Training To Stay On The Mats & In The Ring Over 40 w/ Paul Green (SSOF Ep 109)

James de Lacey2:36

Yeah, I'm the same with you, man. Well, the thing is, there's probably only three ladies listening to this. I think if I check the demographics, it's mainly dudes anyway. Sorry, ladies, but hey, it's going to be applicable to you anyway if you are listening.

Paul Green3:06

Yeah, principles span across sports, demographics, etc.

James de Lacey3:06

But obviously you talked about people coming in and not strength training, which is, yeah, that's definitely an issue. We will go down that road. But first, are there any other common mistakes that you see with older individuals coming in to say any martial art, combat sport, that may be negatively affecting their body, their health, or things that they should be doing that a lot of people aren't doing?

Paul Green3:33

Well, what's amazing about this, and you've probably seen it yourself, is different sports have different foundations. For example, Judo, they're some of the most powerful athletes you'll ever see. They're like Olympic powerlifters with a gi on. So they clearly need to prioritize the powerlifting and all the rest of the stuff that comes with power and speed training and stuff. Wrestlers, very highly conditioned athletes. Other sports.

But for two—they're two out of the main three grappling arts—but then Jiu-Jitsu doesn't prioritize this. But there is definitely a lot of stuff that does get neglected as well. Because what I see is Jiu-Jitsu is something that welcomes people in, attracts people. People are being attracted to it for whatever reason. And yeah, they come in. And it's crazy because I say all the time, some of these lads, they're having a can of Monster and three bags of crisps and they're absolutely destroying everybody on the mat.

Who the freak am I, Mr. Science Man, talking about longevity in sports performance when the bad habits aren't punished in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as much on the mat because it's not highly demanding physically? So they get away with it. So it creates a really—it's hard for me, put it this way, it's hard for me to try and sell this idea to them.

But predominantly there is all sorts of bad habits, the typical health of somebody. I think the culture's changing. I think probably because of the top level of the sport and the amount of steroids and the amount of pictures of your top-level athletes, I think people are like, 'Ah, he's strong, he's athletic, maybe I should prioritize.' And I do think that the pace of the top level of these sports now, it's becoming more evident that strength and conditioning is necessary.

But with me, as much as I do work with the highly-tuned athlete and especially Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu—massive focus on isometric training and stuff like that—I prefer working with the hobbyist in order to move the needle for everything else off the mat as well.

James de Lacey6:07

No, for sure. So, what might be helpful and practical for a lot of people listening as well is people who may be doing some kind of strength training or thinking about it and they do whatever martial art they do and they want to add it to their routine. And obviously a lot of people might just search online, find something, and the program is probably not—it's probably potentially too advanced for their current athletic ability.

Because a lot of people, say over 40, maybe getting back into martial arts or doing martial arts, have probably spent 10, 20-plus years not doing a lot of things. Because you go from playing a lot of sport in your teenage years—running, jumping, sprinting, whatever it is—and you get through your twenties, you may do a little bit, but then that starts to drop off. Maybe you found the gym, maybe whatever it is. And then you go another 10, 20 years and you don't jump and you don't run, you don't throw, you don't rotate. You just powerlift or just do the martial art.

And then you go find a new program and it's like, 'Oh, are you prepared to start doing sets of box jumps?' And then are you also prepared to start doing heavier squats with it and a lot of volume or whatever it is? So do you want to maybe just give some advice on how someone could potentially navigate their way through that and then how they could—or what they should look for in maybe in a program to get started?

Paul Green7:19

I always—so a lot of people, you are right in what you're saying there. There's usually a big gap. People have families, people have kids and demanding work life and all the rest of it. And what you did when you were younger, it's in the back of your mind. But your training age has importance with regards to my programs, but it's not your training age, it's how long you've been out of the game for me. That's what really influences the programming.

How I navigate it is I usually start them off on a clean slate sort of thing. So I know what you're saying—a lot of people will approach and go on YouTube: 'Top five exercises for Jiu-Jitsu strength.' And all of this content to get a lot of views, by the way. You should do those as well. I've moved away from Instagram, we could talk about that later on. I've just shifted my focus a little bit to just pure education because I can be the entertainer, but I'm just going to teach some people some important [expletive].

But the way I usually navigate it is I start a clean slate. And I just think that's the best way with it because I'd love to do the power training, but I don't know what they've been doing. If they've had a gap, most of the people I'm working with have had a gap. And when they do the test week with me, it'll be my six movement patterns.

