This is the sixth in a series of six articles on things I have learned from High-Intensity Resistance Training that have influenced my approach to martial arts.
If you missed the previous articles in this series, you can find them here:
High Intensity Resistance Training and Martial Arts – A Perfect Match (Part 1 of 6)
You Don’t Need a Separate Cardio Workout (Part 2 of 6)
Weightlifting Will NOT Make You Constantly Tense (Part 3 of 6)
Stretching Exercises Are NOT Your Friends (Part 4 of 6)
The Potential for Overtraining (Part 5 of 6)
********************
If so many people sing the praises of this training protocol, then why am I writing an article where I say Functional Fitness is a myth? Fear not, dear readers: I have an explanation for you, complete with examples.
“Functional Fitness” has been around since the 1980s or 1990s, but it didn’t really gain mainstream attention until the start of the millennium.
Now it seems like everyone wants a workout program that mimics the sport they do. Boxers use “depth jumps” to improve their explosive footwork. Martial artists punch with weights because they think if they can punch fast while holding a 10-lb. Dumbbell, they’ll be just a blur of action when they punch empty-handed.
The truth is that Functional Fitness is a myth, a scam, a marketing scheme, because skills don’t transfer like that.
I realize that’s a bold statement. That’s why I am ready to explore it and show some examples that prove my point.
Specific Metabolic Adaptation: The MAIN Real Functional Fitness is a Myth
That term might sound like a mouthful, but it means something very basic: your body will adapt to the specific activity that you are doing…and that’s that. This is why I say Functional Fitness is a waste of your time.
Let’s say you know someone who can run a mile at top speed and not even break a sweat. You think he must have pretty good endurance, right?
Well, try putting him in a basketball game. He will be a quivering, useless lump in only a few plays because he has not adapted to that activity.
Unlike his consistent running pace, basketball involves stop-start action. His body doesn’t know how to handle it.
Real-Life BMX Bandits
Rather than present you with just a hypothetical runner/pathetic baller, I want to give you a real-world example. This comes from Body by Science by Doug McGuff:
“I’ve trained athletes to compete in BMX (bike racing) using the Tabata protocol. This…involves twenty seconds of high-intensity sprinting followed by a ten-second recovery, performed for up to five to seven cycles.
The typical BMX race lasts about thirty-five seconds, maybe forty seconds…What I found using the Tabata protocol is that even though…these athletes should have been well-conditioned metabolically, they crapped out about two-thirds into the race. They had become specifically conditioned to exert maximally for twenty seconds and then rest. When I changed the sprint protocol to a forty-second sprint followed by a twenty seconds recovery, everything worked perfectly. So metabolic conditioning is much like skill conditioning: it’s very specific.” (McGuff, p. 214)
An Insane Example from My Own Life
The metabolic conditioning needed for a specific activity is achieved through performance of that activity, not something that only “mimics” it. Also, you might do a workout program that is technically more intense than your activity and think it’s helping you out, but you will soon find out you are wrong, like I did.
Many years ago, I started doing a workout program by a gentleman named Shaun T (released through the company Team Beachbody) called Insanity.
In this program, Shaun flipped the idea of “High Intensity Interval Training” on its head. (I put “interval” in italics to emphasize it’s not the same workout protocol that I’m espousing.) Instead of doing only thirty seconds of intense work followed by several minutes of steady-state moves, he had you do two minutes of intense exercise, with only a thirty second rest. A simple adjustment to the formula, but genius.
I picked up a copy of Insanity because I felt that stamina (or endurance, or cardio) was more important in martial arts than strength. Therefore, I wanted to build mine up.
Insanity workouts range from thirty-five to seventy minutes. At first I was just a puddle of goo on the floor, constantly having to rest. Shaun had built breaks into the exercise, but they added up to maybe five minutes tops. Meanwhile, I had to rest for at least 40% of the workout (maybe even more). I felt pathetic!
Over time, I was able to keep up with Shaun and friends. If all their breaks added up to about five minutes, mine added up to maybe six. I felt damn good.
Then I went to my martial arts class, and that good feeling vanished.
Why?
Because when we sparred, I was a puddle of goo on the floor after the first round.
This made no sense to me. How could I keep up with Shaun T, but then find myself wheezing worse than an asthmatic after one three-minute round?
The answer: metabolic conditioning is specific to each activity.
In other words, skills don’t transfer.
