When I picked up my first weight almost 14 years ago, I had no idea or expectations as to what could achieve. It was all unknown to me. Everything I did was a new experience and something to learn from, eventually becoming better at doing it through repetition. Over the past decade, I have used this same approach towards becoming a certified trainer, competing in numerous fitness and drug-free bodybuilding shows, being photographed for magazine covers and appearing in commercials and on packaging for products. You could say I’ve been fortunate enough to have done a bit of everything, but it wasn’t through lack of hard work, determination, and the willingness to keep trying new things until I got them right.
5 years ago I moved to Los Angeles where I was surrounded by a whole new approach to fitness, and I could see there was still a lot to learn. After a decade of being in the fitness industry and achieving many of he goals that I had set for myself, I felt it was time to take a different approach, and challenge myself differently.
I wanted to combine everything I had learned throughout the years of my training and competing and challenge myself to some of the toughest sports and test the limits in the 5 main areas of fitness. These being: Strength, Speed, Stamina, Power, and Endurance. I had pushed myself in these areas throughout my training, but rarely all at once. After all, my training was really set up for being in peak physical shape, and not necessarily for conditioning myself to sprint the longest distance, or jump the highest, or fight the hardest, or whatever the goal of training is.
Most of these challenging sports required specific training to prepare the athlete for an event, a time to perform at the best they could. Myself – well, at best, I had to look as good as I could to walk on stage and be photographed. There was no running, jumping, or fighting – at least not on stage! (Jk – competing like with many other sports builds deep friendships and comradely).
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After years of being in the fitness industry being filmed and photographed to help others with their fitness, I wondered while it gives you great satisfaction to know you’ve built a body of work that can inspire and motivate others, what is it really good for if it doesn’t perform like the way it looks. After all, top level fitness competitors and models have some of the most aesthetically bodies out there, and that’s not to say that we don’t work hard for them – we do, but compared to many of other athletes and there sport specific training that prepares them for their event that they want to be the best at, how similar our are training styles, and could I cross into their world for a day without looking like a complete beginner.
With the challenge set I contacted an MMA gym I had done a shoot at a couple of years ago, and told them of the challenge. The gym is called Throwdown and located in the heart of Las Vegas, Nevada, with all their instructors having active or past backgrounds in professional competition and training.
During a fight these fighters have to be prepared to go all out for up to 5 rounds, lasting 5 minutes each, and so their conditioning is pretty much unparalleled in any other sport, let alone the fact that they’re constantly taking blows from their opponents.
Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including Boxing, Wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Karate, Judo and other styles.
Originally promoted as a competition with the intention of finding the most effective martial arts for real unarmed combat situations, competitors were pitted against one another with minimal rules. Later, fighters employed multiple martial arts into their style while promoters adopted additional rules aimed at increasing safety for competitors and to promote mainstream acceptance of the sport.
The day after Christmas, I traveled from Los Angles to Las Vegas, ready to meet with Casey – one of Throwdown’s trainer, early the next day. I arrived at the gym with a feeling on uncertainty, the kind where you know you’re going to have to do something that you wouldn’t do unless someone is making you do it, which in this case, was myself. From the outside, Throwdown looks like any other commercial-type property with few signs as to the training that goes on inside. But as soon as you walk inside, you can tell from the large steel poles and chain-link fencing separating the gym area from the matted combat area, numerous signed photographers of fighters and many fight posters lining the cold concrete walls , and an array of sports conditioning, strength, and power equipment that they mean business
The day after Christmas, I traveled from Los Angles to Las Vegas, ready to meet with Casey – one of Throwdown’s trainer, early the next day. I arrived at the gym with a feeling on uncertainty, the kind where you know you’re going to have to do something that you wouldn’t do unless someone is making you do it, which in this case, was myself. From the outside, Throwdown looks like any other commercial-type property with few signs as to the training that goes on inside. But as soon as you walk inside, you can tell from the large steel poles and chain-link fencing separating the gym area from the matted combat area, numerous signed photographers of fighters and many fight posters lining the cold concrete walls , and an array of sports conditioning, strength, and power equipment that they mean business.
I’m greeted by Casey – a shaved headed young guy, with a purple bruise below his right eye. He shows me around the facility, before introducing me to Noah – a powerhouse of a man, standing 6’3” and tipping the scales at 22 stone. Noah tells me he’s a former bodybuilder, power lifter and strength and conditioning coach. His hand dwarfs mine as he we shake hands and he tells me that he’s going to be putting me through a pre-fight circuit that fighters would usually perform once or twice a week in the run up to a fight, which can begin 3-4 months before the match.
