The Coaches and The Questions

Welcome to the first of hopefully many coaches roundtables, where some of the coaches that are part of HEMA Strong answer questions about a variety of topics. If you are a coach, personal trainer, HEMA instructor, etc and would like to be included in a future roundtable, please reach out to Chuck Gross on Facebook.

The coaches for this first roundtable are Michael Adams, Chuck Gross, Jon Mills, and Zach Springer. We will be answering the following 8 questions:

What does your training look like? What are in, your opinion, the three most overrated exercises for HEMA athletes? On the flip side, what are the three most underrated? What would your 6 weeks from tournament prep look like? What do you struggle with in your own fitness? What is your biggest strength in your own fitness? What got you started on fitness? What is your favorite weapon in HEMA? (Ringen is a weapon)

What does your own training routine look like?

My Routine is currently in a hypertrophy phase, focusing on muscle growth. I typically lift 4 to 5 days a week, sessions lasting from 30 minutes to an hour depending on what is on the menu that day. I commonly use Jim Wendlers 5/3/1 as a basis to build off of, as it is an excellent training philosophy. My goal during this phase is to increase upper body mass and keep overall strength growing. Once this phase is complete then I will do a mini-cut leading into a power phase. As I have one major goal for this year : Be a better athlete, everything gets measured back against that. This keeps me focused on the task.

What are in, your opinion, the three most overrated exercises for HEMA athletes?

The most overrated exercises in HEMA are Indian clubs, but this is mostly due to a misunderstanding of their role in a long-term athletic development. People treat them like they are strength exercise when they are a pre-hab / muscular conditioning/mobility and movement exercise. Definitely a good choice when used correctly, but I constantly see people looking at them as some end all be all answer to upper body strength.

On the flip side, what are the three most underrated?

The most underrated movements are:

Kettlebell Swings. These are awesome for conditioning, load up heavier and they are hugely powerful for hip hinge strength and power.

Landmine Press. This is a great unilateral strength and hypertrophy, even power movement depending on loading for the upper body. I find it superior to a standard overhead press for long-term development. That being said the overhead press is a higher systematic stress on the body, which means higher maximal strength development.

Medicine Ball Throws. These are the top dog for power development in my opinion. Easy to learn, and easy to recover from. You train power development and rapid muscle recruitment in many ways with all the different throws.

What would your 6 weeks from tournament prep look like?

6 weeks out my programs shift heavily into power and conditioning phase. This means my heavy lifts are done with much lower volume, only to maintain strength, while I increase my work on speed and power development, and really start including some intense HIIT training or tabata work.

What do you struggle with in your own fitness?

The biggest struggle in my own fitness has always been with food. While I cannot claim to ever have been massively overweight or underweight, having always been a very active person (Grew up on a farm, worked construction until I got into fitness as a profession) I struggle with food as I have a very small range of acceptable food on my palate. I also have what is most likely a minor case of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) so I have to be careful what I eat. Anything outside my normal palate tends to lead to some intense issues that well… Suck. This has left me with a slightly unhealthy view of many foods on a personal level, and I have always had to fight that to ensure I eat as balanced as possible.

What is your biggest strength in your own fitness?

I love the feeling of hard workouts and my body is very resilient. Especially my back. As a result, I can handle some pretty intense volumes on the primary lifts, especially deadlifts, which is unusual as most people cannot deadlift with high volumes or frequency. This mixed with a natural love for lifting heavy things makes it easy to get my hands on the bar.

What got you started on fitness?

What got me started in serious pursuit of fitness, beyond just being generally active, was HEMA. I am not a big guy, standing only 5’8, I was 140lbs when I started HEMA. In my club, there were a few bigger guys, and they were the ones who sparred with me regularly, especially Aaron Babb. This had a huge influence on how I fight, as I learned to close in since my range was shorter, but also quickly told me I needed to compensate for their weight with my strength. So I started lifting, fell in love with lifting on its own, and became strong, which in turn has erased almost all fear of bigger, heavier opponents being able to bear down on me from my mind. As a result, I am now still 5’8, but 160lbs, and well… wonderfully strong.

What is your favorite weapon in HEMA? (Ringen is a weapon)

My favorite weapon is definitely the side-sword or more specifically Meyers Rappier. I train with side-sword, longsword, messer, and sword and buckler, with a splash of knife. Limited but slowly growing Ringen, which I do love doing for fun, but will likely never compete in. Sadly there is nothing local for side sword tournaments, and I am currently limited in my travel capacity. Which is a shame, but such is life. So if you are ever in Alberta Canada and wanna fight, let me know. (That being said Alberta is massive).

What does your own training routine look like?

My training routine is specifically tailored to improve my HEMA training (and not competition focused), so it includes mobility, jumping, throwing, explosive and modified versions of the barbell lifts, lots of bodyweight exercises, and some conditioning. Some of this is adapted as I’m still recovering from foot surgery on both feet and have lots of swelling and pain that I need to manage.

