For those who don’t know I practice Krav Maga and the past 18 months or so I’ve been using 5/3/1, before that it was WS4SB. Anyway, my instructor insists that I should drop some of my heavy weight training sessions in favour of some TRX. He claims not only will it improve my fitness but also up my performance with the barbells. I’ve tried the TRX before, didn’t care too much for it. Any fighters out there had some experience with the TRX? Am I missing something?
SBG.
Your trainer is missing something… wtf benefit and science is there behind this spastic apparatus except that you look like a monkey in a gym swinging from ropes and handles?
Far more areas to injure yourself and not needed unless you want to become a professional trx instructor.
Personally, I think the TRX is great for certain things. Doing rows with it is the ONLY thing that I feel entirely in my lats. Nothing else even comes close. But, replacing traditional barbell and dumbbell work entirely with it is retarded, and seems like a good way to get weaker and less athletic. To summarize: your trainer is an idiot.
Tell your instructor to stick to Krav Maga. TRX are good for rows and rear delt work, maybe a couple other exercises, but dropping weights for them? No fucking way.
Stay with 5/3/1. Your instructor don’t know shit about lifting.
I like using TRX for stuff after I’ve done everything already. Like for gymnastic stuff or for upperback/ab work. Would never drop all barbell work though. I have a friend who’s a boxer and he had to do a lot of convincing to get his trainer to let him do 5/3/1 in the gym, even on a 2-day template. He lifts in a very old school boxing gym and IMO that “don’t lift weights it makes you slow” mentality that a lot of fighting coaches have will eventually hold people back.
In the end, what matters is if you win fights.
TRX is a tool. Thats all. Its not a game changer or a supreme machine. Its a tool.
I have one and love some of the stuff I can use it for. However to say its gonna replace everything is believing to much marketing.
[quote]louiek wrote:
I like using TRX for stuff after I’ve done everything already. Like for gymnastic stuff or for upperback/ab work. Would never drop all barbell work though. I have a friend who’s a boxer and he had to do a lot of convincing to get his trainer to let him do 5/3/1 in the gym, even on a 2-day template. He lifts in a very old school boxing gym and IMO that “don’t lift weights it makes you slow” mentality that a lot of fighting coaches have will eventually hold people back.
In the end, what matters is if you win fights.[/quote]
I strongly, strongly disagree about the lack of lifting “holding people back” simply boxing history shows it to be false. Wweights really don’t mean dick for boxing, and the only reason I lift is because I like being thick and being strong. It hasn’t helped my boxing in the least though. If I was competing I doubt I would lift at all.
If you’re going to lift though, and some guys will do it regardless, you may as well do what actually will make you stronger - and that’ barbell stuff.
I was also going to mention that most boxing coaches are correct in their assessment that lifting will slow you down and make you tight only because the majority of people who lift don’t know how to lift for sport and instead get caught up in the age old bodybuilder style mentality and training.
I never did get slower or tighter but I never did lift like a bodybuilder when I was fighting or before I was fighting. I inadversedly did get bigger quicker but I think that was going to happen anyway as my genes aren’t exactly geared to be small.
Most notably in boxing and other martial arts, the hip area and shoulder girdle is what suffers the most with regards to rigidity from improper weight training.
So yeh, boxing coaches are correct only because most guys lift like shit but lifting for sports is far more taxing and damaging. Alas, if your goal is temporarily to be as athletic as possible most of us are willing to pay the price. I know I did and walk around with the bruises, the constant reminders, the scars and the constant revisits of injuries and illnesses.
Be sure of what you want because you only have one body and you will feel it as you get older no matter what anyone says.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
[quote]louiek wrote:
I like using TRX for stuff after I’ve done everything already. Like for gymnastic stuff or for upperback/ab work. Would never drop all barbell work though. I have a friend who’s a boxer and he had to do a lot of convincing to get his trainer to let him do 5/3/1 in the gym, even on a 2-day template. He lifts in a very old school boxing gym and IMO that “don’t lift weights it makes you slow” mentality that a lot of fighting coaches have will eventually hold people back.
In the end, what matters is if you win fights.[/quote]
I strongly, strongly disagree about the lack of lifting “holding people back” simply boxing history shows it to be false. Wweights really don’t mean dick for boxing, and the only reason I lift is because I like being thick and being strong. It hasn’t helped my boxing in the least though. If I was competing I doubt I would lift at all.
If you’re going to lift though, and some guys will do it regardless, you may as well do what actually will make you stronger - and that’ barbell stuff.
[/quote]
Well, this just pops up every two weeks doesn’t it. I’ll repeat what I keep saying: it all depends on your weaknesses. If strength and athleticism is your weakness, then you need to work on that. Being strong and athletic is never going to be a negative in sports, it’s about how much time improving that specific aspect of your skill set takes time away from improving the other aspects.
Personally, I manhandle “better” grapplers and strikers than me occassionally, and it’s always due to athleticism. Too strong, too fast, too much pressure. I really don’t need to work on that part of my game at this point, for me it should be all about increasing technical proficiency. But if you’ve been grappling for 5 years and a guy with a fifth of that experience keeps roughing you up in sparring, there’s a chance you need to look at the holes in your game, and they might just be physical.
