powerDOJO

Author: Eric Wong

  • UFC 94: BJ vs. GSP – My Prediction

    I can’t tell you how excited I am about this fight. It’s been a long-time coming, and the hype that’s been building has gotten me fired up – good job Dana!

    I like both fighters. GSP is a fellow Canadian, so that gets him some points, and I like his growth and admire his explosiveness.

    But BJ is a character and his talent is extraordinary. So whoever wins, I’m happy.

    Here’s my prediction:

    BJ will take it in the 3rd round by a ref stoppage due to strikes. GSP will take some licks in the first round on the feet becaues BJ’s hands are so fast, and he’ll take it to the ground from then on.

    I don’t think BJ can submit GSP because of his strength and explosiveness, but I do think that BJ will be able to get some good positions on the ground and that’s why he’ll end it with strikes.

    That’s my BOLD prediction – what’s yours? Leave a comment.

  • How to not get bulky lifting weights, Part 3

    I remember when I first met one of my fighters and I asked him about how he was working out and he said, “I like to blast my chest, I’ll do bench press, then dumbbell press, then flys, then pushups.”

    As I shook my head in disgust, I replied, “If your goal is to go on stage with a fake tan wearing red underwear, then you’re on the right path.”

    If you train like a bodybuilder, you’ll look like a bodybuilder.

    But if you’re interested in training to be athletic like a mixed-martial artist (and look the part), then pay attention to this final tip…

    Tip #3 – Create a Program Based on Movements, not Muscles

    If you train based on muscles, you do exercises for your chest, quads, hams, delts, lats, rhomboids, low back, calves, biceps, triceps, etc.

    But if you train based on movements, you do exercises based on 7 fundamental patterns:

    1. Lunge
    2. Squat
    3. Bend/Deadlift
    4. Push
    5. Pull
    6. Twist
    7. Core stability

    You will be using some of the same exercises, but the overall program design will be different.

    Your goal is to have exercises from each of these patterns in your program.

    From an efficiency point of view I recommend working out 3 days a week, alternating between 2 different workouts. For example:

    Day 1

    1. Reverse lunge
    2. Dumbbell press on ball
    3. Woodchop
    4. Chinup
    5. Prone bridge

    Day 2

    1. Barbell squat
    2. Pushups
    3. Stiff-leg deadlift
    4. 1-arm dumbbell row
    5. Side bridge

    There you have every movement pattern in 10 exercises, split up into 2 workouts. This program I’d do for 4 weeks, then switch it up.

    The thing is, you’re hitting every muscle in your body in the way that it was designed to be worked, instead of strapped into a chair straightening your legs out like a leg extension!

    My upcoming MMA Ripped Fat Loss Program is based on movements, not muscles, and if you want to train for athleticism and leanness, I recommend you do the same.

    The program launches in less than 10 days, and I’ve got some ultra-cool bonuses as part of the launch promo. If you’re considering picking up a copy, get it right when it launches to take advantage of the launch promo.

    Stay lean,

    Eric Wong, BSc, CSCS
    MMA Performance Coach

  • How to not get bulky lifting weights, Part 2

    From my previous post, you learned that to get a ripped, athletic looking body instead of the big, bulky, blown-up bodybuilder physique, you need to focus on compound movements instead of isolation exercises.

    These are exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges, chinups and bench presses. Now, in Part 2 of ‘How to not get bulky lifting weights’, we’re going to talk about how to setup your actual workouts.

    Tip #2 – Use (mostly) full body routines.

    With respect to isolation exercises, I said to minimize them, not eliminate them completely.

    That doesn’t mean you do NO bicep curls, it just means your workout doesn’t consist of 8+ sets of bicep curls, like most people’s do!

    So with respect to program design, you want to use mostly full body routines. Split routines are beneficial in some cases, but you have to know why you’re using them.

    If you want to put on some muscle mass, then split routines can contribute to that goal.

    BUT – out of a year, I would spend maybe 3 months on a split routine, the remaining 9 months being on some sort of full body routine. That’s because my goal is strength, power, athleticism, and leanness, not never-ending hypertrophy (muscle building).

    Now what exactly is a full body routine? Here’s an example:

    1) Squats
    2) Chinups
    3) Lunges
    4) Bench press
    5) Prone bridge

    This routine is using every muscle in your body, for what your body was designed for – movement and core stability.

    Compare this to your traditional ‘Chest + Biceps’ workout:

    1) Bench press
    2) Incline dumbbell press
    3) Flys
    4) Standing barbell curls
    5) Hammer curls
    6) Preacher curls

    Let’s do a little visualization exercise here – I want you to picture the human body, and picture that the muscles
    working are all turned red.

