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The Philosophy and Science of Power Block Training

The Philosophy and Science of Power Block Training

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Adam Koel

B.A. Kinesiology, CSCS, CPT (NSCA)

I will begin this explanation of the science behind Power Block training with a more general but highly relevant paper I wrote for my Exercise Physiology course at Occidental College as part of my Kinesiology major that was vetted by Professor Christian Roberts, B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology, as well as FACSM, CSCS.

Increases in Fat Metabolism in Conjunction with Resistance Training

‍Abstract: There is constant debate concerning the best method of exercise for improving the overall quality of life and average lifespan of the general population. The most pertinent goal of exercise for the average American adult should be to burn the greatest amount of fat possible per session. At lower exercise intensities it has been proven that fat is the more utilized substrate for fuel during a training session. However, the total amount of fat oxidized throughout a training program is often much higher if an individual exercises at a high intensity, especially when performing resistance training. Resistance training provides an overload that leads to the depletion of muscle and liver glycogen stores, as well as of intramuscular triglycerides (IMTGs) and other fuel sources. This leads to a significant increase in energy expenditure and lipolysis over a 24 hour period following the end of a bout of resistance exercise(1).

A major problem with the health of the current population of American adults is their body composition (often both weight and body fat percentage) and the risks that it can pose to their overall health. In today’s world people are often pressed for time or tired from work, making them reluctant to expend the time and energy to go to the gym, or even exercise at all. This issue implies that most people put a large emphasis on training as efficiently as possible in a limited amount of time, while still attempting to achieve their fitness goals. High intensity exercise provides a solution to this common problem, significantly overloading the body and rapidly destabilizing homeostasis, in addition to burning a large amount of calories in a relatively short period of time. Low intensity aerobic exercise like walking, running, or swimming requires a much longer duration to burn the same amount of calories as high intensity exercise, albeit the time difference does become smaller if the rest time required by high intensity exercise is taken into consideration. In order to maintain a healthy body composition, the largest emphasis should be placed upon consistency of exercise over long periods of time because trained individuals metabolize more fat at almost every intensity. One reason for this is that trained individuals gain beneficial adaptations such as increased fatty acid oxidative capacity due to fiber type shifts (Type IIx to Type IIa). Similarly, a study conducted by Treuth found that resistance training both increases lean body mass and decreases total fat mass(2). Furthermore, regularly trained individuals also live longer on average and have generally less health issues throughout their lives.

A study conducted by Ormsbee investigated how acute bouts of resistance exercise contribute to improvements in body composition. It was found that lipid oxidation increased during resistance exercise by 78% above the normal rate at the same time of day without an exercise bout, and by 75% immediately after the conclusion of the bout(1). The resting metabolic rate (RMR) is the minimum level of energy required to sustain the body’s vital functions in the waking state. However, with high intensity exercise the RMR can be temporarily increased, and prolonged training can offset the decrease in RMR that occurs with the aging process. Ormsbee found that energy expenditure was elevated by 10.5% 45 minutes after the bout, and lipid oxidation was slightly more than double the control rate(1). The respiratory exchange ratio (RER) was immediately reduced, as well as at 15 hours following a resistance exercise bout when compared with a nonexercise control day, indicative of increased lipolysis given the nature of that metabolic process(1). These findings could be incredibly useful for individuals seeking to improve both strength and body composition, or to those who have limited time. This is because these results represent the fact that large amounts of lipolysis are achievable after exercise has already concluded. Ormsbee also mentions that IMTG stores were reduced following resistance exercise, implying that they were oxidized as fuel during the exercise bout despite its highly intense nature(1). A possible hypothesis for this phenomenon is that during the rest periods or time between sets of resistance exercise fat oxidation is hyperactive.

Fat oxidation is inversely proportional to intensity and proportional to duration. At intensities lower than 60–65% of aerobic power, lipids are the primarily utilized substrate. Past this point of intensity the body begins to burn more carbohydrates than lipids (crossover effect), although there is often still an overall increase in lipolysis because the proportional decrease is offset by an overall energy expenditure increase. Therefore, when utilizing a high intensity training method it is essential to perform enough bouts to reach a reasonable amount of ‘on time’ in order to burn a significant amount of fat, not to just cease activity at the initial onset of fatigue.

Resistance exercise can provide a significant overload, depleting various fuel stores throughout the body and leading to a significant increase in energy expenditure and lipolysis over a 24 hour period following the end of the bout(1). While the body attempts to recuperate the lost resources and return the muscles to a state of readiness, metabolic rate will remain elevated, gradually returning to sedentary levels if activity ceases. If certain fuel sources become scarce, it can result in the mobilization of liver glycogen, blood glucose, plasma fatty acids, and glycerol to replenish them. This is in addition to inducing further lipolysis of primarily visceral (but also some subcutaneous) adipose tissue to ensure homeostasis. Those previously mobilized fuel sources must be replenished and remain available for the next bout of exercise. Multiple studies corroborate this hypothesis as it was found that participants RMR remained elevated up to 15 hours after the bout of exercise was finished(3,4). It is generally accepted that isolated muscle cells have an increase of between 35–50% in lipid oxidation after an acute bout of exercise, regardless of type. Energy expenditure, and therefore lipolysis to some degree (60% contribution if assuming a resting state), after resistance exercise can remain increased above basal levels for up to 38 hours after the exercise bout was performed(1). Another study found results that follow logically from Ormsbee’s, specifically that after an acute resistance exercise bout lipolysis was significantly increased during a subsequent submaximal exercise bout(5), making resisted exercise all the more valuable.

High intensity exercise also stimulates a larger increase in the level of catecholamines (epinephrine and norepinephrine) secretion than low intensity exercise, which induces an increased rate of lipolysis through hormonal pathways. If an increase in the amount of catecholamines occurs in the blood and adipose tissue, which can be triggered by stress, fight or flight response, or exercise, it will stimulate increased activity of hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), the rate-limiting enzyme in lipolysis. Lipolysis at rest is inhibited by insulin through down-regulation of HSL, meaning that the catecholamine to insulin ratio will dictate fat metabolism. The rate of lipolysis during training can be augmented further by beginning exercise in a postabsorptive state, when the initial insulin spike after eating has dissipated, because the body will prefer lipid fuels. In addition, a study conducted by Melby found that the post-absorptive RER was lower both immediately and 15 hours after the exercise bout(2).

Overall, the topics discussed in this paper translate to the fact that, despite the crossover effect, enough high intensity training will lead to increased energy expenditure to a sufficient degree that, given intelligent and effective programming, more fat will be oxidized in total than would otherwise be in a similarly timed aerobic exercise bout. The increased rate of lipolysis post-exercise is often responsible for this result, not the energy expended during the actual training time, contrary to the common perception(1,2,3). Overload elicits adaptation and with time as a limiting factor it is generally more effective to provide a large burst of overload, via resistance exercise, to induce greater adaptation. Furthermore, continuity of training is essential for overall health and can decrease the risk of future complications. “Those who do not make time for exercise will eventually make time for illness.”

