Trainer Interview: Greg Mihovich

Q: What's your training philosophy?
A:  The primary goal of Compound Conditioning (my conditioning regimen that I have forged over the years combining my teacher’s knowledge and my own training and teaching experience and innovation), is a healthy body for a lifetime, secondary goal is maximizing performance, and finally, appearance. It is important to keep these priorities in order, as training for maximum performance while ignoring your health will only last so long, and training for appearance as a main priority will compromise the performance aspect.

With that in mind, I focus on training movements, not body parts, with the exception of prehab and rehab training. The bulk of my training consists of full body, ground based or suspension based exercises executed through a full range of motion. The emphasis is on continually refined and sophisticated high quality athletic movement. Grip training is mostly integrated into the full body training via the use of fat pull up bars, kettlebells, thick ropes, finger and pinch grips and other methods while performing the exercises. Training is organized into cycles that are built around specific goals for that particular phase and last anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks.

Strength and conditioning sessions are performed three times a week, kept short (anywhere from 20 to 50 minutes), and train the entire body every time. Harder and lighter workouts are alternated, depending on the recovery and progress. I seldom push to the maximum limit or to the failure, as my conditioning practice come second to my daily martial arts practice, so I need to be fresh and focused for that.

I strongly believe in building a strong foundation, so in the beginning stages of training with my students I focus on proper breathing, selective tension, and proper structural alignment. I usually use a Western periodization model with beginners, where one motor quality is emphasized at a time. Mobility and a solid general physical preparedness base development are emphasized first, before working on strength. Likewise, a solid foundation of strength is build before working on power, speed, agility, and specific physical preparedness.

More intermediate and advanced students use the conjugate periodization model where different days are allocated to different motor qualities. So, one day they would work on low rep, power-oriented explosive movements, another day would be dedicated to high-tension, low rep, strength-type exercises, and possibly another day would serve as a high-rep, ballistic conditioning training session.

Your training schedule should be combined with comprehensive joint mobility and strength flexibility work. I cannot overemphasize the importance of gradually and continuously building the base from the basic to more complex and advanced movements with joint mobility drills, various animal-like movements, yoga-like flows and relaxation exercises, as well as tumbling and combat acrobatics type of exercises. Various breathing exercises should be integrated throughout the entire training process. This will insure serious long term results via joint and connective tissue strengthening, greatly improved coordination, and aid in injury prevention.

I also strongly believe in balancing your training in between different movement groups such as pressing, pulling, bending, squatting, flexing and rotating for the sake of injury prevention and proportional development. There also needs to be a balance in between different motor qualities, such as range of motion, strength, power and endurance. In other words, one needs to be fit across the entire spectrum. Neck, grip, prehab, and rehab should be integrated into training on regular basis, because you are only as strong as your weakest link. 

Another huge part of training is nutrition, hydration and restoration via proper sleep, rest, positive emotions, visualization, massage, cleansing, sauna, contrast shower and cold water plunging. Without it the results will be marginal and short term.

And last, but not least, training should be fun, focused and mindful. You need to love it to truly get serious results. You need to enjoy to train! There are so many ways to get into great shape with Unconvential Training; it is so much fun to feel ALIVE during your training practice, to challenge yourself, to improve and to move forward.

Q: What's your favorite training method?
A: I have been a power athlete for over a decade and a half, so I have tried many different modalities and methods. Over the years I’ve narrowed down what works for me and my specific goals.

Lately, I have been alternating low rep maximum effort (basically strength-oriented workouts) with high rep ballistic workouts that are more conditioning oriented. I love using high tension bodyweight exercises for my strength days, such as Ring Muscle Ups, Rotational Muscle Ups, Pull Overs, Flags, L-Sit Rope Climbs, Standing Wheel Roll Outs, Front and Back Levers, Pistols and some others. I often add weight to many of them and supplement my strength days with some Single Leg Deadlifts, Bulgarian Deadlifts, Half Get Ups, Quarter Get Ups, heavy Tire Flips and Windmills. Depending on what else is going on that week, my martial arts training volume, my recovery and if I’m working up to a personal record, or just having fun I perform anywhere from 4 to 6 exercises, usually suppersetted, for 2 to 4 sets.

On for my high rep conditioning days, I usually play with kettlebell ballistics lifts, kettlebell juggling and ballistic bodyweight, heavy clubs, mace and sledgehammer exercises such as Power Snatches, Split Snatches, Split Cleans, Jerks, Long Cycles, Two Handed Mills, Kipping Pull Ups, Jerks, Sledge Tire Strikes, Double Swipes, Rotational Split Cleans and Presses, Rotational Mountain Climbers, Frog Jumps and many others. As opposed to my strength training days, where I usually stick to a particular exercise regimen until I hit a PR and then switch the exercises while staying within the same movement grove, I usually switch my conditioning routine set up pretty often to stay motivated, shock the body and to break up the monotony.

I currently train, overall five or six days a week, with three days dedicated to rotating strength and conditioning training, usually in the early afternoon separate from martial arts practice, and five or six martial arts practices at night. I do a lot of daily mobility, breathing, relaxation, stretching and tumbling drills incorporated into martial arts practice.

