powerDOJO

Category: Training

  • Tough Cottage Workout Routine

    I’ve gotten a few questions about workout tips while travelling so I figured, “What better place to shoot the video than while I’m at the cottage?”

    I’ll be here for just over a week, right now I’m typing this up just after finishing a card game called Kalooki (sp?) with my folks. I think it’s a Chinese Jamaican game because I haven’t met anyone else who knows the game.

    My mom got stung by a bee in the hand today while clearing brush. It puffed up like a balloon, but is going down now. We were joking that people do this to themselves on purpose to get rid of wrinkles. She’s been clearing brush all week, which is why I gave her the nickname “Bushwhacker”.

    I’ve also done some fishing with my old man – he’s been kicking my ass. He caught a nice 30″ Northern Pike and boated a good 2.5 pound Smallmouth Bass today.

    I’ve been limited to catching 14″ bass like the largemouth above – not bad but definitely nothing too mean.

    Here’s another reason why I love it up here – the sunsets:

    My dad has also been kicking ass in the “persistence” department. He changed the garage door opener because the old motor failed and we ran into some obstacles where the door would almost close all the way, then start going back up automatically. I just left to go hang out by the lake, but the old bastard kept at it for hours until he figured it out. Sometimes you just can’t beat persistence.

    One of the main reasons why I’ve come up to the cottage is because I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my mission and purpose.

    What I want to do with my life and business. What impact I want to have on the lives of those who choose to follow what I teach.

    I’ve actually been thinking about this stuff for months now. Just ask my wife. I feel that I’ve come to a certain point where I really need to sit back and reflect and ponder what direction I want to move forward in.

    I’ve been going back and forth between things that seem like good business ideas, but might not be true to myself as much as other ideas that might not be so hot business-wise, but are a natural extension of who I am.

    For example, it’s very clear that I could make a lot of money catering to those who want six pack abs. The six pack abs market online is huge and it generally attracts raw beginners to exercise and online fitness programs, as well as 16 year high school dudes who are hoping that having six pack abs will help them get laid.

    Unfortunately I possess the knowledge that six pack abs will not in fact help you get laid if you’ve got no game. I had six pack abs in high school. Girls were definitely not throwing themselves at me. I wish it weren’t true. So if you want to get laid, go the more direct route and learn how to talk to girls and be cool as opposed to hoping a chiseled mid-section will magically open their legs for you.

    The part of me that wants to go the six pack abs route is the part of me that values making money over anything else. This part of me pops his head up every now and again, but I usually manage to make him take a back seat to other goals.

    Training MMA fighters was one such choice I made to forego money for passion that I made back in 2006/2007.

    When I started, there was absolutely no money to be made by me. Fighters back then had barely any dough and those who wanted to get into fighting were generally broke.

    I’d have made a heck of a lot more money training fat ladies in bootcamps, but I felt I had to choose the “higher road”. Not to piss on anyone training fat ladies in bootcamps, if that’s your thing then do it and do it well!

    It’s because I’ve always been about performance and measurable results doing something, like competing in MMA for example.

    Even my MMA Ripped program, which I often promote as a physique reshaping program is based on this core value of performance and results – while the name comes with the connotation that you’ll get ripped like an MMA fighter, what’s more true is that you will make considerable gains in various components of fitness: strength, muscular endurance, cardio, as well as changes in physique, in a pretty short amount of time. I’m compiling some data that I think will blow you away based on results of guys who have shared their assessment results with me after following the program.

    So I know that how to get measurable fitness gains  is what I like to teach people.

    I’ve also come to the realization that while I love MMA and always will, as it’s grown, there are some things associated with it that I don’t like so much.

    PEDs are one thing. I wish they were no issue and simply didn’t exist, but they do and fighters are using them and the whole idea of PEDs goes against my belief system of natural health.

    The unfortunate idea of only training when a fight is booked  is another.

    Fitness, strength and cardio are physical qualities that must be worked at consistently, otherwise you’ll only ever reach the same peak for each fight and never progress. I find this almost too frustrating to handle sometimes.

    Well, I’ve been rambling a bit too much, but I just wanted to share some of the thoughts that have been flying in and out of my brain.

    Now, I’ve got an awesome little workout for you that I filmed on my iPhone for you while here at the cottage.

    It’s no joke – I’m typing this a day after the workout and my forearms are smashed, my entire core is sore, and mid-back muscles that I haven’t felt in a long time have woken up.

    This in response to all of those who have asked me for travel workout tips. What better way to teach you than to show you exactly what I do.

    Here it is:

    Get anything from this video or post?