References

  1. Ormsbee MJ, Thyfault JP, Johnson EA, Kraus RM, Choi MD, and Hickner RC. Fat metabolism and acute resistance exercise in trained men. J Appl Physiol. 102: 1767–1772, 2007.
  2. Treuth MS, Ryan AS, Pratley RE, Rubin MA, Miller JP, Nicklas BJ, Sorkin J, Harman SM, Goldberg AP, Hurley BF. Effects of strength training on total and regional body composition in older men. J Appl Physiol 77: 614–620, 1994.
  3. Melby C, Scholl C, Edwards G, Bullough R. Effect of acute resistance exercise on postexercise energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate. J Appl Physiol 75: 1847–1853, 1993.
  4. Gillette CA, Bullough RC, Melby CL. Postexercise energy expenditure in response to acute aerobic or resistive exercise. Int J Sport Nutr 4: 347–360, 1994.
  5. Goto K, Ishii N, Sugihara S, Yoshioka T, and Takamatsu K. Effects of resistance exercise on lipolysis during subsequent submaximal exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 39: 308–315, 2007.

Applications to Athletes and the General Population

Now that we have established a basic framework for understanding the principles of high intensity versus low intensity exercise and the benefits of resistance training, I will dive more deeply into Power Block (PB) training specifically and how we can apply that framework to optimally benefit athletes and individuals in the general population.

In the study referenced above conducted by Ormsbee et al., the participants only performed a relatively small volume of repetitions for their total body lift (when compared with a full PB metabolic workout and, to a much greater degree, a 3-block lift, both of which I will explain later) and under less than ideal (fasted) conditions leading to sub-optimal performance and subsequent results. However, they still saw a massive increase in post exercise lipid oxidation (i.e., afterburn of fat) that declined gradually along a continuum over the course of 48 hours. While untested, it is logical to hypothesize that a much larger number of repetitions, and a much greater volume of musculature innervated via PB training programming would produce a similar but greater metabolic effect than that outlined in the study referenced above. In addition to this, PB training utilizes advanced free-weight movements (as opposed to comparatively lazy ones such as leg press where the athlete remains seated) that activate a much larger portion of the body’s musculature and subsequently a greater portion of the body’s carbohydrate stores are burned, therefore creating a dramatically larger afterburn of fat post-workout. When the body runs out of carbohydrate stores repeatedly across muscular systems, the body oxidizes fat in gluconeogenic processes over the next 48 hours to replenish not only IMTGs but also intramuscular glycogen stores in time for the next resistance exercise bout. PB programming prescribes 3 total body workouts per week, each separated by a 48 hour window, which translates to 6 days a week of dramatically elevated fat burn. In chronic conditions, this leads to substantial positive changes in body composition and aesthetics. This postulation is supported not only by my own and Jim Griffin’s (the original creator of PB training) personal results but by our results with athletes and clients over multiple years. I have documented dramatic transformations in body composition, aesthetics, strength, power and endurance on my website (www.instagram.com/adamkoel), with multiple clients of various body types, initial training statuses, ages, genders, and limitations. Specifically on my Transformations tab at the top of the site you can see some remarkable results for the time required to achieve them.

In fact, Coach Griffin’s results with young athletes have been so superior to the rest that he has been invited to speak at multiple NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) conferences in an attempt to further the science and knowledge in the field. He spoke about his tremendous resistance and speed training outcomes at NSCA conferences held in Atlantic City, NJ in 2017 “Training the High School Athlete”, 2018 “Running Form Analysis & Training Techniques to Remedy Deficiencies and Prevent Future Issues” and 2019 “Improve In-Game Speed Development” about his speed and agility training efforts with high school athletes in New Jersey.

Some of Coach Griffin’s more consistent high school athletes outlift and outmax not only my former college football teammates but high level Jiu-Jitsu competitors who are full-grown men. I could recite his/our results with numerous high school athletes but I will leave that to him and instead list some of the more remarkable results I have attained with my clients since becoming an independent S&C coach/PT further down in a later section.

To most, such results may sound ludicrous but to Coach Griffin and me, this is a regular occurrence explained by the science behind his revolutionary programming.

Programming

Programming is the basis of what makes PB training unique. Most programs utilize one or the other whereas in this system we combine undulating and linear periodization models. A total body program compared to a split program in my opinion is no comparison at all. An athlete experiences diminishing marginal returns at severe rates after 2 successive exercises using the same muscle groups, let alone several. With PB training we can achieve high metabolic, cardiac, and muscular endurance outcomes while preserving peak strength and power as well as movement quality. We start with a high activation and intensity lower body move, e.g., Power Clean, Squat, Deadlift, Box Jump, Single Leg Squat, etc. and follow with a back move, chest move, leg move, shoulder move, back move. Sequence and movements may change; overall structure and ideal does not.

This allows us to train at a partially fatigued state almost constantly but with individual muscle groups remaining fresh enough to perform at near peak performance. This creates training conditions that are very similar to competition conditions where an athlete is always somewhat fatigued except at the start of the contest. It is an industry consensus that the closer training conditions can mimic those of competition, the better prepared the competitor will be for the contest. If practice is physically more demanding than competition on a regular basis, then an athlete can focus on the mental aspect of the game rather than being limited by physical ones. Through a varied regimen of high quality movements we can rotate which muscle group is the most taxed and effectively toe the line between peak effectiveness via maximum overload and overtraining, while still allowing the athlete to remain not sore enough that they can continue to train for their sport frequently.

The programming of individual blocks and workouts are not the only revolutionary concepts; the organization of the week and cycle (usually roughly 2 months) as a whole is unique and unrivaled. For the full athlete program, instead of just the 1-hour (or less) workouts that work perfectly for business and clientele with time and scheduling constraints, the first and last workouts of the week (with each workout being separated by a 48 hour window) consist of 3 blocks of anywhere from 2–4 exercises plus abs depending on training status, each performed 3 times as opposed to only a single block of 5–6 exercises plus abs performed 5 times, always with 2–3 minutes rest in between sets of each block.

Building a muscular endurance base is always the first priority; from there we can diversify the programming to gain further desired adaptations. Lifting loads within the correct one rep maximum (1RM) percentage for the individual within the corresponding rep range part of building muscular endurance. The other part is accomplished via the total volume of weight lifted during the training session. Volume can be explicitly defined as the sum total of your reps multiplied by the weight lifted for each exercise individually, and is a good measure of overall overload on the body. High volume training will create that muscular endurance base; then as the individual gets more experienced, if they desire adaptations other than fat loss, muscle gain, endurance and cardio, we can decrease the volume and increase the intensity via load and other factors to produce adaptations like strength and power.

As the weeks go by the reps, loads, and overall volume of the program may change although the intensity remains high for all but the final 2 testing/deloading weeks of the training cycle. The movements may be altered for each individual to meet their needs of sport specificity, goal, to address deficiency, or rehabilitation of injury. It is also necessary to vary the movements and workouts as much as possible to avoid the body becoming accustomed to a specific stimulus, and therefore eliciting less adaptation as a response. In economics we refer to this as diminishing marginal returns; in athletics it is often referred to as ‘plateauing’. As is expected, a less trained or physically capable client will always begin with low velocity, safe, highly stable movements such as a bodyweight squat, usually using both limbs and/or multiple joint complexes to distribute the load. As they progress and master the simpler exercises they may advance to higher difficulty, faster, more efficient, albeit riskier, movements that often require the athlete to only use a single limb such as a single leg squat. No one with any great concern of joint impact should do such advanced, high impact and risk movements that involve loading single joint complexes quickly or leaving their feet such as box jumps or lateral bounds.