    Now compare what the guy in the first workout looks like versus the second – he looks like he’s on FIRE compared to
    the other guy!

    Well that’s exactly what happens to your metabolism – it turns into a raging fire, helping you melt body fat all
    over your body.

    So that concludes Part 2 of my series on ‘How to not get bulky lifting weights’ where we look at the actual workout.

    Part 3 is going to put what you learned in Part 1 and 2 all together for you.

    Stay tuned,

    Eric Wong, BSc, CSCS
    MMA Performance Coach

  • How to not get bulky lifting weights, Part 1

    When I first started working out, my goal was to get big. I was a skinny dude all my life and I needed to put some muscle on to help with sports (and girls).

    Once I got to a size that I thought was good, I changed my training up so that I could continue to build strength without putting on any more mass.

    All the research and training that I did helped me achieve this, and also helped give me a foundation from which to train MMA fighters with.

    Mixed-martial artists don’t want to get bigger but they do want to be as strong and powerful at their weight-class as possible.

    Unfortunately, you see a lot of guys out there who look like they never considered the concept that being too big makes you look like a gorilla!

    I don’t blame them, because most of the training programs you see on the ‘net and in magazines are designed to bulk you up like a bodybuilder.

    But if you’re like me and you think being strong and powerful, is a worthy training goal, and you think looking lean and athletic is better than looking like you can’t scratch your back, then over the next 3 e-mails, I’m going to share with you my top 3 tips to achieve this:

    Tip #1 – Avoid (minimize) isolation exercises.

    If you’re doing a lot of exercises like barbell curls, tricep extensions, and dumbbell side raises, then you’re wasting time that could be better spent doing big bang exercises like squats, bench presses, chinups, and lunges.

    Most guys do multiple exercises for their biceps, but they never do 1 set of squats!

    This not only contributes to the bulked up bodybuilder look, but it also minimizes the amount of fat burning you’re doing, since you’re spending so much time working such a small muscle group compared to bigger muscle groups like the quads and glutes.

    And, if being lean and cut is your goal, when you do these big bang exercises that work your whole body, you’re burning much more fat after your workout compared to doing isolation exercises.

    In fact, studies have shown that you can burn fat for up to 48 hours following a weight-training session that includes big bang exercises like squats and bench presses.

    Plus, the big bang exercises contribute much more to athletic performance than exercises like bicep curls and tricep extensions. So if you not only want to look better but also move better, then stick to big, compound movements for the majority of your training.

    Now that you know you’ve gotta focus on big compound movements, you’re ready to learn Tip #2…. which you’ll learn about in a few days.

    Train smart,

    Eric Wong, BSc, CSCS
    MMA Performance Coach

  • “I don’t give a crap!”

    If you don’t know who Brian Cain is and you’re a true MMA fan, you soon will. Brian is mixed-martial arts’ top sports psychologist, working with some of MMA’s best fighters including GSP, Rich Franklin, and Keith Jardine, to name a few.

    I recently spent over an hour on the phone interrogating Brian about how to become a black belt in the mental game. Here’s an excerpt of our conversation:

    Eric: So that’s letting guys – or that’s helping guys let their game happen. So I think that’s huge and for anybody listening today, I think taking those two points away is just gonna really, really help your game. So-

    Brian: I can give you a third one too I think Eric that ties right into both of those.

    Eric: Okay.

    Brian: What I call, “I don’t give a crap attitude.” And there’s two types of fighters out there. There’s two types of “I don’t give a crap attitudes.” And I can tell you that Randy Couture has the right type of “I don’t give a crap attitude” but unfortunately there’s a lot of fighters, especially at the amateur level, guys that have a lot of ability that never make it, that have the wrong kind of “I don’t give a crap attitude.”

    Here’s what I mean. The wrong type of “I don’t give a crap attitude” is the guy that will slack in his training and slack in his conditioning and think “Aww sports psychology I don’t need that. I’m not crazy at all. I’m not screwed up in the head or any of the . I can miss that conditioning session. I’ll miss out for it and work twice as hard tomorrow.” Et cetera, et cetera.

    And then when they step in the cage because they’ve slacked, because they had the wrong type of “I don’t give a crap attitude” they go in the cage and now they think, “Oh my God, what are all these things I didn’t do. I’m not as prepared as I should be.” And they go out and they fight not to lose and they usually don’t perform well. But the have some ability and they can succeed for a certain amount of time, but once you get to the highest levels of fighting which is martial arts, right, or UFC, those guys don’t make it.

