Terminal City Training Vancouver Personal Trainer Strength & Conditioning

Dear Reader,
The philosophical piece that I have been working on for thepathofstrength.com is going far beyond my deadline. The truth is that it has yet to catch any wind in its sails and I may have to jump off. My recent trip to Montreal didn't help but the article hit the doldrums long before that.
With this in mind, I want to share a brief Q&A. It shows how I recently approached two important problems in physical preparation, which conveniently came wrapped up in one question. The first, how can I advise someone about preparing for an athletic trial when under-trained and on a very short timeline? Second, how can I advise a motivated and impatient teenage athlete with a very short preparatory period before an important event?
Now, on with the show…

Question from Beverley:
Hey Al! What advice would you give to a 14 year old hockey player who has to run 2.4 km in 13 min at a test in early September? 
This is for my daughter, Chaya.
I went out with her to do a baseline the other day and she could do it in about 15 min with my encouragement but was VERY wrecked by it. 
She needs to get faster and also feel successful as she builds speed.
Also, she doesn’t know how to meter back her effort very well (ie, can’t/won't jog slow).
I’m thinking intervals for speed and some longer slower jogs (if I can get her to jog slow), but can we alternate those type of things every day?
I know that ideally we would have months for this, but is there a way to do it safely in a short time??
Thanks for any of your expert advice!!

Answer from Al:
Ok, that’s a short window!
Generally I would recommend a period of base-building first. Boring for a kid, yes. Also, there isn’t really any time for it. 
How about trying this:

Basic ProgramDay 1
10 minute warm up jog and then hill sprints. Walk down hill. 4-6 repeats. 10 minute cooldown jog. Some days do longer hills (2 blocks) other days shorter hills (1 block). Hill sprints will be better for injury prevention than flat sprints.
Day 2
Nose breathing/ conversational pace run. Conversation can be difficult but you need to be able to speak in full sentences. There is no time to follow the usual 10% rule when increasing volume but be thoughtful about not overdoing it. 
Day 3
Time trial at the track. Warm up jog at least 10 minutes first.  Go for the goal distance. Practice pacing, and smooth technique for quicker and sustainable running. Cooldown jog 10 minutes. 
Day 4
Same as Day 2.
Keep repeating this cycle, adjusting as fitness improves or also if tired. Do not skip the easy days! Do not run more than 4 days each week.
If there are any signs of injury then immediately back off for at least a couple of days.
This would not be a good long term approach because it builds up too quickly!
Taper from running for three days before the test.
Keep me posted if you have further questions…

Follow-up from Beverley:
Thank you Al! I will see if I can get her going on this. She’s feeling low about not starting earlier in the summer … I think she thought she would have no problem, but didn’t factor in the deconditioning of being off the ice all this time.
Really appreciate your help and expertise. Easier for her to hear it from not-her-parent.

Follow-up from Al:
Let her know that aerobic fitness can improve quite quickly. 
Also that she likely still has pretty good on ice fitness. 

Follow-up from Beverley:
I think she was mortified that her middle aged mum had no problem with the run. She’ll be happy to have these encouraging words!

Follow-up from Al:
Specificity principle
Skating makes you better at skating.
Running makes you better at running.
There is some crossover but not a whole lot.

A Deeper Look At The Approach
There are some important consoderations to the problem of pushing while avoiding injury. The key here is the short timeline. With such a brief preparatory period I am more concerned about acute injury than overuse injury. For that reason I want to avoid hard sprints on the flats. You need to condition yourself for these kinds of efforts. Instead of flatland sprints I program some hill repeats. These are much more forgiving and less likely to trigger a hamstring injury. Yet, they will give her the sense of very hard work. Chaya is a hard working athlete, and she just wants to get after it every session. This will give her something… but not too much.
The zone two runs at a conversational pace she will hate and resent. But, I feel obligated to teach her something useful and building a base at this kind of intensity is extremely important. I would prefer to have her only do this kind of training for a long while but there are two constraints. First, there is no time for base-building. Second, I won’t get Chaya’s buy-in, and I know it.
The time trial runs will give Chaya some experience with pacing, managing the event psychologically, and will allow her to see herself progressing.
This is far from an “ideal” approach to preparation, but it is very much grounded in realism. Programs need to suit not only the physical-readiness but also the psychology of the athlete.
To circle back to the beginning, if you haven’t been to Montreal, it’s a wonderful city. I focused on Jewish food and Yiddishkeit on this trip and if you want any hot tips, please get in touch.