And from them videos, I'm like, 'Okay.' And then we'll define the priorities. They'll come to me and say, 'Look, I want weight management. I want to really improve my guard or whatever, or I want to be able to do a body triangle.' But I'll look at the lift and I'll be like, 'Look, they're great goals. I'm happy that—'

You've got goals and stuff, but let's just address these issues with your body. I've seen your knee was coming in ridiculously when you were doing a zercher squat. We need to probably have a look at these, and then we'll start you on a hypertrophy block with really good tempo, just build a little bit of muscle, and then we'll go into the strength, then we'll go into the power and speed.

But I do err on the just nice and simple. I was watching your video earlier on actually about the optimal training, power training, optimal power load, and I was like that stuff's relevant for my last block with my last power speed block. And it was interesting what you're saying: start with the fast stuff, finish with the slow and heavy in the training sessions, and I was like yeah.

So it's an interesting battle. But because they are over 40 and because my fundamental goal is to keep them doing, not necessarily optimizing performance—it's just to literally fundamentally keep them on the mat—then once they have built a base of strong joints, then develop that into resilient joints, then we can start looking at performance. You can't start looking at performance before these foundations have been set, so they have to earn the right.

And they earn the right to train strength when they've done—I don't know, it's a typical program, typical online coach trying to keep them in the program a little bit longer. I will progress them, I will move them on faster if they're ready, but I'm not going to allow a bull in a china shop approach with my guys because they're at an age where it—you have to be a little bit more careful.

But the glory of it is their development. The development they go on is ridiculous. In the gym we call it newbie gains or whatever, where you haven't trained for years and then you know, then they're back into it. The gains that they get is just absolutely insane on their lifts, and that's always amazing. But more importantly, their joint pain is starting to go away and their recurring elbow injuries starting to go away. And then after all that's addressed, then we can start looking at performance.

James de Lacey11:59

Well, that is performance training. You're saying it's not performance, but it is for people who are listening, of course, because you're able to get them pain—you know, reduce pain—so they can perform better on the mats.

I think a lot of people who may be listening maybe see it as two distinct training styles, where I'm just training for health and longevity and quote unquote injury prevention versus I'm training for performance. But I think a lot of people need to—I think a lot of people see a lot of things in isolation, right? That isolation, aerobic, anaerobic, strength, power. But everything blends together and everything is towards that one goal, and it's just depending on the person you're training.

Obviously with your guys there, that's their performance training. It's slow movement, regaining strength, regaining muscle, and they perform better and it's awesome, especially with guys that are a little older and they need that. As you mentioned, they need some of that base back because what were they doing before?

But I just wanted to ask a question on that. So when would you start to introduce some low-level jump, plyometric, throw, just something out of the normal maybe just standard lifting exercises? Is that something that you bring in initially or you build them up first a little bit through some of those first phases?

Paul Green13:16

So I would definitely run a good boring hypertrophy block for probably about two months, just to get some foundations in there, and then I'd start to bring it in incrementally. But I'd look to add low-level plyometrics into the strength block, which would be the second main block, and it'd be low-level agility, low-level plyometrics, interval stuff.

So my first block is aerobic. I was watching—I watched a little bit of your thoughts on aerobic as well. So yeah, it'd be hypertrophy and zone two to start with. Then it progresses onto strength, a little bit of intervals, I introduce agility, and then low-level plyo. And then power speed, you can get excited and make it really sport-specific and stuff. So yeah, it's cool, man.

James de Lacey14:21

So what happens after the power speed block? You start back again?

Paul Green14:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So just a big circle of freaking benefit for these absolute legends, making their second half of their life better than their first half.

James de Lacey14:21

No, that's awesome. Yeah, it's always good to see once older athletes start to see the benefits of actually doing something in the gym. Because as you mentioned, people come—man, I don't know, there's a [expletive] ton of jiu-jitsu athletes that just don't lift weights, which is crazy.

Paul Green14:53

Which is crazy to me. You're trying to grab other human beings that are your weight or heavier, and then you don't want to do any weights to help you? It's like, they start, they go, and they realize the benefit.

I cannot believe that people just don't understand that if you have an overall better level of strength, then your body's going to be better suited to cope with the demands that you're putting on the mat. I can't believe—coming from a physical training background and the things that I've done in the past decade or whatever, to walk into a gym and I'm getting called the strong guy and I'm like, you know, nothing. I'm one of the weakest people I know.