More on Programming

This is the baseline originally created by Coach Griffin for PB training. I have adhered to these principles relatively strictly and expanded upon the individual movements and workouts more than I have deviated from these rep ranges to create my own version of the program, as this model has produced outstanding results both for myself and others throughout many years of use. For athletes this is certainly the model to reproduce very accurately, however, for average clients with time constraints and goals revolving around aesthetics and health instead of performance I have adapted the metabolic (single block, 5 set) workouts on my own to fit their needs. I program exclusively metabolics and stay high volume (12 reps and up) with non-athlete clientele both to maximize fat burn and minimize risk in the short amount of time I have with them. This leads to greater form and motor learning adaptation, which is especially crucial if I can only see an untrained client once a week (which is not at all uncommon) and must depend on them to safely carry out their other two workouts per week on their own. Not only that, but it maximizes their results in terms of their ability to burn fat, and therefore improve their health, fitness, and aesthetic in the safest way possible. I will outline later in this document that despite the training focus being safety, muscular endurance and metabolic outcomes, I have also achieved astonishing strength and power gains with my non-athletes without ever having them lift within strength training repetition ranges. Also given the fact that with only metabolics the overall volume is less, we only deload and test every 8 weeks, as the average person also has much less other exercise and therefore needs less recovery.

Depending on training status, overload, and other factors, the program may call for safe muscle failure as often as twice a week. Failing during training is specifically helpful to increase one’s lactate threshold, as well as VO2 Max and overall endurance. Newer and/or younger athletes can fail as often as 3X a week. However, trained populations and athletes with rigorous training schedules (for example Jiu Jitsu competitors such as Xavier, Raffi, Felix, and myself training 6 days a week, often multiple times a day) must be much more cognizant of overtraining and so should only fail every other week in multi-joint movements where failure is safe and controlled. Pushing the body to real muscular failure provides an incredible stimulus beneficial not only to the neuromuscular system but also for the athlete’s psyche as well. Humans are extraordinarily adaptable and nothing can stimulate helpful adaptation more, in both the muscle and the mind than failing to perform a task. Evolutionarily failure could result in death and the body will avoid it at all costs, making it an extremely strong driver of adaptation. In fact, the body wants to not fail so badly that it often accomplishes this via worsening the form and putting the individual themselves at risk, so we train that habit out and help our athletes become accustomed to failing on a regular basis. If we can get our athletes to fail consistently and become comfortable with failure during training, we can prevent them from failing as frequently during competition. If failure does happen, it is no longer such a foreign circumstance but something they are regularly used to overcoming. In the words of Coach Griffin, “Embrace the suffering, and competition will only be fun.”

Repeater blocks are utilized in moderate repetition weeks in every cycle except the first one and consist of a core lift followed by a less activating movement or an accessory followed by the same core lift with the same weight. It is acceptable and expected to fail eventually on the second set of the core lift in a repeater block. Repeaters for core lifts such as squats and deadlifts should be capped at a maximum of double 10s for squats and 8s for deadlifts, as the form tends to deteriorate faster and the loads are heavier. By contrast, 6s are the cap for cleans and snatches, as those lifts require a greater amount of muscular and neural activation, as well as energy expenditure, while also being higher in risk (form again deteriorates even more quickly at high degrees of fatigue). The minimum for any of these movements is 3 reps, as we have a goal of repeat high-level performance with strength and metabolic efficiency, not a one rep max (1RM), which is extremely dissimilar to the demands of any competition other than power or Olympic competition lifting. In Coach Griffin’s words “FTP (Functional Threshold Power) is where most strength coaches drop the ball.” This is where repeater lifts come in. We have the athlete repeatedly perform high power efforts in a marginally fatigued state in an attempt to replicate competition demands and improve the realistic threshold at which they can sustainably produce power. In these workouts are where I have seen some of the most remarkable volume totals. I have yet to see non-competitive-weight-lifting athletes move the kind of weight I have seen Power Block athletes move around in 60–90 minutes. Not even calculating accessory lifts, just the 3 repeated core lifts, I have seen (and documented) totals of over 40,000 lbs lifted. For example, in under 30 minutes one of my athletes, X, deadlifted 315 lbs for 54 reps, which corresponds to a total volume of 17,010 lbs in less than ⅓ of his workout.

Our training goals and progression within the program remains adaptable to the individual. It is time to advance when someone is no longer challenged or stagnation is evident. However, before advancing to the next cycle and phase of the program we must consider a few factors: How successful were we in accomplishing the goals of the training cycle? Specifically, after the initial phase, does the athlete have sufficient motor control (i.e., form and subsequent risk minimization) to advance to the lower reps and heavier loads required to build additional strength and power? More generally, has the athlete reached a plateau and stopped improving? It may become necessary for the coach to add or subtract weeks on an individual basis depending on the adaptations of the athlete. An obvious example would be if an athlete contracted an illness or had an injury that sidelined them, it would no longer be appropriate to continue the programming as if they had trained those weeks and one would need to push back the advancement as if time had not passed until they have a chance to accrue the necessary adaptations to make the following phases optimal. Untrained athletes that are brand new often can go as long as 15 weeks straight of resistance training without hitting a plateau or risking overtraining before deloading and testing. However, communication is key: if someone is run down, do not push them over the edge, instead deload them earlier. I will outline the deloading and testing process in detail in the Overtraining Concerns section below. Overall resistance to injury is the number one priority always, as the athlete cannot continue to improve in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), mixed martial arts (MMA), any other chosen sport, or even lifting if they cannot practice their techniques on the mat, court, field, or in the weight room.

Athlete and Client Applications/Testimonials

One example of an application of this program to a Jiu-Jitsu competitor is Josiah Wakefield, purple belt instructor (at the time) and multiple time World Champion Jiu-Jitsu competitor at Legacy Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Burbank, CA. Also, keep in mind for this entire section almost all of these lifts and statistics are documented on my website under the Transformations highlight tab at https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17869763869894913/ . Josiah had a prior resistance training background of a few years of Crossfit and TacFit and was mobile but overweight and out of shape. Despite inconsistencies in training (missing days, even a week or two total) and diet (not eating breakfast, eating junk food, not enough protein, etc.), within 8 weeks his max deadlift went from 225lbs to 315 lbs, a 90-lb increase. He eventually hit 415lbs in the deadlift and 375 in the sumo deadlift (150 lbs increase in only 8 weeks of training for the latter!) around 7 months of unfortunately sporadic training. Josiah also could only do 2 pullups with his own bodyweight when we began, and needed bands to complete the rep count for the first 6 months, until we tested him again without bands and found out he no longer needed them for workouts as his endurance max was now 18 pullups at 230 lbs of BW. His shoulder press also went from 95 lbs 1RM to 175 lbs in 8 weeks.

Josiah’s max power clean and bench each also went up 40 lbs in the first 8 weeks, and he power snatched 205 lbs up from 0 before PB, despite the fact that in Cycle 1 we only train in what is traditionally considered muscular endurance only ranges (12 reps or more) and never once trained in the strength or hypertrophy phases (1–5, and 6–12, respectively; however, obviously 12 reps does overlap with the upper limit of the hypertrophy phase). He achieved massive cardiovascular and muscular endurance improvements, along with strength and power gains as a bonus, likely due to mostly neural adaptations rather than intramuscular, as I do believe the literature is correct to some degree in terms of needing to lift a certain percentage of one’s max to tax the upper end of type II muscle fibers and improve strength/power. These improvements can also be explained somewhat by the fact that we are lifting in what we call the ‘sweet spot’, where there is some crossover between hypertrophy and endurance adaptations in response to training.