​This piece first appeared at ThePathofStrength.com
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High Intensity Interval Training Over 50From Silas: HIIT over 50, bad idea?
Answer: Well Silas, I don’t think it’s a good idea, but not necessarily a bad one either. It’s a matter of proportion and prioritisation.
First of all, context is important here. You are in your early 50s, in good general health, and you want to continue to be healthy and capable and build upon your healthspan.
I am going to advocate for three things before we think about HIIT (which, for our readers, means High Intensity Interval Training and basically consists of multiple bouts of short and very intense exercise sandwiched between periods of recovery). The first thing is strength. You will want to train your musculo-skeletal system through barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, or other types of weight training. The second thing is endurance. You will want to build up your ability to put a lot of time into cardiovascular training, mostly at fairly low intensity. Thirdly, you will want to put effort into improving the quality of your movement by working on mobility, flexibility, and a variety of movement types. Let’s call these three things your foundation.
HIIT can come in once you have established a solid foundation. It should not replace the first three things but can be seen as an adjunct. Let’s think of it as the fourth thing. HIIT has its benefits, which can be quite seductive, such as providing fast results, being very time-efficient, and sometimes fun. And, it also comes with risks. It can lead to injury, burnout, and can lack a long term arc of improvement. To do HIIT without the other elements in place is like building your fortress with a deck of cards.
Neurodivergence and Type Two FunFrom Michelle: Do you think there is a connection between neurodivergence and type two sport enthusiasts?
Answer: First for the reader, I believe that Michelle is referring to “type two fun” i.e. “it completely sucked while I was doing it but it felt freaking amazing after I was finished, or maybe a couple of days after I finished.” Type two fun, and therefore “type two sports” are generally associated with long endurance efforts and extended bouts of suffering.
To address Michelle’s question: this is purely anecdotal, but I suspect that high focus pursuits such as rock climbing often attract people with ADHD. Many recommend climbing as a form of self-management or even “therapy” for those with the condition.
Rock climbing, however, isn't really a Type two sport, at least not typically. So who does type two sports? Anecdotally again, as I have no stats on this and have never really thought about it before, I am going to venture to say nerds and people with autism have a prevalence in type two sports. Are nerds neurodivergent? I would hazard a guess that many are but I am the wrong person to make any pronouncements on that. As far as autism goes, there are many who write on the benefits of endurance sports for people with autism. When I looked around I found an article entitled “The  Rise of Autistic Ultrarunners.” So, I think that my gut response to your question, Michelle, has some merit…


Starting Powerlifting With a StentFrom Vincent: I am a male 61 yrs old, seem to be in ok shape, had a stent in an artery but otherwise had ran in times past ( longest was 13 miles and some 10Ks ), but interested in powerlifting and gaining some weight. Pretty active in terms of 10,000 steps walking at work or outside. Would be great to get your input. Thanks Al. 
Answer: Especially with that stent, I would advise you to talk to your doctor or a trusted medical practitioner. Explain that you are interested in taking up powerlifting and what the training might involve. Explain that powerlifters use the valsalva manoeuvre and experience elevated blood pressure during their lifts. Really listen to what the practitioner has to say. 
Follow the practitioner’s guidance. If they give you the go ahead and do not provide specific direction, then I would be inclined to give the following general advice about getting into powerlifting training:

• Spend at least one year learning and practising the main barbell lifts. When searching for a mentor, coach, or even online resources, look for someone who is experienced and understands the difference between a 61 year old with a stent and a 21 year old competitive athlete.
  
  
  
• At every turn, prioritise health, longevity, and capability over short term performance.
  
  
  
• Do cardiovascular exercise regularly and make it just as much of a priority as strength development. This can include walking, swimming, biking, running, hiking, and any number of activities. Variety is important here. Try and find things that you enjoy. This will make the transition much more sustainable and the exercise will be more consistent. 
  

