10 Reasons Your Gym Isn't A Real Gym

1. There is a sign saying 'No Chalk'

2. You have ever heard a song that is regularly played on Heart FM whilst training
2(a). You can understand more than 50% of the lyrics of the song that is being played without reading them.

3. There is a sign saying 'No deadlifts'

4. It is impossible to find a dumbell over 50 kilos

5. There is a sign saying 'No grunting' (has actually happened!)

6. People tell you you're doing upright rows wrong when you do hang pulls

7. There is more than 1 piece of cardio equipment per 10 people in the gym

8. There is more than 1 television in the building
8(a). The television is not showing either sports or porn

9. People tell you you're doing squats wrong when you're doing Good Mornings
9(a). You can Good Morning more than anyone can squat

10. You have heard the phrase "You can't bench more than 100 kilos without taking gear" (again, true story)

What Sport Do You Train For?

Do You Train For A Sport?

	Mixed Martial Arts
	Boxing/Muay Thai
	Wrestling/Jiu Jitsu
	Rugby/American Football
	Track And Field
	I Just Train For Strength
	I Just Train For Size
	Other Sports

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Survey by Quibblo

Run Swim Fly Green Diet

Time to sort the fat out (again!), and I'm going to do a 2 week phase of the 'run, swim, fly, green' diet.

This is an idea Charles Poliquin came up with the kick start a fat loss phase, kicking the sugar addiction and getting used to eating good healthy food.

The system is simple, and it goes like this -- For 2 weeks eat only the following foods:
1) Foods that fly, swim, or run
2) Foods that are green and grow in the ground
Can it get any more simple? Probably not. Simply put, if it doesn't fly, swim, or run and isn't green and growing in the ground, you don't eat it for 14 days.

That's all. That's the plan. And it works...when you follow it for 14 days and then, after the 14 days, you appropriately transition off of the plan.

Percentage Calculator

Hardcore Sports Training branded %age calculator, with kilos to pounds ACCURATE (to 5 significant figures) conversion now online at

http://www.hardcoresportstraining.co.uk/percentagechart.xls

Hopefully this will help you all out. Stick your 1 (or whatever) rep maxes in the green boxes, and it will output 100%, 95%, 90%, 85% etc all the way down to 5%.

Deadlifting Stupidity

So, what's the best thing to do if your back isn't feeling 100%? Load up a bar and deadlift, of course! Will actually get round to rehabbing the problem I've got at the moment and aim towards 500 lbs again soon.

Mindset For MMA

Q&A - A Fighting Mindset

Question:

"I wonder if you could give me some advise. I have a K1 style kickboxing fight soon. I am struggling to get motivated for it. I have had 2 fights in the last 2 years. I lost both, I know I'm a much better fighter now, but can you give me any idea about how to get my mind right?"

Answer:

Hmm, interesting question - mental attitude certainly makes a huge difference! The good news I suppose is that this can be trained. In fact, in the Eastern system the development of sports specific skills is accomplished with the specific training and also without doing any training at all! In order to increase familiarity with the specific moves, combinations and positions used in the sport, visualisation is used extensively to effectively train the nervous system to perform as required, whilst minimising the stress on the muscular system. This type of visualisation needs to be very clear in order to work correctly though, you should get adrenaline rushes and all the things that are standard with the actual performance, but visualise yourself calm and in control.

Here is a quote from Supertraining about training 'bad' positions in order to improve confidence -

All round sports training must include the capability for coping with unexpected and sub-optimal conditions. In certain sports where [..] unexpected situations often occur, such as martial arts, [...] participants are taught how cope with events that can have serious consequences. This type of preperation needs to be adopted far more extensively in all sports so that the athlete is able to anticipate threatening situations, react much more rapidly to unexpected circumstances, take action to avoid or minimise injury and cope with sub-optimal conditions by practising with imperfectly executed movements.

I would also suggest reading 'Goals' by Brian Tracy - this is not a book specific to sport, but goes into detail about mindset and goal setting. I think everyone should read this book!

Click here for 'Goals' by Brian Tracy at Amazon.co.uk

Hopefully that helps a bit,

Alex.

Q&A - Beginner Weight Training For MMA

I have recieved a few questions that I haven't got round to answering, and will do so here so at to hopefully enlighten more than one person at a time! If you have any questions feel free to e-mail qa@hardcoresportstraining.co.uk - I may make this a regular feature if there's demand.

"I'm 20 years old and I have been training for just under a year. However I have not seen much of a difference in my size or strength.
My training schedule is normally 3 days a week, Monday is chest and triceps, Wednesday is back and biceps, and fridays is legs and shoulders. I am not sure I am training right as I use the pyramid style, were i start on low weights high reps and end on high weights with low reps.
The other problem I have is, I seem to stay at the same weight which is about 63kg, and according to my height which is 5ft 11, I am under weight. Please could you help me as I have an ambition to become a mixed martial artist and would appreciate any information you could provide."

If you have been training for a year and haven't seen any results, you are doing something wrong! When you first start training you should grow like a weed, or at least gain strength at a phenomenal rate. We'll get to training later, but at 63kg I suspect the problem is not eating enough. You should be eating every 2-3 hours, good food but lots of it, and that will help you stick some mass on, which in turn will help with strength. It is so easy to put weight on as a beginner there should be no problem doing this.

Your training is may be good for an intermediate level bodybuilder, but considering you are neither of those I would suggest looking at changing some things. I would suggest if just training with weights training either 3 times a week full body or 4 times a week in an upper/lower split. This may look something like:

3 days Full Body:

Day 1:
Squats
Bench Press
Chin-ups

Day 2:
Deadlifts
Overhead Press
Barbell Row

Day 3:
Lunges
Push-ups
Low Cable Row


Upper/Lower:

Day 1:
Squats
Lunges
Crunches
Side Bridge

Day 2:
Bench Press
Bentover Row
Tricep Extensions
Rotator Cuff

Day 3:
Deadlifts
Pullthroughs
Leg Raises
Front Bridge

Day 4:
Overhead Press
Chin-ups
Bicep Curls
Scapular Retraction

Of course, if you plan to compete in MMA, this will be too much weight training, but if you wish to get a base of mass and strength before starting to train this could work well. Sets and reps are too individual to go into, If you are currently training for MMA 2 full body sessions a week may work better, depending on personal circumstances. Make sure you read Intelligent Training For Beginners too.

Training Idea - Kettlebell Complex

This is a complex we have been using at the end of a workout for metabolic/conditioning work. Feel free to make it harder/easier by manipulating the variables (more about this coming to a Fighter's Only mag near you...next month I think!) The complex uses a pair of kettlebells, 16 or 20 kilo should be about right. Perform all the reps of one exercise followed immediately by the next.

Complex:

• Clean
• Overhead/Push Press
• Front Squat
• Romanian Deadlift
• Row
• Pushups on handles
• Rest prescribed amount, then repeat.
  
  
  The way I have been doing this recently is making the rest 10x the number of reps. Therefore, if you do 5 reps, you rest 50 seconds. Using this guide, here are some ideas of how to do the complex:

Start at 1 rep, work up to 6:

Sequence would be 1 rep, 10 sec rest, 2 reps, 20 sec rest, 3 reps, 30 sec rest, etc.

Start at 6 reps, work down to 1:

As above but reversed

Pyramid:

Start at 1, go to 6, come back down to 1. To further clarify, sets would be 1,2,3,4,5,6,5,4,3,2 and 1 rep.
A harder version would be to go higher in the reps - maybe you could start at 9 reps and work down to 3!

Have fun trying out some of these....