It is true that you get the most benefit from explosive exercises when you are fresh. This way you can maximize the power you have without worrying about form breaking down and so on. The entire point of this workout (and method of conditioning) is to train your body to remain explosive WHILE fatigued. While this method isn’t really necessary or ideal for a power/olympic lifter because they need to be explosive for moving massive amounts of weight, what you need to realize is that being able to remain explosive for a long period of time isn’t necessarily a necessity for those sports. Both of those sports rely on maximum effort single attempts. A fighter on the other hand needs to remain explosive and unfatigued for the entire duration of the fight.

Hope that answers your question.

Chris

Take care

Although I don’t see any serious problems with throwing in some heavy lifts in the circuit, I believe that would be a little too much. Due to the already challenging nature of the workout and the explosive movements involved I think adding heavy compound lifts, especially those that really burn out the CNS like deadlifts would be more detrimental than good. I like to focus on developing max strength as a separate workout.

Would you advocate adding in some heavy lifts?
ie A heavy dead before the burpees, or bench before plyo pushups?

And, Jedd, Happy birthday

Dave

@ Shane – I’ll try to get a video on this and post it on my blog. Keep a lookout for it at trainbetterfitness.blogspot.com

@ Max – Don’t worry dude, you don’t come across as a dick, I always appreciate critcism. You’re right, the best way to train for fatigue while striking is striking. Nothing beats a solid sparring session for matching the realism of a fight.

The logic behind explosive conditioning is simple: overload. While sparring, you are responding to the stress of a normal fight. You can naturally take breaks and go on the defensive if you need to. Most fighters will naturally hold back a little bit during sparring (or fighting) in order to preserve a little defense.

During an explosive conditioning workout, you don’t have that concern. You are training your body to be explosive while fatigued, without the need to focus on skills. In other words it focuses your effort. Not to mention you can push yourself harder during a designated conditioning session than you might during a sparring session. And on top of that, you are performing plyometrics against resistance, which can help develop a little more power than just throwing unweighted punches during sparring.

Hope that addresses your concerns, and thanks for the questions.

And Happy Birthday Jedd!