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The CFT/Super Muscle workout offers an unbeatable combination of strength, speed and velocity in one prolonged drill.
Ori Hofmekler is the author of The Warrior Diet and Maximum Muscle Minimum Fat. Learn more about CFT at www.warriordiet.com and CFT workshops at www.warriordietelite.com.
“For a fighter, the inability to improve and adapt is a recipe for stagnation, failure and defeat.”
“If you can continue after a 30-minute workout, it’s a sign that your level of intensity was inadequate.”
Ask yourself the following:
* I feel strong in certain areas, but weak in others?
- Have I been experiencing a diminishing capacity to improve my speed and power?
- Do I look soft despite training hard?
If your answer to any of the above questions is “yes,” then most likely you have not been training properly and consequently your fight conditioning is inadequate!
The term “fight conditioning” needs to be examined: is it about learning and improving fighting techniques, or is it about something beyond this? Obtaining a peak fighting shape is not easy; it requires total mind and body recruitment and a special training approach substantially different from any other sport-conditioning program. Unlike sport specific exercise programs, which are exclusively geared toward sport specific needs, such as strength conditioning for powerlifting or endurance conditioning for long-distance running, fight conditioning is about improving all performance capabilities—strength, speed, velocity and endurance. Conditioning the fighter is not about teaching fighting techniques, but rather about building a fighter physique. Being a fighter is a commitment for a warrior lifestyle and fight conditioning should be an integral part of this package.
Benefit of Resistance Training
Using resistance training to build muscle mass and strength is highly popular today. Strength coaches have been hired to strengthen athletes. This includes competitive boxers and martial artists. Does sheer resistance work? Maybe for body builders, but not with boxers and martial artists. Fighters are now paying the consequences of incorporating incorrect strength training routines. It is common to see fighters possess great fighting techniques, but lack the capacity to sustain strength over a few minutes of fighting.
The truth is, many great fighters do not even look like fighters. Inadequate training regimens and nutritional blunders have been compromising the physique and performance of today’s warriors. Lifting weights may help increase muscle size, but may also severely compromise speed, velocity and endurance. Most progressive resistance training programs today are based on the isolation of body parts and the methodical separation between “upper body” and “lower body” training days.
Unfortunately, this isolation method will never benefit a fighter, because strengthening body parts does not translate to real-life fight activities. The “fight or flight” mechanism is a biological program that has kept our species and other species alive since primordial times. But here is the point: What’s unique about our fight or flight apparatus is its “total body recruitment” impact. In other words, we are inherently programmed to develop a total body fighting machine and not a collection of body parts. We cannot achieve a peak fighting shape by strengthening body parts!
There is growing evidence that we can simultaneously improve our physical and mental performance. Scientists are discovering that our brain and muscles develop at the same time when proper physical and nutritional stimulation are applied. The more we challenge our neuro-muscular system, the more likely we’ll become physically and mentally advanced by increasing our neuro-wiring and muscle fueling efficiency. This also works in reverse: the less challenging our training is and the less committed our neuro-muscular system is, the more likely we’ll face a training plateau upon which our brain and muscle will fail to continue developing and improving. For a fighter, the inability to improve and adapt is a recipe for stagnation, failure and defeat.
Developing a “Killer Gorilla” Physique
 Our performance depends on our muscle composition. Our strength, speed and endurance directly relate to the muscle fiber we carry. What hasn’t reached the public awareness is that our neuro-muscular system profoundly affects our muscle composition, and thus we can achieve physical superiority by developing an ultra-advanced muscle fiber hybrid with unmatched capacity to generate force and resist fatigue. Researchers have found that our early ancestors were much stronger then we are today and speculate that they were carrying different muscles than we do today—with superior fiber quality that allowed them to survive extreme rugged conditions. It is believed that this highly advanced muscle fiber hybrid is abundant in other wild apes, chimpanzees and gorillas, who amazingly share 98-percent of our genes, but yet are known to be pound-to-pound five-to-ten times stronger than man. Can we unlock the code for developing this “killer gorilla” physique? Can we restore the awesome fighting shape of our primitive ancestors?
The answer is most likely yes, but we need to know what to do—how to incorporate specially designed exercise and nutrition regimens that will help unleash this innate and awesome survival power that gives us the energy and stamina to sustain alertness, aggression and strength during a fight.
Controlled Fatigue Training/CFT
The Super Muscle Workout
Controlled Fatigue Training (CFT) is a groundbreaking program based on survival principles. The program was created to methodically mimic the impact of extreme combat activities by tapping into our innate fight-or-flight mechanism for positively boosting the desired physical transformation.
The idea is to repetitively hit the body with “shock drills,” that combine strength, speed and velocity for a relatively prolonged period of time (minutes rather than seconds). The body is swiftly forced to shift into a “fight or flight” mode, spontaneously ready to adapt and improve its survival capabilities by increasing neuro-muscular efficiency. This improves its fuel utilization for energy, and most importantly, upgrades its muscle fiber quality to becoming stronger, faster and tougher.
The main principle behind the CFT/Super Muscle workout is the methodical combination of strength, speed and velocity in one prolonged drill. This intense combination is demanding but rewarding, and serves as the best way to abolish weaknesses, break training plateaus, and improve body composition. This method helps develop a fighter physique with maximum mental and physical capacity to sustain alertness, strength and speed during prolonged fighting conditions.