It's like I'm the strong guy and I'm like, no, you are just weak as piss. Honestly, the gym at work—have you heard of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst?

James de Lacey15:51

No.

Paul Green15:51

So it's a British, world, global leadership training academy for the military. And there's 15 of us, they're coaches, and we'd run the military leadership training for all of these people that came from the world and they do an eight-month course there, a leadership training program, and then go back to their armies across the world and then they would be a young officer in their own armies.

I was getting called the strong guy on the mats, and I was going back to the gym nine to five and I was one of the weakest there. It's the same as everything, but it's really interesting. I don't think I'm strong at all. I'm just—I think a lot of them are unconditioned. Yes, they do jiu-jitsu and they can get away with it because the physical demands are optional in a way. You don't need to stand up if you don't want, you don't need to try if you don't want.

But when it's the heat of the battle, you've potentially got a 60-year-old man who's not trained in 20 years having a bit of a war with someone that's 21 years old, and the amount of stresses and directional forces that are going through the muscles, the joints, and this young lad might be strong as well, he might strength train. And it's just crazy to think that it's normal.

And another thing that pisses me off is that it's normal—a little injury in the Brazilian jiu-jitsu world is like a battle scar. It's like, yeah, I've just injured my elbow, and it's like, oh, they wear them as medals of honor. And I'm like, what is going on? Oh, you can't just [expletive] go to the gym?

It's hard for me because when I'm saying to somebody, if you do one strength—if you can only spare one session, one session per week—if you're going to spare 90 minutes per week for a full-body training session, you're going to have to take away a session on the mat perhaps, but it's going to make a difference. It's going to move the needle.

And it's really hard because these martial arts, not just Brazilian jiu-jitsu—these martial arts are so much fun. And what happens is I was looking—I was messing about with ChatGPT, and I was trying to nail down why people are so into the rabbit hole of—anyway, I basically asked ChatGPT when what is—I basically laid out the situation in a paragraph, and I said, can you relate this to any of the seven deadly sins?

So I basically asked ChatGPT, look, people love the progression of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, they're addicted to it, the community—

The socializing, the banter, the skill acquisition, the touch of humans, the play fighting, the confidence that regularly. And I said, can you relate any of that to—and anyway, ChatGPT comes back and says greed. So the mind becomes greedy because it wants the skill acquisition, it wants the development, it wants the socializing, and you enter the rabbit hole so much that your joints become [expletive].

You probably seen it yourself, you train martial arts for two or three weeks straight with no weights, you're old in your elbow, you're oh it's getting a bit sore, I need to probably do a do an upper body. And it gets greed because you're addicted. And everybody says these martial arts are like drugs—they are drugs for a lot of people, and especially men over 40 that have lived ball and chain with their wife.

And they've got—they've been given a platform where it's just the ultimate hormones. And as me saying go and do some work, count to 10, count to 10, it's a hard sell, honestly, it's a hard sell.

James de Lacey20:04

Oh, that's crack up. Do you want to go into maybe, let's do maybe an example training day or example, just random program from each three of your blocks, just to give people an idea of kind of what that program looks like for someone over 40? And they can maybe relate to other programs I've seen if it's different or similar.

Paul Green20:37

Yeah. So my most of my program has six main movements. I really like heels elevated squat because my athletes—my blocks are limited mobility. But my research tells me that knees are the weaker, one of the one of the weaker areas. So one of my ways of taking ankle mobility and hip mobility out the game for these athletes is heels elevated squat, but I make it a Zercher. So it's a Zercher heels elevated squat.

So an example session would be they would do hypertrophy rep ranges, 8 to 12 repetitions, three reps, 10—80% of their one rep max. And they would do three seconds on the way down, one second pause, and then one second up. They'd have 90 seconds rest in between sets. After that they'd go into a superset—so it'd be like a reverse lunge into a single leg RDL. So starting to get a little bit more technical but still quite basic.

And then after that they would do—I don't know. That would be like a lower body session. And sometimes I like to just finish it off with—I like goblet squats and stuff like that. So Zercher, couple of single leg exercises in there, and then I just wrap it up really quickly.

I've done sessions with people when I'm doing five or six—five exercises or four exercises, they're really struggling. So volume—when I'm thinking about training age and now recently they've trained, I need to be really careful with the amount of volume that they're doing at the start of their program. But I just, at the start, but then I have to be dynamic on the move.

