By John Fullilove, jacksons.tv
jacksons.tv: Can you describe how you became involved in training?
Jonathan Chaimberg: I have always loved training. I was on the national wrestling team when I was 18 years old and I had a series of really, really bad concussions. I had to take a year off from wrestling so I got more involved with training. I fell in love with it through
school, seminars and mentorships. It was always a passion.
jacksons.tv: What concepts or frameworks have influenced your approach to training athletes?
Jonathan Chaimberg: I came up with my own modality. I’ve been around so many great trainers and guys that I respect. I’ve traveled all over North America and Europe. I’ve also attended many different seminars. I know what I like and I know what works and what doesn’t work. I take bits and pieces and formulated what I think works really well.
jacksons.tv: What are you trying to accomplish with your workouts and does it differ based on the type of athlete that you are training?
Jonathan Chaimberg: Basically what sport, what the goal is, what kind of athlete I’m dealing with, what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are – so, every athlete in this system is treated differently. The goals and the way we achieve the goals are always different.
jacksons.tv: How did you become involved with MMA Athletes?
Jonathan Chaimberg: Basically through my wrestling. I started training George about four years ago after his lost to Serra but I was always around those guys through the wrestling club. I started training David Loiseau, Rashad Evans, Nate Marquardt and those kinds of guys all came aboard. It snowballed from there.
jacksons.tv: Looking at MMA - what leads to gassing in an MMA fight?
Jonathan Chaimberg: There are many aspects but what is happening with these guys (that are gassing) is that you can look like you’re in shape but not train properly. They don’t train properly and when they are in a fight they struggle. They don’t fire at a certain level. It totally depends on the work they put in and the way their programs are structured. How they are periodized to peak that one night leads to their performance. All my guys are training to peak on that one specific night and that is what you want out of a periodization of a program.
jacksons.tv: What is your role with Team Jackson’s?
Jonathan Chaimberg: I’m one of the team’s conditioning coaches. My allegiance is to Team Jackson’s. If I’m training George or Nate at a certain weight and if I’m approached by another fighter from a different team, I would decline them. It’s happened many times before that I’m approached and if there’s a possibility that they might fight one of my guys in the future, I will always say no.
jacksons.tv: Discussing the details of your workout a little bit, in an ESPN MMA fitness segment with Rashad, you mentioned “activating” your muscles. What is the difference between activating your muscles and a normal warm up?
Jonathan Chaimberg: My modality pretty much has the same beginning. We activate and then dynamically warm up. It’s like starting a car. We really warm that car up and get everything firing so when you start training or get into a fight and start fighting, you are already starting at a very, very high level. Your muscles are ready to go. Your whole body is ready to fire and twitch. Same thing with training is that if you’re here in my gym, you rollout and you activate muscles that need to be turned on, your gluts, your core – everything that needs to be turned on. Then you get into the workout. A lot of people go to the gym and warm up on the bike or the treadmill. You’re not really activating any muscles, your just warming up the body. We take it a step further and activate every muscle that needs to be activated.
jacksons.tv: In the ESPN segment you mention metabolic workout – what does that mean?
Jonathan Chaimberg: Metabolic is turning on the oven and burning fat. Everyone’s metabolism is different. You have a Basal Metabolic Rate which is what your body needs to survive. It’s used for breathing, for your hair to grow, your nails to grow, for your system to work. Your body needs a certain amount of energy and calories. Above that is expenditure. If you add those two numbers together, you’ll have a number that your body takes in. For example, if you need 3,000 calories and take in 3,000 calories you will stay at the same weight. Now if you raise your metabolism, your body is going to be burning at a much higher level. It will allow you to eat a lot more. You will burn more fat.
jacksons.tv: How do you maintain a balance between revving up the system and developing power?
Jonathan Chaimberg: They are complimentary. If you’re developing power, you’re developing your fast twitch muscle because you are trying to raise the percentage of fast twitch to slow twitch muscle fibers you have. Now, the faster twitch you have, the higher your metabolism will be, forget about holding more muscle, your body will just have a higher metabolic rate. It’s the way you train. If you sprint and do heavy weights and explosive exercises it’s a lot better than steady cardio and doing light weights.
jacksons.tv: How does the explosive exercises in your workouts relate to MMA techniques in a fight?
Jonathan Chaimberg: It’s very sport specific. When you look at the power movements in an MMA fight, like a double leg or explosive kicks – you basically are training to fight like that. Squat jump, Olympic lift or Plyometrics is sports specific in the realm of gaining power for that one movement. Talking about gassing before, some of these other guys have a very explosive movement like double leg and they will gas afterward because they can’t recover. I want my athletes to explode and then be able to recover quickly so that they will be able to explode again. That’s the nature of my training.
jacksons.tv: Is a Tabata workout always done at the end of a workout and why?
Jonathan Chaimberg: It all depends. For my guys conditioning is always at the end unless if needed at the beginning. Ninety five percent of the time my conditioning is at the end. I want all the power and strength movements first so that my athletes have all their energy for those movements. If an athlete is very unconditioned then I might want to work on conditioning first but most of the time I will always save it for last.
jacksons.tv: Do you have any plans to introduce your workouts to the general public?
Jonathan Chaimberg: I’m doing another segment for ESPN MMA fitness in May. We will probably release a few more in June. I will try to release a video after that. I have one video that is out and is geared towards instructors. I do want to get a training system out, obviously different from PX90 and others. I want to get the system out there in the mainstream.
jacksons.tv: Who would you like to acknowledge?
Jonathan Chaimberg: I would like to thank Greg Jackson and Team Jackson, Team Zahabi Montréal, Phil Nurse, Steven Bernstein, Head Rush Clothing in Montréal and TRX Suspension Systems.
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