I'm proud to say that my friend (and business partner) Matt Leech did Impact proud and came home with two Gold medals after competing at the IBJJF in Las Vegas. Matt competed in the Senior's medium heavy and open Brown Belt divisions...

This is a fantastic exercise that Chris Frankel from Fitness Anywhere came up with. We use this in our Anti-rotation progression. It is different than Stu McGill’s stir the pot exercise on the stability ball but the name is still...

My good friend Robert Dos Remedios, better known as Coach Dos has a new ‘Member only’ premium site. This website is rockin’! It is chalk full of workouts, an extensive exercise library, interviews with fitness pros and much more. Seriously do yourself a favor and check it...

While most sports have a pre-season, in-season, and off-season; MMA does not. Yes you do have training camps before fights where training ramps up and becomes a bit more intense, for the most part you are basically in-season all year round. This often brings up the question “how often...

Things have been very busy at the gym these days. We recently expanded and we are soon to expand again! Come see what all the fuss is about.

This is a reactive core exercise we use with some of our MMA guys. By reactive I mean that they have respond to the coaches order to stabilize without knowing when the coach will call it out. This is to mimic the unpredictable nature of MMA....

I know! You can’t believe it right?!?!?! I am actually blogging. After getting hell from several people at the Perform Better Summit in Providence this past weekend, I figured I should work a bit harder to schedule time to update this blog. All I have today is a great warm up that we do...

Listening to Dan John speak or reading his book offers several ah-ha moments along with some inspiration. I can’t say enough about his book ‘Never Let Go’….. I couldn’t put it down when I read it. Fantastic quotes like “the goal is to keep the goal the...

As you know I am a fan of the TRX suspension trainer. Sadly there is a group making fake TRX’s that are low quality and will break on you. These are being sold for about $70 on ebay and such sites. Here is how you can tell if your TRX is one of the fake ones: Is you TRX a fake...

The trick here is to use the pendulum effect as resistance. You can start behind the anchor point of the TRX to make it easier or move past the anchor point to create a more challenging...

Here is an article I wrote for Fitness Anywhere a couple months ago titled “TRX Core Training for Mixed Martial Arts”. I am a big fan of the TRX suspension trainer. It is such a versatile piece of equipment that can offer so many great exercises and variations that are not possible...

As you know, MMA is a passion of mine. From a sporting demand there is nothing like it. Many people ask how we train mixed martial artist. The truth is we train them very similar to any athlete. What is very different is our conditioning and in particular our use of metabolic circuits. These...

This is a highlight clip of Bryan winning Gold in the Men's lightweight blue belt division at the U.S. Open. Bryan accomplished this at only 17 years old.

Here is one of our TRX Anterior Core Progressions: TRX Plank Coaching Cues:1. Maintain “pillar” type stability2. Do not allow excessive arching at the low back3. Perform a 30 sec hold. Once proficient progress to the next exercise rather than progressing in time TRX Body Saw Coaching...

The Health Hut has featured the Impact Performance Training Blog as one (see # 5)of the Top 50 Exercise Science Blogs. DN

I was recently interviewed by Anthony Renna on the Strength Coach Podcast episode 42. A few things I spoke about were: ** Being “Brilliant at the Basics” **”Common Mistakes of a Mixed Martial Artist”**”Considerations and Training for MMA”**McGill’s...

This is great hip dominant exercise that we never really found efficient ways of loading. We now simply take a jiu-jitsu belt and load two kettlebells in...

What works best for a fighter? Linear or undulating periodization? Kettlebells or dumbbells? Olympic lifts from the floor or hang? What do you do for GPP? What exercises do you use to train pulsing? Did you grow a beard to look more like Ryan Reynolds (has nothing to do with this article but I...

Some of the training methods presented in this article are a continuation of my article, “Common Mistakes of a Mixed Martial Artist” and others are things that I have learned more about or added to my program over the last year. This should expose some training components that make MMA...

To me, progression is the key to everything. I have a progression for every exercise I program. This is how you continually build success in an athlete or client. Here is a nice progression for the Inverted Row. Every single person that walks in the door at IPT will be doing some version of...

Hip mobility is important for many different reasons but two trends that you will tend to see with a loss of mobility in the hips are: 1. Low back pain2. Knee pain For those two reasons alone it should encourage coaches and trainers to put an emphasis on hip mobility in their program...