And maybe three weeks in I can change it because they've changed. They can start to absorb weights normally then, because the last thing I want from a day one, week one athlete is oh my God, my legs were in bits for five or six days. So that would be the first thing is just overcoming that, breaking down them barriers.

But one thing that I notice: people use age as an excuse now. If I had a 21-year-old in the gym doing the same session who's got zero training age and a 55-year-old who's got zero training age, guaranteed they're both going to be sore. But the only one that's going to use age as an excuse is the 55-year-old. There wouldn't be much difference in muscle soreness. Yeah, they wouldn't be. So it's honestly, it's a struggle, but it's a good struggle. It's rewarding when—and then, anyway.

Then I progress the strength. It'd be, you know, we're talking 90% similar movements, more rest. You're talking your three minutes rest or rest till you're actually ready to go again. So we'd be talking about five, four, or six reps. So I always like a little bit of flexibility in my rep range. I don't just prescribe 'you will do 10 reps.' So block one: 8 to 12. Block two: 4 to 6. Up the rest periods, and you're talking 90, 95% one rep max.

And it'd be similar movement again, but we're up in the weights. And as you said, these sessions that I can—I can add low-level plyometrics in towards the end. Start with the big muscles, always finish with the smaller muscles. And power again, it just—I'm trying to be specific but I'm actually skimming through it being vague, am I? Do you want me to be more specific or you want me to go?

James de Lacey24:10

Yeah, go. Right.

Paul Green24:42

So yeah, a strength session would be: because strength is the priority and I want the working muscles to get freaking strong, I would probably dial back from the Zercher and I'd go straight into the just a heels elevated squat. Safety bars in, 5x5 or four to six for four sets, 90% of your one rep max.

And then have you—I really like the ATG split squat, have you seen that? Yeah. So instead sometimes I put that in as well after the—instead of like a reverse lunge. Because one of my priorities throughout the session, throughout the whole program, is just to really get maximum range of motion at the weaker area, which is the knee for me. I was surprised. I thought grapplers would have really weak fingers and wrists and elbows because it's a grabbing art, but actually a lot of injuries are actually at the knee. More injuries are at the knee. I thought it'd be elbow, but it's not.

So back to that session: 4 to 6 heels elevated squat. And that would be their main leg exercise on session one. And really focusing on that ATG split squat to finish, dumbbells really heavy. And then we push on to—I should have, if you told me get programs ready, I'd have it all out.

James de Lacey25:42

It's all good.

Paul Green25:42

And RDLs or a deadlift in there as well. So I'd have let's say two compound movements, one unilateral movement, and then to finish it'd be some jumps and stuff like that. With the jumps, airing on the power side of it, but it'd just be like broad jumps, jump for six. So it'd be starting to get them ready for the power block as well. Yeah. So, and then, yeah, that would be strength. But again, I'd add in the agility as well sometime on some sessions as well.

And then power and speed. I've never actually run the power and speed block yet. So at the moment I've only got people through the strength block.

James de Lacey26:41

Yeah. Funny enough, you mentioned the jumps and stuff at the end. That's something that I've talked about before as well, especially for older, more beat-up people. Typically, you mentioned before, I talk about you go faster, slower exercises typically in a session if you're playing like that. But for if you're beat up—and I do it sometimes as well—is when you reverse that order, feels so good. Feels so damn good when you do your jumps and plyos, whatever, at the end of the session after you've done your heavy weights. If anyone has niggly knees and elbows, whatever else, that exercise order works.

But I like what you were saying on your video about—you know, fast start fast, when the focus—because power and speed is all about intent.

Paul Green27:36

So when they come to the power speed block, the intent changes. Instead of producing maximal force with heavy load and moving slowly, they're not going to be doing your power cleans and stuff like that anymore because it's not quick enough. But when they go to that—it's interesting what you say, because I was going to ask you: do you prioritize the light—you seem to think that you prioritize the light and fast as opposed to as opposed to the heavier. It was interesting because I don't know the answer to that, and I need to do my research on that.

James de Lacey28:01

You mean in terms of maximizing speed and power?

Paul Green28:01

Yes. So would you prefer to start on your light and fast exercise and finish with your heavy and slow?