Noah instructs me to warm up prior to starting the circuit. Within my training, a warm up usually consists of a few high volume, light sets on the first exercise that I’m to start on, followed by some active stretching. This provides me with an adequate warm up before progressively building up the weight, and for which I’m pleased to say, has left me injury-free for all these years. But lets get real here for a second – warming up in a gym to take what’s usually a few muscles through a specific range of movement, often through a single plane of motion, has a very different cause compared to warming up the entire body, through every range and plane of motion, before getting ready to fight. While the training may be somewhat different, (with weight lifting making up for only about 20% of the training), the mindset isn’t all that different. It’s the kind of vision where you tell yourself you are going to do this. There is no alternative. With the exception that whatever weight your lifting in the gym, it probably isn’t going to fight back when you tell it you need to rest. When you’re in the ring there is no rest. To rest could mean being beat, and this is the one thing I know I’m going to miss during this circuit!
The warm up consists of 10 body squats, 20 side lunges, 10 single leg toe-touches (extending one leg straight out behind you as you lean forwards and touch your toe with your opposite arm), 10 sets of walking plans (forwards and backwards) and 15 TRX rows with my feet up on a step box.
I’ve never worked with a trainer before as I’ve always trained myself, but having Noah standing over me the whole time, never raising his voice above a gentle tone, only has me wanting to work harder.
Once I’ve warmed up, we walk over to the far end of the gym to the first exercise and Noah asks me ‘Do you like doing incline dumbbell presses?’ All of a sudden I feel back within my comfort zone. That’s like asking a child if they like sweets! He hands me a pair of 40lb (22Kg) dumbbells and tells me to perform 10 reps, going slow as I lower them to the sides of my chest before pausing and exploding them back up. The anxiety I had upon walking into the gym seemed to quickly fade and I began thinking this wasn’t going to be as tough as I had first thought. I was wrong! No sooner had I pushed out the last rep did he me move me straight into performing plyometric push-ups on two Bosu balls, exploding upwards as high as I could. These two exercises were to mimic the explosive power behind a punch, and the ability to perform this time and time again long after the initial strength has gone.
I managed to complete the set without rest, and quickly moved on to the next exercise, which were squats on a smith machine. With only one large plate on each side and ten reps to perform I was feeling confident, but the slow negative reps, proceeded by the pause and explode technique makes it feel as though it’s twice as heavy, and really fires all of the type-2 muscle fibers, known as the white, fast-twitch fibers that function without the presence of oxygen. Exactly what fighters need.
I could see Noah moving a large step box into the middle of the gym for the next exercise. Performing jumps after squats isn’t part of my usual training, as I want to recover enough to be able to increase the weight for the next set to stimulate muscle breakdown for better growth, but as Casey told me when showing me around – fighters aren’t too concerned with size, and more about strength and endurance. After all, what’s the use of all that muscle in the ring if you can’t effectively use it. The thought of having to do explosive plyometric jumps straight after seemed to make the last few reps of squatting harder, but I put that down to my mindset and quickly shook that out of my head and regained my positive attitude. I can do this. I am doing this!
With another set completed, I tried sipping from a bottle of water but I was breathing too hard, trying to get some oxygen into my blood and to my muscles. Noah was stood above me as I sat down on the box to try and recover for a few seconds. ‘You feel that lactic acid going through your entire body? This is why we train like this, to increase your lactic acid tolerance!’ It felt as though he was telling me how I was going to die, still never raising his voice above a gentle tone – making it sound all the more sinister.
I stood up and slowed my breathing down. What’s next I asked. Noah looks over at this giant tire and says ‘Flip it ten times’. I ask how much it weighs. 320Lbs! 10lbs heavier than Noah.
Lifting is just as much about technique as it is about strength, so with my strength diminishing I know my technique has to be perfect if I’m to complete the set. I sit into a deep squat, holding onto the tire tread with my arms straight and chest puffed up keeping my back straight. I take in a deep breath – as deep as I can while still trying to recover from the past few minutes of non-stop punishment. As I breathe out, I push up through my legs with my arms still locked out. The tire moves but is heavier than I thought. I was trying to conserve some energy for the next circuits but I realized I had to give it everything I had on this set. There was no room to save for what’s next.
The tire hits the ground and I go in for my second lift. I don’t even think about my technique as all I’m focusing on is seeing that tire flip. The second lift doesn’t seem as difficult. The jump in and out of the centre to flip it the other way almost seems as challenging as I switch from all out strength to explosive power.
It isn’t the weight of the exercises that’s draining me as much as it is the quick transition between different energy stores. My muscles by now are long depleted of the immediate energy source I rely upon during my regular workouts, and you could say I’m well and truly out of my comfort zone as my muscles are having to function anaerobically without the presence of oxygen.
The tire hits the ground for the tenth time. I’m struggling to breathe and sit on the tire with my head almost between my knees. Can you explode up into the air at the top of a pull up – Noah asks. On days that I can breathe normally I’m thinking to myself I can. With the eyes of Noah on me and the camera in my face, I had no alternative than to stand up and jump straight into it – literally! Giving up was not an option!