“I don’t have the time to travel”. This is the most common excuse that a trainer or coach gives for the fact that they don’t continue their education. Personally, I think it’s a lame excuse. Anthony Renna has now made it impossible for anyone to use that excuse....

1. Your a closet eater: Does somebody have a little secret? Come on, fess up. It’s time to come out of the closet….. seriously!! Come clean!! Your only lying to yourself. This is not what I mean by closet eater Okay, quit giggling…. Lets move on. It’s the most basic...

How should you challenge yourself more on plakning exercises?? You can do two things. Increase the time or increase the difficulty of the exercise. I prefer the latter (once someone can hold a plank for 30 seconds). Plus who wants to do a plank for 1 minute +?? There are endless ways to make...

Stretching is one of those things that people tend to not think about much. They simple just go through the motions trying to look as flexible as they can. What ends up happening is they end up moving through the wrong areas and not stretching the muscles that they are supposed to be...

I was having some “writer’s block” so I figured I wouldn’t write anything and rather post a few plyometric training videos that I had buried in my computer. Box Jump: Hurdle Jumps – continuous Lateral Bound &...

John Berardi and the rest of the Precision Nutrition team absolutely ROCK when it comes to nutrition!! I have said before how I love the shake recipes in Berardi’s cookbook Gourmet Nutrition, but now they have created a great step by step process to making up all different super shakes....

Most of you already know who Michael Boyle is. Mike is one of the industries leaders and is definitely my biggest influence. I am VERY excited to not only feature Mike on the blog but also my favorite article he has written, 25 years, 25 mistakes. Like I have said time and time again. If you...

Andy is one of our athletes that probably has the best attitude when it comes to competition. He never gets mad when he loses…. in fact he seems the same if he wins or loses. Andy is a competing machine. The guy competes in every local tournament and even travels to the Pan Ams and the...

Here is a new progression for the SLDL that I did not have in my article The Deadlift: Teaching it and fixing it. It is a RFE (rear foot elevated) SLDL. I am almost embarrased that I have never thought of this. We catagorize (adopted from Mike Boyle) our single leg knee dominant exercises into...

Here is a nice progression for the plank exercise. Like always, spend time mastering the first exercise before moving on to the next. It’s about what you CAN do, not what you CAN’T do. 1. Kneeling Plank - This is a good entry level plank exercise for those who not yet have a...

Q: I am an MMA fighter and was wondering what you think of wrestling neck bridges for building strength in the neck? A: A strong neck is VERY important for MMA and grappling sports but I would never use the traditional bridges that you see in wrestling. They place tremendous stress on the...

I posted this sometime last year as somewhat of a sarcastic, yet educational look at fat loss. Unexpectedly, it was big hit with people. I had a very large and positive response from it. So I am re-posting it and putting it up on the IPT website as an article. Losing fat isn’t all that...

The draw-in maneuver (hollowing) is commonly taught as a technique to activate the abdominals in order to stabilize the spine. In reality, this not a very effective technique for achieving spinal stiffness for a few reasons. First, drawing in the abdominal wall (belly button towards the spine)...

Today we have a special “Guest Blogger”, Mike Robertson. First let me start of with a big thanks to Mike for letting me post this up. If you are a trainer, you already know who Mike is…… if not, shame on you. Mike really hit the nail on the head with this. Most trainers...

This is for the MMA folks who are being “good boys and girls” and are all ready doing soft-tissue work on themselves. Typically, the areas of focus tend to be the larger muscles like the quads, hip rotators and lats. But their are a few areas that MMA guys are commonly tight and...

I am sure you have seen this infomercial on tv. This is from Master Trainer (please don’t ask me what a Master Trainer is….. I have no idea) Leslee Bender. Apparently she has found a way to jack up you spine more than Pilates. Instead of herniating your discs from doing crunches,...

For those of you using the single leg squat, I am about to show you a much better way to train it that I learned from Mike Boyle a while back. Fist, take a second to look at the anatomy of the single leg squat as pictured below and in the last post. Pay attention to the non-working leg. What...

First off, if you are not training single leg movements for the lower body, you are crazy. Life and sport is on one leg. You don’t run two legs at a time….. rabbits do. Actually the reason for this post is not to state that single leg training is great for athletic performance or...

In general, warming up for 5-10 minutes on a piece of cardio equipment is a waste of time (unless it is for special populations, injured client, overweight, etc). If this is your warm-up, stop now. If your trainer warms you up this way, find a new trainer. If you are a trainer warming up your...