It is Day 3 and we get a look into what Stephan Kesting is doing for his workout. To be a great fighter you need to have discipline and you need to be in shape to become a beter overall fighter.

You have to train and keep in shape on activities outside the dojo to keep fit and stay ahead of your competition. If you really want to improve your grappling, judo, submission wrestling or mixed martial arts game you need to be conditioned and in great shape.

Take a look at what Stephan does to keep in shape as he takes us on a trip through his Day 3 workout with his powerlifting regime through bench press, squats, and weighted pull-ups along with his cardio workout and his tabata sprints.


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Day Three: Sprints and Power

Hi Again

It's day three of of my four day fitness blitz. I'm hitting the conditioning hard this week because I want to be ready to get back to the mats next week. I've often said that conditioning is critical for grappling, because if you're tired in a match then all your technical knowledge, timing and fighting spirit goes right out the window. In fact this topic was among the very first posts on my blog four years
ago:

www.grapplearts.com/2004/05/all-else-being-equal-work-on-your.htm

I've already done lots lot of anaerobic and muscular endurance exercise this week, but strength is important too, so today I shifted gears. Today's goal is to increase (or at least maintain) my strength and power, so that means doing a few multi-joint exercises with heavier weights, fewer repetitions, and more rest between sets.

When it comes to conditioning, I often feel frustrated when reading about other people's workouts. I think it comes down to voyeurism and competitiveness. A vague description of someone's exercise routine.
something like "he stays in shape by running, biking and lifting weights", doesn't really tell me anything. I want to know exactly what exercises they do, what kind of weight they use and how many sets and repetitions they manage to achieve.

So that I'm not guilty of the same sort of vagueness I've been sharing my workout routines in detail this week - go ahead and be competitive and voyeuristic. I'm not saying that you should do the exact same routine as I do, but if knowing what my numbers are motivates you to to exceed me at everything then some good has come of these posts.

As a sidenote I'm guessing that after I share my workouts from this week, half of the readership will think that I'm incredibly strong, and the other half will probably think that I'm pretty slow and weak.

Cardio: Tabata Sprints (fast and shallow) I started with a gentle jog for 3 or 4 minutes. Then, with the treadmill set at 1.5%, I did 12 sprints of 20 seconds on the treadmill, taking only 10 seconds of rest between sprints. I was trying to maintain a constant level of effort throughout, so I dropped the speed of the treadmill every 3 sprints. My treadmill speeds today were 11.5, 11.5, 11.5, 11.0, 11.0, 11.0, 10.5, 10.5, 10.5, 10, 10 and 10 (miles per hour).

Tabatas are a funny exercise. If you're doing them right the first couple of sprints feel relatively easy, and you start thinking that you're going to breeze through the whole thing. Then, at about the fourth or fifth sprint, it's like "whoa! I hope I'm going to able to make it through to the end". This feeling of worry takes me by surprise every time I do Tabata sprints.

Powerlifting 1: Bench Press

Because I was already warmed up from the sprinting, I did only one light set, doing 12 repetitions with a 135 lb barbell. I then increased the weight to 205 lbs and did two sets of 5 repetitions. I tell myself that it's my long arms that makes me such a crappy bench presser...

Powerlifting 2: Squat

With a 225 lb barbell I did 10 squats, just to get in the kinesthetic groove. I then increased the weight to 330 lbs and did two sets, each consisting of 3 repetitions.

I took plenty of time between sets, because the goal of this part of my workout was strength and power, not bodybuilding or the development of muscular endurance.

Powerlifting 3: Weighted Pullups

For the first time in the workout I loosely put on a weightlifting belt and tucked 60 lbs of dumbells under the belt. I then walked over to the pullup bar and managed to squeeze out 4 parallel grip pullups.
After a few minutes of rest I managed a second set of four pullups.

I don't normally use that much additional weight for weighted pull- ups, but today I had a good reason. I was working out with a friend, and he managed to crank out 6 bodyweight pull-ups, which is quite respectable given that he is about 6' 6" tall and 270 lbs. With a full stomach I am only about 210 lbs, so we agreed that I had to put on another 60 lbs of weight before we could compare my pull-up numbers to his. While I think that this logic was a bit faulty it was still a good inspiration to really go all-out on my pull-ups.

P.S. I intend to do an outdoor workout tomorrow, but it may be a few days until I get access to a computer and describe. Rest assured, however, that I will be doing something maintain my conditioning until I get back to the mats next week.

Stephan Kesting
www.grapplearts.com

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