If any of you read professional bodybuilding magazines from the late 90s, you probably saw advertisements for the “Serious Growth” books. These books were by Leo Costa, Jr., Dr. RL Horine, and later Tom Platz. They ended up being more than 4 books in total, and (supposedly) they were based on methods they had learned from Bulgarian Olympic lifting coaches and applied to bodybuilding.
Now, I’m not sure how accurate the idea is that they were inspired by Bulgarian principles, but there were some good ideas in these books anyway.
One of the principles they (again, supposedly) learned from the Bulgarian coaches was that “the body becomes its function.” They felt that if the body was trained enough to perform a certain function, it could almost “become” that function.
In simpler terms, what it means is that whatever you train, you will improve.
Simple concept, right? It should be, although many times it doesn’t look that way.
You cannot grow unless you train to do so. It can be faster unless you train fast. In a more specific sense, you won’t get better at one thing by doing another (you want to get better at pull-ups, then pull-ups … not rows, pull-ups, shrugs, or anything else!).
This should be the idea behind your training. You must train in a way that allows you to achieve your goals. If you are an MMAist, then you should be training maximum muscular and cardiovascular strength, power and endurance. All aspects of your training should be geared towards becoming a better fighter.
Strange things (bigger biceps, doing an Iron Cross on the rings, doing a XXX pound bench press, etc.) are okay to do and are okay to target. But you should always make sure that these little “secondary goals” do not prevent you from advancing on your primary goal. In other words, keep your focus on the big picture.
A guy I’m helping with his training (he’s training to become a professional wrestler) recently emailed me about a bodybuilding protocol that he used to like and use. He wanted my opinion.
I gave him a brief opinion about it. It’s a decent program, good for getting big and strong (being an “airhead” if you will), but it was a long way off from an athletic point of view. The program was good for what it was intended for (bodybuilding), but it would make some big changes to it if it wanted to use something similar for anyone looking to do more than just get big muscles and do big numbers. in some basic gym exercises.
He responded by telling me that he knew exactly what I meant. When he had been using the program he gained good size and even got strong, but he was very slow, not explosive, and generally felt sluggish. Now that you are using one of my training programs (based on power output and strength / power-endurance), you are stronger than ever, you feel lighter, you move better, and you have much better control over your body.
And all this was because “the body became its function.” When he trained as a bodybuilder, his body became the body of a bodybuilder. Now that you are training like an athlete, you have the body of an athlete, with performance to match.
Whatever your goal, make sure your training is adequate to achieve that goal and that you are making your “body become its function.”
Train hard, rest hard, play hard.