However, very often people who want strength gains skip this vital muscular endurance and motor pattern foundational phase right to low rep/volume programming, missing out on substantial potential benefit and training extremely inefficiently with poorly directed focus. If you don’t have a strong base capability to execute the form correctly, as well as the experience of doing many working sets with correspondingly light loads, strength training becomes less valuable to you, as your max is underdeveloped anyway. Without a foundation of huge numbers of reps, you cannot effectively utilize the muscles you already have, meaning that it is worth it to develop good kinesthesia before attempting to max out and build strength. An analogy I can make is that you wouldn’t try to race a car that wasn’t fully built yet. There is no point, the handling, horsepower, acceleration, all the variables pertinent to racing the car will change, rendering any familiarity you will have gained useless. Additionally, heavier weights are more risky the less reps you have under your belt.

I hypothesize that this is a huge part of why so many of my clients with multiple years of previous resistance training experience have so much unfulfilled potential they have yet to realize. Coach Griffin’s and my results with athletes and clients across more than 10 years of training have proven that high volume training programs actually result in greater strength gains than lower volume training programs, at least in individuals without an extremely high training status. Again, this is likely due to the increased repetitions of practice at the motor pattern and therefore increases in form and agonist muscle activation combined with less antagonist activation. Simultaneously, we see improvements in our main goals of muscular endurance, as well as cardiovascular and metabolic markers.

The other part of the explanation for why we are seeing results that contrast so harshly with all the currently accepted literature, from NASM to NSCA, to most exercise physiology and programming courses, as well as most programs out there, is hormonal response. Multiple studies have shown that humans release human growth hormone (HGH) and testosterone in response to resistance training in a relationship that is directly proportional to exercise intensity, volume, load, and duration (although obviously only up to a certain point; diminishing marginal returns still exist). HGH and testosterone both assist tremendously with muscle growth, fat loss, recovery, and a slew of other benefits. According to the currently accepted literature, strength training is only happening when performing sets of 1–5 reps, 6–12 reps being the hypertrophy range, and above that we enter the endurance range (all with corresponding loads of course). We instead spend almost the entirety of our time training outside of the strength range, as well as organizing our sets in such a way that we are consistently fatigued instead of fresh (again contrary to current consensus on best ways to build strength) and yet we see better, more rapid results than programs whose only goal is to build strength and claim to optimize that process. The more trained an athlete becomes, the less strength they should be able to build as they will have neared their potential, and so the rate of improvement slows (assuming the program they are on is not garbage). However, I have seen this effect completely overpowered to a laughable degree via programming changes; I will detail specific examples below.

The only conceivable explanation I can fathom for this phenomenon is that the cumulative volume of training we achieve is so high, with heavy enough loads that are often right in the aforementioned ‘sweet spot’, that the hormonal response outweighs the benefits of training in the correct range for strength and power adaptations. This concept, if proven, could be revolutionary. This could be implemented across the board to maximize the already hard-working efforts of athletes everywhere to result in more adaptations, less losses, and a more safe process to achieve them, as lighter loads are required.

While Coach Griffin has worked primarily with young athletes ages 12–19, I have achieved similar results with populations of all ages from 14–72, including my client Vaz who was on the Iranian national weightlifting team from age 16–21 and then was inactive for 40 years, so much so that when I found him he could not perform a single bodyweight squat. After 6 months of training Power Block he was able to break all of his maxes from when he was 21 years of age across all movements, from squat and deadlift, to bench press, even power cleaning 160 lbs at 61 years of age, a 25 lbs increase up from his previous personal record (PR) of 135 lbs that he set at age 21 after 5 years of training many times per week with Iran’s Olympic Weightlifting team coach, an achievement he never thought possible. I would like to remind the reader that he hadn’t performed a single power clean prior to 6 months of PB with me in the last 40 years.

Sarcopenia (muscle decay) usually starts to hit people pretty hard after 40 or 50, meaning it should not be possible for you to be stronger at 61 than you were at 21, at least not without an incredibly large improvement in programming. Despite the fact that older people usually take longer to adapt, Vaz’s max bench improved from 85 lbs when we started to 195 lbs after 9 months training, 30 lbs over his 21 year old max, even though he spent the vast majority of his time lifting much lighter weights training for fat loss and endurance. He deadlifted 315 lbs and back squatted 225 lbs after 10 months on the program at a bodyweight of 180 lbs, with a vertical torso as well, leaving him free of back pain and other issues that once ailed him. Frankly, I am pretty sure that 315 lbs is not even Vaz’s true max, as we never have had him attempt higher and he continued to train and improve for months afterwards. I told him that as he is 61 and doesn’t plan to compete in anything, lifting any heavier is admittedly more risky and unnecessary for him to do. He won the game; might as well just improve at repping 315lbs. It is crucial to note that we are not compromising form just to achieve a high number, which would increase risk and also decrease muscular gains. Instead we lessen the torque on the lumbar spine by loading the hips and entire body instead of just the spine. We perform high quality deadlifts, squats and more; I have video evidence of almost each and every client’s PR to prove it. I also wrote my senior thesis paper and gave my Comprehensive Presentation to the Occidental College Kinesiology Department faculty and student body on a Biomechanical Analysis of the Barbell Back Squat and a Comparison of Imposed Stresses to the Deadlift (a culmination of over a year’s worth of research) so that I could have an intimate understanding of those lifts to benefit my clientele.

Another client of mine with some outstanding results was Annett who had zero resistance training experience whatsoever, only yoga, and had debilitating back pain prior to training with me, which is not uncommon for people such as herself near 60 years of age. Not only were we able to teach her squat form with her own bodyweight but after 6 months training she maxed out at 155lbs on the deadlift, 100lbs for a goblet squat, and had zero back pain not only the following days but also on vacation hiking all day for hours, multiple days in a row (which she said used to be impossible for her to do, due to the back pain).

One of my clients, Raffi, had already resistance trained for 6 years in addition to many more playing soccer, water polo, judo, and BJJ, before beginning Power Block training with me. He hit a 100lbs PR in the deadlift, going from 235 lbs to 335 lbs in his first test after the first 6 weeks of training as well as 0 lbs to 205lbs in the power clean. This means that he improved his max deadlift to 335 lbs (almost a 50% increase) in 2.2% of the time it took him to get to 235 lbs. Prior to training with me, he had not done a single power clean. To go from that to 205 lbs at a bodyweight of 185 lbs as an already fully grown man whose focus was not power training or olympic lifting is pretty much unheard of. We didn’t do a single set of less than 10 reps until he attempted his 1RM during testing, hitting 195 lbs on the first day and 205 lbs on the following test.

Now we will examine how strength improvements affect cumulative overload, for example in a repeater lift. Even if we only calculate Raffi’s clean, bench, and deadlift, he was moving 21,570 lbs before having a chance to test, and only 4 weeks later he was able to move 30,750 lbs in the exact same 60–90 minute repeater workout. In Cycle 1 he was deadlifting 155 lbs for 54 reps in his repeater workouts which is a total volume of 8,370 lbs lifted. In Cycle 2 he was deadlifting 225 lbs for 54 reps in the same workout, which is a total volume of 12,150 lbs lifted. After improving his 1RM by almost 50% he was able to not only improve his strength (as a normal program would, leaving the rest of the pertinent adaptations relatively unaffected) but also improve the total volume he was able to lift, not just in the deadlift but across the board, by about the same amount! Just 2 weeks after setting his first PR with me at 335 lbs, he was able to easily hit 225 lbs (10 below his old PR) for 3 sets of 10 mid-workout in a superset (where as little time as possible is taken in between performing exercises together in succession, you can consider one block of PB training as one big superset).