James de Lacey28:26

Yeah, yeah, typically. Unless you're doing complexes and whatever else, then it becomes a whole different strategy. But if you're doing just a typical program, I like to go like your whatever your general warm-up is, and then your plyometric jumps and throws. And that will depend on, are you doing weighted jumps, et cetera, and kind of what order you do that—or you don't even have to do it all. But it'll be like that kind—

Paul Green28:51

Stuff, and then you might do some kind of loaded full body. So that might be an Olympic lift, it might be a loaded jump, and then into the heavier stuff. Because then you're doing the speed power stuff when you're fresh, right? Because that's the main intent.

James de Lacey28:51

So when you layer it, so week one, like you were saying, 10% one RM to start with, and then you finish with maybe your 80% front squat or whatever. Because obviously you've got this inversion of the force velocity curve. So this is week one, you got 10%—oh, let's say for two weeks you're doing 10% one RM speed work, or even minus 10%, at the start of a block, which nobody does by the way. And it's a great idea, you know, pure velocity, even more velocity than possible. So that's an amazing idea.

But as the weeks go on and you start to push the needle with both of those, do you—so your minus 10 would then go to zero, so it'd go to body weight, and then it'd go to 10%?

Paul Green29:49

Might not. You might stay there. Well, this is what I was going to ask you: the start of the session would potentially progress in load, but then again it depends on what they want and it depends what you want for the athlete. Do you want max speed the priority, or is power the priority? So you'll just change the volumes depending.

James de Lacey30:15

Would you not think this would be cool: so let's say, for example, you're doing your 80% lift at the end of your session, and the way you periodize it is—let's say you're on 10% one RM, but then it does this. So the end of your—you get heavier at the start, so then, week two or week three, becomes 20% of your one RM to speed. But then at the end it gets lighter, and then there's that inversion happening within the session.

When you were explaining that, I thought of that happening. I was like, well, if week two, week three, you're making the 10%—the body weight speed work—you're making that maybe 15% or 20%, would the same happen for the end or stay?

Paul Green31:06

Oh, right. Okay. And then you would just manipulate volumes based on what the goal is. So if you're going through your strength block, as an example, you might only do a few sets of the other stuff and be most of your volume at the top, as an example.

James de Lacey31:06

I think a lot of people get—on this kind of approach, I guess you could call it a vertical integration approach, where you kind of touch on most things in a session or at least everything within a training week—people think, 'I got to touch on everything.' And then everything becomes done at the same volume and everything progresses at the same time, and then that can become an issue in itself. It just kind of depends. There's so many variables. It's so individual to whatever the sport or the person.

Paul Green32:00

Like for your guys over 40, you may only do a very small amount of volume of the speed stuff, and you might do it at the end anyway. Because do you need to be completely fresh to do that stuff? And if they're completely fresh, aren't they sore?

James de Lacey32:00

Maybe the lifting stuff. So the thing is with me, power, speed, and strength needs to be trained because type 2B muscle fibers are on the decline, and they don't get addressed. And this is the whole reason I'm looking into this stuff. So it does need to be trained.

And again, it builds like—speeds everybody. All the gentlemen, especially, they just make that shift. It's like, 'Oh, I'm not young anymore, endurance.' And I'm just like, I see this all the time now with the hybrid athlete trend. Which, hybrid athletes, not—everyone's a hybrid athlete. Hybrid just a trend. But that's bodybuilding and marathon running. I'm like, no speed, no nothing. It's just slow everything. I was like, damn.

Paul Green32:53

Endurance is a problem because muscular endurance impact—it's just a recipe for disaster, especially as you start to get older. Because the problem of diminishing strength, power, and speed isn't getting addressed.

And I just need to beat the drum about: don't be shy. Maybe your starting point is a lot lower than it maybe used to have been, but that's okay because it can happen. And there's nothing to say that you cannot train your strength, power, speed just because you're 50 or 60 years old. And if anything, the benefits are going to be greater than you've ever seen in your life, because you've just not done it.

James de Lacey33:28

Exactly. It's so simple. But like I said earlier on, it's so hard for me to drag them away from a sport which they're so addicted to in order to improve.

Paul Green33:56

Because I was talking about one of my mates. I was talking to him about this yesterday, and he was like, 'Why would somebody jump on your program?' And we were getting right down to it, and he was giving me it hard. And I was like, 'Well, what's the alternative?'

I said, 'The alternative is shoulder surgery—14 grand. The alternative is this.' He's like, 'Dude, people do not give a [expletive] about that [expletive]. If you said to somebody, if you do what you're doing today, tomorrow you will have a $14,000 shoulder bill,' they'd still do the stupid thing.

