Mar 10 2011

Deadlift! Deadlift! Deadlift!

Category: Injury Prevention,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,Strength Training,Strongman,Uncategorized — Rob @ 9:47 PM

Life is full of so many choices, should I get my coffee at Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks, should I shave Sunday night or Monday morning and the list goes on and on.  When it comes to training there are also a slew of exercises that we can choose from to help us achieve our goals.  But if I had to make a choice between exercises as to which one I would use to get strong I would choose to deadlift.

So why would I choose to deadlift over all other exercises. First off the deadlift kicks ass and is fun.  Now let’s get into some quality reasons. The deadlift is a great exercise to help train and make the posterior chain stronger.  In combat sports or any sport for that matter the posterior chain is of utmost importance for optimal performance.

The deadlift works on improving strength in your hamstrings, and glutes having a strong posterior chain will help in combat sports when trying to take an opponent down or picking an opponent up.  We all know why having strong glutes and hamstrings will help your performance but a strong back is also essential when involved in sporting events.  Along with strong glutes the deadlift will also increase the strength in your back.

In combat sports a strong back is key, as many movements during a fight require you to pull an opponent. If you are pulling some heavy deadlifts in training you will see how much easier it will be to pull your opponent all over the mat or cage. Having a strong posterior chain will help in combat sports when trying to take an opponent down or picking an opponent up.

Deadlifts will also increase your grip strength.  In my own training I have seen my grips improve dramatically especially in jiu-jitsu gi training and in the clinch.  Deadlifting has given me a strong grip, which has save me from submission plenty of times on the jiu-jitsu mats.

Deadlifting can also reduce the risk of injury.  By adding deadlifts into your programs you will be doing your body a favor by keeping it injury free.  Deadlifts can also help with the rehabilitation of IT Band injuries, which are common in many athletes.  If you use sprinting in your training you can run into an IT Band issue.

If you are looking to improve your performance in the field of battle then you need to really start to deadlift.  If I had to pick one exercise to do for the rest of my life I would make the choice of deadlifting.  Below I will give you two videos that you should watch if you want to improve your technique on the deadlift.

Rob DeCillis (CSCS)

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Jan 10 2011

My Visit to the Gym

Category: Power Training,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:02 PM

The other day I posted an article on training in my basement and how the ceiling was so low that it was difficult to do any overhead movements.  I also said that I have been training on either the field, a local high school or in my basement for the last six months.

This past weekend however I decided to make a trek into the world of a commercial gym for the first time in a while.  Now many people out there do write-ups about the commercial gym experience and focus on the negatives of training in a commercial gym.   I really can care less about the negatives of training in the local gym I headed there for two reasons to see what the general public was up to in the fitness world and also to train for myself.  For this article I really want to focus on the positives that I saw there.

Before I was able to lift though, I had to be brought around for the gym tour by one of there representatives.  He took me around asked me several questions trying to see if I was interested in the personal training.  He asked if I had a program, I said of course I was deadlifting today as long as someone was not doing bicep curls in the racks.   They did have a nice pool in the facility but still not incentive enough to join the place.

So what were some of my positive observations from my visit to the gym?  The first thing that impressed me was that there was a guy in the rack next to me actually squatting.  He had his Chuck Taylor’s on and was putting up some decent weight.  That made me happy to see that I had a little company as I began my training session.

Another nice thing I saw during my session was some people actually doing pull-ups.  This was a nice sign since many people prefer to do the Lat Pulldown.  Pull-ups are one of my favorite exercises for developing strength in the back.  The guy doing them was not getting a lot out but that is all good he was doing his best and working to the best of his ability.  I always get athletes telling me they can’t do pull-ups so I always make sure they are in the program.

One of the best things I saw was an older gentleman doing deadlifts with the trap bar.  Who I believe was his son was trying to coach him up on how to deadlift, which was great to see.  A little family bonding with one of the best movements in the world is great formula for success in both personal and training goals.  His form was off a little but at least the guy was getting it done and it put a smile on my face.