Raffi’s max went from 335 lbs in the deadlift to 400 lbs in another 9 weeks. He went from a max of 235 lbs to a max of 410 lbs in 6 months training despite having already lifted weights on a split program 3–5X a week consistently for the past 6 years! He wasn’t just floundering on his own either; he was following a designed program as directed by his soccer and water polo coaches. His shoulder press max also increased to 195 lbs up from his pre PB PR of 145 lbs. Raffi’s 1RM for pullups was 90 lbs extra on the belt and in under a year of training it is now 155 lbs extra while his BW is still the same 184–188 lbs. His muscular endurance is also drastically improved as he went from being able to do around 15 pullups to 27, without letting go of the bar. As more evidence of his much improved endurance and cardio, which was the focus via high volume training, Raffi also holds the pace PR out of all Power Block athletes I have coached, finishing all 5 sets of a tough metabolic workout in just 37 minutes. Keep in mind the volumetric totals of a metabolic workout are relatively close to what was calculated earlier for repeaters.

The magnitude of results Raffi saw are truly unheard of both in theory and in practice; throughout my strength and conditioning career whether I was at a high school, D3 college, UCLA, working with professionals or with the general population. Raffi has reliably been able to hit 80% of his 1RM for 6 reps in a block for anywhere from 3 to 6 sets throughout his time PB training, even as his max has continued to improve, showing that this is not some fluke only accomplishable through ‘newbie gains’ at the start of one’s lifting career.

Xavier, another BJJ competitor, with a training age of 4 years of more strength focused, lower rep weight lifting, again on a split program (they are by far the most common), was already strong but Power Block has completely changed his gas tank (muscular endurance, cardio, general/metabolic endurance), helped him lose 10lbs of bodyweight and make remarkable physical cosmetic changes (documented on my website) as well as get stronger even while losing bodyweight and changing his training focus. Despite the fact that as you train your body for different adaptations we would expect you to lose out on the others to some degree as the muscle fibers change their type (can’t specialize in everything), X achieved strength gains nonetheless. He improved his bench press max by 10 lbs to 355 lbs even as he lost that much bodyweight. Bodyweight and strength typically have a proportional relationship but with Power Block we can defy that (to a degree) for an extreme competitive advantage. He also went from being able to do around 12 pullups to 24 as an endurance test, and on the strength side of things went from being able to do around 90 lbs extra on the belt to 155 lbs extra.

X also PRed in the deadlift at 500 lbs, up from 475 lbs before on his strength focused program. Due to improper form, his previous 475 lbs pull was actually biomechanically much easier to lift as the torque it produced on him was less, and was loaded more in his joints, leaving him in back pain, unable to train BJJ for multiple days. The way we teach deadlifts, if the athlete adheres to the form, there is no back pain the next day and no disturbance to their sport specific training. X holds the record for not only the best deadlift I have ever coached anyone through but also for the sumo deadlift with a high quality pull at 485 lbs, which is extraordinary as most athletes can only sumo deadlift around 80% of their deadlift max, in my experience. Additionally this is a great lift for X to excel at as a BJJ competitor because it is the most adductor, groin, and glute dominant lift we perform in the weight room and possibly that anyone can perform, plus it works the grip strength tremendously. This applies directly to BJJ, as every time an athlete needs to knee pull from closed guard, or squeeze their knees together for a submission or a positional lock such as a body triangle (very common occurrences, as is gripping) they use primarily the aforementioned muscle groups. X theoretically now can submit more opponents (or the same opponents when he is more fatigued) via his body triangle as he can produce more force to apply to their kidneys and rib cage.

X also set his power clean max at 245 lbs at 6 months training, despite the fact that he had done little to no cleaning prior to working with me, and for the entire first 4 months he couldn’t clean due to injury and could only snatch. At the start of the program he could only rep 315 lbs for back squat 3 times in a workout and would be expended, after 6 months training he could rep it 30 times in 6 sets of 5 as less than ⅓ of his workout. X front squatted 325 lbs as well at around 9 months training and before PB he hadn’t front squatted at all. He set his 1RM in the shoulder press at 195 lbs up from his pre PB PR of 145 lbs.

Another of my clients, Krav Maga black belt, instructor, and BJJ practitioner Dan Kang hit a 75 lbs deadlift PR at 315 lbs up from 240 lbs and a 45 lbs power clean PR in the first 15 weeks while dropping from 165 lbs to 155 lbs of bodyweight at the same time. In the following 8 weeks he improved his PR to 210 lbs over bodyweight at 365 lbs, despite the fact that he already had a training age of 8 years of Crossfit and 2 and a half years of StrongFirst, a name which should make their goals self-explanatory, before beginning his PB training with me. In addition, we only lifted in the complete opposite programming style of StrongFirst, well outside what the current science considers the strength range (1–5 reps with an accordingly heavy weight, 80% of 1RM or greater). Despite only lifting for sets of 10 or higher and our programming emphasis being endurance and high volume training, Dan was able to shatter his PRs from a strength and power focused program in less than 12% of the time. We also had to deal with COVID concerns the entire time, which meant Dan rarely ever had a chance to deadlift and for his 50 lbs 8 week increase specifically, he literally did not deadlift a single time between his PR at 315 lbs and his PR at 365 lbs (other than the day of the max); showing that you in fact can build both general and movement specific strength without lifting heavy weights and doing that specific motion.

The athletic community needs to know that you can dramatically improve your strength, power, endurance, cardio, and agility all at the same time, without training in the strength range or using expensive equipment, as opposed to the most common styles of programming available which often promote working on one adaptation while the others suffer, and by the time you’ve improved your strength or power, you’ve lost enough of the others to question whether it was worth it at all.

Brandon Bodkin, another Krav Maga instructor and BJJ practitioner, has achieved some outstanding results despite various genetic disadvantages and only sporadic resistance training in years past, with only bodyweight plyometrics (exercises that emphasize speed and power over load) for years prior to starting this program. Brandon went from never having used a hex bar to deadlift, to doing 135 lbs for his workout and eventually maxing out at 235 lbs after only 9 weeks of training, even with having trouble getting in enough calories and protein at a bodyweight of only 155 lbs.

I also have had a former high school cross-country runner, Dan Fenton, at the time out of shape at 25 years of age after 7 years of pure inactivity, with zero resistance training background, more than double his back squat max in 8 weeks, going from 95 lbs to 205 lbs at a bodyweight of only 170 lbs. He had not hit a single rep with over 95 lbs until the day he did 205 lbs as I never prescribe less than 12 reps for the back squat for non-athletes for the aforementioned reasons. The first single we hit after warming him up was with 105 lbs. I had coached the form so well with him that it didn’t deteriorate at all until his 1-RM of 205 lbs, which I have on video. He made my record at the time to be 4 out of 4 male clients to squat over 200 lbs after 8 weeks of consistent training with me, regardless of age, bodyweight, or previous training status. None of them had ever squatted over 200 lbs prior to training with me; all were fresh, new PRs. Despite only seeing me once per week and not adhering to the program as strictly as I would have liked, within 10 months Dan had more than tripled his deadlift PR from 95 lbs to 300 lbs at the same bodyweight.