Hockey and Martial Arts – A Comparison and a Contrast
As I have stated, metabolic conditioning does not transfer from activity to another, even though Functional Fitness proponents claim it does. This also holds true of isolating certain skills within any given activity.
In Body by Science, Dr. McGuff uses hockey practice as an example. He talks about passing drills in which players skate up and down the ice while passing the puck back and forth between teammates. You’d think this is preparing them for the game, right?
Wrong.
Passing a puck in this relaxed setting is a different skill set from passing during a game. In the game, you can’t just pass the puck whenever you want; you need to make sure a teammate is open, and that no one from the opposing team is in the way.
A game is an alive, ever-changing environment. By taking the skill of passing out of it, you are, in the words of Bruce Lee, “solidifying what was once fluid.”
After reading about this, I thought, “Damn, maybe I have been engaging in this and thinking I was getting somewhere, when I’m really ‘dry-land swimming.’” (PS: Yes, that is another quote from the late Bruce Lee.) Here’s why I thought this:
Sometimes when I spar with people, there are moments where a classmate is able to hit me with a certain attack every time they throw it. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to come up with an effective response.
Therefore, I will ask them, “Hey, can you move around and throw that particular attack at me? I want to figure out how to handle it.”
In other words, they are isolating that particular attack, much like the hockey players isolate the passing skill. Was I making the same?
I wrote an email to my coach Jay Vincent, asking him about this. I said, “I don’t think I am doing the same thing due to the simple fact that I don’t ask anyone to do this often. Then again, what am I supposed to do if someone keeps hitting me with their lead front kick? I can’t figure out how to handle it during the chaos of a sparring match. I feel like I should isolate that move for a bit, figure out why it gives me trouble, and then come up with a response. Naturally, when we go back to full-on sparring, I have no idea if or when my partner will throw that attack. However, at least isolating it for a while will help give me a starting point. What do you think?”
I was relieved by his response, which said:
“You should absolutely be isolating those particular skills to develop the basic movement and muscle recruitment pattern. Then, apply it to the competition. Obviously you need to isolate and learn the skill before applying it to competition. Someone wouldn’t learn how to take a jump shot for the first time during a 5 on 5 basketball game. Dr. McGuff is more referring to the fact that if you ONLY practice the skill in isolation , you will not optimize your ability to perform the skill in competition.”
In other words, it is okay to practice against a specific attack if it is giving you trouble. Just don’t isolate it for too long, or you will be unpleasantly surprised when you go back to full-on sparring and get hit with that attack once again.
Conclusion
I know not everyone will agree with me about Functional Fitness being a great big fat lie, and that’s okay. Some people don’t enjoy having their beliefs challenged. It is a scary thing to find out that what you thought was an indisputable proof could have been an illusion all along.
My intention with this article (and this whole series) was not to tear down anyone’s world. It was merely meant to give an alternate view on things that have been held as “fitness truths” for so long that no one even questions them anymore.
But we should question them, not as if to say, “I don’t trust you,” but because it is good to question, to explore, to be thorough.
And why not? We’re given life only once. Why not discover as much as you can?
If nothing else, this series could help you get to know yourself a little bit more. I have given you some knowledge that you might not have encountered in the past, which means you can think about them and decide how you feel and what you believe.
And wasn’t there a famous, highly-revered martial artist who said something about that? Oh yes, I quoted him earlier. It was the late, extraordinary, beloved Bruce Lee who said, “All types of knowledge ultimately means self-knowledge.”
I hope you have enjoyed this six-article series. I hope you were open-minded enough to receive what I had to say, and I hope you become a better martial artist (or human being) for having received it.
Train hard, train safe, and I wish you all the best.
~~~Steve Grogan
NOTE – Steve Grogan is looking for people to coach through this exercise program. If you don’t live anywhere near him, the workouts can be done via Skype or some other video chat platform. Contact him via email, with the subject line “saw your Martial Journal article on HIRT.”
geekwingchun@gmail.com
His YouTube channel (Geek Wing Chun) gives free training tips and ideas for people who want to get better at Wing Chun but can't make it to class as often as they'd like. Check it out by simply typing "Geek Wing Chun" into the YouTube search field!
- Move How You’re Going to Move During Class - October 19, 2022
- Martial Arts Do NOT Boost Self-Esteem - September 28, 2022
- TRAINING TIP – Ignore the Latest Shiny Object - August 4, 2022
Leave a Reply