    The right type of “I don’t give a crap attitude” is the guy who works as hard as he can everyday in training. He has the strength conditioning coach. Has a sports psychology coach. Has a nutritionist. Does all those things, leaves no stone unturned. Works as hard as he can. Has a game like mentality, you wanna call fight-like mentality where they treat every training session like it’s a fight, right? The same type of mentality, the same type of energy, the same type of specialness for the training session that they would give to a fight.

    Yet, when they start walking to the cage, when Bert comes into the room and says, “Hey baby it’s ready to go, time to go. Let’s rock and roll.” They say, “I don’t give a crap.” What they mean is, I don’t give a crap about results because they can’t control that. I don’t give a crap about the fans because I don’t control them. I don’t give a crap about Dana, Joe Silva, UFC, because I can’t control them. And I don’t give a crap about my opponent because I can’t control what he’s going to do – I’ve done everything I need to do to be successful. I’m gonna go in there, put it on auto pilot and trust my training that I’m gonna execute the way that I’m supposed to. Because I don’t give a crap about anything else other than going out there and fighting my fight. Those are the guys that have the most success.

    I asked Brian everything I could think of that would bring your mental conditioning to a whole new level. Luckily for you, I recorded the whole thing and now, you can get the entire 73 minute interview and companion manual FREE.

    => CLICK HERE to find out how.

  • Foam Rolling for Faster Recovery

    Foam rolling is a cool technique that is like giving yourself a massage. It can get out some trigger points that lead to muscular imbalances, pain, and worst-of-all: injury.

    Check the video and add it in after your workouts to speed recovery time and decrease injury.

     

     

  • The 3 Keys to Get (not Set) Your Fitness Goals this Year

    What are your goals this year? Have your first pro fight? Compete
    in 3 tournaments? Get your blue belt in BJJ?

    Whatever they are, many people make New Year’s resolutions and don’t
    achieve them. Often, it’s because they’re missing some key elements of the
    goal setting process that will change it to a goal GETTING process.

    Key #1 – Make a True Commitment

    When most people set goals, they say something like, “I want to lose
    weight this year” and leave it at that. Unfortunately, approximately 60%
    of Canadian adults are overweight or obese, and that number is still rising,
    despite the fact that most of these people want to lose weight.

    When you make a true commitment to a goal, it involves action. So when you
    set your goals this year, ask yourself this question “What are the actions
    that I must do to achieve my goal?”

    These actions could be training 4 times a week in MMA and 3 times a week
    in S&C, or eating healthy foods 90% of the time, or getting your body fat
    to under 10% so you can finally see your abs. When you invest your time,
    effort, and money into these actions, you are saying to the world, “I’m
    committed to my goals!”

    Whatever actions you think will help you get your goals,write them all
    down. Once you know what actions you must do, move on to the next key.

    Key #2 – Make a Plan

    The old saying goes, “Fail to plan, plan to fail.” When it comes to
    losing weight, most people fail to plan, and the results are predictable.

    Planning is not rocket-science, but it does take a little time and effort
    to do.

    If you want to train more in 2009, here’s how you can succeed with
    planning: get your calendar out on Sunday evening and look at what’s going
    on for the upcoming week. If your plan is to train 5 times a week, then
    schedule those workouts in just like a doctor’s appointment or oil change.

    When you take the 5 minutes to plan on Sunday evening,you’ll see
    potential conflicts and adjust accordingly, sky-rocketing youradherence and
    ultimately your results!

    Now that you know what you’ve got to do and you’ve go the roadmap to do
    it, enlist the power of the third key to help you achieve your2009 fitness
    goals.

    Key #3 – Get Social Support

    When you keep your goals to yourself, you can easily justify missing
    workouts, or eating in a way that you know won’t help you.
    That’s because you’ve been studying yourself all your life, and you know
    the best ways to convince yourself of anything!

    When you tell others about your goals, you now have something more powerful
    than any supplement or exercise gadget on TV: Accountability.

    The best way to do this is to tell a few different people close to you what
    your plans are, and that you’d like to check-in with them on a weekly
    basis. Also mention that if you don’t say anything, you’d like them
    to ask you what’s going on.

    Or you can post a training log somewhere, like on the forums at
    Master-MMA, and you’ll have a group of other MMA athletes to answer to,
    instead of just telling your buddy to shut up and quit bugging you.

    Once you have this accountability, you’ll choose to stick to your plan
    instead of face the embarrassment of having to own up to your
    failure face-to-face with someone.

    I can’t stress how important getting social support is for achieving your
    goals. Just make sure you choose people who you are in contact with
    regularly, are positive, and who will listen to you and call you out
    if you’re not on track.