Overtraining Concerns

If an athlete is beginning to feel possible effects of overtraining (e.g., constantly sore, weights that used to feel light feeling heavy, gassing out at the end of workouts they would typically finish strong through), further breakdown can be prevented and recovery promoted via decreased volume and a change in programming instead of just a week off (which may still be advisable depending on how overtrained the athlete is).

At the end of each cycle (typically 5–6 weeks) we deload and test for 2 weeks to prevent overtraining, but also to gain strength, power, and familiarity with heavy loads. This deloading and testing process consists of one normal metabolic as usual during the middle of the week but with the first and last lifts of the week having their volumes’ cut by around 75%. Unfortunately cardio is the fastest fading adaptation with inactivity (although it is also the quickest to improve), and if you do not get your heart rate up for an entire month you will lose ~50% of your cardio regardless of if you’re inactive or a champion marathoner. By continuing to push our heart rates (HRs) high at least once a week, we can avoid detraining and losing as much as 25% of our hard-earned cardio in just 2 weeks of necessary recovery.

These testing lifts also have an entirely different structure, where instead of performing 4–6 movements in a big superset/block we only ask the athlete to perform one lift at a time, starting with an easy warmup of 5 reps, rest a few minutes, then 4, 3, 2, 1 with the intensity increasing each set all the way until they attempt their last single for their best 1RM possible. If the athlete is still feeling sore, beat up, etc. this can be extended by a week or two or combined with some off time if necessary.

It is absolutely crucial to note that each resistance training workout must be separated by at least 48 hours and that no excess resistance training outside of Power Block training should occur if an athlete is on the program, as again the goal is to prescribe the maximum amount of overload within the time allotted without overtraining them. If these rules are not adhered to, the athlete will not only be at much greater risk of injury but also is likely to have all their hard work be worth less for them in terms of results. These rules are in place so that the athlete can properly recover. If you resistance train the same muscles two days in a row (or cause enough damage any way you choose), you in essence will be ripping off a scab before it has healed, disrupting the recovery/anabolic processes your muscles were in the middle of. It isn’t the worst policy to adhere to, as for 48 hours after your resistance training workout you are burning fat at an increased rate anyway, provided you expended enough energy in your workout. By the time your fat burn has declined to normal levels, your muscles are also healed for another lift which will shoot your rate of fat burn back up sky high for another couple of days. All unresisted forms of exercise (BJJ, boxing, wrestling, football, basketball, track, swimming, walking, running, etc.) are all fine to do as long and as frequently as you want, as long as you listen to your body and do not perform them to the extent that you incur muscular damage to the same degree of resistance training. If you run for 5 hours, you will incur lots of muscular damage and be very sore, screwing up your recovery. However, when performed after resistance exercise to a non-extreme degree, unresisted forms of exercise can be even more advantageous than usual as your carbohydrate stores are already drained and you will burn dramatically more fat than otherwise, as proven in the studies cited earlier.

I had a training age of 9 years (for resistance training) when I began training BJJ 3X a week for 3 hours at a time. As a white belt, I was feeling the effects of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) to the point of overtraining due to the novelty of the BJJ movements, as well as the inefficiency and intensity of my sparring. After about 6 months, I felt my body begin to break down and I knew I had to make a change in order to sustain my rigorous training schedule. Instead of stopping lifting entirely, I managed to recover and reverse the effects of overtraining via incorporating 3 weeks of only heavy lifting at a decreased volume after finishing the 4th cycle, at the recommendation of Coach Griffin who has also implemented this model with success for himself and highly trained athletes he coaches. All core lifts (such as squat, deadlift, clean, snatch, etc.; just not accessories like front raises) are limited to 5 reps or less at a high percentage of the athlete’s 1RM. This allows the athlete to recover under reduced overload while regaining the neuromuscular capacity to produce high strength and power outputs. A metabolic is still performed in the middle of the week to preserve cardio and muscular endurance as well as to continue receiving the benefits associated with that style of lift. In the case of an athlete simultaneously competing in BJJ, or any sport that requires endurance, while on this program, there is very little risk of loss of cardio or muscular endurance from the decreased training volume.

I combined this period of moderate deloading with a decrease in intensity in the 2 hours of training following my first BJJ class, for all 3 days per week and a resting period of a minimum of 24 hours after competition (although 48 is preferred) to complete my recovery before rebooting to Cycle 1. Also worth noting is that in the week prior to important competitions, the athlete should not resistance train whatsoever, in order to be 100% for the event. If the athlete is competing multiple months in a row or more frequently and isn’t at risk of overtraining, then this can be limited to just 5 days of rest prior to competition to preserve continuity on the program.

With the minimal budget I currently have, methods of detecting overtraining are limited to observation of training performance and self-reporting by the athlete. However, with a reasonable budget available (as any professional team would have), there are several reliable ways to detect overtraining early, before it is largely negatively impacting performance. A Whoop Strap, O2 saturation measuring device, or heart rate monitor can be utilized during training, 30–60 mins post training, and at night before sleeping. If O2 saturation (typically measured in a fast twitch/slower recovering muscle) is below standard levels for the athlete or their HR is elevated above normal levels at any of the observation times without another confounding factor in play, it is reasonable to assume they are overtrained and need a break. During my time as an Intern Strength Coach for UCLA Football, they monitored all their top guys via a Catapult device and if an athlete’s average HR was elevated by more than 10% consistently throughout any of their workouts or their peak HR was 15% higher than previously measured levels, they were deemed overtrained and given a period of decreased training load to recover until their levels returned to normal.

If an athlete is at greater risk of injury because of age, injury, other factors, or just wants to minimize risk as much as possible, and has a significant training age (or good knowledge of their work capacity/true 1-RMs), it is an option to do a lighter max testing/deloading instead of the traditional 5,4,3,2,1. Replacing that programming with 5,5,3,3,1 peaking at 85–90% of their true 1-RM can accomplish the goals listed above while still challenging their nervous system and preserving peak strength. One of the largest advantages of weightlifting, when compared with other forms of fitness, is that it is the safest sport in the world if you make it that way. There is no unpredictable, and therefore risk inducing, opponent. No referee, no clock, no crowd, no pressure to perform a lift that is hurting you or you deem dangerous. If we have the humility to back off the lifting when appropriate, and instill those same values in our athletes, we all will have long and fruitful careers as well as healthy lives.

BJJ and Fight Sports Applications

In a sport where there are no quarters and a single mistake could mean an instant end to the performance event an athlete has been training for throughout a multiple-months-long-camp, it is vital to have both power and endurance. A resistance training program for a MMA, Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, or similar-type athlete cannot afford to ignore a single muscle fiber type or any aspect of athleticism; a holistic program is crucial to success. I attended an NSCA conference where Dr. Andy Galpin spoke about his findings doing research on muscle fiber type plasticity and biopsies his team had performed on MMA fighters (as well as other professional athletes across many different sports). The MMA fighters, contrary to most other sport athletes, didn’t show a high degree of specificity in their fiber types towards endurance or power, instead showing dominance only among hybrid fiber types and a greater degree of variability between individuals, which makes sense given the logic we just discussed.

