Little post I am publishing on Grapplefit Training... Here is a thought on barbell training for you to mull over - I get asked a lot by people who train in regular gyms where certain kit is hard to come by - here are some ideas for you... At first I thought about covering a barbell complex such as Istvan Javorek’s methods or Randy Couture’s Complex routine. Generally though, everyone knows about these methods, especially the great man himself. The Couture Complex is widely researched and publicised via the web So after a long deliberation, I thought I’d introduce you lot to a man whom I think would terrorise any aspiring athlete with his legendary fitness. Not many of you will know this but Dave Starbrook was one of the first judo athletes to win an Olympic medal (silver in 1972 and bronze in 1976) for Great Britain. Between those great competitions he won medals everywhere he went, World Championships, Europeans etc etc. He was known as the “Iron Man” and was fanatical about being in top fighting shape. At light-heavyweight he was around fifteen stones and without an ounce of fat in sight. On one occasion the 1972 Olympic team doctor had the squad performing shuttle runs holding hand weights and was monitoring their heart rate after the task was completed, at one point Starbrook’s heart rate measured 210bpm!! This worried the good doctor slightly but gave the Iron Man confidence that no-one would be fitter than him on the mat! What does this have to do with you, MMA or anything? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Starbrook Circuit!! Take a barbell weighing approx one-third of your body weight and perform three trips through the circuit outlined below without rest and without setting the barbell down (the only time this is allowed is for the leg raises, but I have a sick variation to counter this!!) 1. Shoulder Press 10 2. Tricep Extension 10 3. Reverse Curls 10 4. Bent over Rowing 10 5. Bicep Curls 10 6. Step-ups 10 7. Bent-arm Pullovers 10 8. Leg Raises (or floor wipers with the bar held at lockout over your chest, told you I had a sick variant for this) 30 Now as you can see there are only ten reps to perform except for the leg raises (or floor wipers remember!) so how hard can it be? Well our friend Mr. Starbrook recommends a run of no more than three miles before the circuit for increased fitness, or the same distance after the circuit for fat loss and weight management. As an extra, I use a sand bag for this circuit which hurts in a more relevant way for me as a sambo fighter... This may seem easy but a good finisher to it is to perform two rounds of Tabata burpees immediately after. This will be quite a humbling affair!!! So literally 8 mins at 20 seconds on and 20 seconds off for burpees. This is of course optional. You can go heavier with this too but Id stick to one third bodyweight initially to see how you go... He also states that it is a good idea to perform this routine on a morning so there is ample recovery time for your main session (MMA, judo etc). So there you have it, a simple routine that I believe justifies serious attention as part of a complete strength and conditioning programme. It won’t take you long and if you can’t complete the work in less than twelve minutes you need to adjust the weight. Keep the tempo brisk while maintaining good form. As usual, feel free to drop any comments and share with whoever.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 11:49:31 +0000
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