Some examples of modified versions of exercises for HEMA are my barbell bench presses and push-ups. I’ve changed my grip width to match the structure of my longsword cuts at full extension.

I also make some modifications to grip width (fat gripz, rock climbing grips, etc) to strengthen my grip and forearms against overuse and fatigue.

What are in, your opinion, the three most overrated exercises for HEMA athletes?

Sit-ups/crunches, burpees, mixing workouts with skill-specific HEMA training

On the flip side, what are the three most underrated?

Farmer’s walks, kettlebell swings, pallof press/deadbugs

What would your 6 weeks from tournament prep look like?

Depends on the tournament. I have one coming up next month, and I’m not going to change anything. I schedule my gym training to be Sunday through Wednesday, active recovery on Thursday and Friday, and Saturdays are my HEMA day so that aligns perfectly with most tournaments. When I competed at Longpoint 2017, I took a 30-day break of weight training and focused on mobility, maintaining conditioning, and going deep into active recovery and self-care. Going forward, I will be treating tournaments just like any other training day, and my gym training will be focused on helping my martial arts training.

What do you struggle with in your own fitness?

Self-care, stress management, and recovery. With kids, it’s tough to get enough restful sleep and fit everything in that I need to do. I sit often, so I’m constantly battling against the repercussions of that.

What is your biggest strength in your own fitness?

Nutrition. Having a strong foundation of nutrition habits and mindset has done more to improve my fighting, my health, and my happiness more so than any other aspect of fitness, even though they are all inter-related.

What got you started on fitness?

I always hated fitness, as it felt exclusive, and something that I just couldn’t do. I was a fat kid growing up, and that eventually turned into me being a 28-year-old sedentary office work and gamer that was over 400lbs. My health was rapidly declining out of control, and my weight was likely going to keep going up. My wife told me that she was pregnant, and I had an epiphany moment, a lightning bolt that changed my life forever, and I was reborn as a new man that day. Since then, I’ve lost and kept off over 200lbs for ~10 years now. In doing so, I found what I consider to be my destiny, to help others achieve the change in their lives that gave my own life purpose (beyond the purpose of being a dad, that is). So I went back to school, studied nutrition and training, and here we are. :)

What is your favorite weapon in HEMA? (Ringen is a weapon)

At my school, we teach that our bodies are the weapon and that swords are just tools. But to actually answer the question, the longsword. As a gamer, I always gravitated toward two-handed swords in fantasy games and MMOs for my characters, and my childhood heroes all wielded two-handed swords (Conan, He-Man, etc). So when I pick one up, it still never fails to spark my inner childlike wonder. Plus, I feel that since we have so much material for the longsword, the depth and breadth of all there is to learn has me wanting to focus there for now. Go where your passion is, I guess. :)

What does your own training routine look like?

So my training routine is pretty variable. I have Fibromyalgia (a chronic pain condition that affects energy levels, among other things) so my workouts have to be pretty flexible to allow me to train when I can. Generally speaking, I go through cycles of barbell training (Wendlers 5-3-1 or Starting Strength) and bodyweight exercises (using Kavadlho’s Get Strong program). I also do some sort of restorative movement every day (Qigong, Indian clubs or yoga). In terms of martial arts, I have a couple of training partners a week to do grappling, sword fighting, stage combat or academic study, as well as just starting group classes at Valkyrie Western Martial Arts Assembly once a week. A huge part of my training is self-care, so meditation and hot baths after every session. I also like running, but that’s more fun than a thing I do for the physical return.

What are in, your opinion, the three most overrated exercises for HEMA athletes?

Any weighted version of a skill (swinging heavy swords etc.), push-ups and long bouts of high-intensity sparring. Those last two are not bad at ALL (I love pushups), they are great, but they are certainly overrated and not suitable for everyone and the volume in which they are used has diminishing returns.

On the flip side, what are the three most underrated?

Footwork drills (if you are looking to get competitive, this is virtually a requirement), breathing drills (Possibly the most underrated exercise for everyone), Neck strengthening and warm-up drills (for wrestlers, though the return for people who routinely get hit in the head is huge as well)

What would your 6 weeks from tournament prep look like?

I am pretty past my tournament days thanks to my disability, but I do like to occasionally play in a competitive environment.

Here’s what I have used in the past, assuming a solid athletic base prior.

Begin tapering off heavy workouts, focus on maintenance of physical conditioning and recovery between workouts. Remove high injury risk exercises (not that I really do them anyway). By 4 weeks out nearly everything is skills training and tournament prep (fighting specifically within the ruleset you will be competing under). By two weeks out it’s all skills specific, and focused on my toolkit for that tournament (as in what I can reliably pull off that will be relevant to the metagame, absolutely no new skills). The week before, light sparring, rest, lots of good food. Practice game day fuelling strategies and game plan with corner-person. Day of: Play. I am there to play. Everything that will decide win or loss is either done, or it was never in my control, to begin with.

