Varying intensity: Sometimes people hear about the frequency with which my students train and ask how they are not over trained to the point of injury and breakdown. The reason is because we know how to vary the intensity of workouts according to the context in which the workout is performed. If every workout is at maximum intensity, the injury and burn out rate would be unacceptably high. Intensity must be varied as part of a program leading to a specific goal, rather than as a constant hammering towards a general idea of getting better at jiu jitsu. Typically, if there is going to be a very tough morning workout, it will be followed by a relatively soft evening workout. This ability to see TODAYS WORKOUT IN THE CONTEXT OF A WEEKS WORK TOWARDS A GIVEN GOAL AND SCALE IT UP OR DOWN DEPENDING ON THAT CONTEXT IS A HUGE PART OF DEVELOPING THE LONGEVITY NEEDED TO MASTER THE COMPLEX SKILLS OF THE SPORT OVER TIME. Last night was a perfect example. I went to Long Island to join Chris Weidman and his two primary trainers, Ray Longo and Matt Serra for some fine tuning of grapple boxing skills (the interface of striking and grappling skills on the ground in mma) in preparation for Mr Weidman's bout against the very tough and talented Gegard Mousasi at ufc 210. Mr Weidman had already had a very tough sparring workout earlier in the day and has only a week left in another very tough training camp. Thus the second workout consisted of light technical and tactical drills – perfect for a second workout that will improve performance without causing physical problems for the athlete. It was a pleasure to see once again the incredible grace and power of this great middleweight as he whipped through the drills with the same vigor and skill I saw so many times in his lead up to winning the middleweight title. I demand that my athletes workout every day – but I do not demand they workout HARD every day. Learning to pace your workouts over time, scaling back when necessary, is the key to long term development that can garner great results over time.
