In assessing your progress toward any given training goal, you have to look at what caused you to have that goal in the first place. If your goal is to get stronger or have better endurance for health reasons, then you can use workout numbers to assess your progress. However, if you’re training for some reason other than fitness, your workout numbers just won’t cut it. Let me explain with an example . . .
When I was in college, I knew a guy who was on the university’s wrestling team. He was relatively weak for his size, so he went on a strength building routine. He always found that the first 15-20 seconds of a match he felt Ok, but would pretty much get manhandled after that because his opponents were always stronger than him. He came to me one day upset because although he was much stronger than he used to be, he was still getting manhandled on the mat. He didn’t know what was wrong.
Well, we worked together, and we determined that his problem wasn’t his program, nor his attitude, nor a lack of progression, nor his ability. His problem was that while he was using a good routine, it wasn’t geared toward his real needs. In other words, he was using a routine based on the wrong goals. He had set his goals to as to get stronger in the weight room, as opposed to on the mat. So, he used his numbers in the weight room to assess his progress. And progress in these numbers he did, but it wasn’t what he needed in order to become stronger on the mat. Had he been using how he felt on the mat to assess his progress (as opposed to his numbers in the weight room), he would have come to the conclusion that he was on the wrong type of routine much sooner. Together, we figured out that his problem wasn’t that he was weak, but that he had comparatively poor strength-endurance. We laid out a new routine, and within a few weeks, he was much stronger on the mat.
When you sit back and assess your progress(ion) toward your goal(s), just be sure to keep in mind why you set these goals in the first place. It will help you assess yourself much more accurately and much easier. And it will lead to much more productive training.
Still a little fuzzy as to what I mean? Well, let’s look at an example. Let’s say that you are like the wrestler above in that you find that after a certain period of time on the mat, your opponent can just manhandle you. Most times, grapplers erroneously think that they need to become merely stronger so that they are successful on the mat. While becoming stronger is highly beneficial, more often than not, the problem isn’t a lack of strength, but more a lack of strength-endurance. Any mat grappler needs to have great strength and great stamina, but it is the grappler with the greater strength-endurance (i.e. – ability to be as strong at the end of a match as you are at the beginning) that will be in a better position to win. How would one increase his strength-endurance? Heavy weight, compound (multi-joint) movements, short rest, (relatively) high volume. I am a proponent of using primarily singles and/or doubles – sets of one and/or two reps (my upcoming book will detail this much further) – in one’s strength training. A sample routine could look like this:
Day 1:
-Power Clean and Press – 15 sets x 2 reps
-(Weighted) Curl Grip Chins – 10 sets x 2 reps
-Deadlifts – 15 sets of 1 rep
Day 2:
-(Weighted) Dip – 12 sets x 2 reps
-Power Cleans – 20 sets x 1 rep
-Squats – 10 sets x 1 rep
Finish up each workout with ab work, bridging, and grip work as desired. Keep rest periods brief (30-45 seconds). Start each exercise using approx. 70% of your 1RM for any given exercise and adjust from there. Strive to increase weight and decrease rest time. Perform a workout every other day or so.
Now, how would a work out of this type be different than a pure strength only type of workout? Well, using the above exercises on the same day(s), perform singles for every set and decrease the number of sets per exercise by one-third to one-half. Increase the amount of weight used (where possible) and increase the rest time. Perform each workout only once per week, and allow at least 2-3 days in between.
See the difference? Different types of goals will necessitate different types of workouts/routines. Determine why you are setting a particular goal in the weight room, and use that as how you assess your progress. You’ll have a much better chance of developing a routine that will achieve your goals, and more importantly, improve your grappling weakness(es).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Living in Cameron, NC, Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins is a cost analyst who has studied, researched, and performed strength training for over 10 years. Matt has designed strength, conditioning, and exercise programs for students, combat athletes, athletes of various sports, and has written an upcoming book detailing his methods called "Singles and Doubles – How the Ordinary Become Extraordinary" (available November 2002). Matt is available on a limited basis for one-on-one personal training in central NC, and designs personalized training programs online via email. If you’d like more info on Matt’s book or how Matt can set up a program for you, email him at wigginm@wyeth.com.
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