Julian’s Calcio and MMA World

Few years ago, I saw a young boy from television who could do over a thousand push-ups. So the program brought four fit college students to compete with the boy. The men rotated until each one of them became tired, but still could not even do half of what the boy could do. Then here comes question. Is the boy’s endurance that great? How many push-ups can he do if a 50kg person sits on his back? Though they lost on endurance, the four men looking at their bench press abilities, any one of them would easily beat the boy in this match. Even though the boy has insane endurance, strength is a different issue.

For instance, think about a person who can lift and put down a coke can for 100 times. Many would think that the person has great patience and endurance, but no one would call him strong. However, if someone lifts a drum can filled with oil, people would call him a monster.

My point is that, in a gym, many people make the same mistake as above. They put on a light weight and do it so many times, intending to develop their muscles. This will definitely help with endurance, but not strength. Of course the little boy who could do so many push-ups barely had visible muscles and the program took him to a hospital and examined his muscle mass, but concluded that he does not have much.

Another bad example is lifting so much weight without proper form or rebounding the body. This might be successful in showing off, but will not result in much muscular development.

This kind of phenomenon can be described with the terms: resistance and stimulus. The mechanism behind muscle mass development is that first muscle is destroyed after being spurred and while resting the body, it absorbs protein to recover and grow. Thus, muscle never grows without resistance and stimulus. Even if you lift 100kg, if you bounce your body or only move partially, you might get the resistance of 50kg. But if you properly lift 60kg, then you can get the full resistance of the weight.

Strength is the same. How much resistance and stimulus our body feel is more important than how much weight we lift. In other words, strenght=resistance, spur, tension. Therefore, in order to gain more strength, you need to increase the actual resistance and stimulus. In this concept, we should always think about high resistance, high stimulus, and high tension when we work out.

Howerver, there is a difference between powerlifting and bodybuilding besides the two common features, and it is the training target. Bodybuilding solely focuses on gaining muscles mass than the muscle’s strength, but for powerlifting, not only are the density and strength of a muslce critical but also, ligaments, tendons, bone reinforcements and improvement on the brain’s potential are more crucial. Body building workouts do strengthen your ligaments, tendons, and bones but it is more focused on muscle mass.

Remember the story about a mother who lifted a car. I don’t know if it is a true story but I think it is possible because of the fact that humans save potential power for emergencies. Of course if we use it too often, it will cause ruptures in our ligaments and tendons so our brain sends strong disapprovals but in emergencies, our true strength is released. I don’t know if the mother was fine after she lifted the car, but without the strengthening of ligaments and tendons, the likeliness of injury increases. Thus, we need to strengthen our ligaments and tendons by lifting weight so our brain recognizes that it is safe when it lifts the weight close to our potential. This applies to increase flexibity as forcing our body to stretch will cause injury so one should slowly increase the amount of stretching.

Then now let’s talk more specifically as to how to gain strength in these ways 1)set and reps 2) rest periods between sets 3) max point.

1. Set and reps

Finding the optimum amount of sets and reps is very difficult. If you look at the training routines of body builders or strongmen, each has different routines. Ironically, change would be the core word in finding the ideal. Our body always becomes spurred by changes. Not only increasing weight, but decreasing weight can come as a change that spurs the body, or resting for a week, or constantly changing routines then working out for a certain period without changes are all a way of variation. Only through alteration will human’s body feel stimulus so readers should always find new ways of change.

However, under the premise of variation, similarities can be found among the training routines of elite builders. The set and reps for building large muscles are most commonly found in 4-5 sets with 8-15 reps. For example, the most commonly used pyramid set includes a light weight warmup(1set) of 15reps and then work out with the weight that would almost sap out one’s strenght, and then rest for a bit, then lift the weight of about 12reps max and lift the weight in the same concept, completing 4-5 sets.

Then how about in powerlifting? Before explaining, know the word 1RM. It refers to the weight that a person can lift one rep. My old trainer told me that “6 or more reps hinder the growth of strength” and if you look at the training routines of most powerlifters or weight lifters, it is rare to see them perform more than six repts. Also, brain fatigue is limited when reps and sets are reduced. Three sets are enough including warm-up.

Many people might ask me “Isn’t lifting heavy weight dangerous?”. In some situations it can be dangerous but human’s body is capable of getting heart just while lifting up a pen. Think about deadlifting. If you try to lift weight over your capability, your leg won’t even stand. In other words, our body doesn’t move if the weight is too heavy. Injury is more likely to occur when you continously lift light weight for many reps, getting tired, leading to improper posture. Therefore, even if you lift heavy weight, with less reps, you can increase concentration and reduce the chance of injury.