To accommodate a fighter’s needs, the CFT can be adjusted to emphasize strength or speed/velocity or endurance (speed/velocity for fast, explosive punches or kicks; endurance for resisting fatigue and strength for power punching and grappling). Therefore, fight-conditioning workouts must incorporate prolonged drills with strength, speed and velocity as the core components. However, it is important to adjust the balance between these elements to accommodate the fighter’s specific needs. Those who need to increase their strength should start with strength exercise followed by speed/velocity exercise. Those wishing to boost their speed and velocity power should start with speed/velocity exercise followed by strength exercises.
The Exercise
CFT incorporates drills that mimic fight or flight activities, including punching or kicking for speed/velocity impact and weightlifting and pull-ups for push/pull strength impact. Specially designed combat running drills are also incorporated, as well as the unconventional use of training tools—beach towel, ropes and shots to enhance total body conditioning. Advanced CFT “shock drills” incorporate super-intense body brutal exercise with maximum challenge to the body’s neuro-muscular system. Advanced CFT drills should be incorporated gradually after a few months of basic
CFT training.
When initiating the CFT/Super Muscle Workout, do not waste your time on aerobics or any kind of moderate exercise routine. To mimic fight activities, do not rest over 30 seconds between exercises and do not rest more than 60 seconds between shock drills. Exercise intensely; go all the way out but make your workout short and finish within 30 minutes. If you feel that you can continue after a 30-minute workout, it’s a sign that your level of intensity was inadequate. When doing the CFT drills, remember that the goal is to train to sustain rather than train to gain. In other words, sustaining performance for a few minutes rather than scoring for a few seconds.
There are hosts of exercise/drills that can be incorporated in the CFT/Super Muscle Workout. Presented here, however, are a few samples of the most elementary exercises that demonstrate the CFT’s impact on the body.
Shock Drill Samples
Sample One: Class I “Lift & Punch”
This drill combines two kinds of exercises: strength and speed/velocity.
Overhead military presses/One leg stand & heavy bag punching /One-leg stand
One-leg stand exercises are more demanding than two-leg stand exercises. The goal here is to keep rotating between 30 seconds of lifting and 30 seconds of punching, back and forth for at least three times (three minutes all together). If needed, you can substitute heavy bag punching with air punching (note, that punching in the air is as difficult). Remember, do not rest more than 30 seconds between exercises. Upon completion of your first drill, resume it again twice, until yielding an overall net of roughly nine minutes work. Do not rest more than 60 seconds between drills.
Notes:
- When lifting use heavy weights (5 reps max).
- When punching while standing on one leg, use hopping if needed to sustain your balance.
- You can change the order of things: start with punching and follow with lifting to shift the emphasis of the drill from strength to speed/velocity.
Sample Two: Class II “Punch, Kick & Lift”
The Punch, Kick & Lift exercise is more complex than the Lift & Punch exercise. The additional kicking element makes this exercise class more difficult to endure. You can change the order of the exercise to “Lift & Punch, Kick.”
The exercise performed first—in this case Punch & Kick—is also the exercise that takes most of your strength, and thus becomes a priority compared to the following exercise (in this case, “Lift”). Remember, keep your intensity level as high as possible. Do not lift “moderately,” do not attack the bag with “old lady punches,” and do not cut short your drill. The following drill combines speed/velocity exercise with strength exercise.
Heavy bag punching and kicking with weights & standing overhead presses
Do one minute of heavy bag punching and kicking with weights (hold the weights [8-to-15 pounds] in a defensive position right in front of your forehead and start with three punches followed by right kick and three punches followed by left kick, etc.). Continue with 30-second lifting/military presses (heavy weight followed by medium weight dumbbells), yielding 1.5 minutes work. Repeat twice until yielding an overall 4.5-minute shock drill. Rest 60 seconds and repeat this shock drill two-to-four times, yielding roughly 13.5-to-22.5 minutes work.
Sample Three: Class III “Running/Hands Up”
Class III Running/Hands Up is an extremely intense Body Brutal exercise. It is a class by itself because of its high complexity and total impact on the body. Though called “running,” it surprisingly works the upper body to its limits, particularly the shoulders and back. You may consider this exercise as the ultimate super muscle drill; when incorporated with weights this exercise will challenge you more than anything you have ever tried. Once you cross the three-minute drill, you may notice the sign “welcome to Hell” and every additional minute will be nothing but extreme inferno. Nonetheless, the very impact of this exercise on your quest to achieving physical supremacy is unmatched.
The drill is simple and involves running or sprinting while your hands are raised in one of two positions: First—defense—your hands are positioned slightly above your forehead and your arms are hooked 90 degrees in front of your face; second--overhead stretched—your arms are stretched high above your head.
You can do this drill outdoors or indoors (treadmill). The faster you run and the heavier the weights, the harder it becomes. As a general rule, try incorporating the following intervals:
- Start running for 30 seconds while your hands are up in a defensive position
- Continue running for another 30 seconds while your hands are in an overhead-stretched position
- Repeat the above twice (or more if you can), yielding a minimum overall three-minute drill
- Once in a while go all the way out to challenge yourself. Incorporate one-to-three sprint intervals in your drill (performing max speed/per 60 sec. interval). For instance: 1st minute/maintenance speed; 2nd minute/max speed; 3rd minute/maintenance speed, etc. Continue up to 10 minutes.
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