    Can you give me any insight on how I could best help YOU?

    Sharing your goals below would really help me understand my loyal followers a little more and might give me insights into what direction I want to go in.

    And of course, any related questions or simple comments can go below too.

  • My Muscleup Progress

    Just thought I’d post a quick video of my progress so far doing Muscelups…

    Remember, I started out only being able to do 2 real ones.

    I’ve been working them once or twice a week, or maybe more if I happen to stumble upon a bar that invites me to do them. My goal was to be able to do 10 clean ones by the end of August, so I’m pretty sure I’ll hit it.

    I’ve also been working explosive pullups to the chest when in the gym. Which I haven’t been in all too often. Especially after the leg press incident… 😉

    One of the strategies I’ve been using to improve my Muscleups is to rarely go to failure.

    I didn’t do that in this video because I wanted to see where I was at, but all of my other workouts I only hit reps, I don’t miss.

    Another strategy I’ve been using is just shooting for a total # of reps per Muscleup session, which has ranged from 25-40, depending on the day.

    To be honest, I haven’t been following a tight program, mainly because in the summertime I never do. I just make sure I train at least 3 days per week, whether it be outdoors, in the gym, wherever.

    But I play a lot: roller hockey, swimming, wakeboarding, tennis and volleyball; so I get a lot of physical activity.

    I also sit on a lot of patios and drink a few beers. 🙂

    OK, what you’ve been waiting for – the video update of my progress:

    [jwplayer config=”Post” mediaid=”6179″]

    One thing I’ve switched up is my grip – I now wrap my thumb over the bar.

    I experimented with this and found that it was easier on my wrist and didn’t negatively affect the # of Muscleups I could do. In fact, it helped because I wasn’t beating up my wrist. I suggest giving it a try if you’re Muscleupping!

  • The Science of Knockout Power

    In my last post, I talked about knockout power and addressed the common (mis)conception of if you are born with it or if you can develop it.

    I feel that I’ve made a strong enough case so that I don’t ever have to answer that question again.

    The bottom line is that whatever you’re born with, you’re born with. The rest you make up through learning, applying, then modifying to continue making gains. Just like everything else in life.

    For example – me being a good husband. It’s a constant cycle of me learning what I’m doing wrong (scolding), trying a new technique (I hope this will work!), then observing the results (scolding or smiles?). I’m sure many of you have similar experiences. Oh and 1 piece of advice that I can give after almost 1 year of marriage – the woman is never wrong. Even if through bulleproof logic and reasoning you think it to be so. If you want to be happily married, the sooner you accept this fact the happier you will be.

    In the Punching Power – Born or Made? video, I mentioned that I was going to share some advanced techniques with you to maximize your KO power.

    Well, I figured this would be best shared in both a video and article, which you have before you. I know, I know, I said I was burnt out with the writing and all, and I still am, but as I did research for this topic, it fired me up and I want to convey this in the best way possible because I’ve got some really advanced and powerful concepts to share with you, so here we are.

    Now, to get the most out of this article requires your focus and concentration, so turn off your cell phone, shut down your instant messenger, close other browser windows, put the Do Not Disturb sign on your office door, grab a glass of water or green tea, take a deep breath, and let’s get into the SCIENCE of knockout power so you can turn your hands (or feet) into the lethal weapons that you’ve always dreamed about…

    The title of this article is “The Science of Knockout Power“. So I’m going to do my best to show you the science behind what creates KO power, not just myth, legend, or “because so and so said so”.

    First, What Causes a Knockout?

    knockout powerMost often, it’s due to your brain banging into your skull. Your brain is basically floating inside your skull in fluid. When you hit your opponent hard, their head rapidly accelerates in one direction. Because the brain is suspended, it takes a second to catch up and the skull can come in contact with it, causing damage. Or, when your head snaps back, the brain might bang into the skull then. Either way, it’s due to this impact and the brain “short-circuits” and you lights-out!

    Man, all this writing about this stuff is making me second guess my desire to box… Anyhoo…

    A Punching Power Myth… Debunked

    One thing I’ve got to do is break down one of the big myths related to punching power: the myth that states that it is the result of snapping your fist back as quickly as possible to maximize the “impulse”.

    This is one that I believed and I’ve actually written and talked about in the past. I no longer believe this to be the truth. There are 2 reasons: 1 scientific and 1 observation from real-world results.

    At the speed at which an effective punch travels, it will cause your opponent’s head to “bounce” off of your fist. No matter how fast you pull your fist back after making contact with your opponent, this bounce will be faster.