After a year passes and you have given yourself a chance to learn some basic movements and familiarise your body with barbell training and cardiovascular work, then it would be a good time to revisit your progress and goals and decide whether or not you would like to delve into the more specific training required for the sport of powerlifting.

Beginning Strength Training
​with a Herniated DiscFrom Adam: I'm wondering whether it makes sense to start some kind of weight training exercise. I'm 57 and am starting to feel it, for the first time. I guess this is when you lose muscle unless you do something about it. 
I have a chronic lower back issue, a herniated disc from decades ago. I keep this well under control with a clinical pilates routine at home, a series of core exercises that (when things are going well) I do three times/week, along with daily stretches. I haven't had a serious back incident for a few years now, and I certainly would not want anything to flare up if I start with weights and don't know what I'm doing.
I have a pretty sedentary work life: I'm a professor and spend much of my time sitting at a desk. I used to swim regularly but the pandemic put a stop to that, and I have not found my way back to the pool with any regularity. I used to have a pretty serious tai chi practice but the teacher I used to go to has vanished.
Answer: Thanks for reaching out.
A herniated disc...I have a few thoughts.
Have you spoken to your physician, physiotherapist, or other specialist about their thoughts on you beginning strength training?
I have worked with a few people with serious back injuries but rehabilitation is certainly not my specialty. I tend to take a cautious approach but I mostly work with barbells and free weights. If your practitioner thinks it is a good idea for you to begin strength training I would suggest that you discuss with them the idea of beginning with cable exercises and machines to help isolate and protect your back for at least the first while. Though I am generally not an advocate for machines, in your case it may make sense. I think that beginning to build some strength that way, while also testing how your back does under those conditions, would be pertinent if your practitioner agrees.

Thanks to Silas, Michelle, Vincent, and Adam. If you have a burning question about fitness, philosophy, books, or whatever, send it in anytime, or leave a comment.

thepathofstrength.com This is from ThePathofStrength.com, a Substack that we sponsor which presents monthly writing about physical training and practical philosophy. Subscribe if you like it and you will receive articles right in your inbox. This piece is by Al, owner of Terminal City Training.

Question from Michelle: How many grams of protein should I eat in a day? Every single one? Most of them?
Answer: Nutritionists and dieticians are allowed to make dietary prescriptions. Strength coaches and trainers are expected to promote the official guidelines from their federal or regional government. When they strictly follow these rules you know what you get. What follows is not intended as a recommendation for how you should eat. Also, this discussion is intended for adults. Children have different nutritional needs than adults.
Now that I have gotten that out of the way: you ask a simple question, Michelle, and instead of giving you a simple answer I am not really going to give you an answer at all. Instead I will suggest a way to think around the question. To me that’s better than an answer
I know Michelle. She is pursuing mountain sports and powerlifting. Since she is planning to take a run at some powerlifting meets in the coming months, I will address her question in relation to strength athletics. I will explore a few different approaches to the “how much protein should I eat?” question. 
A few points to keep in mind as we kick this off:

• Hard training athletes have different nutritional needs than sedentary and normal people.
  
  
  
• Canada’s Food Guide states: “You don’t need to eat large amounts of protein foods to meet your nutritional needs.” This is the kind of dietary advice that I am supposed to share. And, this is why I am not giving advice.
  
  
  
• The classical standard from the world of physical culture is to consume one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. Some go with one gram per pound of desiredbodyweight.
  
  
  
• Proteins are not created equally and quality of protein is important. Pea protein powder is different from whey powder and beans are different from steak. Be wary when food activists try to tell you otherwise. 
  
  
  
• If you suffer from disordered eating you should probably not be tracking your protein consumption, or anything else, without the guidance of a specialist.
  