While the program must improve strength, power, agility, cardio, and muscular endurance, a greater emphasis can be placed on muscular endurance overall, as the portion of time that the athlete is able to produce peak force and power is extremely limited. After the first minute of exertion, the athlete no longer has fresh type IIx (pure fast twitch) or type IIa (hybrid fast twitch) fibers, therefore a larger emphasis can be placed on repeated production of as near peak power as possible in a fatigued state. For the sake of argument, let’s say 80% of an athlete’s maximum capacity is a more realistic repeatable output, as the goal in these sports is often to preserve one’s energy while gassing out the opponent. That principle brings me to our main goals when working with these types of athletes, strength and power are great to have as icing on the cake, but without injury resistance and muscular endurance they are almost entirely useless. The number one goal of course with any athlete is just to make them injury resistant, so they can continue practicing and competing in their sport, but the second largest priority is that the athlete is tireless. Fight sports are somewhat comparable to chess, and in chess, one must move the pieces to strategically outwit one’s opponent. Simply put, if you are too exhausted to correctly execute the moves you can think of, then you cannot move the chess pieces (your body) and cannot play the game of Jiu Jitsu, or other fight sports. Also as a general rule, the person that exhausts first, almost always loses, especially as fatigue can affect not only your ability to execute moves but also your decision making as well.

Rener Gracie (a well-known, extremely proficient and relatively dominant Jiu-Jitsu black belt) said in one of his videos that he has only 8 bursts per roll (sparring bout) so he must conserve these efforts and use them only when most effective towards the outcome of the match. While the Gracies are masters of Jiu-Jitsu, they are not anywhere near the cutting edge of resistance training, especially given that the science is still being developed.

Power Block may revolutionize resistance training programming and fitness as whole, if given the chance, and specifically could give MMA athletes a much greater number of bursts than other programs or lack thereof, thereby providing a huge advantage to the athlete. If Athlete A has 8 bursts and Athlete B has 16 bursts, barring a large technical disadvantage, Athlete B will dominate Athlete A if they use their bursts correctly to gas out or create a large advantage over their opponent. I attribute my personal early successes in Jiu-Jitsu over athletes at my belt level or one rank above to this concept. I didn’t train more often than my competitors, which would have likely created a technical advantage over my opponents instead of solely a conditioning one; I only trained BJJ 3X per week as opposed to my first 4 opponents all having trained for several more months than I and some saying they train as often as 2X per day, 6 days per week.

Fighting is the first priority, so the lifting must support the grappling. A lighter athlete with great endurance while preserving power output is ideal, especially when the larger Jiu-Jitsu tournaments may require as many as 6–10 rolls in a row to win, with only as much rest as the match length being guaranteed in between matches. MMA fighting similarly may go as long as five 5-minute rounds with only a minute or two in between, meaning that recovery and stamina is absolutely crucial to success. The rest periods in between rounds or matches also happen to be very similar to the rest periods provided in the Power Block training program, sufficiently preparing the athlete for the demands of high-level competition.

Football and Team Sports Applications

For football and most team sports, Power Block training is ideal not only for the same reasons outlined above but also due to the training-competition similarity principle, and its efficacy has been proven via Coach Griffin’s tremendous results improving the performance of the various athletic teams he has worked with. In most team sports, particularly football, athletes are required to perform high intensity bursts of activity followed by resting or lower intensity periods, comparable to the demands of Power Block. We innervate most of the body’s muscles via, for example, a set of power cleans followed by a period of rest for that specific set of musculature, similar to an explosive block in football or drive in basketball followed by a rest before the next play. In Power Block we continue to keep the HR and overall energy expenditure high via exercises for other muscle groups for the next 6–10 minutes until the built-in 2–3 minute rest, comparable to a drive in football followed by a rest while the other half of the team plays or a substitution is made in basketball. The conditions we put the athlete through in training end up preparing our athletes quite well for the demands of competition and repeat high performance efforts.

Considerations for Trained Populations

Depending on the type of previous training and what they are missing (muscular endurance, cardiovascular capability, strength, power, agility, form for certain movements), they may have an abbreviated high volume phase and skip to the lower rep ranges emphasizing strength and power earlier. Highly trained athletes can push harder at higher intensities for longer than untrained populations and they will predict more accurately the appropriate weights that correspond to the rep ranges programmed. The ideal load in this program for a set of 12 repetitions is one so heavy that the athlete cannot perform more than the prescribed number of reps with it by the final set, yet light enough that the athlete can keep perfect form for all 12 repetitions across the desired number of sets and is extremely close to failure by the final set of the exercise. Therefore they will sustain more overload and wear and tear on the body and often need more rest and recovery, possibly lower training volumes/repetitions but higher weights.

Applications to Younger/Inexperienced Populations

Coach Griffin has worked with hundreds of high-school age athletes over more than a decade and has refined his programming to that demographic. He has been kind enough to share his revelations and discoveries with me over the years and I have been lucky enough to be able to assist him with the implementation of his programming for two summers at Cougar Powersports after graduating high school. Coach Griffin has determined that younger and less experienced athletes benefit the most from spending more time in high volume developing motor patterns and safe technique before increasing load. Younger athletes recover more quickly and can safely undertake higher training volumes if load is appropriately mediated. They (and everyone really) also benefit greatly from performing at least one single leg exercise per day to build balance, coordination, and stability slowly but surely. It may even be just an accessory lift performed on one leg; the single leg does not have to be the major mover in the lift.

Nutrition

Diet is also a crucial concern for both recovery and performance on this (or any) program. Although I am not a registered dietitian or nutritionist and so I would defer to them in many cases (as I would to experts in any field outside my own), my human and exercise physiology courses in college did cover nutrition and its effects in depth, so I will offer some basic recommendations that have helped both me and my clients tremendously. I have also studied these matters by reading numerous articles in the JSCR (Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, an NSCA publication) and watching various documentaries, as well as via other sources. While diet may vary widely person to person and can be specific to genetics and conditions of the individual to provide successful adaptions, certain parameters must be met for a resistance training program of this intensity. The main parameter is protein and carbohydrate intake.

For any athlete competing in an event that contains rest or is less than 3 hours of continuous exercise, they will perform at a much higher level if they have sufficient carbohydrate stores to utilize for the event. As intensity increases the necessary energy sources shift from 40% carbohydrate and 60% fat at rest to as much as 100% carbohydrate for resistance training even for sets as high as 12 reps if the athlete cannot perform more than that amount of reps with the chosen weight. Depending on the intensity of their chosen activity, anywhere from 40–60% of the athlete’s daily caloric intake should come from carbohydrate or they may run out of the short-term energy source and instead burn protein to get their short term ATP, as fat takes too long to oxidize and get energy from the entire process to depend solely upon it. Burning your own muscle protein is far from ideal as it will result in decreased performance.

In this vein, resistance training causes only muscular damage and internal bleeding if we look at the act by itself; new muscle and beneficial adaptations are not actually built until the athlete is given a chance to rest and recover with the proper conditions. It is essential that anyone looking to build muscle via resistance training get at least their bodyweight in kilograms in grams of protein per day as a bare minimum, with the optimal amount being 1.6 grams per kilo of bodyweight. Above that amount, studies have shown that there is no significant increase in anabolic activity for muscle, although the protein certainly counts as calories and can be stored as fat like any other type of caloric surplus. For athletes looking to lose weight, eating extra protein is ideal as when protein is in the stomach, the body begins to secrete a hormone called Leptin that will make them feel more full and prevent them from consuming excess calories, aiding the ability to adhere to a caloric deficit and therefore lose weight. For an athlete looking to gain weight and muscle, they only want to consume up to the 1.6g per kilo of bodyweight threshold and then add excess carbohydrate (keeping fat at somewhere around 20–35% of caloric intake) because they will be able to have a larger caloric surplus more easily, as opposed to feeling satiated earlier and being unable to consume the excess calories necessary to bulk up.