    In fact, trying to pull back quickly will only lessen the chance of KO’ing your opponent by decreasing the speed at which you hit your opponent with. More on this later…

    knockout powerNow this bounce is not as perceptible as a tennis ball bouncing off a wall… It will happen within the structures of your gloves, wraps, skin, soft tissue like fascia and muscles, and finally your bones where each component compress then expand away from each other.

    But just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there. This bounce is an inherent property of all of the structures involved in landing a punch on your opponents head.

    Oh wait, you can see it – check the pic out and you can see the guys face deforming and bouncing away from the fist – the mouth and jaw are farther away from the fist relative to his head. This is the “bounce” I’m talking about.

    Now, to debunk this myth with real-world results, let’s analyze some knockouts themselves. The video below is a collection of one punch KOs from boxing. I chose boxing because it is a heck of a lot harder to get a one punch KO in boxing compared to MMA, due to the gloves. This video also shows you the KOs in slow-mo where you can see exactly what’s happening. As you watch the video, try and look for the punch and see if the fighter is ripping their punch back quickly to generate “snap”:

    Do you see the snap back?

    No, you don’t. That’s because in each and every knockout, it never happened. If the “snap back for power” myth were true, at least one of these KO’s would’ve shown it.

    As you can see from the video above, each of the KO punches entails the fighter punching through their opponent’s head, which is one of the 5 keys to KO power I talk about later. Why does this matter?

    This is for no other reason than to hit with maximal velocity. Any effort to draw the punch back quickly will minimize this velocity and no KO would’ve occurred.

    The Scientific Formula for Knockout Power

    When it comes to science, I believe the most important equation related to KO power is this:

    Kinetic Energy (KE) = 1/2 mass x velocity^2

    KE is the amount of energy in your fist, which you want to maximize at the point of contact. To maximize the KE:

    1. Maximize the amount of weight behind the punch
    2. More importantly maximize the VELOCITY of your fist

    I say that velocity is more important because in the equation, it is squared. To all those lacking math skills or the Chinese math brain that I am so lucky to have been born with, when you square something, you multiply it by itself.

    So if velocity is 3, plug it into this equation and you get 3^2 = 3×3 = 9.

    If velocity is 4, you get 4^2 = 4×4 = 16.

    Velocity is exponential, whereas mass is linear.

    So back to the “snap back” myth – when you are trying to pull your fist back, you will be lowering the velocity with which you hit your opponent. It is simply not physiologically possible to instantly reverse the direction of your fist at the instant of impact. And as I said before, the bounce between head and fist renders this irrelevant anyway.

    So now that we’ve busted one of the bigger myths about punching power, and one of my past erroneous ways of thinking (sorry about that, but I’m always learning, too), let’s continue…

    Because velocity is squared in the KE equation, it is more important to getting knockouts, and is the factor we can influence more.

    But getting your weight behind a punch can still play a huge role, just ask anyone who fought Mike Tyson:

    See how in most of those KO’s, he is moving forwards and throws his whole shoulder into the punch? This is only possible if you get close to your opponent, which he had a great ability to do because of his head movement (and fearlessness). I’m going to have to save going into depth about this topic for another article… Let me know if you want see this or not.

    Back to velocity –

    Like I’ve already said, the 2 over-arching principles are to maximize the weight behind the punch, but more importantly, maximize the velocity of the punch.

    To maximize the velocity of your punch, I’ve come up with 5 keys, all based on science, that will increase the power of your punches.

     

    The 5 Keys To Maximizing Knockout Power

    Key #1. Circular Punches are the Most Powerful

    In my research for this article, I found a study titled “Concussion in professional football: comparison with boxing head impacts – Part 10” published in the journal Neurosurgery in 2005 measured the impact forces of 4 punches: hook to temple, straight to forehead, straight to jaw, uppercut to jaw.

    The results showed that the hook to the temple was the most powerful punch, resulted in the highest acceleration of the head, and has the highest “head injury criterion” score based on the data collected. Here’s a table from the study showing the various forces:

    knockout power
    Click to Enlarge

    Note that the uppercut scored as the “weakest” punch – I believe this is because with an uppercut, you can’t take advantage of some of the other keys to KO power mentioned below as well as hooks or overhands (#3, #4)

    We also have real-world verification from the knockouts in the videos above as well as most one punch KO videos you’ll watch in boxing or MMA, which are all usually a result of circular punches, most common being hooks and overhands.

     

    Key #2. Punch Through Your Opponent’s Head

    As I mentioned earlier, if you want to get a big KO, don’t focus on trying to bring your fist back to guard. While this is great for defense, it won’t help you knock someone out because you’ll decelerate too early and lower the velocity of your fist.