2. Rest time between sets

Bodybuilding emphasizes on decreasing recess time between sets. From my personal experience, I received much help by this method. I used to fill 1-2 hours, reading newspaper, magazines, and talking with other people in the gym but after limiting recess time and working out for 30-40 minutes, I gained much better results. For readers who want to gain muscle mass, I recommend you this system. In addtion, muscle mass gain will never be achieved without proper food supply. The ratio of exercise and nutrition at least 50:50 but some say it is 80(nutrition):20(exercise). Proper carbohydrates and protein supply before and after workout is necessary to achieve your goal. Since powerlifting is about lifting heavy weight, you should never make your body or brain feel tired and to maintain the same concentration every rep, you need sufficient rest. Rest time differs among levels of experience but normally in bodybuilding, 30s-1m, in powerlifting, about 5 minutes is adequate.

3. Max point

This means, feeling like the barbell is going to crush you down if you do another rep, the point where your muscle cannot lift anymore. For bodybuilders, going to the max point every rep can cause overtraining, but to gain more muscle mass, it can be useful sometimes.

However, for powerlifters, as I have mentioned numerous times, fatigue should always be minimized. In other words, stop 1-2 reps before the max point. This reduces fatigue level and allows one to release full strength in the next set or day. Most people think that they have worked out enough once they feel the muscular pain after working out until the fail point. But this creates too much lactic acid in the muscle and causes discomfort, plus from the points of tendon and ligament, lifting until the failing point creates injury.

I will now introduce to the readers, one of the most important themes in modern sports, the periodization theory. A famous Greek legend that many strongmen know, the legend of Milo who carried a calf everyday. Naturally, as the calf grew it became a cow and Milo could carry the cow.

Is this possible? According to this theory, humans can lift anything. However, though we do not know the exact reasons why, from past experiences, humans tend to show regression in growth when they continuously increase in resistance. In other words, if one goes 2-3 steps forward, one has to retreat a step to go forward successively.

This kind of concept is periodization theory. Basically every modern sport uses periodization theory. The idea is simple. Using example from marathon, the entire training period from the beginning to match is called macrocycles. Macrocycle is organized from about 4-6 months, and that is also divided into mesocycles which lasts for about 4-8weeks, and this mesocycle is divided into a microcycle of about one week. Each step has its own characteristics(endurance training, lactic acid percentage training, race training, etc). No athelete possess the strong mentality to train 365days a year, and periodization theory is applied so that one can pour the whole stamina in match day.

Then, let’s see the deadlift training log based on this idea. You don’t need to follow the exact weight specified in this graph. Just get the concept and make your own pattern based on your own physical capability.

The sequence above differs among individuals. It may take some to get to number two a week, some may not even take a day. The valuation basis is fatigue. Each person is different. Even the same person has days he recovers quickly and days with bad condition. Namely, our body requires many trials and errors to find out the true capability. Next is the standard of selecting the first weight. This can be set as about 80% of the weight one can lift 3-5times. Presume that 100kg is the weight you can lift 3-5times without reaching the fail point and 120kg is the maximum weight, you can achieve a new record with the process above. Of course, beginners can expect more development than this, and the more experienced elite will take weeks for few more kilograms.

I have talked about ways to increase strength centered on powerlifting. Some readers may have already recognized, but powerlifting actually improves strength than power. Therefore, strength lifting will be more accurate than powerlifting.

-Thanks to Matstardream

When you are exercising, if you use a single joint, it is called a single-joint excersie. If you use more than two joints, it is called a multi-joint exercise. So like in benchpressing, where you use your shoulder joint and wrist joint, it’s a multi-joint workout. But like in pressdown, where you only use your elbow joint, it is called a single-joint workout. This concept is important because for everyone who wants an efficient body, you must do multi-joint workouts. Every motion we have in life, whether lifting up, throwing, or pushing something, is a multi-joint movement. In other words, multi-joint exercise is the only practical one.

Every gym is filled with machines. Many people think that machines are easier and less dangerous, but if people only work out with machines, they become prone to injury. The problem with machine is that, since only one part of your muscle is used, it causes ruins the balance of the body. Statistics show that more people become injured doing smith-machine squat training than bench squat. Same goes for single-joint exercises, our body is divided by many muscles for easiness in communication, but it actually works by a mutual understanding controlled by our brain, which we do not feel. Thus, ignoring this fundamental concept and only doing pressdown to grow triceps may make the muscle look large, but in real life it will be useless. I read from an article a long time ago that two people who can each lift a 100kg stone, have a hard time lifting 150kg together. Why is this? Because when the muscles are not working together as one, it does not work as well.