Fitness and this type of stuff—essency for performance, it's different. Because your guys, it's different for you. And when you're working with high performers for upcoming competitions, they come to you, they're motivated. And I'm used to coaching them in the Army as well, because people in front of me are highly motivated to develop their whatever for operations around the world.

But trying to get men, or potentially unmotivated—it's hard enough to get them on the mats to then enter a new skill set. It's tricky. But it's a—it's very purposeful, and the way I see it developing: because Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is my current main passion, I'm then going to venture out to rock climbing, another one of my passions, and then it's going to venture out to different hobbies. Basically keeping men over 40 doing their hobby and doing their new mission, essentially, whether that's playing guitar or whether that's whatever it might be. Keeping men doing their thing.

But it's—I'm not going to lie, this stuff—and you'll be the first person to agree with me—it's a tricky old world, this online S&C.

James de Lacey35:55

I know, man. I know. Online, it's its own little beast. Do you have any older guys who are competitors? Does your program change at all?

Paul Green35:55

Competitors, obviously, yeah. So one of the beautiful things about the grappling art is the Masters. And that is one of the most—it's one of the biggest, it's one of the most amazing setups ever. Boxing doesn't have Masters. Striking, I don't think, have Masters. But grappling has Masters divisions.

So if they say to me, 'Look, I'm competing. I know I'm halfway through a hypertrophy block. Can we make some adjustments?' I'm like, 'Yeah, okay.' And then generally the approach I like to take is I don't really get too specific with movements, stuff like that, because there's so many weird variables.

But one thing that I do like to change up is the cardio. I'm a massive believer in, similar to yourself, Zone 2. We could have a conversation about Zone 2, but we need to move away from that now. If you're competing, you need to have it in your back pocket. You need to have it. The—I call it cardio confidence. You need to have the confidence that if he's coming to war, if he's coming at you full send, that you have the ability to problem solve at that high intensity. If you don't have that in your arsenal, you're [expletive]. You don't have the ability.

So the main adjustment, to answer your question, the main adjustment I make is the cardio. The cardio gets adjusted and ramped up. And the cardio I like to use is—two hour, I'm joking there—10 hours of road work. No. It's the gold standard for me is the assault bike.

James de Lacey37:50

Are there any specific protocols you like to do on there for these gentlemen?

Paul Green37:50

Yeah. So I ask them, I say, 'How many minutes are your rounds?' So depending on their belt level, how many minutes are your rounds at the competition? They will say, 'Oh, I'm a purple belt, I do five-minute rounds.' And I'm like—

Cool, we need to get you ready for a five minute round. So 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off on the assault bike for five minutes. So they would run that just that single session a few times a week, which isn't that much. But then I ask them on week two or something, I'm like, "How many matches, if you were to win all your matches within that competition, would you have?" And he's like, "Well, there's currently eight people registered, so that'll be three matches."

Okay, I need to get them ready for three matches at that intensity. So then you see where I'm going—it progresses. So then it'll be a one and a one and a one singles added to the end of a hypertrophy session. And then on the second week it might be two rounds essentially at the end of the session—two rounds of 5 minutes to be on the assault bike and a one and a one. And then the next week might be 2-2-2, and then you just keep adding it on.

So then when it comes down to it, they have got the confidence that they can go for absolute serious pace and be able to recover. I think that's just, for me, it's so useful because they know that whatever the other person brings, they're ready.

And I'm—this is a bit controversial—but I believe that the assault bike is better for training cardio than hard sparring rounds. Because, well, you can get more targeted and more intensity exactly. But there's—how many people are in there? So how many people will agree or will disagree and go, "No, there's nothing better than sparring rounds." You have to strategize, you have to problem solve, you have to pace yourself. There is no pacing yourself on an assault bike—20 seconds, you are full send.

So that's my little secret thing that I just threw out there with them if they do need a competition, which is awesome for me because it's low impact. It's not going to have a massively detrimental effect to their current training. So I'm still ticking all the boxes for the longevity piece and the joint strength and all the rest of it, but I am making the adjustment for their competition.

Now if they said to me, "I'm competing in six months, I really would like to be able to do a body triangle comfortably," then I could really start to work some elevated pigeon poses with dumbbells to really increase their external rotation flexibility, and I could just put in a little superpower if they wanted it. But generally, it's just the cardio that gets adjusted.