    Instead, punch through your opponent.

    Think about baseball – when you swing for a homerun, do you stop the bat and try to reverse once you make contact? No way, Jose. You swing right through with all your might.

    Circular punches, because of the path they travel and the fact you don’t try to reverse the path of your fist to go back to your defensive stance, naturally help you punch through your opponent and hit with max velocity.

    But even with straight punches you can do this by aiming at the middle of their brain instead of their face. Check it out in action in this clip from Junior Dos Santos’ knockdown of Frank Mir:

    [jwplayer config=”640×360 controls” mediaid=”6106″]

    Watching the video, you may even notice that Mir’s head bounces away from Junior’s fist before he retracts his fist, even though he retracts it very quickly.

     

    Key #3. Use Summation of Forces (SoF)

    Just punching with your arm, like in a jab, is always going to be less powerful than punching with your whole body by rotating through it, like with a hook.

    I used to believe that you wanted to drive through the ground for this, too. After my research, now I think that driving through the ground can help you increase the weight behind your punch, like pushing off to walk forward and punch, but it won’t add velocity because of the direction of the force vector.

    When you walk forward, you are directing force forwards (in the sagittal plane), but to use the summation of forces, it all happens in the transverse plane and that can only happen at the hips/core, not the ankle/knee.

    So starting the punch through your hips/core is the key to summating the forces for max punch velocity.

    However, you’ve still got to be grounded for balance and to be able to use your hips/core muscles, but you’re just not starting force generation from the ground.

    With this line of thinking, the pivot of your foot when you throw a rear cross or hook is more a SIDE EFFECT that helps to avoid torquing your knee and helps you rotate through a great range of motion at the hips/core as opposed to adding power to the punch.

    Now, the key to Summation of Forces is timing – you’ve got to start the rotation at your hip, then core, then shoulder and finally it ends through your fist. Here’s a good exercise to train your Summation of Forces.

    But the timing is very precise, and if you get it, you take advantage of the next key, which can really increase your punching power…

     

    Key #4. Use the Stretch Shortening Cycle (SSC) 

    I’ve talked about this a bunch in other videos and articles on my blog, probably most recently in the new kettlebell exercise I shared and also in my BIOMECH BREAKDOWN of Barboza’s spinning kick KO.

    If you’re a long-time follower of mine, I hope this concept has sunk in by now!

    Basically, the SSC occurs when you quickly stretch a muscle/tendon/fascia complex (the quicker the better) then as quickly as possible, you contract that muscle. This adds a whole bunch of elastic energy to your punch and increases the power of your punch.

    Naturally, this occurs in combination punches, because the rotation of one punch winds you up for the next punch.

    But you can also do this for single punches as shown by the great Anderson Silva in fight vs. Yushin Okami:

    [jwplayer config=”640×360 controls” mediaid=”6107″]

    I slowed it down so you can see that right before he delivers the KO blow, he quickly rotates to the right to load the SSC for his right hook. This is an advanced skill and is one of the reasons why Silva is such a great knockout artist. However, let’s give credit where credit is due – I’m sure he learned it from Steven Seagal.

     

    Key #5. Be as Relaxed as Possible

    To finish this article off, we must go back to, in my opinion, the greatest fighter in MMA history – Anderson Silva.

    Remember his KO vs. Forrest Griffin?

    [jwplayer config=”640×360 controls” mediaid=”6108″]

    Notice how Silva is holding his arms down before he throws the punch – this maximizes the relaxation in his shoulders, where the punch originated, which allows him to generate max velocity. He then keeps relaxed in his arms and only contracts what needs to be contracted to throw his punch.

    If you’re tense, it decreases your potential velocity in 2 ways:

    1. You’ve got to overcome the force of the muscles that are tense. This is how most beginners punch – they are very stiff.
    2. You can’t stretch the muscle to use the SSC, since it’s impossible to stretch a contracted muscle.

    True mastery, not just with punching, but most athletic endeavours, requires you to learn how to maximally fire the muscles that you need to do the job, while relaxing the opposing muscles.

    This KO is one of the best I’ve seen in my life because Silva goes from chillin’ out, walking backwards, to throwing his shoulder into it (to get some SoF and SSC) and throws a circular punch through the chin of the Forrest…

    Thus, Silva takes advantage of ALL 5 KEYS, which is why this KO was so remarkable.

    It’s also a great example showing that you don’t necessarily need a lot of weight behind your punch, if you have enough velocity.

    To generate maximal velocity, use all of these keys and you’ll soon be knocking mofoz out!

