How to Program Lifting for Grappling or Combat Sports (Science Based)

If you want to get jacked and strong as

a grappler or a combat sports athlete,

this is the full programming guide using

a science-based approach. First thing I

want to get out of the way is pio,

sprints, and power output movements such

as Olympic lifts or modified Olympic

lifts are great. However, they're not in

high demand for our sport, specifically

in grappling. In MMA, much more. So,

it's going to take a larger percentage

of your training volume given the demand

in MMA than it will for grappling. So,

if I was going to structure a session

for MMA, I would start with a plyio

warm-up. Same thing with grappling.

apply a warm-up, one power movement in

the same programming style that I'm

about to give you. And then if I was in

MMA, I'd probably sprint first, then do

my lifting. But to be honest, we're not

sprinting in MMA like we are in football

or basketball. So you could throw it at

the end of the session. It's kind of up

to you depending on the adaptations

you're seeking to gain. All right. Now,

let's go into the lifting programming

side of things. So the first thing we

need to realize as an athlete is fatigue

management actually is an extremely

important variable that you need to take

into consideration to ensure uh that you

can train your sport maximally. All

right, so let's look at our weekly

blueprints. I would say two days of

lifting per week is probably going to

give you about 70% of the return on

investment that three or four will. It

has less of a time commitment, but the

problem is is we're giving up a whole

training day. So, you need to ask

yourself, do I really need a strength

and conditioning programming as much as

somebody else? So, if you've been

lifting for your whole life, you're

super strong. Maybe you came from a

strong man, powerlifting, bodybuilding

background, whatever it may be, and

you're already really strong, and maybe

you're already really powerful, you

already have some bop and bounce from

those plyometrics. Maybe you need less

days of strength and conditioning, but

maybe you're heavily undertrained and

you simply just need the strength and

conditioning more than somebody else.

Maybe you lean towards three or four. I

always recommend three or four. One, I

love lifting, but also I think that

three or four gets you to that 100%

return on investment. And if we program

it in a way that's a little bit more

intelligent, taking into account fatigue

and volume/load management, then I think

we can get the absolute best bang for

our buck without interfering with our

training. The first thing to take into

consideration as well when we go to

actually put this blueprint together is

I recommend lifting before training. I

think that lifting before training

allows you to still do your sport

maximally. I don't think lifting,

especially with the way that we're going

to program it interferes with it. But

lifting after super uh intense cardio is

really difficult and we're going to

struggle to make progress in the gym and

progressive overload is the name of the

game. Second thing is we're going to hit

all muscle groups and movement patterns.

say chest, but then the movement pattern

of a horizontal press two to three times

a week. I would say two at a bare

minimum. Three if we really want to

emphasize that muscle group or movement

pattern. But to be honest, the muscle

growth studies that we've seen doesn't

really seem to gain any more additional

benefit from frequency between two and

three. But I do think there's a benefit

of the sort of coordination or

neurological training you get or

adaptation you get by getting really

good at a specific movement. If I want

to get really good at bench pressing to

then in the long run get a bigger chest

and stronger chest and stronger

horizontal press, maybe a higher

frequency might be better. But in terms

of just raw muscle growth, probably two

times frequency for a muscle group is

sufficient. Second thing, rep range.

Now, this is a suggestion. It is not set

in stone, but I think aiming for it when

you put the weight on the bar, which is

going to dictate your rep range is going

and once again could be bar, machine,

cable, dumbbell, doesn't matter. But

it's going to dictate the weight that's

on whatever implement you're using. And

it's also going to have a major impact

on our fatigue. Higher reps are more

fatiguing and lower reps are less

fatiguing. I know that's

counterintuitive, but that's just the

way it is in terms of calcium ion

buildup in the muscle. So doing a set of

50 push-ups might give you the same

stimulus as a set of five heavy dips or

five heavy bench, but the problem is is

you are more fatigued. Your actual chest

takes longer to recover, more hours,

more sleeps to recover and then hit it

hard again. So we want to air on the

side of a rep range in my opinion

between four to 10 with zero to one rep

in reserve. And honestly, one rep or two

reps in reserve might be better, but I

do believe that we get a lot of benefit

from pushing ourselves in the gym and

training to zero reps in reserve for

certain periods of time. And what I mean

by reps in reserve is two reps in

reserve would be two reps short of

failure. So if I put on the bar, let's

say for bench press 315, I can do that

for five reps to failure. That's my max.