Because without cardio, even if you even if you don't use it, it's just knowing that if there is a scramble—often I'm sure you've probably thought of it too—you don't do the extra movement, you stop early and kind of accept a position because you know you're gassed. You're going to get gassed and then you're like, "I'll stop here," versus knowing that you can go that extra move to win the position. It's such an amazing thing.

And I'd rather spend the time there than doing some band work with single legs to practice your takedown single leg or something. Just do some hard [expletive] on an assault bike. You will be—because I know for a fact the other person's not doing that. The other person's not doing the assault bike sessions, and I'm ready for three rounds on the assault bike to win this competition.

And it's just such a good thing because you just know you've got the cardio advantage over them, and you don't need to use it every time, but it is—yeah, that's the main adjustment I do for competitions.

James de Lacey42:04

Nice. I've got a couple questions for you in the chat on YouTube here. So the first one is, "What would be a good ply speed exercises to keep and possibly build more fast twitch muscle fibers when you are 35 plus?" Do you want to answer that, or is it for me?

Paul Green42:04

Good ply speed exercises, any? Maybe just do the ones that you use. Okay, okay. So first thing with plyometric speed exercises, or the word plyo, it gets thrown around the fitness industry quite loosely. And let's say back in the day when I was 15 years ago and I was doing plyometrics, I was doing box jumps and I was like, "Right, we're doing clap press-ups and stuff like that."

The word plyometrics refers to—is the direct exploitation of a fancy thing that happens in your body called the stretch-shorten cycle, and it's actually very hard to do if you're not used to it. So you're basically using the body's natural spring. And how you can train that is you basically have to limit the amount of contact that your body has on the floor—sorry, your ground contact time. It has to be, you have to be very specific with how much contact.

Because if you simply just do a jump where your feet are on the floor for five minutes and then you jump, it's not actually true. Now there's another word—there's plyometrics and then there's true plyometrics. Why is there another word anyway?

So you're basically exploiting your natural body spring. So depending on where you sit on this level, it's going to be—usually you start off really basic. It's like, not many people, you'd be surprised, not many people can do actual plyometrics single leg. So you can—it's actually hard. It is hard—you haven't done it in a while.

Yeah, exactly. So I'd basically, what I'd do straight away for plyometrics—I'd just to highlight that plyometrics is a lot harder than people give it credit for. A lot of people do plyometrics and they're not actually doing plyometrics. They're doing explosive strength, which is great, by the way. I'm not disrespecting explosive strength—your box jumps, you getting a ball and slamming the ball really hard as fast as you can for three to five reps, and then doing three to five reps of heavy kettlebell swings or something like that. Not arguing against all that.

But plyometrics is your spring. For example, if you were to stand up now and you would have very straight legs and you were to spring your feet—bang!—and you're basically thinking in your head, "I'm a rabbit, I'm bouncy," right? And you're basically trying to minimize the amount of time your foot has on the floor. It's like boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, and you're popping up. It's quite hard to explain on video, but if you give it a try and you actually feel like you're springing a little bit and you can really get some good height, that is you training your stretch-shortening cycle.

And there's a bit of science with that. You can only do a certain amount of reps per session before your body just starts failing with this type of stuff. But most people can do pogos—it's called pogos—with the plyometric fundamentals in there. But then as you start to progress it, you can add maybe a small step, and then you do exactly the same fundamentals that you've learned on the pogos. You do a small step—so you'd then do, is it called a deficit? A drop jump, you mean?

Yeah, drop jump. Sorry, you do—you start progressing into a drop jump. So you're getting the deceleration and then you're getting the same pop. I like to call it a pop—it's like when your feet slap, it creates a popping—call it an ankle pop. And you do a drop jump and then you start progressing it that way. And then you'd have to really assess, you know, a few weeks' time you might be able to try single leg stuff. But there's the plyometrics overview.

For the power stuff, James is a massive advocate of your power training, so you'd be in the gym, you'd be trying your power cleans and stuff like that. If that's too technical for you, you'd be ideally, kettlebells. Kettlebells, maybe adding some resistance bands to the kettlebells as well to really increase the amount of the balance of force through the kettlebell swing. Really low repetitions, you know, intent.

So when you think about power training, think about intent. Because when you start the set, it's all about—you create the signal, your brain is sparking the muscle. It has to come, you have to have that intent as soon as you walk into the gym. So that's with the power training. Just think about intent—it doesn't always have to be heavy weight. It could be light weight, but as long as that intent is there.