    OK, I’m tired. That was a BEAST of an article. I don’t have anymore energy to write a witty, engaging or useful conclusion.

    Holy shit I’ve been writing this for 5+ hours right now, not including the reading/research I did before. I’m frickin’ tired. That’s it, I’m out.

    PEACE~

  • New King of Kettlebell Exercises?

    As I mentioned in the previous email, I came up with this weird new kettlebell exercise after a couple beers…

    Now I wasn’t completely drunk. I would never do this exercise completely drunk. It’d be dangerous and stupid. You’ll see why.

    But a few beers sometimes gets the creative juices flowing and because I have a Kettlebell just lying around, when I’m feeling playful I pick it up and mess around.

    Even 100% sober, this exercise takes concentration and requires co-ordination, balance, agility, strength and power and will benefit those qualities.

    Check it out, then read on for some further comments after the vid:

    When you’re first trying the Whirling Dervish, start with a lighter KB and think of it as skill practice. Learn the technique and master the movement before trying to push it. Proper form is key!

    This new kettlebell exercise is something I’ve come up with that gives you a lot of benefits that you don’t get from most other exercises.

    It harnesses the unique properties of the kettlebell in that you can swing it to and generate a lot of momentum.

    You can also do this with a dumbbell but it’s a lot better with a kettlebell.

    There are a lot of other benefits to this new kettlebell exercise in addition to those mentioned in the video: improved footwork, co-ordination.

    And the last benefit I did mention in the video is huge – prevention of knee ligament injuries that often happen in sports like soccer, basketball and football when you’re running and changing directions at high speed.

    Of course, this exercise helps MMA fighters and martial artists with power generation for strikes and throws. But if you follow this blog, you know that already…

    TACFIT Kettlebell Spetsnaz: Kettlebell Exercises you've never seen before...But truly I don’t care what other people think of me when I’m in the gym – just get the job done, know you’re more “advanced” than most of the monkeys surrounding you and smile to yourself when you see them grunting on the Leg extension machine.The only thing you’ve got to worry about is looking like a weirdo in the gym! LOL

    Now, if you like unique kettlebell exercises and want a time-efficient and effective program full of non-standard KB exercises, I highly suggest checking this site out: http://BestKettlebellExercises.com.

    When you grab the KB Spetsnaz program from Scott, I’ll hook you up with my Crazy 8’s Kettlebell Circuits FREE. Just shoot me an email with your invoice # and I’ll get you setup.

    Questions? Comments? Let me have ’em below…

  • CRYO SMR – New Foam Rolling Technique

    Want to decrease soreness (DOMS)?  

    Would less inflammation float your boat?

    Sore Muscles

    Then you need CRYO SMR (TM) – my new, advanced, super-duper space-age revolutionary technique to use post-workout.

    I don’t feel like typing much these days, hence all the videos.

    I’d rather be out in the sun instead of sitting in primate posture behind my computer typing. Hope you understand. [Matter of fact – let me know in the Comments if you like videos or prefer articles – I’m curious]

    Now, we know that foam rolling is beneficial. In fact, this 2012 study showed that a 10 minute massage post-workout decreased inflammation and increased mitochondria – good for producing more energy. The authors state:

    “In summary, when administered to skeletal muscle that has been acutely damaged through exercise,massage therapy appears to be clinically beneficial by reducing inflammation and promoting mitochondrial biogenesis.”

    I used to roll before exercise, but after seeing this study, I’ve moved my rolling efforts after. I suggest you do the same for the maximum benefit.

    But are you still rolling around on a piece of foam? Stop living in the dark ages!

    OK enough marketing hyperbole and that should be enough for Google – check it:

    If you’re doing hard workouts that produce muscle soreness, this technique is a MUST. Get a solid water bottle and cool that mofo down with some ice then roll it out like a Cuban making cigars.

    And for those of you who are jumping on my boy Travis’ 50% off sale on his new Hardcore Workout Finishers program, this technique is not an option, it’s required.

    Hardcore Workout Finishers

    If you tried the link the other day, it might’ve sent you to the wrong page. All is fixed up now so the link above will get you to the 50% discount page.

    *** BREAKING NEWS ***

    I also dug up workout that uses a sled, kettlebell, medicine ball, tire, sledge hammer and tornado ball that’s based on my NRG System Complex template.

    When you get the Hardcore Workout Finishers program, I’ll hook you up with this workout too.

    After you get it, just go to this page here and enter your invoice to claim your bonus. Sweet deal!

  • Hardcore Workout Finisher (The Hardcore 250)

    I was recently contacted by a guy by the name of Travis Stoetzel because he’d purchased my Olympic Lifting Mastery course and wanted to do an interview with me about it for his blog.