  

Four Protein Standards
Before experimenting with how much protein you should aim for, you will want to figure out how much protein you eat currently. To find your starting baseline, track the amount of protein that you consume, in grams. Do this for two days each week. Switch the days of the week up and track for three weeks, or one month if you have the patience. Average it out to find a daily average. This is your starting point.
I am going to throw out four protein standards to explore. They represent common benchmarks that you hear thrown around in the strength world. It is important to note up front that one tier is not necessarily better than another. You can test these different approaches and get a sense of what kind of commitment they take, how each serves you, and how they make you feel.
Here are the four standards for adults. I have provided examples for the sake of comparison using Michelle’s bodyweight of 220 pounds (100kg) as a reference:

1. The government standard: a commonly promoted standard is 0.8 g protein per kg of body weight (adult male or female). 80 grams for Michelle.
   
2. One gram protein per kg of bodyweight. 100 grams for Michelle.
   
3. One gram per pound of lean mass. Average lean mass for an adult female is 69-75 percent. Average lean mass for an adult male is 76-82% (from Livestrong.com, I don’t claim that these ranges are accurate). One gram of protein per pound of lean mass at 220 pounds (using the low average percentages from above) brings us to 151 grams for Michelle or 167 grams for an adult male. To do this right you would need to get your body composition tested through an accurate method such as the DEXA scan.
   
4. The classical standard for strength athletes and physical culturists: one gram per pound of bodyweight. 220 grams for Michelle.
   

You can see that there is a massive difference between standard one (at 80 grams) and standard four (at 220 grams). Think about where you are at right now.  If you are currently eating less protein than standard one, then it makes sense to strive for that first. If you are going to explore protein intake, be methodical and take it step by step. If you decide to work your way through several or all four of the standards, you would be best served by moving through successive tiers and spending some time at each before exploring the next. Get familiar with the standard you are at before deciding whether to jump ahead to a further standard.


Abdullah the Butcher eating raw chicken. Wikimedia CommonsSome Thoughts on Each Tier
Standard one: If you are not hitting at least this standard then I think that, as a strength athlete, we have some problems. 
Standard two: This is really not much protein to speak of for someone who trains.
Standard three: For a lot of people, who are not used to a high protein diet, this will be a tough to maintain on a daily basis and may take some time to adjust to. It is close to double the typical government standard yet still some way from standard four.
Standard four: Yes, it has been advocated by many strength and physique athletes over the years and there are also limits to this standard. I coached a large male who weighed in the 360+ pound range. At one point he decided to try and eat one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. He spent all of his time eating and crapping. For his quality of life it made more sense for him to bring this down to standard three. It will be easier to pull standard four off if you weigh less, or if you are quite lean.
Ultimately the point with all of this protein experimentation is to find what makes you feel good, serves your goals, and allows you to live a fulfilling and healthy life. Training for performance and training for health are not the same thing. This is true when it comes to eating too. If you eat like a typical heavyweight powerlifter or elite road cyclist then there will be consequences to your health. You will want to be very clear about your priorities and choose your standards and role models carefully in order to make good decisions about your diet. If you can afford it and can find a great nutritionist who knows about the realities of physical preparation and sports performance, then consider yourself lucky. Otherwise, get ready for some trial and error and honest self-assessment. Be willing to reassess and change as you go through different periods in your life. And, most importantly, eat your protein.

From thepathofstrength.com

Last month I asked readers to submit questions for a long form question and answer segment. Here they are.

“I wanted to ask you, my son has been begging me to take him to the gym. He’s a fit soon to be ten year old. Is he too young and if so or not can you recommend some exercises he can do for increasing speed and explosive first steps? He’s a soccer player. Is he too young to lift? If we do it together that would also help me.”    - Mike


He’s not too young. He can start to learn good training habits now. I think that weight training should not be the focus yet but we’ll get into that.


The gym can be useful if you make it a special environment for serious focus. You can start taking him to the gym to work on building lifelong habits, focus, and technique. This is also a great opportunity to get yourself healthy and be a solid role model for your son, and to build that all important bond with your kid.


Priorities at his age and experience:

1. Develop positive health and fitness habits and lifestyle
2. Learn to work smart
3. Develop basic proficiency and physical literacy starting with bodyweight exercises:

 

• Recline rows
• Chinups
• Squats
• Lunges
• Pushups
• Step-ups
• Planks and other midsection exercises
• Jump rope
• Callisthenics such as burpees, and jumping jacks

Make sure he becomes proficient at all of these exercises before he gets into more complex movements and begins to use weights. He will need constant supervision, and most gyms will require it.


