Richard Gibney's 365 Days of Fitness: Day 151
Day 151 The other day I was told about a post on the blog of Tim Ferris, the author of the 4hr Body. This one in particular wasn't written by Ferris but by Nate Green, a co-worker of George St Pierre's nutrition coach John Berardi and one of Tim's researchers for his 4hr Body book. The post detailed an experiment in which Green underwent a transformation where his goal was to gain 20lbs of muscle in 28 days. The experiment was designed to illustrate how a fighter might gain a bunch of muscle in an attempt to jump weight classes. In theory something that George St Pierre himself might use to gain a bunch of weight to make a super-fight with Anderson Silva a possibility.
The post is incredibly detailed, outlining from start to finish exactly what Green ate, the supplements he took and the workouts he completed. I'll probably re-visit this post a few times out of professional curiosity. I can't see myself using this protocol on myself. I don't really have desire to gain that much weight but I do have a couple clients with lofty muscle mass goals. They could definitely benefit from something this effective at putting on quality weight.
The part of the post that I tried on myself today was one of the conditioning workouts included in his training program. Green's workouts were designed by Martin Rooney, a world re-known strength and conditioning coach who has made a name for himself helping fighters get ready for the octagon. Green's goal was to make as much of the weight gain come from muscle as possible. To do this, along with his diet, he used strength training to build muscle and high intensity conditioning workouts to prevent fat gain.
below is a link to the blog post I'm talking about: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/05/11/how-to-gain-20-pounds-in-28-days-the-extreme-muscle-building-secrets-of-ufc-fighters/
My workout today was one of Rooney's famous "Hurricane" sprint workouts. The general basis of these workouts is that they are short, intense, and leave absolute devastation in their wake. Today's workout involved alternating sprinting on the treadmill with a series of barbell exercises. The combination of heart rate intensive sprinting with the muscular fatigue from weight lifting makes for one incredibly metabolic workout.
Today's Workout:
Hurricane Sprint Workout
Round 1
Treadmill: 9.5 mph / 10% incline / 25 sec
Move Immediately to Barbell Superset (65lbs)
Exercise 1: Push Jerks x 10 Exercise 2: Close Grip Snatch x 8
Repeat from the beginning for a total of 3 sets / rest 2 min before round 2
Round 2
Treadmill: 10.5 mph / 10% incline / 25 sec
Move Immediately to Barbell Superset (65lbs)
Exercise 1: Wide Grip Bent-Over Row x 10 Exercise 2: High Pull x 10
Repeat from the beginning for a total of 3 sets / rest 2 min before round 3
Round 3
Treadmill: 11.5 mph / 10% incline / 25 sec
Move Immediately to Barbell Superset (65lbs)
Exercise 1: Bicep Curl x 10 Exercise 2: Power Clean x 10
Repeat from the beginning for a total of 3 sets
This workout was awesome. By the time I finished I was dripping in sweat and every muscle in my body was jacked up and full of blood. It had some similar elements to a Crossfit workout, but Martin Rooney would be quick to point out that unlike Crossfit, his workouts are periodized, and use sets and rest periods to maximize work load and recovery. There is also no clock to race against. You're goal is to do the work prescribed in the length of time it takes to do the exercises effectively.
The Hurricane training protocol is part of Rooney's Training for Warriors Program, a training system and certification program that he developed for teaching people how to train the combative athlete. He's also written a few massive books on training for MMA. If I can find the time I hope to attend one of his courses. I train a few martial arts athletes, my girlfriend included, so I think his program would offer a great deal of value to my own programming.
Tomorrow I might get back to a little more strength work. I think I mentioned somewhere during the week that I'd do some squats, so tomorrow might