Then am I saying that bodybuilders’ muscles are useless? They are not as efficient as they seem, but still contains some strength in them. Bodybuilding is a sport that only requires to make the muscles larger whether by machines or freeweight, so does not have much relevance with the appliance of sports in real life. However, for elite bodybuilders who lift over 200kg, it is a different story. Most elite performers include the three workouts that powerlifters do, and focus on freeweight than machines. The problem is on normal people who simply think that freeweight is for elite builders and only do machines or single-joint workouts, saying that bodybuilding muscles never applies in sports.

Some people compare bodybuilders to Bruce Lee, saying that they like muscles like Bruce Lee so will only do push-ups than weight training. However, this is no different than saying that I don’t want to be as good as Michael Jordan in basketball but just about as  good as Lamar Odom. Why? Excluding functional aspects, based muscle mass development, Bruce Lee’s muscle size is merely a step most bodybuilders experienced. To be more defined

1) difference in body fat percentage

2) difference in water percentage

are the main reasons and not a different training method in muscle formation as many think. Many people say that you should only train using your own body weight like push-ups to gain Bruce Lee’s muscles, but this serves only as an insult to Bruce Lee. So it is stupid to say that what if my muscles become too large like Bruce Lee, since it is extremely hard to get his body even if you work with pro builders’ training system.

This is it for today and I will discuss about ways to draw out strength in the next article.

-Special thanks to Matstardream

Images: Bruce Lee: http://www.completemartialarts.com/whoswho/pictures/images/Bruce-Lee13.jpg

pressdown: http://media.photobucket.com/image/pressdown/michaelwong75/straight-bar_cable_pressdow.gif

I remember reading in a column where the writer recounted from a book he read which asked readers to lift a foot on top of a chair the height of your waist and try the same for the other leg. As most people are capable of, you probably can lift both feet 90 degrees without much difficulty. The author said why are many people not able to perform a side split when there are no ligaments between two legs. The reason why is since we always move in the same stride, once it is over the usual pace, our brains send a strong negative message which contracts the muscles. So let’s begin our story with the similar concept the author used.

As the author mentioned, we live as our brain orders. Some muscles work under our instructions but there are muscles we can’t control such as our heart. Of course all these are functions our body or brain made as self-protection, but regardless of all the unconscious world psychology talks about, our body has so much more potential than which our body knows.

A strongman once mentioned in an interview that normal people use only 40% of their muscle strength and even top strongmen only use about 70%. Whatever the accuracy of the percentage is, the sure thing is that we don’t use the full strength we possess. Believe it or not I heard a story long time ago where a mother lifted up a car to save her child. And the most difficult training in the world, the Hell Week proves the sports science that humans possess 10 times more of potential than we normally use.

Then now we will find out about the true and false in bodybuilding and common false ideas on strength building before learning about ways to bring up power.

Many people think muscle workouts are difficult concepts but in essence there is only push and pull. Once you think about these two it all becomes simple. If you use your upper body to perform push exercises, you develop your chest, triceps, and shoulders. In pull workouts, your back and biceps develop. Also, if you do pushing exercises using your lower body, you develop quadriceps, and pulling develops hamstrings.

Then what is powerlifting? It is competing on how much weight a person can lift in benchpress, squat, and deadlift.

Benchpress

Deadlift

These three include both push and pull; benchpress is the pushing strength of the upper body, deadlift is upper body’s pulling strength(of course lower body is used as well), and squash is the pushing strength of the lower body. In other words, you can work every muscle solely with the workouts above. To be more perfect, you can subdivide the directions of pushing and pulling. To add a few words, the most famous and competitive workout is benchpress, but in actual fightingwise, military press and dip are better. Same goes for pulling. Pulling from below is deadlift, pulling from above becomes a pullup.

-Special thanks to Matstardream

Who do you want to look like? Most of you would agree that the short distance sprinters’ body are cooler than the body of marathon runners behind.

Who is stronger: Duncan Kibet or Brock Lesnar? Of course if they fight a MMA match then I would bet all my money on Brock Lesnar but I am asking you who has the better stamina. As you know, marathon is becoming increasingly popular these days. If someone asks for advices to start working out many people say “marathon is the best for your health.” Also, most people have the conception that marathon runners have the best fitness. Is it really?

To talk about this we need to know what fitness is. I will quote from Bruce Evans and Jim Corey who defined fitness in ten terms.

1. Cardiovascular and Respiratory endurance

2. Stamina

3. Strenght

4. Flexibility

5. Power

6. Speed

7. Coordination

8. Agility

9. Balance

10. Accuracy

The first thing we can notice from this is that we often rely the definition of fitness in the first one, cardiovascular endurance. Each has connection but is a different ability, yet we predict that someone with great endurance would be great in other areas as well.