Have him work on his running outside of the gym. For now, don’t worry so much about his speed and explosiveness. That will come as he develops his strength and efficiency.


Depending upon his maturity and commitment to good technique, at some point, using your judgement, you can start introducing him to light weights for high repetitions. Stick to simpler tools like medicine balls, dumbbells, kettlebells, and a stick or pvc pipe. Begin by having him apply these weights to the fundamental movements that he has already been practising. Let him develop further maturity, experience, technique and strength before introducing him to more complex movements. 


Throughout this process the focus should remain on lifestyle, learning, and his relationship with you.


Keep the sessions short, varied, and fun. Take the opportunity to teach him about nutrition and sleep.


This simple approach can take you both a long way.


—--


“Is collagen in a supplement nonsense or real life?”  -Michelle


I am not a big supplement user, so I went to my four go to nutrition guys to see what they had written. 


Neither Peter Attia nor Andrew Huberman seem to have much to say on collagen. Nor does Lonnie Lowery. 


I looked on John Berardi’s site and found one article, which wasn’t positive on collagen. The article did present a few points to ponder, which I outline below.


If you are considering taking collagen for connective tissue health, keep the following points in mind:

• It seems that most research has been funded by related industries.
• There is a general lack of good information and research.

There are some lifestyle steps to take care of and I think that these should be considered before supplementation:

• Eat a healthy diet with lots of quality protein. A good balance of amino acids will likely benefit your connective tissue.
• Get adequate sleep. 
• Don’t smoke. 
• Don’t drink to excess. 
• Exercise.

If you are taking care of all of the above, and you want to delve into collagen or other supplements, then keep abreast of the research and proceed with due consideration.

Thanks to Mike and Michelle for sharing questions this month.

Training and programming can become very complex, very quickly. It can be fun to immerse yourself in the complexity for a while, even when it’s confusing and unproductive. At a certain point, though, you might start to yearn for simplicity.


Complexity fatigue 

Sometimes we are unconsciously drawn into complexity. After all, we live in an information-rich environment. Videos, in particular, are optimized to compete for our attention while we scroll websites. For the intellectually curious who is newer to training, it is likely that they are indulging in a disparate collection of competing training approaches. It has been my observation that young men in particular can suffer from a fear of missing out on the greatest, latest, or most optimal combination of programs. Odds are that they are creating their own hybrids using two or three systems at a time. At the very least they may be choosing a time-proven program, and then making their own bold changes to it. They are probably doing this without having a thorough understanding of any of these systems. This rarely works out well.


After delving in like this for some time they may come out the other side. They get to the point where they experience some kind of complexity fatigue. Irrepressible questions arise: Do I need to consume endless videos and articles about what I am missing out on in my training? Can’t training be simple?


It doesn’t have to be this way.


You can simplify the structure of your training. You can reduce the complexity of your decisions when you make your training plans or make training decisions in the moment.


However, before you can have simplicity, you need clarity.


Clarity can come through experience, but experience takes time. Clarity can also come by asking yourself questions. So, start asking some questions. 


Large, medium, & small questions

What kinds of questions do you ask? Let’s keep this simple and think in terms of scale: large, medium, and small.  


Start with the large scale.  What big concept questions can you ask yourself? Begin with considerations like: 

• What are you training for? 
• What do you need or want to accomplish? 

Big questions like these will lead to more moderate-sized questions. To generate medium questions, you might go through various physical qualities and ask yourself the relative importance of each, in relation to the goals and needs that you have already identified. General qualities might include: 

• Aerobic fitness
• Strength
• Speed
• Durability
• Duration

After going through general qualities, you can then move to the small questions. Examine each quality that you’ve identified as important and put it under the microscope. Analyze in greater detail just how you need to use it. Some examples might be:

• How long do I need to carry out bouts of aerobic work and at what intensity?
• How exactly will I need to use my strength? For how long and how often? 
• What are the most common injuries in my occupation or sport?

Methods

Finally, once this three part needs analysis is done, move on to considering the methodsof how you will train. You can apply the same principle of asking good questions to this step as well.


