Weight Lifting

[Doc_Glock]

All three have their limitations, however. They only train sagittal plane movements (CrossFit is the same too), and humans do more than just move in the sagittal plane. That’s part of the reason why I supplement my Olympic Weightlifting with bodyweight/gymnastics, ground based animal movements/flow, and steel mace/kettlebells. They don’t take that much time and those disciplines effectively train frontal and transverse plane movements more-so than with a barbell. Combining all that stuff more or less helps keep me pretty healthy and works great for BJJ or any martial art... or life in general.

The transverse and frontal plane movements are a hole in my programming I have tried to fill with lunge variations, Turkish get-ups, and unilateral push, pull movements. However, I often feel like I don't know what I am doing and would like to learn more.

What are your most beneficial non-unilateral movements, and how do you program them? I am especially interested in the "animal movements" as I know zero about them. In my brief foray into BJJ, I found my abdominal and rotational movements lacking both strength and coordination.

Also, do you have any resources that you recommend for the non-Sagital movements? What I mean is: Is there a "Starting Strength" or "Simple and Sinister" overall guide book for these movements?

[Timbonez]

The transverse and frontal plane movements are a hole in my programming I have tried to fill with lunge variations, Turkish get-ups, and unilateral push, pull movements. However, I often feel like I don't know what I am doing and would like to learn more.

What are your most beneficial non-unilateral movements, and how do you program them? I am especially interested in the "animal movements" as I know zero about them. In my brief foray into BJJ, I found my abdominal and rotational movements lacking both strength and coordination.

Also, do you have any resources that you recommend for the non-Sagital movements? What I mean is: Is there a "Starting Strength" or "Simple and Sinister" overall guide book for these movements?

Unilateral movements are great. They will help imbalances on either side of the body. You’re forced to do the same work on each side alone, since there is no help/compensation from the stronger side. TGU are an already great multi-planar movement as well. One arm swings will help with anti-rotation and therefore sort of incorporates multi-planar movements. The swings and TGU from Simple & Sinister are both great exercises. I have the first edition of that book, and the updated version should be delivered to my house today.

Sticking with Kettlebells, you can do Lateral/side Swings in order to move out of the sagittal plane. There are multiple variations of this, but here is an example...


I follow this guy on Instagram. He’s pretty advanced with his KB flow, but it shows you the incredible number of variations you can work to step into multi-planar movement...
Daring01

Then there is Steel Mace. You can do your typical strength & conditioning with a mace, but because it has an offset load you start venturing into multi-planar movement. There are some really advanced folks that will flow with the mace as well...
Leo Savage

Finally, animal movements are your typical bear crawls, crab walks, ape, etc. They go by different names depending on who teaches it, but they are all generally the same. Most people see and do the basic variations of these movements, but you can get really advanced with them. Mike Fitch of Animal Flow has great content. I would also check out GMB. Both have programs that you can buy, but they also put out a ton of free content on their YouTube channels, FaceBook, and Instagram. Of course there is Onnit and MovNat as well. They do a lot of unconventional training, so it’s worth checking them out too.

In terms of programming, I have 1-2 non-Olympic Weightlifting days a week where I will incorporate the unconventional stuff. Usually those days aren’t structured with specific movements that I plan on doing. I’ll go into those days with an idea and just go from there. I also throw in my conditioning and power endurance in on those days (i.e. rowing).

That being said, I throw multi-planar movements and all the above stuff I mentioned into my warm-ups and cool down during my Oly lift days. Additionally, you can knock out some quick movement flows in between sets depending on what your lifts are that day. I’ll do that any time I’m NOT lifting heavy singles, testing 1RMs, or figuring out what my openers are going to be for a competition (I try to keep the focus and recovery on the lifts when I am working above 90%).

Lastly, I can’t stress the importance of the physical aspect of yoga. I always find at least 10-15 minutes after my lifting sessions to knock something out. It’s a multi-planar practice and a good way to unwind from a training session. I use this woman’s YouTube channel. She has a bunch of 10-15 minute classes that work well at the end of a lifting session. Yoga With Kassandra. Check out her playlists. She breaks down her videos by goal or length of time.

Here’s some other pretty awesome IG pages...
Movement for BJJ
MoveU
MoveNat
Ido Portal
Farid Herrera
Primal Swoledier

[Hizzie]

Tweaked my low back last week with heavy DB Rows. Still stiff and sore but I gave it a go last night after work. Didn’t wear a belt because I was afraid to aggravate the low back. Warm up felt great. Pyramided up and felt strong. Ended up adding another 10 pounds to the max bench for 315.

http://instagram.com/p/B7kM4O3pRsF/

[Guinnessman]

@Hizzie,

Great choice of music! Congrats on the PR.