A variety of fruits, vegetables, and all the necessary vitamins and minerals are also the key to a balanced and optimal diet. Many athletes and I have had great success on a balanced diet, including as much as multiple pounds of meat and other animal products per day for many years. So to say a vegan diet is necessary for success on the Power Block training program is untrue. However, in the past 5 months (at the original time of the first draft of this paper, now it is more than 4 times that and i have continued to see great results), I have switched entirely to a vegan diet (on a 50% gradient only for the first 2 weeks, then 100% vegan with only 4 cheat meals afterwards until the end of the second month) and have seen tremendous performance and health benefits while holding the rest of the relevant variables (training frequency, intensity, etc.) constant. My resting heart rate was stuck at 57 BPM regardless of bodyweight (220–235 lbs at 6’2”) for the past 5 years and my body fat percentage somewhere between 5.1 and 8% (been clipped multiple times at 5.1% regardless of bodyweight). After 3 months on the vegan diet, my resting HR was 47 BPM and after 5 months I went from 218 lbs to 195 lbs at a hydrated state (23 lbs weight loss) without losing power output and very little top end strength, while seeing at least 20% better cardiovascular benefits, no longer ever feeling gassed in even the most intense BJJ sparring (although I haven’t officially tested my VO2 Max).

I also have observed major increases in vascularity, recovery, and metabolic efficiency, as well as in my gastrointestinal system. The feelings of lethargy I used to get in a post prandial state (after eating) are gone and I can train as soon as 20 minutes after consumption whereas if I consume animal products, I need to wait at least an hour after eating before beginning intense training or I would get feelings of nausea and often vomit. The science backing up my anecdotal experience is clearly explained in the viral Game Changers Movie and is reinforced by the recommendations of the WHO and the U.S. Defense Health Agency. The weight loss is simply due to the fact that a plant based diet is less calorically dense than one high in animal products. I still fill my plates up and eat the same volume of food, feeling as satiated as I used to, while consuming less calories and salt (contained in the muscles of every animal) causing me to retain far less water. If an athlete needs to bulk and wants to do it on a vegan diet, they simply need to eat more frequently to consume a larger volume of calories, as the more frequent meals will boost their metabolic rate through hormonal pathways and subsequent anabolic activity.

Coach Griffin experienced these phenomena as well; he has been vegan for over 8 years. When he made the switch he was 235lbs (at a height of 6’2”) and benched 395lbs. Now he is 165lbs and still benching 310lbs at 42 years old, which is only slightly over 1 pound lost on the bench press per pound of weight lost (a very unusual feat). Especially for a fighter or an athlete who must make a certain weight class to compete, the benefits of a vegan diet are massive as weight control is made easy and the athlete can preserve power and strength output at a lower bodyweight. The cardiovascular benefits of the diet (that also lead to increased training ability and therefore increased sport performance) are due to the fact that animal products contain compounds that cause oxidative stress, causing inflammation and blood vessel occlusion, limiting vasodilation, blood flow, and subsequent oxygen and nutrient flow and therefore recovery. Given these results and the scientific consensus, as well as unbiased parties such as the WHO and U.S. military advocating a vegan diet being optimal for performance, it is fair to say a vegan diet is recommended for optimal results regardless of the chosen form of competition.

Veganism does lead to certain dietary deficiencies that must be prevented via supplementation. I outline below my entire supplement regimen as well as other ergogenic aids I began using at the recommendation of Coach Griffin that the scientific consensus also has determined to be effective.

Supplementation

Keep in mind for this section that I am not a specialized nutritionist and the greater extent of my expertise certainly lies in biomechanics and exercise physiology so in certain situations I would defer to a well-educated, licensed, nutritionist, if their conclusions are supported by their industry’s scientific consensus. However, nutrition was covered a great deal throughout my educational curriculum from my time in college during my human and exercise physiology courses to my studies for my CPT and CSCS certifications through NSCA, as well as the various conferences I have attended as continuing education. So I feel it would be a disservice to not provide at least my basic understanding of supplementation, my regimen, and how myself and my athletes use it to improve our performance and stay consistent with our athletic/health goals.

Daily Vitamins (even on non workout days, Iron is especially crucial for vegans):

D3, Iron, B12

Pre Workout:

20 mins prior:

8–20 oz of water — Mix in:

1 Tbs Beet Root Powder (High in nitrates that create positive nitrate balance and allows nitric oxide (NO) production to create a surplus pre-exercise to draw upon, instantaneously allowing for blood vessel dilation = 20% better cardio. Enables higher intensity training, as it is difficult to produce NO during exercise due to worsening enzymatic function. Almost all competitive Tour de France cyclists take it, as do all Team Sky cyclists)

¾ tsp Echinacea Powder (red blood cell health and production, immune system health)

1/8 tsp (500 mg) beta-alanine (basic amino acid to neutralize blood pH after acid leaks from damaged muscles, delays falloff from increased blood pH that typically causes worsening enzymatic and muscular function)

1 Tbs Gatorade Powder (Sugar, Insulin spike and taste)

Immediately Prior:

250 mg niacin pill (blood flow/vessel dilation)

1 g taurine pill (preserve fluid in muscle cells/anti-catabolic effect)

Intra Workout:

20 oz of water with 1 scoop of Skratch Sport Hydration Mix (contains sugar and electrolytes for replenishment of carbs/ sustained performance)

Post Workout:

20 oz of water — Mix in:

¾ tsp calcium citrate (2600 mg)

1 magnesium pill (1300 mg)

(2:1 calcium to magnesium ratio is present in optimally functioning muscle cells; preserving the ratio of calcium, magnesium, water, sodium, and potassium is vital to preventing muscle cramps and spasms. I used to have troubles with cramping quite often at the end of longer workout sessions, especially with more water loss until I began this supplement regimen).

Optional: Additional 20 oz of water with 1 scoop of pea protein (24g protein)

(Pea protein is the optimal choice for me because it is vegan, highly bioavailable (better absorption) and very lean. Although soy is more bioavailable, it is already in most meat substitutes and variety is key.)

Mobility and Flexibility

Foam Roll and/or Massage all of the muscles listed below prior to every workout to allow for effective stretching and aid in the goals listed below:

Stretching Circuit — Perform at least once daily for injury prevention, flexibility and mobility and repeat both massaging and stretching as needed for problem muscles/areas.

These are ordered in a fashion such that we move from the lower body to the upper body as we go to aid in efficacy and ease of recollection:

Stretching Circuit:

Hamstring

Adductors

Quad

Calf

Piriformis

Hip Crossover — Psoas Major and Ilium area

Knee Fallover — Psoas Major and Ilium area via different angle

Hip Flexor

Butterfly — Groin

Glute

Cobra Pose -Abs

Child’s Pose — Lower Back and Lats

Pecs

Squat Grab and Pull — Lats

Rear Delt

Anterior Delt

Upper Back

Side Traps

Optional mobility drills and additional stretches for athletes with issues:

Lower body crossover

Shoulder flossing

Prayer stretch — Rhomboids/Teres Minor/Major

Hamstring with lateral twist for TFL and IT band

Ys Ts and Ls (2 sets of 10)

Small diameter increasing to larger diameter arm circles forwards and backwards

Every stretch in the base circuit is demonstrated on my website: www.instagram.com/adamkoel

I can be reached for any questions or for help with S&C/fitness @adamkoel on Instagram via DM, where I will likely respond the quickest, or at adamkoel95@gmail.com.

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