As one example, reflect on your conditions for training. What are your personal parameters? You will want to consider such things as:

• Time available for training
• Equipment / environment
• Training alone or with others
• Personal experience level and training knowledge
• Physical condition and injuries 
• Current fitness
• Timelines 

Once you have asked the right questions and have developed some clarity, it will then be time to either choose a program or develop one to meet your needs. Remember what you learned during your self-questioning, and stick to your plan. As the philosopher of strength, Dan John, has said,


“The goal is to keep the goal the goal.”


The simpler the approach, the more likely that you will execute on it well. Training can be made too simple. It shouldn’t be too simple, just simple enough. So, ask good questions.
—--
For related thoughts, please see my piece on efficiency vs resilience: https://thepathofstrength.substack.com/p/how-to-find-balance-in-training 



​

“I wanted to ask you, my son has been begging me to take him to the gym. He’s a fit soon to be ten year old. Is he too young and if so or not can you recommend some exercises he can do for increasing speed and explosive first steps? He’s a soccer player. Is he too young to lift? If we do it together that would also help me.”     - Mike

He’s not too young. He can start to learn good training habits now. I think that weight training should not be the focus yet but we’ll get into that.

The gym can be useful if you make it a special environment for serious focus. You can start taking him to the gym to work on building lifelong habits, focus, and technique. This is also a great opportunity to get yourself healthy and be a solid role model for your son, and to build that all important bond with your kid.

Priorities at his age and experience:

1. Develop positive health and fitness habits and lifestyle
2. Learn to work smart
3. Develop basic proficiency and physical literacy starting with bodyweight exercises

 

• Recline rows
• Chinups
• Squats
• Lunges
• Pushups
• Step-ups
• Planks and other midsection exercises
• Jump rope
• Callisthenics such as burpees, and jumping jacks

Make sure he becomes proficient at all of these exercises before he gets into more complex movements and begins to use weights. He will need constant supervision, and most gyms will require it.

Have him work on his running outside of the gym. For now, don’t worry so much about his speed and explosiveness. That will come as he develops his strength and efficiency.

Depending upon his maturity and commitment to good technique, at some point, using your judgement, you can start introducing him to light weights for high repetitions. Stick to simpler tools like medicine balls, dumbbells, kettlebells, and a stick or pvc pipe. Begin by having him apply these weights to the fundamental movements that he has already been practising. Let him develop further maturity, experience, technique and strength before introducing him to more complex movements. 

Throughout this process the focus should remain on lifestyle, learning, and his relationship with you.

Keep the sessions short, varied, and fun. Take the opportunity to teach him about nutrition and sleep.

This simple approach can take you both a long way.

thepathofstrength.comWhile there is no correct way for a grappler to do strength training, there are certainly a lot of good and bad ideas out there to choose from. Over the years I have experimented with many methods, hitting on good ideas and sometimes spending too long using bad ones. 
Here I will outline a model of training which can be applied to any sport or task.
With experience, my approach to training grapplers has evolved. It now includes basic strength exercises, special exercises that develop key qualities of particular value to grapplers, and finally the more individualised exercises which each athlete does to address their specific needs.
For the sake of this discussion, I have named these three categories of strength exercises Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. 
Though we will have a look at all three categories, this discussion is primarily focused on the Secondary exercises, which develop what I call Python Strength, the isometric strength important to grapplers.
Primary Exercises
These are the main strength building exercises that apply to most people and most sports. These movements should generally have priority when in the gym. They can include:

• Squatting of various types
  
  
  
• Deadlift variations 
  
  
  
• Overhead press
  
  
  
• Bench press
  
  
  
• Rowing, chin-ups, pull-ups
  
  
  

For the more experienced trainee I would add to this list several more explosive movements. This could mean the above exercises done for speed or else some kind of variation of the clean, snatch, a jump, or a throw. It could also include short sprints.
These exercises should be done in the spirit of moderation. They are foundational, but do not train like a lifter if you are focused on being a grappler.
There is a trend amongst strength coaches with a powerlifting or weightlifting background to promote basic heavy barbell lifts as the way to develop yourself for grappling. I have used this approach, but have since changed my mind. Powerlifting and weightlifting are linear sports; grappling is not. That kind of training does not cover all of our bases. This is why we use Secondary exercises.
Secondary Exercises (Python Strength Exercises)
These exercises are chosen specifically to help develop key qualities for grapplers. Here is what we are trying to achieve:

• Holding posture under duress by training isometric strength, anti-rotation, and body tension
  

• Training outside the groove, which means developing strength outside of our most efficient body positions and movement paths
  

• Developing strength in the neck, hands, and wrists, all of which are important to grapplers and potentially neglected when using conventional strength training and sports preparation
  

If we were preparing for a different sport or task, then we would analyse the requirements and choose a training strategy to meet them.
What follows is by no means an exhaustive list, but these exercises give an idea of how we approach Python Strength:

• Zercher squat and Zercher lift (to specifically target holding posture against resistance and developing outside the groove strength)
  
• Steel bending or snapping at an easy to moderate difficulty while on your back or in other common grappling positions (to help develop crushing power, bracing, as well as to strengthen the wrists and hands). (To get your feet wet with steel bending I recommend looking into the work of David Horne).
  
• Two-handed gripper closes for crushing power and bracing (as an alternative to steel bending)
  
• Hanging from suspended kettlebell with arms bent at elbow and kettlebell at chest level (to develop crushing power and bracing)
  
• Vertical barbell holds (for postural strength, and for strength outside the groove)
  
• Neck from all directions - use neck harness, hands, bands, towel, partner-assist or anything else to resist an outside force (the best all-around resource that I have seen for neck training is Bill Pearl’s book Keys to the Inner Universe).
  
• Palof press (for anti-rotation)
  
• Isometric holds with barbell, sandbags, odd objects (to develop postural strength and bracing)
  
• Bearhug carries (posture, back, crushing power)
  
• Hang, pullup, or row with towel (to develop hand strength, and especially that cloth gripping strength for judoka, and jiujitsu players, while working the pulling muscles)
  
• Wrist in four directions including flexion, extension, radial deviation  and ulnar deviation. (Training flexion and extension is not complicated. For radial and ulnar deviation try a metal bar, sledgehammer, or a kettlebell).
  

Tertiary Exercises
This third category covers all other lifts and exercises that address your personal needs or that simply interest you and will make training enjoyable. These should be thoughtfully chosen in the context of training demands, recovery, injuries, and injury prevention. Sometimes you want to challenge yourself mentally. We make a little room for all of these needs and wants within this group.
Some Thoughts
Beware the seductive power of the tool. A barbell guy will look for barbell solutions to every problem. A kettlebell gal will always favour the kettlebell. In terms of tools, it is best to be agnostic. 
Strength training is secondary to skill practice. It is primarily by grappling that you will become a better grappler. Do not become distracted or fall to the allure of strength training for its own sake if your primary goal is to improve as a grappler.
There is a point of diminishing returns with strength training for martial artists. In general:

• Strength is better than weakness 
  
• Strength takes time and energy that might best be used for technique training, resting, family obligations, or time with your dog.
  
• As you get older your cardiovascular health becomes increasingly important.
  
• The weaker you are, the more important strength training is. Conversely, the stronger you are, the less you will find strength increases transfer over to your grappling performance. 
  
• The chasing of personal records in the gym is very seductive. As a grappler, do not fall for it.
  

For most people, cardiovascular conditioning should be given equal importance to strength training. Stay in heart rate zone two for about 80% of your cardiovascular training time. If you don’t have a heart rate monitor then train at a nose-breathing pace to approximate zone two.
Where I would like to develop this line of thinking
My ideas about physical preparation for grappling, and other sports and tasks, are an ongoing project. For grapplers, I am now really interested in the concept of developing strength at the end range of motion. This relates to the idea of training outside the groove mentioned earlier. My initial influences in this area are the work of Michael Blevins and Grayson Strange. Check out their stuff.
Questions for the Reader
What does your approach to physical preparation for grappling look like? What changes do you want to make? How do you see your thoughts on this developing? Drop me a line.
Thanks for reading this initial post on The Path of Strength. Stay tuned for more pieces on physical and mental development, philosophy, combative arts, preparedness, and related topics. I look forward to the conversation.