[txdpd]

The transverse and frontal plane movements are a hole in my programming I have tried to fill with lunge variations, Turkish get-ups, and unilateral push, pull movements. However, I often feel like I don't know what I am doing and would like to learn more.

What are your most beneficial non-unilateral movements, and how do you program them? I am especially interested in the "animal movements" as I know zero about them. In my brief foray into BJJ, I found my abdominal and rotational movements lacking both strength and coordination.

Also, do you have any resources that you recommend for the non-Sagital movements? What I mean is: Is there a "Starting Strength" or "Simple and Sinister" overall guide book for these movements?

It's only been about 10 years that we could look at look at Youtube and find videos of various movements, before that everything was printed on paper. If you want to be successful on paper, the exercise needs to be portrayed in two dimensions from front and side shot. It's only been a couple years since the "experts" have figured out that they are no longer bound by what's printed on paper. I will fully acknowledge that we are in some uncharted territory here, that said.

You’re probably not going to find what you are looking for because it doesn’t exist in the terms that you are using. 99% of what you're reading is made up on the internet, and goes through a social media feedback loop, and if you hear it enough from enough "experts", it must be true. The Sagittal, frontal and transverse planes describe how we move through three dimensions of space, they are not a dimension of space. There's an obfuscation between 3 planes of motion and 3 dimensions of space. Also the planes do not split your body into halves, that's just the way they draw the pictures. The Sagittal plane is simply moving forwards and backwards, the frontal plane is moving side to side, and the transverse plane is rotating along the length of the spine or limb. Basically it's a really fucked up and complicated way to rebrand core strength and unilateral movements.

In any movement all three planes of motion will be involved, since at a minimum you have to stabilize your body in at least two to exert force in a third.

Turkish get ups are a sagittal plane movement, you're literally just moving forward. Any lunge where you're stepping forward and back is a sagittal plane movement. If you're just doing a lateral side step lunge, then it's a frontal plane movement. Then you can do some weird angle stuff and call it multiplaner. The planes aren't important, what's important is that those are uni-lateral movements that require core stability to maintain your balance while executing them.

In my brief foray into BJJ, I found my abdominal and rotational movements lacking both strength and coordination.

Planes are very important in contact sports. You're strong in the sagittal plane. You're weak in the transverse and frontal plane, so it's important to keep that in mind. You're strong rotational movements, like starting a TGU, is bracing your core against rotation and then driving the leg on the loaded side into the ground to rotate your torso. It's a "sagittal" plane movement that produces rotation, if you want to call it that. It's not being strong at rotation, it's actually being strong against rotation.

[dgg9]

The transverse and frontal plane movements are a hole in my programming

it might have been mentioned but look at Pat McNamara youtubes. He’s big on transverse plane exercises in gym form or functional form.

[txdpd]

Also, do you have any resources that you recommend for the non-Sagital movements? What I mean is: Is there a "Starting Strength" or "Simple and Sinister" overall guide book for these movements?

So I’m not pissing in someone’s Cheerios.
If you want this, I’ll send it to you. It’s geared more towards sports played on a field and will have a lot applicability in developing foot work in combative sports. The exercises and drills are fairly simple. It’s all “multi-plane” stuff with an end goal of improving your body positioning in a 3D space.

[Doc_Glock]

So I’m not pissing in someone’s Cheerios.
If you want this, I’ll send it to you. It’s geared more towards sports played on a field and will have a lot applicability in developing foot work in combative sports. The exercises and drills are fairly simple. It’s all “multi-plane” stuff with an end goal of improving your body positioning in a 3D space.

I appreciate that and also appreciate your thoughts above. I won’t use those, but thank you for thinking of me. I “train” agility by just hiking/running/riding difficult terrain.

[txdpd]

If anyone else wants it I’ll put it in Karma thread

[David S.]

How to Do Conditioning: It Depends.

Ray Williams’ strength training program isn’t appropriate for you, and it never will be. Neither is Connor McGregor’s conditioning program. The conditioning program that is appropriate for you will depend on your individual situation, your training history, and your experience with high cardiorespiratory demand activity, and the only way to figure out what that looks like is to properly apply the process as follows:

1. Train for strength and practice your sport. Then,

2. When your strength training has slowed significantly, continue training for strength while practicing your sport and start training intelligently for conditioning. Then,

3. Adjust and periodize your strength and conditioning training based on your season or competition schedule.

If you’re weak, you don’t need conditioning regardless of your sport. You need to get strong. This represents the most common situation for most people. . .