With the growth of my businesses, websites, and blogs in recent years, I know there are a number of y’all that have only come to start reading my articles, posts, newsletters, and such fairly recently (like as in the past couple years or so). Many of y’all might not know that I actually put out my first training manual back way back in 2003.

Geared toward MMA, it was called “Singles & Doubles”. The original book was originally written with sandbag training in mind, but the driving force behind the program was using a lot of sets of just one or two reps (hence the “Singles & Doubles” name) while reducing rest periods over time.

I had a few articles published around the intranetz at the time, one of which at the T-Nation site (or T-Muscle or Testosterone.net or whatever they hell they’re calling themselves right now). The article was called “Staying Power” and I’ve re-printed the article over at my site.

If you’ve never seen my old “Singles & Doubles” style of training, go check the article out:

=>CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

It’s a pretty cool method of training that can lead to some pretty awesome work capacity gains with near maximal weights. I think alot of y’all will like it.

HOWEVER, I will advise you – don’t use this S&D protocol for either you entire training program, or if you do, not for an extended period of time. While it can build some pretty kickass capacity with near maximal weights, and even though you are resting very minimal, because you’re never doing more than two reps at a time, if you do only this style of training for too long, you shoot your muscular endurance straight in the ass.

(I had to learn this the hard way after training like this for a good 1.5+ years, only to come back to more medium to high rep training, only to realize my muscular endurance would crap out – even with fairly light weights – in as few as six reps. So don’t let this happen to you…)

=>CLICK HERE to give the article a read – I think y’all will like it.

Oh and watch out in the coming days…I’ll be revealing a method (actually, a MMA-specific workout) that utilizes this style of training as a part of an overall program. It’s pretty kickass. But all in good time…

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Muscle Building Programs | Cardio Workouts | Cardio Fitness | MMA Workout | MMA Training

If you’ve followed me, my style of training, and the kind of programs I design for any real length of time (say, oh, anything longer than 5 minutes or so), you know I’m a fan of getting a lot of different things done at one time – or at least with one program.

I’m also a fan of being good at many things rather than being great at any one thing. The reasons for this are several, but here are a couple of the most important:

1 – the first venture into “real” strength & conditioning training (instead of just the pumping routines listed in many of the bodybuilding magazines) I had was trying to figure out how to design workouts for MMA fighters. Remember, this was back in the late ’90s and early ’00s – back when MMA was still banned on cable/PPV, tape trading was the norm (though “hush, hush”), and very few guys fought full-time.

This was formative to how I wanted to design programs, as MMA had such a wide need of different physical qualities, and most guys had to work a full-time job (sometimes more than one) just to put food on the table and support their families, much less train. And in those days, it wasn’t going to the local MMA gym to train – it was doing BJJ, boxing, wrestling, kickboxing/muay thai, and maybe more – all multiple times per week. Workouts had to be short, to the point, highly effective, accomplish a lot of different things, and not drain recovery.

2 – A lot of the people who do my programs are the “regular guy” (or gal). While they might not be professional fighters, they are in much the same position as the old school MMAists I mentioned above. They want (and need) to get complete and all encompassing workout programs in – ones that make them stronger, more explosive, keep them lean, build a strong heart and lungs, promote flexibility, increase vitality and health, etc.

Most of all, these are folks that not only want to look good, but want to be able to “be” good. There’s not much point in looking like the guy in the fitness ad if you get winded doing yardwork, or bringing in the groceries could be considered a maximal effort.

And, like the fighters, most “regular guys” (and gals) lead pretty busy lives – full-time jobs (and let’s face it – “full-time” these days many times means 50+ hours/week), kids, a spouse, honey-do lists, school events, and more.

They don’t have all day to train, either.

So when I put together programs, I like to get a lot done, do it all at one time, and accomplish many different things if I can. On a scale from 1 to 10, I’d rather be a 7 or 8 across the board, instead of a 9 or a 10 in a couple different things, and a 3 or 4 at everything else.

That’s where I have to return to one of my old bodybuilding-based books.

I’ve mentioned these guys before, but back in the ’90s, there was a company called Optimum Training Systems. The company was headed by Leo Costa, Jr., and in some capacity, he worked with a guy by the name of Dr. R.L. Horine. In fact, for a while, the “Golden Eagle” Tom Platz even partnered with them.

I won’t bore you with the long story, so here’s the cliff notes – Costa had built up a fairly successful personal training business in California, and, as the story goes, was supposedly invited overseas to attend a symposium where Bulgarian Olympic lifting coaches (who had some of the most successful lifters in the world) would reveal the secrets they used to train their lifters. After learning as much as he could (and with supposedly even a return trip to Bulgaria, I think – but don’t quote me), Costa came back to the States and wrote a series of books, applying what he’d learned to bodybuilding.

If memory serves me correctly, the first book was called “Bulgarian Power Burst Training”, then “Serious Growth”, then “Big Beyond Belief”, and I can’t remember what the fourth one was called.

Now since that time, I’ve come to learn that the stuff Costa wrote about in his books didn’t really mimic what the Bulgarians did, and the programs he had int he book were so damn volume heavy overall that they’d kill most folks.  But really, that didn’t matter a whole lot to me, as I learned some pretty good stuff from Costa’s writings that I still use to this day.