    So we setup a time and did an interview over the phone, where I shared some of my best tips for mastering the O-lifts. That interview will be coming your way soon.

    I then looked into what Travis was all about and one word sums it up nicely: HARDCORE.

    On his blog he posted a challenge workout to win his new program “Hardcore Workout Finishers”. Being up for a challenge and because of the fact I could do it outdoors, I figured why not?

    What exactly are “workout finishers”?

    A finisher is designed to complement and enhance your main strength-training program. Finishers typically last around 4-10 minutes, depending on exercises, reps, sets and the setup.  They are done after your main workout, hence the name “Finishers”.

    Here’s me putting the Hardcore 250 into action:

    When you do workouts like these, make sure you focus on form. Fatigue is going to occur and will make you slow down, but do your best not to sacrifice technique to try to maintain your pace.

    Remember, garbage in = garbage out and if you’re training with bad technique, you’re training your body to use INEFFICIENT and COMPENSATORY movement patterns. Don’t do it!

    Another caveat – if you’re training MMA, you DO NOT WANT TO OVERDO WORKOUT FINISHERS!

    Done too often they’ll take way too much out of you and leave you overtrained.

    My recommendation is to do them once a week at the end of a strength workout and no more. They are designed to be less than 10 minutes long, so once a week is a good amount to ensure you avoid overtraining.

    If you’re training for a fight, stop doing these types of workouts completely 5-6 weeks out and instead focus on NRG System Complexes, which hit your aerobic and anaerobic alactic systems vs. your anaerobic lactic system like in these types of routines. Aerobic/alactic training is where it’s at for peak MMA performance…

    You should be training strength 2-3 days/week max if you’re also training MMA, so finish one of those workouts off with one of these Hardcore Workout Finishers.

    Speaking of which, Travis just released this program, so you can get for half price. The price is ridiculously low right now – check the link to see it:

    Hardcore Workout Finishers

    Hardcore Workout Finishers
    (50% off until Thursday)

    The package includes 31 different finishers, videos of everything, as well as some cool DIY tutorials for making a sandbag, dragging sled and setting up a “hardcore home gym”.

    A lot of cool stuff for a really good price. If you like creative and challenging workouts, I highly recommend it!

    No need to hype it up – if you want some new, aggressive workouts and to learn some new exercises, not to mention some tutorials to build your own hardcore home gym, go for it now.

    Eric

    P.S. Based on the entries into his contest, I would’ve won the challenge. Just sayin’.

  • Beginner Muscle Up Tips

    Toronto Waterfront

    I was out for a run down the Toronto waterfront on a couple weekends ago and I stumbled upon a group of about 20 dudes working out in the park. To give you a mental picture, they were mostly black guys, a couple of white guys, and I was the only Asian.

    It was like I was walking into those videos of a bunch of brothers doing crazy things on the bars:

    So I hung around, started talking witih some of the guys and jumped in.

    One of the guys, Dwayne, runs a personal training business called Body by Chosen that operates in Toronto. A bunch of the other guys are trainers too.

    I’d actually never tried a Muscleup before. A few of the guys made it look easy, so I watched their mechanics to see what they were doing and jumped in… I gave it a shot, but didn’t get it. Wuss. But I knew I’d get it sooner or later.

    Since then, I’d been meaning to get out to the park to practice them, but just didn’t get around to it until this past Friday. I gave it a shot and lo and behold, I’ve just done my first Muscleup. It feels pretty cool and I think it’s as much a display of skill as it is of strength.

    I wasn’t able to do it right off the bat. In fact, I spent about 45 minutes at the park by myself “practicing”. I got my first one by jumping up on the bar and going into the Muscleup from there. It was an awesome feeling.

    Now, I want YOU to get the same feeling I got.

    That’s why I put this video together for you. Check it:

    Some more basic exercises that will help you do your first muscle up:

    • Dips
    • Straight-arm Pulldowns
    • Standing Tricep Extensions with a Cable Machine
    • Hanging Leg Raises

    But if you can bang out 10 Pullups to your sternum already, you’ve probably got the strength to do a muscle up, now it’s all about PRACTICE.

    So get out there. Get some sun. Do your first muscle up. And feel like a beast.

    Hope you enjoyed. Help me out by hitting ‘Like’ below. And if you have any questions or Comments hit me up. Come on, you know the drill by now. 🙂

  • Ultimate MMA S&C v2.0 Preview #2

    The preview below contains the “Strength, Power and Speed” chapter from v2.0 of the Ultimate MMA Strength and Conditioning Program.

