to lift up to your 1 rep max, or you’re going to lift fast. This link also has a list of supplemental exercises to help build whatever the main lift of the day is.
Finally, I will also post the day’s combo catch, with a link to our page o’ combos, so you can read all about it and tag it onto your workout, no matter what else you do.

Example:

Lift of the Day: ME Bench Press

Today’s Combo Catch: Kill Me Now

Got it? That’s right, I’m putting a little creativity into your hands while offering suggestions on the day’s path. Now have fun with it and get all strong and stuff.

MMA, KB’s and Hubris

I recently read these comments on someone’s Youtube page praising KB work, particularly high rep work, for fighters:

“What activates stabilizer movements more, a bar on the front or two wobbling cannonballs? Does a combat athlete need a 500lbs Squat or deadlift? Does he even have the time and requirements for such an undertaking?”

and

“I think the most functional thing about kettlebells is the unbelievable amount of work capacity carryover. If you can swing a 24kg kettlebell for 10 minutes straight without stopping and do 400 or more reps you are most likely fit for the ring. The swing is a movement that needs explosiveness in the back, which i could use for example very nicely with muay thai knee blows. The jerk is an explosive movement that is quite comparable to a punch.”

A) If a fighter can squat 500 pounds, he is NOT being taken down easily, and has the spinal strength of a tree. No amount of high rep KB work will EVER develop that that same type of stopping power. Training for increases in maximum force development can take the same amount of time, and be a bit more interesting, than training for a 10-minute snatch blowout.

B) 400 reps in 10 minutes simply means he can do 400 reps in 10 minutes. MMA is a series of intensity waves, like a roller coaster, and there needs to be the development of max force on many occasions. High rep KB work doesn’t teach that.

C) How many martial arts moves have the benefit of a nice long pre-loading stretch? Yet this is how ALL the KB work mentioned is being done, and yet there are all sorts of articles discussing how KB work mimics power generation in fight skills. Most attacks, be it punches, kicks or take down attempts, have a very limited range of motion stretch reflex opportunity at BEST. Wanna make your KB snatch more effective for fighting? Start it like god intended… from the ground. Learn explosion from a stopped position, where the most you can do is create tension without much of a stretch reflex.

Enough said for today. This is simply scratching the surface of many fallacies of MMA conditioning. Don’t get me wrong, i love me my KB’s, but ain’t nothing magical about them.