The transition between lifting heavy weights and explosive plyometric movements is utterly exhausting and energy draining, but still there seems to be energy left to get the job done. As one energy source is being depleted, the other is recovering – only just, each time pushing the threshold a little further. Just the same as when I’m in the gym and I push my muscles to their threshold, they come back bigger and stronger, (with adequate rest and proper nutrition), but this time I’m tapping into two different energy stores leaving little for any real recovery. I’m literally burning the candles at both ends – figuratively speaking!
I reach up and take grip of the chin up bars, pulling my weight up. I feel heavier than I remember, sweat drenching my shirt and every breath feeling like its tearing my lungs. 10 reps. I can do this. I usually do a lot more, but the explosive action is going to take everything I have left.
The feeling is like going from a jog into a sprint into a jump. Its giving the exercise all the energy you have and then having to explode with power.
I complete the 10 reps he asked from me and finally manage a few sips of water. Noah’s talking to me but I’m not really listening. I’m more concerned with how fast my heart is beating. Ready for round two! Let’s go! I hear Noah say, almost with a hint of excitement and enthusiasm in his tone. I feel as though I’ve just taken a blow to the gut. The lack of rest was crippling me and I wasn’t even half way through. What’s more was that I was realizing a big weakness within my own training. Ok, so I may not need to train like this for what my goal is, and doing so probably wouldn’t deliver optimum results for me, but the effectiveness to recover faster and have a higher lactic acid tolerance could assist my training, so I held on to that thought of knowing I can be better and moved back to the first exercise.
This time round, Noah increases all the weights, pushing my lactic acid tolerance even higher. I don’t know if knowing what’s ahead of me better prepared me for each exercise or worsened it, but the only thing I was thinking of was moving those weights as quickly as I could because as soon as I stopped, the momentum to get moving again seemed to be more draining than the exercise itself. This was more apparent on the explosive plyometric exercises like that Bosu press ups, the box jumps and the chin ups.
It was no surprise that the second round took longer as stamina was dwindling and the lactic acid was rendering my muscles pretty useless. I needed to take more breaks to recover what little I could. This fight was now becoming just as much mental as it was physically!
Noah instructed me to start round 3, handing my 60lb (27kg) dumbbells to start the incline chest press for 10 reps. One thing that was still standing was my strength. It wasn’t the weight that was slowing me down, it was the lack of recovery time. With that said, I could still complete the set without taking a break. I felt as though I could have done more, but telling Noah that would have only unleashed more punishment on my body, as it was I felt as though he was holding a lot back from me. (Later on, Casey tells me Noah would have him doing one minute sprints on the treadmill between each exercise!! I’m glad I kept my thoughts to myself – if only because breathing deeply was holding me back from saying anything).
Throughout the 3rd circuit, Noah’s pushing me harder on the weights, and they’re not far off from the weights I’d use in my usual workouts. With little besides sheer determination, I complete the exercises but with every tire flip I feel my head getting light. I can tell the lack of oxygen getting to my muscles is not only affecting my
strength and endurance now but also my balance and proprioception – defined as the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement. For once I wasn’t counting how many reps I had done or had left to do. I wasn’t thinking about when will I be finished. I was just thinking about each step forwards, each breath, each flip of the tire. My vision had shrunk from looking ahead in time to just focusing on what I was doing right then and there.
In a fight, you’re not thinking about when the bell is going to be heard, when the fight will be over, when you can sit down and rest. You think about everything your doing at that precise moment, giving it all your attention, focus and strength. You give everything you have for that one moment, and the next moment you do the same again. It’s like a long jumper giving his all for that final jump, and then repeating it over and over again for the duration of the running track that surrounds him – without rest! That’s what this circuit felt like!
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I drop down from the final explosive chin up, my muscles pumping with lactic acid and my lungs burning with every breath. I look up at the clock to see how long I’ve been going for. Almost 25 minutes. That’s the length of a title fight! I try to compose myself and stand upright to speak to Noah. I can’t close my mouth to speak as I’m trying to get as much oxygen into my lungs and muscle as possible.
After what seems like minutes I finally get out the words ‘How did I do’, and ask Noah to rate me out of 10 on the five areas of fitness. He rates me as follows: Speed: 6, Strength: 9, Stamina: 3, Power: 10, Endurance: 4, giving me a total of 64% of my maximum points. I knew my strengths were in my strength and power, but my stamina and endurance needed improving. Something that I can improve upon by incorporating a few fast-paced, explosive circuits into my training each month.
I took a seat and grabbed a Gatorade (sports energy drink) to put back some electrolytes into my body that I had lost through sweat and clearing of lactic acid from my muscles, plus some simple sugars to get some energy back into my muscles, and glucose to my brain.