Two reps in reserve would be three. So I

go, can I stay in the rep range? Maybe I

do 305, shoot for seven and get five.

See how the weight dictates or uh the

rep range in the sense of or rather the

opposite, the rep range dictates the

weight that's on the implement. Now next

total weekly volume for any individual

muscle group. But I'm going to say this

for muscle groups because movement

patterns can have multiple muscle groups

as part of that movement pattern. Say

for a squat, a deadlift, some variation

of a hinge, whatever that may be, is

going to have multiple muscle group

working in that movement. So I'm going

to say total weekly volume for any

individual muscle group should be around

10 to 12 sets. But keep in mind compound

movements can hit multiple at a time.

And now we're getting into fractional.

That's not something I think that you

need to overly worry about, but it's

something to take in consideration in

terms of recovery. So, when you go to

assess whether or not 10 to 12 is a good

total weekly volume is push it up a

little bit. See if you still progress.

If you still progress, then you are at a

recoverable volume. I say 10 to 12

because it's a general rule of thumb,

but just like the rep range, if you get

12 reps or 13 reps, not a big deal.

Increase the weight, jump back into the

rep range. Same thing with your weekly

volume for any individual muscle group.

Say you do 14 sets of biceps and you're

like, "Well, I progressed all my

movements." Then you're good. Let's say

you do 15 sets of chest and you didn't

progress on anything or even regressed

too much. So that's a good indicator.

Next rest periods should be three

minutes. The idea of the gym is we're

not going in to break a sweat or get

fit. That conditioning is separate. We

can cover that in a separate video. But

the idea in the gym is to seek strength

power adaptations and that is best done

by being fully recovered and attacking

straight sets. What I mean by straight

sets is not doing things like

intensifiers, drop sets, rest paws. If

we understand how motor unit recruitment

works, given that uh the maximum amount

of motor units we can recruit is when we

are well recovered and well rested, it

makes no sense to get to our end of our

set and reduce the weight, reduce the

motor unit recruitment and attack that

set with no rest and get a worse set.

Now, I know you're going to get a way

sicker pump, and I know it's going to be

a cooler feeling and a cooler look, and

drop sets are super fun, but they're not

particularly effective when we

understand that the drivers of muscle

growth and therefore strength, which

I'll cover in a second, is mechanical

tension and motor unit recruitment.

Motor unit recruitment being high effort

and mechanical tension being when load

is placed on those muscle fibers. Given

that we are high motor unit recruitment,

we have a involuntary slowing of

contraction velocity. What I mean by

muscle growth drives strength is you can

gain strength without gaining muscle.

But you cannot gain muscle without

gaining strength. Why? Because the early

adaptations of strength come from

coordination, getting good at a

movement, neural adaptation, being able

to recruit more motor units by doing

that activity, being better at the

movement. But at a certain point, you're

going to hit a wall. And you're not

going to be able to do more with the

current motor units and muscle fibers

that you have on your body. And we need

to add contractile tissue. That happens

together in tandem. Strength and muscle

growth together. But this idea that we

can have some sort of empty muscle or

putting on muscle is a bad thing is

ridiculous. Stop worrying about that.

Now, that is our weekly blueprint. And

I'll break it down one more time. Three

body or excuse me, three-day or four

day. And I would recommend probably a

full body or four day upper lower. So

three days of full body or even three

days of upper lower full body. So we're

still getting that two times frequency

and then four day and upper lower split.

So upper lower rest rest rest rest rest

rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest

rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest

rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest

rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest

rest rest rest rest or two days of full

body if you are already strong or maybe

just a beginner. So I'll say three or

four preferable two reiterating the same

time we're hitting muscle groups at

least two times a week. Rep range four

to 10. It's a suggestion. It's okay.

