Abbreviated training
There are a few things I wanted to write about today – Nutrition, bench press, abbreviated training, and strength training blah blah blah!
Well I decided to write about abbreviated training today as it is fundamentally strength training (well a method of training strength) and I believe it suits our (BJJ, Judo, Grapplers) lifestyle and time cycle i.e. recovery time. And it’s something I am playing around with in the gym!
So what is abbreviated training, well in simple terms – it’s a session of very few exercises that can have between 1 and 3 compound exercises with some assisted exercises (some people will do 2 compound 1 assisted, or even 2 and 4 or 1 and 3 etc – how you do it is up to you but to many and it defeats the whole point of abbreviated training). The aim is to build strength, so few sets (3 to 5) with few reps (3 to 5) – in essence high load low volume (remember my last blog about set and rep range?).
Now there are so many various methods of training strength and they may all work, but abbreviated training is ideal for me (and those who may lead a life like me) it is hard, very hard but it’s quick! I emphasise the word QUICK! I am in and out of the gym in 30 minutes, and I’ve put in a shift. Its ‘functional’ to a degree and it works a hell of a lot muscles, it ticks a lot of boxes for ME! I also believe there is great importance on changing load (poundage) – lifting the same weight week on in will not aid you, change it around, even if you only add 1kg per week try it. I am trying a method I heard Louie Simmons mention, day 1: 85% 1RM, day 2: 90% 1RM for 3 weeks, re test 1RM on 4th week and adjust percentages accordingly. So…..
Just in case some of you are wondering – “what are compound exercises?”
They are exercises that involve more than one joint and muscle group i.e. deadlift, squat etc
Deadlift: Uses numerous joints (Knees, Hips) and countless muscles from the legs up (Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Traps, Abs – the list goes on).
“But what are assisted exercise?” – Well this is an exercise that will help aid the compound exercise and other functional exercises you may like (want) to do (my understanding – and I will happily be corrected). For example I do deadlifts and I class an assisted exercise for deadlifts as pull ups. If you did bench press as your compound exercise you could class press ups as an assisted exercise. Now I am being honest here, I’m not sure if it has to be bodyweight all of the time, mine certainly aren’t – but it certainly shouldn’t be high load, low volume.
I used to go the gym and do numerous compound exercises with numerous assisted exercises and train the same night (BJJ/Judo) – quite often fatigued and seeing no benefits, this would be done 4 to 5 times a week (where do I get the rest required to aid building strength?). I did some research and changed my training! I was no doubt overtraining, but training wrong also. I changed my training and it was in line with the abbreviated system but I didn’t call it that as I wasn’t really aware of the terminology until Daniel Strauss highlighted it.
What it does do is this, it allows me to train strength effectively and allows me to train in BJJ/Judo without either one being effected and hindering my performance (which after all is the most important thing). The risk of over training is reduced (assuming it’s applied correctly) and allows adequate time for recovery (one of the most important factors of building strength).
So an example (well this is what I am currently doing):
Monday
Squat, DB Chest press, Bent over row
Thursday
Deadlift, Pull ups, Shoulder Press
I could add (and I do plan on it) more sessions, well 1 more to be exact, so I plan on doing a Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I will complement this with power (velocity based) training – blog to follow and will see where that takes me.
Well I hope you enjoyed this small blog, it’s a learning process for me! I am aware of the physiological needs to build strength, power and endurance, but applying it is a different skill all together. As ever, any issues with this or even pointers please feel free to comment or e-mail me. I am always open to constructive criticism (I welcome it).
Until next time, ooosss