Finally the last positive thing I saw was the fact that people were working out.  I don’t care what they were doing but they were moving.  Trying to improve themselves.  Now they may not know what they are doing but that is not my point here.  Theses people right or wrong in how they are training are at least there trying to make a difference. In their own lives.

Now I will not sit here and lie to you, I am not a fan of commercial gyms, I will not be joining the gym I was at today.  There are two gyms that I will ever be a part of again.  The one that has all the Olympic weightlifting platforms not to far from my house or the gym I will own.  But for all the negative talk about commercial gyms out there I just wanted to point out that there are still people out there with some knowledge on how to lift and others that are least trying to accomplish the goals they have set out to overcome.  So get out there and train and if you need a program check out my online coaching program s then you can show everyone in the gym how to get it done.

Train Hard! Train Smart!

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Oct 10 2010

Manage Your Training and Life

Category: Agility,Boxing,Conditioning,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,muay Thai,Power Training,Strength Training,Striking/Stand-up,Strongman,Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:46 PM

Being a father, a husband, a teacher and a coach keeps me plenty busy throughout the day.  If I am not with the most important family I am working with the other.  Some people call this juggling I call it life.  Add to the list all of the fun things that you like to do with your spare time and it can make for a pretty packed life.

This post is for those combat athletes that love to train MMA, Jiu-Jitsu and kickboxing for fun, love to hit the weight room and have the family and job to attend to.  I for one am one of those people that love to train for fun.  My passion is in the weight room but I love to hit the mats and Thai box every week.

I am also a firm believer of spending as much time with your kids as you possibly can.  I always hear people say, “They grow up so quick!”  The last thing I want to do is miss anything when it comes to my lil warrior. So how do I manage the family life on top of the full time job, starting my business and training?  Well here is how I have set up my schedule to get all this in:

Monday

5:30 am: Deadlift and conditioning

8am-2:40 pm: Work

3:10 pm-8:00 pm: Family time (Best time of the Day)

8:00 pm-12am: Work on the strength and conditioning coaching biz

Tuesday

8am-2:40: Work

3:10 pm-7:20 pm Family time (Best time of the day)

8pm-9pm: Muay Thai Kickboxing class

9pm-10 pm Travel time, shower, eat

10pm-12am Work on the strength and conditioning coaching biz

Wednesday

5:30am: Power Clean and conditioning

8am-2:40pm: Work

3:10pm-5:30pm: Family time

6pm-7pm: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class

7:30pm-830pm:Thai boxing class

9:30pm-12am: Work on the strength and conditioning coaching biz

Thursday

8am-2:40pm: Work

3:10pm-5:15pm Family time

6pm-7pm: Teach strength and conditioning class

7pm-8pm: No-gi grappling , couple of rds of rolling

8pm-9pm: Thai boxing class

10pm-12am: Work on the strength and conditioning coaching biz

Friday

5:30am-Front Squats and conditioning

8am-2:40pm: Work

3:10pm-8pm: Family time

8pm-whenever I decided to sleep:

Work on the strength and conditioning coaching biz

Saturday

Sleep in until the little human alarm clock wakes us

Strongman Training

Family time

Sunday

Family Time

So here is how I am working the training schedule in right now.  Thought I would write this post for those of you who are combat athletes out there and are having a hard time managing everything in your life.  As you can see the days that I wake up at 5:30am I am only doing one lift and some conditioning.  I pick a compound movement like the deadlift, power clean and front squat and train for about a half-hour to forty-five minutes just doing that lift.  Then I add a conditioning protocol at the end.   Hopefully you can pick up some tips on how to organize your training schedule if you lead a similar lifestyle but still want to have all your training fun in there.

P.S. I love to take the family out to the field when I train outside and just have fun out there.  Usually when I am shooting video for the site, I take along my wife, to shoot the video and my daughter who you sometime hear in the background yelling or crying for mommy and daddy.  It also keeps her active as she runs around the field.  Here is a video of my daughter playing with the mini-hurdles the last time out!  Good times!

Train Hard! Train Smart! And Enjoy your Family!