It is a known fact that marathon runners’ sergeant jupimg and benchpressing abilities are way lower than other sports players. This is because long aerobics exercising decreases anaerobics workout ability. Let’s talk about the concept of aerobics and anaerobics in here. This part looks easy to explain but has some vague parts so I will explain using a different technique.

Generally as we use energy, there are three types of energy we use. Phosphagen glycolytic, oxidative pathway are the types but here i will use P, G, O.

P is the metabolism for energy using sudden power exposure which lasts less than ten seconds, G is the metabolism for energy using medium amount of power lasting for few minutes, and O is the metabolism for energy using little power for more than few minutes. Here, P and G are anaerobic exercises and O is aerobic exercise. So in running, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m would be considered anaerobics, 1600m or over would be aerobics. However, do not fall into the misconception that running, cycling, and swimming are aerobics while weight training is anaerobics. If you run, cycle, or swim fast it would be anaerobic exercise, and if you lift light weights for a long time this would become aerobic exercise.

Soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis, boxing, mma, rock climbing and most sports we know are mor of anaerobic exercise than aerobic. Check out the chart.

As you can see in the chart, anaerobic exercise is more beneficial than aerobic exercise. And unlike popular belief, anaerobic exercise does not decrease aerobic abilities but increase. For example, we can think of interval training which is necessary to shorten records in marathon running. Interval training is an anaerobic exercise repeating the routine of running a short distance with full speed and then with low speed. Let me introduce you to a famous interval training method which I used to enjoy working with called “Yasso 800″. A person named Yasso came up with this method and the concept is easy. Repeat 800m sprinting 10 times and check the record with the most time. I f the latest record is 3 minutes than in actual marathon it would take 3 hours and if the record is 2minutes 59seconds it would take 2hours and 59minutes. It may look ridiculous but if you ask people who trained with the method, they will tell you that it works. What I am trying to tell you here is not that the theory is so accurate but that you can run a long distance faster only when you can run a shorter distance faster as well. In other words, anaerobic ability increases aerobic ability.

I tried mountain marathons and ultra marathons but learned that short distance running is harder to shorten my personal record. It is harder to finish 5km in 15 minutes than finishing 100km. And some sports scientists say that a person who can run 10km without resting can run a full course marathon.

Lance Armstrong overcame his illness and won Tour de France five times in a row. I personally like him very much but before I talk about him let me talk about a story from my India trip. Everyone who has been to India would know but one of the most popular public transportation there is called a rickshaw. There are auto rickshaws and cycle rickshaws but I used cycle rickshaws more often because it looked entertaining. Anyways, if you see a rickshaw driver, their stamina is simply astonishing. They drive it 365days without looking tired and if you consider their work amount, they should come up with someone like Lance Armstrong but in reality it never happened. It is because they are just good at aerobic exercise and never trained anaerobic workouts(interval and weight training) like Lance Armstrong. If you look at Echo Challenge or expedition race winners’ routine, it is mostly anaerobic based exercises. Then does Armstrong possess the best fitness in the planet? he is just superior to normal people, but I’m sure that any nameless wrestler in the Taelung Park, a Judo player, or a sprinter would overpower Armstrong in most other sports excluding cycling.In our daily life or survival situations, certain amount of aerobic plus a lot of anaerobic abilities is more ideal than a lot of aerobics.

One of many wrong trainings is when a boxing coach tells his boxers to do a lot of aerobic exercise. He probably thought that doing a lot always help but as you can see in the graph, long hours of aerobics can increase endurance but that will result in the loss of speed, power, and musle strenghts. Not only in sports but also in our daily lives. How often would we need to run 10km in our life. The famous military unit navy seal test 4mile(about 6.4km) running in every level during its 6months training but the longest distance running is 15miles(about 24km) and even that is practiced only once. Then what kind of workout adding to an hour of aerobics would accomplish the ten standards of fitness? I would try to explain that further in later posts but to tell you a little, it would be interval training with weightlifting, gymnastics, and nutrition.

To avoid any misunderstandings, for people who love marathon itself, there is no problem focusing on longdistance running. And of course the best players in any subject should be admired. I respect Duncan Kibet and think he is in the top level of all ten definitions. But I just want to notify the fallacy in the belief that long distance aerobic exercies are best for your health or as you become good at this it will increase your abilities in other sports.

In next post, I will discuss about the right and wrong facts about body building and ways to improve pure strength. Know that you already possess the strength to lift a car! You just don’t know how.

Thanks to matstardream from DDanzi who wrote the original column about aerobic and anaerobic exercise and gave me the knowledge about sports training.