Heavyweight wrestler John Morrison and his functional training system

Morrison fights one fight a day, resting only on Saturday and Sunday. This means he hops on and off from plane to plane and returns to his home in California on the weekends. To rest and catch your breath? No matter how it is! To do two brutal strength workouts while continuing your weekly training split! “Experience in sport means a lot, but not everything,” says John Morrison himself. – The main thing is your physical form. When you weigh more than 100 kg, and your opponent throws you into the ring from the height of his height, the force of the impact on the floor exceeds 4.5 tons. This is equivalent to colliding with the bumper of a full-size SUV at 50 km/h. To survive, my body must be a steel ball of muscle. So I have no time to relax. For a moment of weakness I can pay with lifelong disability…”

John Morrison cannot boast of a sporting childhood. In physical education classes, he was considered an average student. True, he had an interesting character trait. If some gymnastic exercise didn’t work out for him, he didn’t give up on failure. In his mind, he divided the movement into separate phases and began to patiently master one after another until the exercise was complete to him. Since the class managed to go far ahead during this time and was already learning new sports wisdom, Morrison’s victories were usually not noticed by anyone. Even the physical education teacher had no idea that in John he had his most devoted student with the firm and unyielding character of a real athlete .

In college, John took up strength training, martial arts, and even began taking acting lessons, as he was seriously thinking about a career as an action film actor. However, he soon became bored with pretending to be a tough guy. He liked real sports competitions much more. By the way, in college he first tried wrestling. John, with his characteristic pedantry, learned a dozen complex acrobatic tricks, but his college studies ended, and he forgot about wrestling, as well as about Hollywood.

A year later, John entered the university to study geology. In his free time, he practiced kung fu, and then suddenly became interested in breakdancing. but only because he was fascinated by complex acrobatic improvisations. “In a day I managed to do up to a hundred back and forth somersaults,” says Morrison. “Then I started doing a somersault from a small support, then I stood on a higher support, and then I climbed onto a high stone in the park. It never occurred to me that I was practicing one of the most spectacular wrestling techniques, when a fighter climbs onto the ring’s guy wires and from there falls on the opponent, spectacularly turning over in the air…”

After graduating from university, John Morrison surprised his friends by refusing to work in his specialty. He went to wrestling school, and when he graduated, he passed a rigorous exam and was enrolled in the local amateur wrestling team. To be honest, his arrival puzzled the team manager more than it pleased him. John was infinitely superior to other wrestlers in his physical form, and was also an excellent acrobat. The manager called the professional wrestling league and said that he had found an amazing nugget. John was invited to a screening, and on the same day he was included in the team of reserve fighters. However, another 7 long years passed before Joey Morrison grew into a star of the first magnitude. John himself explains this by saying that he did not immediately find the correct training system…

At first, Morrison followed the beaten path and practiced familiar training patterns. Then he came across a book by Bruce Lee, where the great athlete described the main philosophical principle of his life. According to Bruce Lee, to win, you need to abandon the rules, which are nothing more than the fetters of the mind. Having consigned the rules to oblivion, the athlete must look for his own individual path in sports, which will allow him to realize his own unique potential.

Heeding the sonnet, John Morrison created a synthetic training method that combined bodybuilding and functional exercises. Thanks to his discovery, Joey quickly moved into the heavyweight category, but did not lose his exceptional gymnastic coordination. As a matter of measure, Morrpson redesigned the traditional split scheme. Now he deliberately combines training of muscles that do not have a direct coordination connection with each other. For example, he trains the triceps along with his back. Can you guess why? If you load the pectoral muscles on the same day as the triceps, then you are teaching these muscles to perform pure strength exercises together with a limited amplitude, such as the bench press. As a result, this skill will become dominant, like most strength athletes, and your muscles will forget how to be dexterous and agile.

Moreover, in order not to risk such an outcome, Joey Morpson completely refused to train large muscle groups with heavy basic exercises with a barbell. After all, the functional strength of the body depends on large muscles. If you begin to pump your back with heavy rows with a barbell, then again you will accustom your back muscles to abstract and essentially meaningless exercises that do not require either dexterity or complex coordination. No, the back should be trained with difficult gymnastic movements, while small muscles like the triceps should be left to targeted bodybuilding exercises. The small muscles themselves cannot play a significant role in body movements. If so, then you can develop these muscles with narrowly targeted strength exercises that will not cause any harm to your general gymnastics and fighting skills.

And further. Morrison’s fundamental technique for any workout is supersets. However, he never pairs exercises for antagonist muscles. The second exercise is usually a movement… for the abs. Abdominal muscle training, according to Morrison, should be ahead in volume of any other muscle group.