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Jul 12 2010

Want To Learn More About Conditioning?

Category: Conditioning,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,Striking/Stand-up,Uncategorized — Rob @ 3:12 PM

Ok ladies and gentlemen, I am excited for this Wednesday night, so excited that I am missing my striking class at Gracie Barra Long Island. What could I be so excited about? I had the honor of being asked by Scott Bird of Straight to the Bar to be the main guest for his TwitterChat 74. What’s the topic that we will be discussing? Conditioning!
Many of you know the importance of conditioning in sports and we all know how important it is to the sport of mixed martial arts. We will be going over several different aspects of conditioning, like when to do it, how often does conditioning need to be done, why conditioning is important in MMA and as well as other sports and what kind implements can be used for conditioning. You won’t want to miss this all important discussion. So if you are a fighter or just someone that love to train come join in on the discussion and give us your thoughts. We would love to hear what you have to say about conditioning and training. For more details on the chat just click here… http://straighttothebar.com/forums/showthread.php?9634-Twitterchat-74-ConditioningHope to see you there. As a little gift I will leave you with a little conditioning protocol that can be easily done in the gym using Farmers Walks, deadlifts and burpees. I used this with my fighter Jessica Richer and she loved it so give it a try.



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Jul 10 2010

The Future Star of MMA!

Category: Agility,Conditioning,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,Power Training,Speed,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 7:48 PM

Nothing beats youth and determination when it comes to wanting to be an athlete especially an MMA fighter. That youth and determination can be found with Mike Savarese. This future MMA fighter has just started on his journey but you can see in his eyes that he wants nothing more than to be a fighter. Mike trains jiu-jitsu under Ricardo Almeida at RABJJ.
After speaking with his brother Patrick about strength and conditioning and MMA, I had the pleasure to meet Mike and his brother for strength and conditioning session. Mike and I hit the gym, this training session was used to test where he was at with strength and where his conditioning level was currently. As with any of my fighters or athletes I tested his one-rep max deadlift. The deadlift is one of the best movements that can be placed in any fighter’s strength and conditioning program. The deadlift builds strength along the entire posterior chain. As you know with any sport a strong posterior chain is very important in a combat athletes performance. Working on some tips to clean up Mike’s deadlift technique, he was able to pull 345 for his one-rep max. Not to bad since he had not deadlifted in quite a while due to injury.
Next we moved on to test his one-rep max on the bench press. Although I don’t use the barbell bench press in my programs that often I use this test and transfer it over for pressing with dumbbells. Mike put up 265 lbs for his one-rep max. After the one-rep max tests were done, I introduced him to Olympic lifting and taught him some of the movements in the power clean. If you have read some of the other posts on the site you know how important it is to have some of the Olympic lifts in the strength and conditioning programs of athletes. These lifts test the power an athlete can produce. Using only the bar I taught him how to clean from the top down. Pretty much this is how it went. I had him front squat to learn where his body will be at the end of the clean, then had him do jump and shrugs to teach how when doing this movement he should shrug his shoulders. This was followed up by cleaning from the thigh, then above the knee and finally below the knee.
After our training session we headed for the park to for some speed and agility work. Usually I will begin a training session with speed and agility work but I knew I was testing one-rep maxes and want Mike as fresh as possible. During this session I used drills found in some of my previous posts. Here are some of the drills we did…

Finally we ended our training session with some conditioning. He did two, three-minute rounds of the following circuit:
Super Legs
24 Squats
24 Lunges
24 Split-Jumps
12 Jump Squats
This was followed by a minute of Battle Ropes, using four different rope exercises for 15 seconds each. To finish off the three minutes he smashed away at a tire with a sledgehammer for thirty seconds alternating the grip on the sledgehammer with every strike.
Here are some things that I picked up during the session. Mike is very open minded to learning new ways to train in and out of the weight room. He is willing to do what it takes to achieve his goal. Mike is and exceptional athlete and is the future of mixed martial arts. So I would like to welcome Mike to the Combat Trainer team. He has a bright future in the sport of MMA and will be a world champion one day.