    You’ll learn all about the strength-speed continuum and how it applies to MMA, among other things to help you get in top fight shape.

    (PC users: right click and choose ‘Save As’. Mac users: CTRL+click and ‘Save’)

  • Ultimate MMA S&C v2.0 – PREVIEW

    Not much to say here, everything is in the FREE PDF DOWNLOAD below:


    (PC Users, Right Click and Choose ‘Save As’)

    (Mac users, CTRL+Click and Choose Save)

    Train smart and THROWDOWN,

    Eric

    P.S. Make sure you come back to this page to cast your vote for the chapter you want to read for FREE below. If this doesn’t make sense, it will once you read the Preview Copy above.

    P.P.S. Remember the saying – if you don’t have anything good to say, at least say something funny. 🙂

  • New Approach to Stretching: 3D Flexibility

    I’ve been busy at work putting all of my research and ideas on flexibility together in a way that makes it as easy to understand as possible.

    Einstein said, “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

    That’s what I strive to do because most of you don’t have a degree in science and I’m betting that you probably appreciate me translating science-geek into plain English.

    Consider me the bridge between the geeks and the regular peeps.

    So after I scribbled everything down on paper and stepped back to take a look at the big picture, it all came together in one neat package: 3D Flexibility.

    Yes, it’s a cool name that will market well.

    Yes, it’s a name for the approach I’m going to use going forward when addressing flexibility issues.

    And yes, it makes complete sense, once you understand the background behind it… which is what I’m going to explain to you right now.

    What is 3D Flexibility?

    In the first article, I gave you 7 critical flexibility concepts to understand, which lay the groundwork for the 3D Flexibility system.

    Within the 7 critical components, I gave the the 3 main factors that you must address if you’re ever to achieve improved functional flexibility.

    Not just the ability to hold a static stretch (which you’ll get as well), but the ability to smoothly use your full range of motion (ROM) with speed and power.

    There are 3 main factors to address to improve your flexibility:

    1. Soft Tissue Length
    2. Neuromuscular Control
    3. Strength

    So the name 3D flexibility makes sense, no? But wait – shit gets deeper – I’ll explain in a second,  but first…

    These 3 main factors are not completely independent of one another, but any of them can limit your ability to achieve your flexibility potential.

    In writing the previous sentence, that term sticks out for me – flexibility potential – because not everyone is capable of drinking a bottle of Coke using their feet.

    Remember from last article, I mentioned that your flexibility can be limited by your ligaments,  which you may not want to stretch because of potential joint instability problems, and your bones and joint architecture, which won’t change despite your best efforts.

    But luckily, this isn’t the case for most functional ranges of motion that we want to achieve, such as kicking a guy in the head.

    However, using myself as an example, I’ve been able to determine that the only way I can do the front splits is if I stretch my iliofemoral ligament – not something I want to do because I’d rather have a stable hip joint. I’d imagine that hip dislocations aren’t much fun.

    Now beneath each of the 3 main factors, there are 3 sub-factors that you address to regain lost flexibility or achieve flexibility you’ve never had.

    The 3D Flexibility Factors

    Soft tissue: fascia, muscle, joint capsule

    Neuromuscular: pain threshold, unconscious reflexes, conscious ability to relax

    Strength: prime movers, the core muscles, joint stabilizers (muscles that provide stability at that range of motion)

    When things wrap themselves in neat little packages like this you have to run with it.

    So we’ve got 3 main factors and 3 sub-factors beneath each, which gives us a total of 9 (3×3=9 for those of you who skipped the multiplication component of early childhood education) factors to address.

    As I mentioned, each factor may be the one limiting your flexibility.

    You may be worriedly thinking, “Does that mean I have to do 9 different things to improve my flexibility?”

    Not necessarily. Because there are certain techniques that hit multiple factors at once. I’ll give you an example of it in this article.

    IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

    Since writing this article, I’ve released a program to help anyone who has tight hips called the Hip Flexibility Solution.

    If your hips limit you from kicking, grappling, squatting ass-to-grass or deadlifting with proper form, check it out:

    www.HipFlexibilitySolution.com

    Before we do that – let’s talk about static stretching – the most well-known method of stretching – and what factors are affected when performing a static stretch. Let’s also discuss the limitations of static stretching based on the 3D Flexibility model.

    Static Stretching vs. 3D Flexibility

    When you hold a static stretch, a few of the 3D Flexibility Factors come into play to affect what exactly is being stretched.

    If you’re unable to relax the muscle being stretched, say, due to one of the neuromuscular factors, you may be stretching out your tendons (SEC).