John Morrison gives valuable advice to anyone who decides to follow his system: create a set of exercises that bring you pleasure. This is a sign that they suit your anatomy. The load in such exercises can be increased without risk. Conversely, avoid uncomfortable exercises. If the movement is “uncomfortable” for you, it means that it is in conflict with the individual characteristics of your musculoskeletal system. Trying to increase the load here risks injury.

“I rarely wake up in great physical condition,” says John Morrison. – Something always hurts in the morning. After all, they throw me to the ground, hit me with everything they can get their hands on… Yes, but old injuries take their toll. My knee ligaments are torn, my elbow is injured… However, I cannot allow myself to wait until my condition improves. I pick up my sports bag and go to training. As one of the greats said, inspiration comes while working. However, you won’t last long on self-discipline alone. You need a goal that leaves you no other choice but fanatical training. In other words, it doesn’t give laziness a chance. Do you think this is money for me? No matter how it is! I get into the ring for the money, but I train every day for a completely different reason. If we continue to philosophize, then there are things in the world that cannot be justified. For example, betrayal in war. That is why love for the Motherland is called the highest meaning. So here’s my advice. Don’t even get involved in sports until you find the meaning in training that is beyond which there is nothing higher for you. And then you can never skip a workout, because this will mean betraying yourself. For me personally, missing a workout means potential injury, career ruin, or even death. In this case, the lives of all my loved ones will collapse. How can I cut myself some slack?

Suitable for everyone
How to become strong, like a powerlifter, and at the same time maintain the mobility and agility of a martial artist? As sports experience shows, a straightforward combination of exercises with weights and typical fighting training practice does not bring the desired result. From a sports medicine point of view, one contradicts the other. Strength training strengthens and strengthens joints, while martial artists need exceptional flexibility. So what should we do? John Morrison spent many years creating a universal training system that builds muscle mass, strength, and at the same time develops unique coordination skills.

For a long time, Morrison believed that the technique he invented was suitable only for himself. However, two years ago he met the famous trainer Jeffrey Carrier on his way. He became acquainted with an unusual technique and stated that it would make everyone a superman.

In short, the system combines strength exercises, elements of acrobatics, kung fu and even parkour. To avoid causing muscle tightness. Morrison replaced heavy compound exercises with complex gymnastic movements that require brutal strength from the athlete. However, bodybuilding occupies a central place in training, since the most important quality of a wrestler is large muscle mass.

Combining Morrison’s ideas with the coaching experience of Jeffrey Carrier led to the creation of a complete amateur system, conventionally called “Crazy Training”. Very soon a full description of the technique will be released in the USA.

PROGRAM
Back, triceps, abs (Principle of supersets)

Exit on the horizontal bar – 3-4 sets of 6-8 repetitions.
NOTE: The most difficult title exercise of the complex has no pair. Otherwise, you simply won’t have enough strength. to complete all sets.

Superset
Pull-ups with additional weight – 3-4 sets of 4-6 reps.
NOTE: Complete 4 sets, then drop the additional weight and do as many reps as you can.
Crunching with dumbbells in straight arms, 3-4 sets of 15-20 repetitions.
NOTE: Do not lower the dumbbells to your chest between reps.

Superset
Rows – 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps.
NOTE: Pull the handle toward your lower abs.
Reverse push-ups on the ball, sets 3-4, 8-10 reps.
NOTE: This exercise provides a deep workout for the triceps.

Superset
Body bends with a side turn – 3 sets of 10-15 reps.
NOTE: First, press the dumbbell into a straight arm position. Next, bend down and touch the floor with your other hand, turning your body. Continue holding the dumbbell with your straight arm.
Pull-ups with legs raised – 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps until failure.
NOTE: Grab the bar with your grip facing you.

Superset
Hyperextension + dumbbell lateral raises – 3-4 sets of 10-12 repetitions.
NOTE: First perform a sit-up by holding the dumbbells in straight arms near the floor. Then keep your body in line with your legs and spread your arms with dumbbells to the sides. Next, lower the dumbbells to the floor and return your body to the bottom position.
Press down + Bend over – 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps.
NOTE: First do 8-10 cable pull-downs, then follow with 20 standing cable crunches with the same weight.

Superset
French Bench Press – 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps.
NOTE: This is a major triceps exercise. The weight is critical.
Leg raises with additional weight – 3-4 sets of 10-15 repetitions.
NOTE: Hold a dumbbell between your feet and draw your knees toward your chest.

Superset
Dips + Straight leg raises – 3 sets 10,8,6 reps.
NOTE: First do a set number of dips, then stay in a straight arms position and perform a set of leg raises until they are parallel to the floor.

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