OT: TRX, though. Yeah, spend about 5-10% of your strength specific training on it, no more. Great for supplemental work, but it doesn’t replace shit.
[quote]Khaine wrote:
Well, this just pops up every two weeks doesn’t it. I’ll repeat what I keep saying: it all depends on your weaknesses. If strength and athleticism is your weakness, then you need to work on that. Being strong and athletic is never going to be a negative in sports, it’s about how much time improving that specific aspect of your skill set takes time away from improving the other aspects.
Personally, I manhandle “better” grapplers and strikers than me occassionally, and it’s always due to athleticism. Too strong, too fast, too much pressure. I really don’t need to work on that part of my game at this point, for me it should be all about increasing technical proficiency. But if you’ve been grappling for 5 years and a guy with a fifth of that experience keeps roughing you up in sparring, there’s a chance you need to look at the holes in your game, and they might just be physical.
OT: TRX, though. Yeah, spend about 5-10% of your strength specific training on it, no more. Great for supplemental work, but it doesn’t replace shit.[/quote]
Grapplers and MMA guys should lift. I was talking specifically about boxers.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
[quote]Khaine wrote:
Well, this just pops up every two weeks doesn’t it. I’ll repeat what I keep saying: it all depends on your weaknesses. If strength and athleticism is your weakness, then you need to work on that. Being strong and athletic is never going to be a negative in sports, it’s about how much time improving that specific aspect of your skill set takes time away from improving the other aspects.
Personally, I manhandle “better” grapplers and strikers than me occassionally, and it’s always due to athleticism. Too strong, too fast, too much pressure. I really don’t need to work on that part of my game at this point, for me it should be all about increasing technical proficiency. But if you’ve been grappling for 5 years and a guy with a fifth of that experience keeps roughing you up in sparring, there’s a chance you need to look at the holes in your game, and they might just be physical.
OT: TRX, though. Yeah, spend about 5-10% of your strength specific training on it, no more. Great for supplemental work, but it doesn’t replace shit.[/quote]
Grapplers and MMA guys should lift. I was talking specifically about boxers.[/quote]
Yeah, we’re on (more or less) the same page there. I can’t help but think that lifting has helped with my striking as well (specifically the way I develop power in my hips and my game on the inside, and the way I absorb body shots), but it’s clearly much less of a factor in boxing than the other disciplines.
To be fair didn’t say it to replace it completely , he said use it for a while and you will be stronger at the barbells. He might be , I picked one up for 2 pound at a Charity Shop (less than five dollars.) I used it twice so maybe I not in a great position to comment.
That said it could certainly give you some work as difficult as barbells especially in the lower back and for the repetition method. Pike pushups on it i.e. handstand pushups certainly especially if add a weighted vest and perhaps use pushup bars to increase range of motion.
I would defintely keep deadlifts or squats in every 2 weeks or so or more often if you do lose strength.
The exercise which approximates the standing ab wheel is very hard and good too. Ab wheel is great for lower back strength too. Back extension including weighted are great , also glute ham raise.
There is an exercise you can do called hamstring curls with the TRX - heels on works hamstrings, toes through feels like the cramping associated with glute ham raises but obviously a far better easier. You can use a small ladder and platform to make more difficult.
Hip pushups to train for planche pushups are good too. I have been trying that so far. Not sure how it will have affected my barbell strength.
I can’t recommend the baoding balls(chinese chiming balls which you rotate) for grip strength and hand recovery more highly. I got some boules balls which weighed 630g each at a car boot today and could rotate them with difficulty. Apparently according to John Brookfield you should build up to shot puts in each hand.
Sometimes it is easier to overdo the weights so much that they affect your skill sesssions and that is perhaps what your trainer might be getting at .
Barbells are great but they do beat the shit out of your joints over time, dumbbells are perhaps better in the long but a pain in the ass to set up and expensive.
Presently I train with the TRX (recovering really) but it seems to train my lower back in a safe way .
Slow very controlled pushups are probably one of the best core exercises ever. Almost like a bodybuilder would do them . They are called high tension pushups I think (described also Tsatsouline’s books) . I had quite a sadistic Judo Instructor who used to prescribe these. I never believed in them , I do so now .
I would imagine the heavy cheat rows must be amazing for experienced grappers. He also prescribed chinups hanging from a judo gi. He was quite small 5, 4 and about 200lb and one of the strongest man I have met and could easily outjump me too for standing broadjump when I was jumping around 2.30/2.40m.
The TRX is very good for circuits too. For example you can pushups then immediately flip your feet to do hamstring curls.
Or if got a platform for make the rows difficult enough you could those too.
To summarise I think you could completely replace barbell work with a TRX and some bodyweigh work , chuck a weighted vest it here and there. Add bw plyos and you would be golden , also chinups too and back extensions and glute-ham raises.
I also dismissed it as useless before using. That said though it is particularly easier to use or adjust and I wouldn’t have got it if I paid anything like full price for it.
Also underestimated are pushups bars for slow controlled perfect form pushups. Obviously throw some faster ones in here and there .
A sled is good work too with handles .Chest expanders would probably work well or safer now heavy duty bands , which can use for repetition lower body work.