I was still breathing heavy but I was starting to control the tempo of each breath. My ability to recover was good from all the years of training heavy. If only Noah could have marked me on this instead of stamina!
No sooner had I finished the Gatorade did Casey throw some boxing gloves at me. ‘Are you ready’ he asked, with what was either enthusiasm or a sinister smile looming from his tone. Either way, I wasn’t. I wanted to sit there and not do anything, but before I could begin to think of anything to say, he was wrapping my hands telling me how to protect myself as he forced the gloves on. It was time to spar with the Muay Thai expert and learn how to strike along with a few various clinching techniques.
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I’ve learned a little of Muay Thai from past photo shoots and video shows, but once again I was the student in front of the teacher.
We started with some jabs and crosses, and even though I hadn’t fully recovered from Noah’s workout, I had enough energy to put some power into my punches. Happy with my technique, we soon moved onto some combos of pad work followed by a sprawl (defined as scooting the legs backwards, so as to land on the upper back of the opponent attempting the takedown) then a knee jab.
Coordination was the name of this game, with high concentration required to transition from one technique to the next and to hit the pad straight on meeting Casey’s anticipation of my next move to a game he was all to familiar with.
Finally we finished off some drop down knee strikes, which consisted of several jabs to the pads before a cross to the side and then stepping forwards, dropping down onto the front knee and leaching upwards as I wrapped my arms around Casey, lifting them from the floor. This technique is usually broken down into multiple stages, but after seeing me perform with Noah and with the camera on him, Casey wanted to demonstrate his skill and leave me just as out of breath as Noah had.
It was difficult to master all at once, and then put the speed and power behind it for it to be effective, but it seemed easier than performing the circuit. Then again, had Casey of been fighting back, I’m sure It would have been a different story.
We were sparring for almost the same time as Noah’s circuit lasted, yet it seemed to be over much quicker. I took every chance I could to catch my breath while Casey explained the next series of moves.
After removing the gloves and unwrapping my hands from the straps, it was time to ask Casey if I had passed my challenge.
I felt I had given it everything I had, both on the circuit and with the sparring. Had I had 12 weeks to prepare for this, which is about the same time I take to prepare for a fitness competition, I’m sure I would have fared much better with stamina and endurance, but that wasn’t what this challenge was about. It was about seeing if my current training had made me adaptable for a variety of different sports, and with MMA being one of the toughest, I was about to find out.
Casey held his thumb sideways and shook it like a surfers greeting, before finally giving me a thumbs up and telling me I had passed the challenge.
I had always respected fighters for what they do, as I know it requires a great detail of skill and physical fitness. Not only that, but they have genuine respect towards their opponent. Since entering their world for just a day I have even more respect and admiration not just to their sports but to their athleticism and mindset. Their determination to succeed and to keep getting back up after they’ve been knocked down – quite literally, goes against our survival instincts, but when it comes to fight or flight, these guys (and girls) stay firmly grounded and fight to the end!
After thanking everyone at Throwdown for the experience to join them for the day, I went to get some food after hardly eaten anything for the past 6 hours, and only a small breakfast before that, but my body was in a state of shock and recovery, and digesting solid foods was not so high of a priority as it was to recover from it’s exercise post-oxygen consumption (During EPOC the body is restoring itself to its pre-exercise state, and thus is consuming oxygen at an elevated rate. This means that energy is also being expended at an elevated rate). A liquid meal in the form of a post-workout protein shake, and a handful of fruit for some simple sugars was about all I could manage. The drive back to LA took about 6 hours, but fortunately for me I wasn’t driving and those were 6 hours I could rest and recover. It was almost midnight by the time I reached home, and before sleeping I wanted to help my body recuperate as much as possible after the lack of complete proteins throughout the day and short but intense workouts had left me in somewhat of a catabolic state and so I wanted to protect my body from further muscle breakdown at night. I took some glutamine, BCAA’s, ZMA and some essential B-vitamins to help with protein synthesis. I had no problem falling into a deep sleep and woke the next morning – late, feeling somewhat rested and recovered but thought it best I use this day as a rest day before getting back into the stride of things.
Although I think it’ll be a few weeks before I start to incorporate these styles of training into my workouts, and by then it’ll be time for my next Ultimate Sports Challenge, exclusively in Muscle & Fitness!
Read the full article as printed in Muscle & Fitness by clicking on the PDF icon.
When I picked up my first weight almost 14 years ago, I had no idea or expectations as to what could achieve. It was all unknown to me. Everything I did was a new experience and something to learn from, eventually becoming better at doing it through repetition. Over the past decade, I have used this same approach towards becoming a certified trainer, competing in numerous fitness and drug-free bodybuilding shows, being photographed for magazine covers and appearing in commercials and on packaging for products.
Read the full article as printed in Muscle & Fitness by clicking on the PDF icon.
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