Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Thrash

No question that beginning weight trainers must spend most of their time performing the basic lifts. You must get that total tonnage behind you. Lots of doubles and fives and back off sets of higher reps and squats and deads and presses and benches. Don't forget bent over rows and dips and chins. Performing sets after set of volume training with heavy weights simply works. Its not pumping, not sarcoplasmic hypertrophy or mitochondrial enhancement,  but true fiber size and tendon strength that lasts. Like the Franco look? That's what it produces. Or Kaz. Or Poundstone.

But! Lets say you aren't just into lifting, that you are training for sports, and most of your year is spent doing the tried and true volume training, but you are just done with the season and you want something different. Or lets say that you have been training and competing in lifting for years and you still want to train, train for LIFE, and you need something that combines lifting and conditioning and some boxing and martial arts and stuff that is short and sweet but gets that heart rate up , pushes the anaerobic threshold to to the point of nausea at times. Or maybe you are just pissed off and you wanna lift shit hard and fast but you don't have time to calculate percentages, you just wanna grab it and go. And yes, you can do it all of this type of training with the Olympic lifts, but I don't recommend it because form breaks down pretty hard when you get fatigued, but ya know, if you want to do it, just go for it and see where it takes you.

And a disclaimer here- I know that you thought of all of this, or your cousin who is bigger and stronger than everyone I know did this years ago, or your buddy the "I think he is a Navy Seal" did it when he was  eighteen, or you are an expert because you feel the muscles and you know that feeling the muscles is the key to every goddam thing in life with extra slow movements that in reality don't mimic a damn thing that life throws at you. But your buddies in the gym rule.They know everything. This stuff ain't for any of those guys any way.  Also, I am not an expert, I steal everything from everydamnbody.

Know THIS! There is nothing new out there. Just relabled and regurgitated.

I am gonna even steal the name from Wes Whitlock, owner of Rogue American Apparel. He calls it  the "Thrash of the Day" , and I like that name. So Wes, this is dedicated to you. And buy their stuff,  it is top quality. So the idea here is to pick, lets say, five exercises. Weight training exercises. Then pick a cardiovascular or hand eye quickness or skill exercise to perform immediately after the weight exercise. Also, Bas Rutten's MMA Workout, the All Around Workout and the All Around fighting is very similar to the Thrash training. It combines curls, neck training and sprawls with boxing and kickboxing.


                               Wes Whitlock "Thrashing" it up




I mean, the possibilities are endless. Bring a kettlebbell outside. Perform 10 swings and then a forty yard sprint. Or the swings and sprint up a hill. Do 10 deadlifts and follow it up with 20 yards of bear crawls. Or squats followed by 10 sprawls. Or for a defensive lineman- 10 bench presses followed by a pass rush against a bag.  A wide receiver?  10 chin-ups or 20 pushups and then a 40 yard fly pattern.  Or for anybody-10 presses and then some knees on a suitcase bag. 

Just an example of what I did today-  3x10  for all exercises. (except dips where I started out with 20 reps and finished with 10).  First exercise-swiss bar benches followed by 10 quick punches on the mitts. Then machine shoulder presses followed by 10 quick punches on the mitts. Then db kirk shrugs followed by 10 quick punches on the mitts, and then kettle bell swings and dips all followed by 10 quick punches. Remember, no rest until you are done with the three sets. Then you rest for a minute or so and go again.

Use your imagination. Don't worry about body part splits or "Oh, I squatted yesterday so I can't do it today",  or if you haven't taken your "metabolic optomizer" or not, just go and grab it and seize the hell out of it and flow with it and pretty soon the sweat will be puddling at your feet and in fifteen to thirty minutes you will be done and then take that shower and you will feel like a million bucks. Thrash on.

All About Being a Lifer

What's a Lifer? Someone who isn't in to something for just a day, a month, a year...it's for life. Whether its training or your family or your job...it doesn't matter. You work at it, you build on it, you see the big picture . You don't miss workouts because it means something to you. You are like a Shakespearean actor- no matter what is going on in your life, you block it out when it's time to train. You walk into the weight room and all else disappears. Worry about it later.