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Ridiculous. GSP can move up to 185 me thinks. Just increase the protein.

That's pretty sick, those guys are animals...some interesting information too...the explosive excercise immediately after strength.

the jumping hurdles was amazing

Doing the eccentric portion of a lift slowly is stupid. Other than that seemed like a pretty good workout.

yea, i wonder what GSPs vertical is...his plyometrics certainly are good...

Doing the eccentric portion of a lift slowly is stupid. Other than that seemed like a pretty good workout.

You should email their strength coach that since you're an internet poster and he's training the strongest fighter at his weight...

The explosive exercise after the strength exercise seems good but in a normal gym setting unlikely you'd be able to do it.

You should email their strength coach that since you're an internet poster and he's training the strongest fighter at his weight...

Doug Santillo
http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=462176
There're times when lowering the weight fast can be advantageous. In training for maximal strength, the primary goal is to force your nervous system to more efficiently recruit fast twitch fibers. With a faster eccentric speed, you give the nervous system more of a break between each explosion, since the tension is reduced. By doing this, your muscles must contract from a more relaxed position, thereby forcing your nervous system to adapt.

Chad Waterbury
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1551258
Farthing and Chilibeck performed a study that compared hypertrophy between slow and fast eccentric contractions. They demonstrated that fast eccentric contractions result in more hypertrophy than slow eccentric contractions. (2) That's one big nail in the "slow eccentrics" coffin!

I've spent many years experimenting with numerous variations of eccentric contractions. I've emphasized the phase by either slowing down the eccentric or by overloading the phase with weight releasers. I've also experimented extensively with negative-only training.

My conclusion? The eccentric phase does not need to be emphasized for the purpose of enhancing size and strength. Don't get me wrong, the eccentric phase is just as important — maybe even more important — as the concentric phase, but the stimulus it receives with traditional, fast contractions takes care of all your training needs.

If you do emphasize the eccentric phase, it can lead to excessive DOMS, and that's something that doesn't pair well with frequent training sessions. By emphasizing the eccentric phase with slow tempos or supramaximal loads, you're only extending your recovery period as your immune system deals with excessive muscle soreness, elevated creatine kinase activity, and limb swelling. I'm not a fan of any strategy that augments the recovery period.

My bottom line on eccentric contractions:

1. Train the eccentric phase with the same speed and load as the concentric phase.

2. Perform the eccentric phase as fast as possible while controlling the movement.

3. There's no correlation between excessive, eccentric-induced soreness and hypertrophy.


Pavel Tsatsouline
2. Don't free fall and don't go super slow. Lower the bar at the pace you always use for benching your max.

Joe Defranco
http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/archive/article_fab15.htm
One of the main reasons we chose the bands for box squatting is their ability to accelerate the eccentric portion of the lift. You see, the athlete’s we train that have the best verticals are also the one’s who descend the fastest during their jumps. Newton’s 3rd Law states that “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. What this means is that the faster an athlete can descend, the faster he will explode upward and the higher he will jump. The bands train this often-overlooked component of the vertical jump.

Christian Thibaudeau
http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=614400
Control during the eccentric (lowering), but never focus on tempo while lifting heavy weights

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/Kinetic_Energy_Accumulation_Training.htm
Walshe et al. (1998) concluded that the reason for the
superiority of depth jumping training over regular jumping was due to
"the attainment of a higher active muscle state", meaning that the fast
eccentric portion of the movement increased muscle activation.

Jeff Fiss and Louie Simmons
http://www.ironsport.com/articles/detail.asp?ArtID=1055
There are two very good weight releaser devices in the closet at Iron Sport Gym. They are grossly underused. They hook onto each side of the bar and essentially “deload” when the bar is in the bottom position of the lift. I like them for benching because you can really overload the weight releasers with 100 plus pounds at the top to get that good eccentric phase of the lift. The purpose of these devices it to train the eccentric phase of a lift. THAT DOES NOT MEAN LOWER THE WEIGHT SLOWLY!! Louie Simmons had a great quote about lowering weights slowly. “If lowering the weight slowly is right, then plyometrics are wrong!” Basically in a nut shell, it implies that if you lower something in a slow manner, then the force output will not be as great. Think of a baseball pitcher. If he winds up his arm slowly, how fast do you think he will throw the ball as opposed to winding up really quick? Pretty slow I would think! Same concept applies to lifting. Lowering weights slowly will add muscle, but do little for strength gain. The weight releasers allow you to train a really heavy, FAST, eccentric phase of the lift. Once the weight deloads onto the floor, a violent concentric phase with a lighter weight can follow. Great for developing speed out of the hole or off the chest.

