Hardcore Sports Training

Mcdonalds coffee...

2008-12-07T05:07:00.001-08:00

Is better than starbucks!

Hardcore Sports Training Temporary Site Change

2008-09-17T03:54:00.001-07:00

www.hardcoresportstraining.co.uk is currently down. Please visit hst.absolutegolduk.com to view the site for the time being until it is back up.

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Why I Like Cycling

2008-08-28T13:59:00.001-07:00

Recently I've been doing a fair bit of cycling. There are many reasons for this...firstly, I wanted to get a bit of aerobic work in and found that cycling is something I liked doing, which is a big plus in terms of actually ever doing it! Also, it is a good and easy way to get about if I don't need to carry too much stuff.

I've had some really enjoyable cycles recently by just sticking on an ipod with some nice heavy music and hitting the streets for a nice fast ride! Believe it or not, there are some very good cycle paths that make it quite easy to get about in London, but even when there aren't I love the freedom of the bike.

So many things that annoy me when driving are irrelevant when cycling...traffic jam? No problem - weave in and out and get there before the cars! One way street? For cars maybe, I'm off! Traffic light on red and nothing coming? Seeya! (Of course I'm joking, I always stick to the highway code, officer!)

Hopefully this has inspired you to dust off the old bike and get riding. Now go and hit the streets!

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How To Ruin A Meal

2008-08-26T02:55:00.001-07:00

1) Add brown rice protein
2) Mission accomplished.

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Diet, Stress and Mood

2008-08-24T08:04:00.001-07:00

Here's a little tip for everyone who is busy and/or stressed - keep eating well! Many times when everything is going well it is easy to eat well, but once time gets short and stress levels increase it's very tempting to turn to the junk food for convenience. The problem with this is what you eat can effect not only your body composition (amounts of muscle and fat), but also your mood, energy levels, sleep and basically your whole life!

The times when stress is high, time and sleep are short are exactly when your body most needs good food packed with nutrients in order to cope - if you turn to the junk food at this time you may end up in a downward spiral of sugar spikes, cravings, mood swings, weight gain and poor health! Therefore next time your life gets busy, prioritize good eating and you will find you can cope with what life throws at you much better!

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2 Fat Ladies

2008-06-13T06:21:00.000-07:00

2 Fat Ladies

This is something that happens to me often, but I saw an extreme example of it the other day…

I was standing in the line at the supermarket checkout, in my own world as usual, when I happened to notice that the two women in front of me were rather large! Tony Robbins likes to say ‘success leaves clues’, and wondering if the opposite was also true, I checked out the stuff on the belt in front of me. Amongst many other things were:

- 6 loaves of white bread
- Chocolate puddings
- An assortment of biscuits
- 4 pizzas (2 for 1!)
- 6 bottles of wine
- Some sort of treacle coated cakes
- And the coup de gras… over 10 bags of assorted sweets!

Oh, they were also buying some clothes, which I managed to see the size on the hanger of…size 22! To me, it doesn’t seem to take a genius on the level of Sherlock Holmes to work out how this has happened – in fact, it’s a very simple formula (women + crap food = size 22 clothes)! I also noticed there were a few things in my basket that were entirely absent in theirs, namely:

- Any unprocessed vegetables
- Any unprocessed fruit
- Any unprocessed meat

I see this worryingly regularly at the supermarket. I am not sure even I am dumb enough to accept the explanation that these people do not know that what they are buying is unhealthy, so what is the explanation?

I am not sure I know the answer to that, but I do have a tip for anyone reading this – next time you are at the supermarket checkout, have a think…is the stuff in your trolley more like what would be in a fit, healthy person’s trolley or more like the fat women’s trolley? The closer you get to a fit person’s trolley, the more chance you will have of being a fit person!

To Train, Or Not To Train?

2008-05-28T01:15:00.000-07:00

- That is the question! An experience I recently had (along with talking about it all at length at the seminar I recently did) got me back to thinking about optimal rest between sessions, stress/recovery and indicators. The basic question is, how do you know whether you have recovered from the last session sufficiently to go and do another similar session? Here is my story from last week:

I had backed off for a few days in order to test my maxes in the squat and bench press. This session was planned for Thursday, and I did a light lower body training session on Monday and just easy aerobic capacity work Tuesday and Wednesday. However, when Thursday came around I wasn’t feeling great. My indicators were down and I was just generally tired. I decided to go and warm-up and see what happened.

During the warm-up I didn’t get the sudden surge of energy that I have experienced in the past as a result of pushing through a tired feeling (a sort of ‘blowing away the cobwebs’ approach I guess). When doing some warm-up sets in the squat even the empty bar felt too heavy and as I worked up I could tell I was way off form. I decided to shut it down and come back another day.
That night I got very little sleep and was expecting to feel even worse, however I woke up feeling great! All indicators were up too. I thought it may be too good to be true, but went to try and do my max day again. This time I was feeling good, and as I was working up the weights were not slowing down. I got to 100% of my old max, which I was expecting before the start of the session would be too heavy, and it went up easily! I then went to 105% and got that. The same happened in the bench press, in fact I only just missed a 10% improvement here.