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Jun 06 2010

To Program or not to Program…

Category: Agility,Boxing,Conditioning,Jiu-Jitsu,Mental Training,MMA,Power Training,Quickness,Speed,Strength Training,Striking/Stand-up,Uncategorized,Wrestling — Rob @ 7:51 PM

If you have been following my blog or know about my training philosophy, you will then know that I am al about having a solid program in place when you training. Some of the benefits of a program range from the motivational, knowing what you will be doing and hitting the gym hard, to just seeing the best results possible. I use my programs for my fighters to help increase their strength, power and conditioning in a progressive fashion. There is always a method behind the madness and it always works.
Even though I do not compete in MMA, muay Thai or Jiu-Jitsu fights I have always had a program that I have followed so I could get the best out of my performances in my martial arts training. Recently, however it has been tough to juggle the strength training, martial arts training on top of the strength and conditioning coaching and family life. At first this was driving me crazy not to be able to get to the gym and get some good strength and conditioning sessions in. Program, there was no program for a while as I tried to adjust the schedule so I could get everything in.
How did I solve this problem? Well first I put things into perspective. I had to think to myself what was the most important thing and of course family time came first without a doubt. I wanted to stay strong and powerful so the weight room was the next priority followed by the martial arts training. The only reason the martial arts training came last was because I am not competing or am not planning on competing I just love to train martial arts.
So what’s the program you might be saying? This is what I have done. I make sure to get two strength and conditioning sessions in. One session is in the gym, consisting of Olympic lifts, squats, deadlifts, plyometrics, other accessory lifts and conditioning sessions. The other strength and conditioning session comes in the form of a speed, agility and quickness session. This session takes place with my fighter Jessica. While coaching her I train along side her. This has two benefits, one it lets me get in that extra strength and conditioning session and two it pushes both her and I to compete with each other in the drills. I have written about the benefits of “team” training in earlier posts.
Now for the martial arts training, I try to get in one session of MMA training in every week as well as a jiu-jitsu class and a muay Thai class. If I am lucky I get in another no-gi and muay Thai session on the weekends. On one of the nights I pull a double session, a gi jiu-jitsu class followed by a muay Thai session. Now there are some weeks where I get all the training in and some weeks where I don’t it all depends on the schedule at home. Another factor that plays into attending sessions is being in touch with how my body feels. If I am fatigued and my body is not doing well I will take a recovery day. You need to figure out what fatigue is. Being a little sore does not count. This will help you learn about your body and how to react to your body.
I have seen some great results with this program. I feel refreshed in my training. My body feels better than it has in a long time. I have had more energy. That being said I highly recommend if you are a competitor in MMA, jiu-jitu, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling or any other combat sport I highly recommend you follow a strength and conditioning program for the best results in and out of the cage, ring or mat. This way of training is good for those that train in martial arts for fun and also like to hit the gym and be strong and powerful. So yes programming is very important and I will get back on a program for the weight room once more time is available but until then, Train Hard! Train Smart!

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May 04 2010

World Championships, Here We Come!

Category: Agility,Jiu-Jitsu,Power Training,Quickness,Speed,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 9:59 PM

As of Monday we are four weeks out from the IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu Championships or the Mundials in Long Beach, CA. Training Camp has started for Jess and Monday was our first session of the four-week cycle.  Since she has not been able to maintain a solid strength and conditioning program because of all the tournaments I am still using the same program I wrote up for her a few weeks ago.  I am also going to be adding a speed, agility and quickness day to her training.  We are going to turn her into super athlete.

The program I am using for Jess is based off the Canadian Ascending-Descending method.  To save time in the weight room I have changed it up a bit to get in out.  This program is perfect for Jess as it trains all different types of strength and power.  As you will see below I have combined both upper and lower body sessions together.  Day one we start heavy with the legs, deadlifting combined with explosive movement for the upper body.  The program descends into explosive movements for the lower body and heavier movements for the upper body.  Day two we reverse the order of exercises. As we start with heavier loads for the upper body and move our way down to more explosive movements and vice versa for the lower body movements.  As the program moves on the volume and loads increase during week two and three and then she deloads week four.  Here is the sample of day one and two of week one.

