"Is Strength Overrated?"
(originally published at workingclassfitness.blogspot.com)

About a week or so ago, there was a thread over at the mma.tv S&C forum where somebody asked what a good strength-training program would be for wrestlers.

Another forum member then posted the following:

I've recently been told that "limit strength", aka the amount one can lift for 1-3 reps, is vastly overrated for grappling/fighting. From what these guys say, Metcon workouts, i.e., Javorek complexes, kettlebell workouts, and Crossfit-type workouts are more beneficial for developing the energy sytems and strength used in wrestling/grapppling/fighting.

Here was my response:

"I've recently been told that "limit strength", aka the amount one can lift for 1-3 reps, is vastly overrated for grappling/fighting."

I'm SOOOOOOO tired of hearing this.

Yes, conditioning (as is overall conditioning - cardiovascular/cardiorespiratory, muscular, strenth/power-endurance, etc) is more beneficial than limit strength.

HOWEVER, if your limit strength levels are way under par - i.e. you simply aren't strong enough to compete, then you'd better do some strength work. I'm not saying it's all you should do, but the trend/tendency I'm seeing is to shy away from limit strength work altogether - which is just as foolish as doing nothing but limit strength work.

Two different forum members later posted:

Wiggy, I'm just as tired about people talking about how much they bench. The vast majority of guys ignore the conditioning part of S&C, that's why there is so much talk about how limit strength is overrated.
[Edit: I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just venting]

and

A nice article, and it applies just as well to MMA. The skill portion trumps all. Both strength and cardio are only necessary at the minimum levels. There's no point in spending ,ore time on conditioning and strength than you absolutely need, when your skills are so critical. Just look at Rich Franklin vs Anderson Silva....
http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/speedtraining.html

Now the rest of this article might seem to contradict what I'm about to say but I'm gonna say it anyway. I know a lot of people reading this are gonna be football players who want to get faster and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm gonna talk about getting fast. Yet before I begin, I want to say that I believe a lot of people would be better off paying more attention to their game instead of obsessing so much about their "40 times" and all these other "measures" of athletic ability. If you want to be a football player then be a football player. Learn the ins and outs of the game of football and learn to play your position with technique. There are 2 speeds in the game of football. Fast enough and too slow. Either you're fast enough to play or you aren't. Same goes for size and height. Either you're big and tall enough to play at a certain level or you're not. At each level the minimum requirements increase. Yet as long as you meet the minimums for speed, height, and weight, the rest is about football.

There are damn good running backs in the NFL like Priest Holmes who ran 4.75 over 40 yards and other guys that ran 4.2s. That's a pretty wide range. There are "smallish" all pro cornerbacks running "slow" 4.65s. Any improvements you can make in your football playing technique and knowledge will improve your game speed just as much if not more then improving your straight ahead sprinters speed will.

Double post, but basically you only realy need to depend on strength training if you're being overpowered. Basic lifts work just fine. In Rippletoe's programming book, he makes the point that very few athletes need super specialized programs. After all, most of them don't focus on strength training year round.

Super specialized kettlebell/olympic specialization/reverse wave cycling periodization/whatever super advanced technique mainly returns the most to the professional athlete who gets paid enough that the investment is worth it financially...

To which I replied:

Todd,

I agree with you, but it just seems to be one extreme or the other. People go from "how much can you bench?" to "you don't need to do strength work." It's neither one - you actually *need* to do both.

I guess it kinda goes back to an article I had published not too long ago at MMA Weekly about "fanboys" - I'm tired of people jumping on a bandwagon, and thinking that all they have to do is "this" or "that" or they never have to do "this" or "that." It just kinda grinds my gears...

manfromyard,

I agree with what you're saying, but unfortunately, football ability isn't the only factor(s) considered when getting into the NFL, or these days, a good college/university scholarship. Guys can go to the combine, score really well on test that really don't have much (if any) bearing on how they play the game of football, and it can (in the case of the pros) make them millions of dollars. That is why there is so much emphasis on many of these things as it relates to football - not b/c it can make you a better player, but it can make you money (either pro or in the form of a scholarship).

You do bring up a good point though - many coaches discuss speed (I see this with a few EliteFTS coaches) as the ability to run fast. That, IMO, is only one component of speed. Take a boxer - you can't sprint/run fast, as there isn't anywhere to run to! But you can be quick to avoid getting hit, and hitting your opponent. Now, I realize that a lot of this might be reaction time (as opposed to power induced speed), but if you can't move your body, you can see something coming all day long - you still won't get out of the way.

*shrug*

To boil it all down - you can't depend on just strength, just endurance, just cardiovascular conditioning, or "just" anything else. You need to be complete in order to compete.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.