    Here’s an analogy so you can see why this is so:

    Imagine a spring (your muscle) that has a rubber band connected on each end (tendons).

    Now imagine that the spring is glued together or so tight that it can’t stretch.

    If you pull the rubber bands apart, what is being stretched?

    Come on, think about it, don’t wait for me to give you the answer…

    .

    .

    .

    If you said the rubber bands, which represent your tendons, you’re correct. Gold star for you.

    On the other hand, if you can achieve total relaxation of the muscle involved, you may be stretching the PEC – the muscle fibers themselves.

    Now if you need to stretch the SEC – you can purposefully perform a stretch where you hold an isometric contraction at the end ROM.

    If you need to stretch the PEC, your goal is to stretch while the muscle is totally relaxed.

    The thing is, you don’t always have perfect conscious control of the contraction of the muscle.

    Neuromuscular reflexes such as the myotatic stretch reflex, which automatically contracts the muscle if it is lengthened too quickly can prevent you from achieving total muscular relaxation.

    Strength of the muscle dictates what rate of lengthening the myotatic stretch reflex occurs at.

    If your muscle is very strong at that ROM, then the myotatic stretch reflex doesn’t kick in as soon as it does if you’re stretching a muscle that is weak.

    This is an ingenious protective mechanism that our bodies have built-in that prevent us from tearing muscles apart. But it can also limit us from achieving peak flexibility if we don’t know how to overcome it.

    Strength also controls your ability to enter and exit the ROM, so when you do increase flexibility, you’ve got to ensure that you simultaneously increase strength, to make sure you don’t make your active:passive flexibility deficit any bigger.

    Can you see how deep the rabbit hole goes?

    Let me give you some ideas to address most of the issues presented above…

    First, it’s impossible to tell if it’s your SEC or PEC limiting your flexibility. Either way, if you need to increase your flexibility, stretching both is a good idea. Except in certain cases where you don’t want to lose stiffness, such as the calf/achilles complex, where stretching the muscle is OK but you want to leave the tendon alone for power generation.

    There’s an ancient Chinese concept called “surrounding the dragon” where you do everything that you know of to fix the problem you’re dealing with. You don’t worry about isolating variables. That’s exactly how we should address our flexibility problems, if we really want to deal with them quickly.

    So to stretch both the SEC and PEC, you could perform the Contract-Relax method of stretching.

    To do this, you simply enter the stretch, then when you’re at the end ROM, you contract the muscle being stretched for 5 seconds at anywhere from 50-75% of max contraction. Then you relax and go deeper into the stretch, holding for another 5 seconds. Repeat this process 3 times. This hits both the SEC and PEC components of the soft tissue.

    However, if the muscle being stretched is tight due to the myotatic stretch reflex, ensure that you enter the stretch slowly. Remember – the myotatic stretch reflex responds to the speed at which you lengthen the muscle. Entering the stretch slowly negates this reflex. This is a little tweak that will make the difference between an effective and ineffective stretch.

    Bingo, now we’re stretching the SEC, PEC and we’ve taken care of one of the neuromuscular factors – the myotatic stretch reflex.

    But what if your inability to relax the muscle isn’t due to the stretch reflex, but simply a tonic (facilitated) muscle? [NOTE: a tonic muscle is one that fires and takes over when it’s not supposed to]

    We can throw in a contraction of the antagonist, to invoke the law of reciprocal inhibition. 

    The law of reciprocal inhibition states that when you contract a muscle, the opposing muscle group will relax.

    So instead of just a contract-relax stretch, we can perform a contract-relax-antagonist-contract stretch. That term is kinda messy, so I like to call it dual contract relax (DCR) stretching.

    This way, you can further address the 3D Flexibility Factors. Not to mention that you’re now strengthening both the agonists (muscle being stretched) and the antagonists!

    Talk about efficiency. 🙂

    Now, there are a few factors I haven’t addressed: fascia, conscious relaxation and dynamic strength. But I wanted to give you an idea of my mode of thinking and how a deep understanding of the background of a topic allows you to come up with efficient solutions to your problems. 

    I also mentioned last email that I was going to think about what to do in the meantime for those of you who want to increase your flexibility now, but don’t want to wait a couple of months for my 3D Flexibility program to launch.

    Well, after much thought, I’ve come up with it, and it’s pretty cool.

    I’ll be spilling the beans next week. [Hint: the focus of the ‘program’ will be to improve kick height, speed and power]

    And as always, I’d love to hear your feedback about this article, so hit me up in the Comments section with your questions, thoughts and ponderings.