BTW Defranco alone trains more professional athletes athletes than GSP's trainer could ever dream of.

A few Testimonials Defranco recieved.
http://www.defrancostraining.com/roster/roster.htm

owned

The explosive exercise after the strength exercise seems good but in a normal gym setting unlikely you'd be able to do it.

Just do something like Squats and right after do some form of jumping next to the squat rack. You want it to be very close to maximal weight as the study below shows that produces the best results. Of course I'm referring to increases in explosive strength where as GSP's trainer seems more conditioning focused.

While conditioning is important it must be seperated from a workout where explosive strength is the goal, otherwise results will suffer. Also I wouldn't recommend doing the maximum effort exercise to the explosive exercise combo(btw effects last for 4 minutes affter so don't rush your recovery as full recovery can take between 2 and 3 minutes depending on if you're doing maximal or explosive strength training) for more than one exercise a workout because it might overwhelm the CNS. For instance supramaximal holds are a great way to shock your body into using heavier weights than usual, but if you use it for too many exercise (ie. squat, bench, and deadlift) it will fry your CNS and eventually deprive you of results.

The Acute Effects of Heavy vs Light-Load Squats on Sprint Performance
http://facta.junis.ni.ac.yu/pe/pe200702/pe200702-05.pdf

This is a classic example of what an elite athlete can get away with and still make progress. Making GSP stronger is probably more complex rather than anything else. The key to remember is that elite athletes have relatively high levels of tolerance when it comes to hypertrophy, adaptation, and recovery. Accordingly, they make exceedingly bad examples or archetypes for the utility of training methods that contradict established sport science principles.

This is a classic example of what an elite athlete can get away with and still make progress. Making GSP stronger is probably more complex rather than anything else. The key to remember is that elite athletes have relatively high levels of tolerance when it comes to hypertrophy, adaptation, and recovery. Accordingly, they make exceedingly bad examples or archetypes for the utility of training methods that contradict established sport science principles.

The program isn't horrible, if someone did it they would see results just not the best results they could be seeing. I do agree though that GSP's natural athleticism allows him to get away with more than the average joe. Take Kadour Ziani for example I mean the guy has never trained his maximal strength. All he does is jump and stretch, yet has a 56 inch vert and in the video below he breaks the world record for highest kick by kicking a board 9 feet 9 inches in the air.

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the jumping hurdles was amazing

i agree that was nuts

holy crap, yeah that gsp vid was awesome but so was that Kadour Ziani vid. that just boggles my mind cause I thought you would have to do oly lifts to get verticals like that.

holy crap, yeah that gsp vid was awesome but so was that Kadour Ziani vid. that just boggles my mind cause I thought you would have to do oly lifts to get verticals like that.

Oly lifts are overhyped, there are alot of other explosive exercises that can easily take their place and are also less technical than the olys. Kadour is really the exception and not the rule.

Oly lifts are overhyped, there are alot of other explosive exercises that can easily take their place and are also less technical than the olys. Kadour is really the exception and not the rule.
do you mean plyo stuff with med balls and things like depth jumps? I wish I knew how to do oly lifts but that's not a possibility right now so I would definitely substitute other exercises.

do you mean plyo stuff with med balls and things like depth jumps? I wish I knew how to do oly lifts but that's not a possibility right now so I would definitely substitute other exercises.

I was talking about things like jump squats and high pulls.

cool

Doing the eccentric portion of a lift slowly is stupid. Other than that seemed like a pretty good workout.

I could see it as a sport specific exercise and not simply a maximal strength/power development exercise. There are a lot of situations in which an MMA athlete would be trying to resist the movement of a force--say on a double leg takedown as a person is trying to sprawl out, or pushing someone off of you when you're pinned up against the cage in a clinch.

I could see it as a sport specific exercise and not simply a maximal strength/power development exercise. There are a lot of situations in which an MMA athlete would be trying to resist the movement of a force--say on a double leg takedown as a person is trying to sprawl out, or pushing someone off of you when you're pinned up against the cage in a clinch.

Heavy eccentrics are an aweome exercise to build strength, but for those you use more than your maximum concentric weight and there is no concentric motion. What they did in the video was just a waste of energy and muscle fibers.

It's like using a complex to increase your max strength, it's just not a good idea; because you can't overhead press nearly what you can squat.

Hm, yeah, I see your point.

the jumping hurdles was amazing

i would've broken my ass on the first one. :(