And a lot of people train power with really light weights, and there's all sorts of stuff you can do. But the main thing is intent. And the main thing with plyometrics is be very aware of your own yourself and your current ability levels, because chances are you probably can't do plyometrics.

Extremely well, so bring it back down, try pogos, progress it on a drop jumps, and then yeah, that's about it really. But you've probably got way more in the locker with regards to what I've just said, but I think I've got some videos on the YouTube channel I think there around progressing plyometrics and all sorts of stuff too.

James de Lacey47:39

That's a good point about the short ground contact times. Lot of people mess that up, really short ground contact times. So yeah, as you mentioned those pogos, ankle pops, jumping rope is pretty much the same thing. It's jumping rope without a rope essentially, easiest way to explain it.

There's also one more question as well from him. He's saying do you have a benchmark, what per kg wise to maintain on the assault bike?

Paul Green48:04

That's a great question. I don't, because it's going to be individual. So let's say, for example, I've got a 60-year-old lunatic on the assault bike, my benchmark might be a certain wattage, over 350 or something.

So it's a good point you make because how do you maintain intensity? So I would advise yes is the answer to that question, you need to have your own individual wattage. However, I would simply have to ask them. I'd be like, "What are you keeping there?" And he's like, "Yeah, well I started with 400 watts" and then it dropped down to 200. I'm like, "I'm not happy with that."

So me personally, for my own personal sessions, I am aiming to keep the intensity up because I know what you're saying—you can drop it and you start to become lazy. But I'm looking for the intent, the 20 seconds of—I'm not too worried about it, but it's something that I am monitoring.

James de Lacey49:01

Are you shifting the work intervals or rest intervals if you see a big drop like that? Like if you go from 400 watts to 200 watts, are you changing anything?

Paul Green49:30

I don't do it because I'm not too bothered about—I am looking for them to train their cardio to a ridiculously high level. If their output is now halved and they're still in that zone five—and obviously then you could ask, "Am I tracking their zones?" No, I'm not.

But I do, I would definitely advise running the session and then checking when it drops off and can you do a little bit more in order to keep progressing each week or each session. But my priority is to get them to be doing an assault bike session five minutes similar to their rounds for their competition, then add in another session on.

So I'd give them the five minute session, the five minute round, five minutes rest, and they'd go back into it. I'm not too—the secondary focus would be to keep the watts high, but at the same time I don't want to keep the watts high because then what happens if they sit on that wattage when you could push way beyond that? So I'd rather you just put your head down. Honestly, you're not looking at the assault bike when you're going at these intensities. Your eyes are closed. You don't see.

So it's all about in your head, you're going for 20 seconds, 10 seconds. Soon as the pedals have stopped, you're going again. Barely—maybe once every couple, maybe twice or out of a set of eight or ten—do you actually look at the watts. And if you're looking at the watch, what are you not doing? You're not going fast enough.

And it's savage, it's savage of me to say that, but when you've done these sessions and you're competing and in the back of your head you're thinking, "I'm going to let you get tired before me," because there's no way there's no way that's going to be the opposite. So that's my attitude towards looking at wattage.

James de Lacey51:26

Perfect, perfect. I think that's everything I had for you, Paul. Where can people find and follow you and keep up with what you're doing?

Paul Green51:54

So I'm on Instagram, Paul Green BJJ currently on Instagram. And on YouTube I post daily, and I'm just posting educational content specific to educating men over 40 and all the issues that they have and all the limiting beliefs that they have. And hopefully I solve them—solve as many of them issues on YouTube as possible.

But on the YouTube it's Paul Green Academy, I believe it is, and you'll see a little picture of me with my Army clothing there in the thumbnail too. Yeah, so it's on the thumbnail, loads of green thumbnails.

And yeah, I'm pretty dry with my delivery, but there's a few jokes, a few laughs in there. And I deliver them usually in a lecture based format because I process that information myself and I'll have a little lecture up and I talk through the lecture and just get straight to the point and try and move the needle through this wonderful digital world that we have access to. So yeah, that's me.

James de Lacey52:52

Perfect. I'll make sure there's linked up in the description too for anyone who wants. Thank you very much, Paul, who listening to the replay there, but I appreciate you coming on.

Paul Green52:52

No worries, mate. It was great to do it. And obviously I keep checking your channel, some good stuff, some great guests.

James de Lacey53:19

Appreciate it. Cheers, mate. See you later.