WEEK ONE/DAY ONE

1. Deadlift 4 sets 7 reps 75%-82%of max deadlift

1a. Depth Push-ups 4 sets 5 reps Bodyweight

2. Power Clean 4 sets 6 reps Be Explosive

2a. Medicine Ball Pass 4 sets 10 reps 10%-15% of max bench

3. Jump Squat 4 sets 10 reps 10%-15% of max squat

3a. Push Press 4 sets 6 reps Explosive

4. Broad Jumps 4 sets 5 reps Bodyweight

4a. Dumbbell Bench Press 4 sets 7 reps 75%-82% of max bench press

For Week One Day Two all we are doing is reversing the order in which we do the session.  So we will start with the Dumbbell Bench Press and move our way down to Depth push-ups and from Broad Jumps to the Deadlift.

Watch out World Championships, Jess is coming to get you!!

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Mar 30 2010

Let’s Go for a Sprint or Walk…

Category: Conditioning,MMA — Rob @ 12:33 PM

Here is the age old question, should fighter use long distance running in their training? For years we have seen combat athletes from boxers to now MMA fighters using long distance running in their training.  Now I am not here to tell you that long distance running is bad, hey if you want to do it great be my guest.  But what I will tell you is that long slow distance (LSD) training will not help with your cardio in a fight.  I can sit here all night and give you all the scientific study behind all of this or I can get straight to the point and not waste your time.  I am here to research for you and give you what you want and what will work.

In a fight or grappling match of any kind, the pace of the bout is never steady.  One minute you are scrambling around with an opponent the next you can be sitting in his guard waiting to make the next move or floating around the cage or ring using your footwork to make your next strike.  Your heart rate is constantly rising and dropping back down and no amount of LSD training is going to help you with that.

It’s hard to break tradition and trainers are stuck in their ways and will not give in.  It’s just as bad as MMA athletes and jiu-jitsu players using a bodybuilding routine to gain strength and power.  Boys and girls it just ain’t gonna work!  Some have realized the errors in their ways while others are still holding true to what worked well in the past will work now.

So what are we to do?  Well for one you can stop LSD.  So we know that LSD will not help your aerobic capabilities in a fight.  I can also tell you that LSD will also wear on your joints and with all the bumps and bruises the body takes as a combat athlete the last thing you need is excessive pounding on the joints.  Now I will sprint my fighters at times but not in excess because of the pounding on the joints.  I like to keep my sprints short and sweet.  Well there is really nothing sweet about sprinting now is there, but it is effective.

What do I like to do then to condition my fighters?  Like I said above I do like to sprint them at times throughout their training.  I like to take them to a track and have them do 400M sprints or have them sprint the straightaway’s and jog the bends.  The latter sprinting protocol is effective because it raises your heart rate and it drops as you are jogging around the bend similar to what happens in a fight.

Using body weight and weighted conditioning protocols are the most effective way in conditioning a combat athlete.  One can set up a protocol based on the time of your match or fight and then set up specific exercise that will mimic the competition you are in.

I am going to give you a protocol that I have been using with my clients and have been doing myself once a week for a little extra conditioning work.  Get yourself a stopwatch, if you have one that counts down even better.  You will do the following exercises for five minutes.  If you need longer do to your specific fight requirements then add sets to it until you reach the time.  This is fairly simple to follow but doing it is not that simple.  All you need is 45-50 pound dumbbells and a room to walk about 20-25 yards. So here we go…

Conditioning Protocol

Farmers Walk twenty yards.

Five Deadlifts once you reach 20 yards.

Walk back twenty yards.

Five Burpees

Rest ten to fifteen seconds, depending on your level of conditioning.

Continue doing until the five minutes is up Rest one min in between sets.  Do this for 3-5 sets depending on what sort of competition you are getting ready for. Go at your own pace to begin and then as you get better amp it up. You can always add heavier weight to the farmers walks as well. Train Hard, Train Smart!!

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