    So take these 3 keys and use them to help you succeed with your goals in
    2009. Have a great New Year and enjoy being one of the few who is a goal
    getter instead of a goal setter.

    Eric Wong, BSc, CSCS

    ps. If you’re working out instead of training on a full program, you’re
    wasting your time. CLICK HERE to check out the program that’s helped
    fighters from around the world have the ability to pressure for 3 hard rounds.

  • Go Canada Go!

    As a Canadian, it’s my duty to be a rabid hockey fan, especially whenever a Team Canada plays. To many, Christmas means a time for gifts and family, but also the World Jr. Hockey Tournament. I was lucky to be able to check the pre-tournament game at Copps Coliseum vs. Slovakia and saw one of the best goals by John Tavares. Check it out at about 1:29 in this vid:

  • Solutions for Low Testosterone

    This is a reply I wrote to someone who has low testosterone and was wondering where it came from. Symptoms of low T include depression, irritability, decreased strength, unexplained fat gain, loss of muscle mass, trouble gaining mass, and more.

    —————

    Any time you have a hormone imbalance (in your case low-T), you usually have other hormones that are out of whack.

    The first one to think about is cortisol, as cortisol is basically a testosterone antagonist – so you’re very correct in thinking that your work stress levels are affecting your T. Answer this question before moving on:

    What stresses me out?

    Answering that question will give you an idea of all of the psychological stressors in your life that could be elevating your cortisol and decreasing your T.

    Now, psychological stress is not the be all, end all. Perhaps these questions will help lead you to some more ideas.

    Do you have an environmental/toxic stresses?

    Is your work environment polluted? eg. Lots of dust?

    Many environmental pollutants are not the old carbon monoxide and smoke from factories – some are as simple as fibers from rugs, which are essentially plastic, which are xenoestrogens and act as estrogen, which would drop your T.

    I would avoid plastic water bottles, storing foods in tupperware (especially fats/oils, as they absorb the xenoestrogens particularly well), and any other food-related plastics. Switch to glass, stainless steel, porcelain etc.

    I’d also avoid teflon just to be safe – get cast-iron or stainless pots and pans. Plus – you’ll develop good wrist strength working with cast iron.

    Pesticides are also xenoestrogens, so that is another route – think about organic fruits/veggies. If you can’t buy all organic now, go to http://foodnews.org/walletguide.php and check their list of the fruits/veg with the highest pesticide load and make sure you at least buy those in organic form.

    Do you get enough cholesterol in your diet?

    Might sound counterintuitive, but cholesterol is a precursor for all sex hormones, and if you’re low in cholesterol, your body can’t make T. So don’t go out of your way to over consume egg yolks and red meat, but definitely eat them weekly.

    How much are you sleeping? Is it at a regular time?

    If you’re not getting good sleep at regular times then your circadian rhythms get thrown off and you will tend to have higher levels of cortisol throughout the day.

    Do you deload your workouts properly?

    Can’t push all the time – need deloads. You may need more deloads now than before – so decrease volume but keep your intensity the same – you’ll be able to maintain strength without overtaxing your nervous/muscular system. I mean, you’re in a healing phase right now, not growth, so don’t worry about hitting a PR until your T comes back to normal.

    Where you sleep, do you have lots of electronic devices plugged in?

    This is one that I’ve never experienced but follow anyway, but guys like Charles Poliquin and Paul Chek talk about. Electromagnetic stresses interfere with your sleep patterns, which will screw up your sleeping rhythms, and result in the same thing as not sleeping enough or at the same times. So try unplugging as much as you can – I only have my wristwatch by my bed to wake me up – no cellphone, no tv, computer, etc. Also make the room as dark as possible – once light hits the skin, it activates melatonin, which tells your body it’s time to finish sleeping.

    I also try to wind down at night before bed by reading, instead of moving from the TV or computer straight to bed, for the same reasons above.

    From my perspective, I would think about those points. Don’t worry that you have to fix everything all at once (more mental stress), just think about what things could be affecting you the most, work on those, then keep going down the list.

  • Back from Vacation

    I was in Varadero, Cuba for a week’s vacation. Went down with my girlfriend and a couple of friends. Definitely a much needed interruption from the busy day-to-day. The people were great and I had a great time. Here’s a few pics to peep to see what it’s like down there. I was hoping to be able to visit a local boxing club, but there was none in Varadero – the closest was an hour away. It would’ve been cool to see the Cubans at work.

    Will get back to posting MMA content soon – I just can’t let go of vacation mode just yet!