Don't overthink it. reps in reserve,

zero to two air on the side of a little

bit less, not going to failure to spare

us from some of that fatigue. And then

three minutes of rest between sets to be

fully recovered to attack each set. No

intensifiers, no drop sets, just

straight sets. And then around

recoverable volume, maybe 10 to 12 per

sets per muscle, 10 to 12 sets per

muscle group per week. That's our weekly

blueprint. Here's our session blueprint.

Total session volume is probably

optimal. Once again, I'm going to say

probably these aren't you set in stone.

There's gray area here. Around 12 total

effective sets. So, let's say that could

be six exercises, two sets a piece, five

exercises,

two maybe a three. You can figure out

the math. All right. So, exercise order

of that individual session should be

exercise, excuse me, muscle groups that

are lagging or what you want to

prioritize. Uh, same thing with the

movement patterns are going to be

frontloaded. So, if we want to maximize

our squat progression or we want to

bring up say our chest, those need to go

in the front of the session order and

it's literally just a descending list of

prioritization. So, whatever is at the

top that the first things you do in the

gym are going to be the most prioritized

descending down to the lowest

prioritization. That is our session

blueprint. So, here is the notes that I

left in some of these uh notes that I

wrote out for myself that I do think are

important to cover. So, I'm going to

retouch on the four topics you should

know in terms of the dummies guide to

general strength training. One is motor

unit recruitment, which I already talked

about. High effort from the muscle

requires proper loading of that target

muscle. And things like instability or

hyper complex movements or things with a

poor loading structure, a lot of

functional stuff just simply detract

from motor unit recruitment. And we end

up, the more specific you get, and this

is once again a separate video entirely,

but the more specific we get, the more

that detracts from motor unit

recruitment and you fall somewhere in

this mediocre middle where we're not

getting strong and we're not doing we're

not practicing our sports super

specific, just doing general strength

training movements is over here on the

adaptations. So, by trying to do both at

the same time, we just end up in this

mediocre middle and everything sucks.

Second one, mechanical tension is the

involuntary slowing of reps due to high

force on the muscle. So voluntarily

slowing it is not mechanical tension.

Now two things that I hear a lot.

Coordination is taskspecific. What I

mean by this is you actually have to

practice your sport to get better at

being coordinated your sport. Doing any

movement, let's say juggling or

balancing on a balance beam is

coordination specific to that task. If

it was broad, it could go across sports.

Whoever had the best hand eye

coordination and juggled really well

would also be good at basketball. But

shooting a basketball is task specific

in terms of coordination. So stop

thinking like that. Second one is or

fourth one in this list is stability.

Now stability matters. It's just not

trained by instability. What do I mean

by that? Stabilizing muscles are trained

by loading them directly. So if I'm

doing a bench press, my stabilizing

muscles are my lats on the bench, but

I'm not training my lats by bench

pressing. It's important to be stable on

the bench, but it's not trained by being

unstable. In fact, it detracts from

motor unit recruitment. So, you might

have way less weight doing an unstable

movement. And once again, we end up in

the mediocre middle. I think some things

that I would like to cover too is we

don't need to have this dogma around any

given or specific movement. Whether it

be powerlifting, calisthenics, barbells,

dumbbells, cables, machines, they all

fall into a pool or uh tool belt that we

can use and just pick the best one,

right? Let's think about fundamental

movement patterns is I think the closing

thing that I want to send you guys home

with here is push and pull horizontally

and vertically. Hinge, do a squat,

rotate a little bit, some spinal flexion

for the abs, do some pio, some power,

some sprints, and get fit and

conditioned for your sport.

What I mean by that is now let's just

fill all those things in with the best

tools. So, I'll just give you a couple.

Vertical pull, oh, I don't know,

weighted pull-ups, horizontal push, I

don't know, bench press, a chest press,

doesn't really matter. A hinge RDL,

deadlift, dumbbell RDL, doesn't really

matter. So, just pick the best tool for

whatever fits you, your goals, your

body, what you're good at. Don't get

hurt, right? But it doesn't have to be

dogmatic. We don't have to use, oh,

powerlifting is the best, strongman's

the best, calisthenics are the best.

Don't think like that. Just pick the

best tool. That's the dope thing about

general strength training is just pick

the best thing. All right, that's it for

this video. Tune in for another one. I

have way more to cover and I try to pack

in as much information as I could in

this one. I'll see you guys in the next