So I’m hoping to get the advice of as many combat athletes as possible (especially champions), so I can get a real answer on if training the Big 3 power lifts like a powerlifter is a waste of time for combat athletes.
Right now I’m at a crossroads wondering if I should just stick it out and train for my strength like a powerlifter until I hit my PR goals or just use exercises more sutible for sport spiciffic strength.
Training for strength in the Big 3 has brought me some success in the past but now I think its time to optimise my exercise selection and strategy. But the desire of my ego to move heavy weight constantly, keeps drawing me back in!
I know how to program strength, power, and conditioning without the Big 3 but those programs don’t last long, like I said my problem is with my ego. This seems like an easy choice for probably evey combat athlete but its been mentally draining thinking about how to cut powerlifting or creating the perfect cycle, I guess I might just be waiting for permission from a more accomplished athlete to drop this for a while haha!
FWIW, it seems like these days the majority of fighters use the trap bar instead of the straight bar for Deadlifts. Boxers, MMA, and probably everything in between. That’s one easy switch you can make.
I read this article a while ago and the reasoning behind the movements seems pretty legit.
I wrestled through college and currently do no-gi jiu jitsu/Grappling. I have incorporated the big 3 through most of that time and it’s helped me be more jacked and stronger than most all of my opponents.
The programs in 5/3/1 Forever give some great ideas on how to program them depending on what your goals are.
Kettlebells let you train a little off kilter, like a fight is.
Olympic lifts will make you as strong, if not stronger than the big three. Maybe not in total numbers lifted on a powerlifting board, but in transferable strength, speed and explosive power.
You should see the ‘big three’ just as one of several general approaches to strength training. As such, it should make you stronger, which is valuable asset in close combat.
Let’s compare it with some others:
A bro bodybuilder split would be better to fill out muscular weaknesses while overdoing it with luxury mass.
Olympic lifting would help you with explosiveness while adding a lot of oddly specific mass.
Focusing on the now en vogue callisthenics would deliver additional strength endurance at the expense of everything else, comparatively.
The biggest hurdle is how to implement lifting volume smartly into a training schedule.
With powerlifting, you get two more flaws. The focus on more weight causing injuries and maybe worse, the single-minded effort going all out, which has no place in all of martial arts.
The whole premise is flawed. Getting stronger won’t necessarily make you better. The question is, why do you feel the need to get stronger? Then you can figure out if it that perceived deficiency is related to strength or if it’s related to technique, conditioning, how much you train the actual sport, etc. If it is strength related, then identify what it is specifically and choose a program that addresses that specific weakness.
Usually, when someone asks about getting stronger in general it’s more about lacking in other areas and more strength is seen as a way to compensate.
As an aspiring olympic lifter, I hope this is right, and from what I’ve seen from the folks I aspire to emulate, it sounds right. It’s not uncommon to see olympic lifters doing squats and deadlifts (though we don’t call them that; we usually refer to them as “clean pulls” or “snatch pulls”) that would make powerlifters envious. Of course, these are done as assistance, but they are done with enough frequency and intensity that weightlifters end up with phenomenally strong legs, backs, and traps.
May or may not win at a specific lift trained day in and day out for years, but in a real world application like combat sports or any other multi-dimensional scenario, being a very strong o-lifter will behoove you.
The guy who can deadlift the most isn’t necessarily the “strongest” generally speaking. Hang out on a ranch or in a blue collar work area and you’ll see.
It is not. I watch some freestyle wrestling as my brother in law is a successful one in U20. Strenght with the current rules is perhaps the most important factor, especially in weight class over 70 kg.Kyle Schneider an American freestyler has made a career of incredible strenght at 97 kg. And that in a competition with a generation freak from Russia.
Now what most successful wrestlers do to increase strenght is DL, sled push and Clean. I would add some old school heavy pullovers.
Because it is like saying that speed is the most important in soccer. But then you see Usain Bolt being below averagenin it. Isnt it? Wrestling is not powerlifting. This is why you do other stuff than lift.
I remember one night at a F2W event here in Seattle. Focusing on just the no-gi matches, I kept track of how many times the guy with the bigger, more athletic physique won.
It wasn’t even close. The relatively-more-jacked guy lost 9 out of 10 times.