The lesson here is that sometimes not training can be the best course of action to take in a given situation. As the Kenny Rogers song says, ‘You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run’! This is a major reason why I urge everyone to track indicators, so you have something quantifiable to judge your progress on. However, sometimes a ‘gut feeling’ can be as useful as all the indicators in the world. If everything just feels ‘off’, it’s probably not the best idea to push for a PR. You can be the best judge of your readiness, if you listen to your body. Sometimes you will try and push through, and at these times it’s helpful to have a coach to judge when you need to be pushed or held back. Charlie Francis, the great sprint coach, says he can tell when to push his athletes by listening to them warm-up. He has such an expert ear that he can hear from their footsteps what their body needs, and that message often differs from what comes out of his athletes’ mouths!

In a sport that values ‘toughness’ and ‘heart’, it is often hard to take the ‘easy’ way out and do little or nothing when it comes to training time. However, sometimes that is exactly what you need to do, and you will benefit from greater results in less time and a much lower incidence of injuries. All you have to do is listen to your body!

For more information on indicators, see ‘Why Keep A Training Diary?’

The Prowler

2008-02-20T05:31:00.001-08:00

This is what you do with the prowler :-)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ieOBgyq88E

This is the prowler

High rep kettlebell work...

2008-04-04T01:03:00.001-07:00

Good for cardio - not so good for hands!

This is what happens when you do 411 snatches with no chalk = kettlebell slipping at the wrong times.

At this time I would like to recommend Elastoplast spray plaster, which forms a plasticky layer over wounds and stops them getting infected (that is why my hand is shiny in the pic). Note: It hurts like HELL when you spray it on an open wound! :-)

www.hardcoresportstraining.co.uk

The Pareto Principle

2008-03-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

From the all-knowing Wikipedia

“The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few
and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the
effects comes from 20% of the causes. Business management thinker Joseph M.
Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo
Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population.
It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., “80% of your sales comes from
20% of your clients.” “

How does this relate to training? Well, I believe that in training 80% of your results come from 20% of the things you do. The key is to make sure you are doing the 20% stuff, and doing it often.

As an example, I happen to like squatting. When I am stuck for ideas what to do, I squat. I believe the squat is an 80% results exercise, and this has allowed me to get away with a lot. For instance, if I enjoyed using the leg extension and leg curl instead I really doubt I would have the same muscle mass, power, metabolic rate, bodyfat %age etc. I know that if I go in the gym and do squats, the little things will tend to take care of themselves. My legs will stay strong, my abdominal region will stay strong, my back will stay strong and my shoulders will stay strong. Every muscle that is under the bar will HAVE to maintain a certain level of strength, even if all I did were squats.

If you are smart you can use the 80/20 rule to your advantage. For instance, if you choose to do more of the 20% that is most important to your training, you would likely make faster progress. People around you could work as hard as they liked on the 80%, but would not be able to match your results. The key is to find what is the most important action to take which will improve what you are trying to improve, do more of it and do it well.

To find your magic 20%, think of the following - if you were forced to drop 80% of what you are doing in training, what would you do? In weight training you might be left with squats, deadlifts or weighted pullups for example. In MMA you may be left with sparring, or technique work. Now ensure that whatever happens, that gets done and you will see much faster rates of progress.

Some HST pics

2008-02-03T11:57:00.001-08:00

All sled work, some good some bad, unedited (I haven't got time!)

At www.hardcoresportstraining.co.uk/HSTpics030208/index.html

Stability Ball Training For MMA

2008-02-03T11:27:00.000-08:00

Here is a video you may be interested in:

Drills for BJJ/MMA with stability ball

A freestyle solo drill for BJJ players, submission grapplers or MMA fighters.

Stability ball training is very useful for grapplers in that it allows you to develop core strength, flexibility, balance and spacial awareness while working with an unpredictable piece of equipment. You can replicate moves you would usually perform when rolling as well as have fun. This is a drill when done as a warm up but is also beneficial to those are limited to solo training or are sidelined with injury and are unable to grapple.

Video by Hywel Teague, BJJ purple belt, coach certified with Straight Blast Gym International and editor of Fighters Only magazine.

Filmed at Caged Steel gym in Dewsbury, UK.

www.sbguk.co.uk
www.fightersonlymag.com
www.cagedsteel.com

10 Reasons Your Gym Isn't A Real Gym

2007-10-29T12:38:00.001-07:00

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?

2007-10-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

Run Swim Fly Green Diet

2007-10-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-14T07:45:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-12T09:47:00.001-07:00

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

2007-10-07T03:37:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-07T03:34:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-07T03:07:00.000-07:00

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....

	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