What do you struggle with in your own fitness?

Myself. Knowing that I am not able to do the type of training I want to do all the time. Feeling that what I can offer there and then has to be enough. Being proud of who I am, even on the days, my only achievement is putting on pants.

What is your biggest strength in your own fitness?

Knowing what’s on the other side. I haven’t walked with a cane since I moved to Canada in 2014. The biggest source of resolve for me is really seeing the tangible difference training has made in my life, and seeing what this body is capable of despite everything. I have the cane in my wardrobe and I take it out sometimes to look at. I know it will be waiting for me when I need it again and it’s time will come, but for now, I am going to enjoy myself. Knowing that has made me a better athlete. Most people aren’t lucky enough to really be forced to appreciate their body as it is, not as they wish it would be. That sucks because they are capable of awesome things.

What got you started on fitness?

It’s a who. Dave Hedges, of Wild Geese Martial Arts in Dublin. He’s an old friend and the best coach I ever had and still keeps me pushing to be better despite being on a different continent. He would never admit it but he’s the one who taught me that training is a way to create control even when everything else is falling apart. When I got to Canada I encountered so many bad trainers and it made me realize that if I couldn’t find a good coach (FYI, there are some great ones out there), I’d just have to be one.

What is your favorite weapon in HEMA? (MY BODY is a weapon)

By time practiced? Rapier. By enjoyment, I get from it? wrestling or pugilism. Honestly, I like everything. Everything is a chance to play and that’s why I am here.

What does your own training routine look like?

My training varies (AS SHOULD YOURS). I generally alternate between 3 different blocks of training, each focused on either hypertrophy, power, or strength. Usually changing things up every 2-3 months. As far as a weekly view, I’m in the gym 4-5 days a week, and training HEMA 3 days a week.

What are in, your opinion, the three most overrated exercises for HEMA athletes?

Y’all need to stop running so much. I saw some folks real hyped about isometric work, I would suggest other stuff. Some people seem to think that the more complicated the exercise/program, the more effective. Stop it. Of course, I have to make sure I leave a little disclaimer that this is for people training specifically for HEMA performance.

On the flip side, what are the three most underrated?

I don’t know how most folks rate stuff, but some sort of rotator cuff strengthening needs to be incorporated into just about everyone’s training. Jump a bunch. Make sure you have a strong back.

What would your 6 weeks from tournament prep look like?

6 weeks out I’m normally finishing up a cycle of strength training and going into more power-focused training. Because of that, I’m 90% of the time in a calorie surplus, which I would recommend. Through the last week before a competition I increase the intensity, and in the last two weeks I scale the volume down. I’m normally not doing heavy work 2 days before fight day but staying pretty active. I try to sleep a lot.

What do you struggle with in your own fitness?

Right now, my big struggle is working a job that has me driving up to 11-12 hours a day. That doesn’t even count me working with my training clients and HEMAPE stuff. It’s hard to balance, but having a workout partner helps me keep myself accountable. Number one thing someone can do to increase their consistency is hiring a coach or find a partner who is better than you.

What is your biggest strength in your own fitness?

Literally, the only thing I’m good at is not training for the approval of people around me. I notice a lot of athletes looking around and trying to add weight or exercises, or whatever to meet some weird standard they think everyone around them expects. Sorry to burst your bubble, but they don’t care about how much weight is on your bar. Train for you.

What got you started on fitness?

I was never a really strong guy. Your normal tall and lanky kind of dude. When I was in high school I decided I was going to join the Marine Corps, and realized that I should probably be a bit more fit for that.

It didn’t work. I wasn’t consistent at all. I ended up doing just fine as far as their standards are concerned but didn’t put much effort into my actual fitness.

In my last year in the Marines, I trained a couple times with a buddy of mine and he just looked at fitness a different way. It wasn’t for anyone else but you. That really got me started looking at how to train effectively.

When I got out of the Marines I started studying engineering, and I started lifting every morning before class. More and more I realized I abhorred differential equations and loved the gym. I jumped majors, got my training cert, got my degree in human performance and fitness management, and never looked back.

What is your favorite weapon in HEMA? (Ringen is a weapon)

At the moment, the longsword is my favorite, specifically Fiore’s system. As a kid, I always swung sticks around like they were swords, and I always held them in both hands. That’s the kind of sword I always loved. Finding out three years ago that there were people who actually learned how to use them was like a childhood dream being realized.

I have a sneaking suspicion that if I had the opportunity to practice more ringen it might snag the first spot, though. There’s something about only using what you’ve got that is just really satisfying.

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Featured image courtesy of Glamhag.It has been cropped from its original.