I’ve been logging on/off on a different site in my native country for years but as the activity of said site has been declining steadily the past couple years, I decided to call it and go back to my roots.
T-Nation was the first site where I ever had a log and even though I kept it up to date over a periods of some 2 maybe 3 years I eventually just lost the interest in both logging but also strength training.
Back in my early 20’s it was all about body building but even though I was already an active Grappler at the time I wasn’t really committed enough to start delving into the whole performance aspect of strength training. Truth be told I don’t think I knew there was such a thing as training for performance and If I did I had no clue what that would look like.
As time went by grappling gradually became more important than body building which eventually lead to a transition from body building to strength training as that was the only transition that made sense at time as I was still in the dark on the whole performance thing.
Fast forward a few years and I’m watching the 6’o clock news when I a piece on soccer players starts and how they train for performance and injury prevention. Not sure If a made the connection right away but I eventually did and the quest on how to train for grappling started.
Not sure how long it took me to eventually find my way to T-nation and an article that would change everything, literally!
Enter Chad waterbury and the hammer down series…
I remember reading that article over and over again for weeks, trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about and spending just about every minute of my free time googling, well the whole article basically.
I probably used the program in the article for at least 2-3 years while still searching, reading, learning, experimenting etc. trying to decipher the performance code. During that time my strength went through the roof but comparing time spent vs output I honestly saw little difference on the mats.
During my continued search for the performance code I was lucky enough to hire and get into mentorships with several renowned trainers such as Paul Check, Steve Maxwell, Phil Daru, Electrum performance, cal dietz and others.
Needles to say the time and money spent learning from these fine gentlemen was well worth it and I don’t believe I would have ever accumulated the amount of knowledge they have offered, on my own.
These days I own and operate both my own performance center in my native country working exclusively with grapplers, while still being a full time grappler my self and running my own submission wrestling school as well.
Luckily my country haven’t been hit too hard by the Covid virus so we have been able to keep up training in the dojo for the most part but the same can’t be said with the regular gyms as everything was shut down for months which ofc included us as well.
Can’t say I have ever been very strong though I have had a few PR’s that would raise an eyebrow or two on most people but they were highly specific and didn’t translate well into general strength. Having no real strength training these past 3 months I decided to treat myself as an intermediate and start out with my Ground Strength program which I use on athletes that aren’t quite ready for the advanced stuff yet. Same as me.
Week 1 of the Ground Strength Program
Phase 1: Isometric
day 1
A1: Trap bar deadlift 4x5 + 78% top workset eccentric Iso Feeder - [RPE - 8] - Tempo [E1S5Cx]
110
112.5
115
110
F: 90kg x 25 sec
A2: Banded Glute Bridge 4x10 - Tempo [E1S5Czx] - RP: 3 Min
B1: CG bench Press 4x5 + 78% top workset eccentric Iso Feeder - [RPE - 8] - Tempo [E1S5Cx]
60
62.5
65
60
F: 50kg x 48 sec
B2: Band Pull Apart 4x10 - Tempo [E1S5C1] - RP: 3 Min
Seal Row 4x6 + 78% top workset eccentric Iso Feeder - [RPE - 8] - Tempo [E1S5Cx] - RP: 2 Min
50
50
50
50
F: 40kg x 30 sec
Double BB Fat End Famers Hold 2x45s [RPE - 8] - RP: 2 Min
20
30
45° Hyper Extension Neck Harness Hold 2x45s [RPE- 8] - RP: 2 Min
5kg
10kg
DB Hammer curls 2x6 - [RPE - 8] - Tempo: [E1S5C1] - RP: 2 Min
12.5
12.5