One of the things he wrote about was what he termed “micro-periodization”.

Basically, micro-periodization was just compressing the entire concept of periodization into very short timespan. So, while using traditional linear periodization, an entire cycle might take a year or longer, spending a few months (or at least several weeks) in each phase of training, you would actually complete an entire cycle in just one week, performing a day or two of training each week in each phase or style of training.

So, if you had a phase dedicated to endurance training, a phase dedicated to hypertrophy, and a phase dedicated to strength development, you’d do workouts dedicated to each phase each week. It’s pretty similar to conjugate and concurrent forms of periodization.

However, the way I liked to use micro-periodization was to incorporate different movements and lifts into athletic-based programs (that would also involve some vanity work now and again). And by no means are you limited to endurance, hypertrophy, and strength training – you could pick any three forms of training you wanted.

For instance, say you did a workout devoted to bodyweight exercise, a workout devoted to strength work, and a workout devoted to complex training.

Or a workouts that went from high volume, low intensity (i.e. – lower weight used), to medium volume, medium intensity, then to low volume, high intensity, rotating exercises and/or movement planes with each workout.

Or workout that concentrated on maximum power, then intense conditioning, then ending the week off with adding some additional muscle?

See what I mean – as long as you’re smart about it, there are a whole variety of ways to implement this type of ‘do-it-all’ protocol to your programs.

Try it out and see what you think. And be sure to leave a comment below if you hit upon a combination that works for you!

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Muscle Building Programs | Cardio Workouts | Cardio Fitness | MMA Workout | MMA Training

You ever get into an argument with somebody, and they go out of their way to make a point that just has you scratching your head wondering WTF they’re talking about?

(…and dudes, you *know* that most of your arguments w/your wives or girlfriends end up that way…LOL)

That’s how yesterday’s newsletter turned out.

See, I talked about how Brock Lesnar got beat by Cain Velasquez this past Saturday at UFC 121, and all of a sudden the MMA fanboys were either rejoicing that Brock got beat or crying that the ‘unstoppable frate trane’ got derailed. And then a bunch of them hopped on the intrawebs forums and talked about how Brock being big, strong, and powerful was so useless.

Which is just stupid.

But then I get a bunch of hate mail from people who keep telling me that I need to “give Cain credit” for beating Brock.

??????

When did I take anything away from Cain? He was the better man that night, and he flat out beat the piss outta Brock. There’s no disputing that. As far as the HW division goes in the UFC, Cain is “the man”.

And I never disputed that.

What I was trying to say is that being big, strong, powerful, explosive, etc is NOT a BAD thing!

It kinda reminds me back to the early days of the UFC, and you had guys that were either Ken Shamrock fans or Royce Gracie fans.

Even though Royce had much more success in the Octagon, and has a win over Shammy, many of the Royce fans always seemed butt-hurt over the fact that Shammy used his strength, size, and athleticism to his advantage to help him utilize his own skill-set to win his fights.

The talk always seemed to come down to “strength and size” vs “technique”.

Here’s the thing I never got – why not…you know…go for…

Both?

Call me crazy, but is there some sorta unwritten rule in MMA lore that says you either have to have awesome technique OR have to be strong and explosive?

Not that I know of.

Now, could a guy like Shammy have had the technique that Royce did. Prolly not – the difference in their builds would’ve likely prevented it. But if Shammy could’ve developed his own skill-set, albeit a different one, to be on the same level as Royce had…

Or if Royce could’ve developed the same sorta strength & power Shammy had…

Do you see where I’m going w/this?

Listen peeps – being big, strong, powerful, explosive, etc is NOT a BAD thing.

Don’t believe anybody that tries to tell you otherwise.

And if you wanna get big, strong, and explosive, as well as be in fantastic condition, have great cardio, and an awesome gas tank, then the “Championship Edition 2.0″ workout is exactly what you’re looking for.

=>CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Muscle Building Programs | Cardio Workouts | Cardio Fitness | MMA Workout | MMA Training

Got more cool stuff I wanna pass to you. This time, it’s from my friend Joel Jamieson.

If you know who Joel is, then I don’t need to say anything else. If you don’t, all you really need to know is that he’s the main man behind the workouts of former UFC MW Champ Rich Franklin, former UFC LW Champ Jens Pulver, “Mach” Sakurai, Matt Brown, Tim Boetsch, Chris Leben, and a whole slew of other fighters.

There are a ton of S&C dudes out there, but few I really respect. Joel is on that short list.

Anyway, Joel has a new video out – for FREE, I might add – that talks all about how to develop explosive power.

I *highly* recommend you go watch it. I know for a fact Joel has been testing a lot of really awesome stuff in recent months, and you’d be flat out stupid to not go see what he has to say.

You will have to give Joel your email addy, but trust me when I say it’s more than worth it.

=>CHECK OUT JOEL’S NEW VIDEO HERE

And if you run into him, tell him Wiggy says “Hi”.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Muscle Building Workouts | Muscle Building Programs | Cardio Workouts | Cardio Fitness | MMA Workout | MMA Training