Q: Who inspired you to get fit?
A: I was inspired by many different people and sources. My grand dad was from a Cossack clan, he was a career military officer and a World War II vet, so fitness and different combat exercises where a huge part of his lifestyle. Ever since I could remember, he would wake me up every morning and take me through a joint mobility routine and calisthenics and marching exercises while singing WWII songs and different movements with a toy rifle. It is funny to look back at it, but it is a good memory. He is still in great shape to this day. My grand dad taught me a lot, but most importantly, that one of the important ingredients of success is consistency and perseverance.

My family lived across the street from the main circus in Belarus, the country I’m originally from and naturally, we would go pretty often and saw many amazing acrobats, strongmen, chi gong masters, fighters and other circus performers on a weekly basis. From an early age, I saw that the fittest men and women in the world practice tumbling, gymnastics, wrestling, martial arts, Indian Clubs, yoga, kettlebell juggling, and other REAL training methods.

When I was 11, after reading the immortal self defense classic “Combat Machine” by Anatoly Taras, I got hooked on martial arts. I began practicing sambo wrestling and karate and started lifting at a local gym. Excited, like a kid that I was, I saw every kung fu movie ever made and read martial arts magazines from cover to cover. Unfortunately, after about a year into martial arts, my heart started hurting and they diagnosed me with a heart condition. Doctors told me that I couldn’t exercise and would have to take medicine to numb the pain for the rest of my life.

I knew that that could not be final and I could not give up my martial arts practice for too long, so I turned into yoga, breathing exercises, cold water plunging and became a vegetarian. My parents and friends thought that I was nuts, but everybody was amazed to see me perfectly healthy in just a year’s time. Like it often turns out, my curse was actually a blessing, and I was lucky to realize the importance and effectiveness of a holistic approach to health and long term fitness at a young age. Needless to say, I got back into training immediately, this time it was powerlifting, basketball and Muay Thai.

Muay Thai quickly became a huge passion of mine, mainly due to being inspired by my coach Dmitry Piasetsky, three time World Professional Muay Thai Champion and many other outstanding fighters in my original Muay Thai club, Chinook. We had over a dozen World and European Champions in the house and I wanted to be a good fighter just like them.

Later, in my late teens and early twenties, while continuing my martial arts education and picking up Grappling, Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, Kali, Judo, MMA, Krav Maga, Catch Wrestling, ROSS, Kotel and Systema, I also became obsessed with conditioning, and my inspiration came from watching top kettlebell sport guys, gymnasts, olympic weightlifters, strongmen, yoga practitioners, martial artists, free runners and break dancers. Simply put, my inspirations come from masters of movement and this article is too short to list them all, but they include my teachers and simply people who can do things better than me. These days I’m inspired by my Systema teacher Vlad Vasiliev for his seemingly effortless, yet precise and efficient movement. 

Q: What's your fitness background?
A: Like I said earlier, I started training at a local gym when I was 11 and, without any direction; I just did what I saw the other guys doing and that was it. Luckily, when I was 14 years old I got involved with a powerlifting club and won a Junior National Powerlifting Title two years later.

At the same time, I was studying Muay Thai and I was noticing that although I was very strong at the clinch, I wasn’t very fast or coordinated in comparison to the other guys. That eventually led me to give up lifting all together because I was frustrated that it was not helping my cause. However, after about a year break from heavy powerlifting training, I loosened up, lost a lot of weight (I went from solid 200 pounds to 175 on a pure martial arts regimen), and I began researching more functional ways to get fit, such as kettlebell lifting, gymnastics, bodyweight exercises, olympic weightlifting, sprinting, etc. Luckily, my Belarussian State University sport complex was huge and had all kinds of training groups and there was a huge networking and idea sharing among coaches and athletes. Kettlebell lifters, Olympic weightlifters, swimmers, wrestlers, powerlifters, armwrestlers and security professionals all worked out together in one gym and learned a lot from each other.

After moving to the USA, I continued my research and read a lot on the subject, took anatomy, biology and kinestheology in college, browsed the internet, watched tons of instructional and competition tapes and DVDs, went to seminars and trained, tested stuff out, left what worked for me and my clients. Today, there are over 3,000 titles in my training book and DVD library, including many old and new publications. I got influenced by many authors, too many to list all of them, but here are a few, like Pavel, Ross Enamait, Paul Check, Mel Siff, Michael Yessis, Greg Grassman, John Davies, Brooks Kubik, Matt Wiggins, Yuri Verkhoshansky, Mike Mahler, Karl Gotch, Steve Maxwell, Dan John, Vasily Filimonov, Carlos Santana, Greg Everett, Kwan Lee, Scott Sonnon, Martin Rooney, Josh Henkin, Diesel Crew, Steve Cotter, Jeff Martone, Christopher Sommer, Vlad Vasiliev and many, many others. They all have a lot of valuable things that they teach. The key is to figure out what works for you.

In the early 2000’s I got certified by NFPT, CrossFit, and Renegade Training and started working as a personal trainer at a local health club. At the same time I was also working as a Muay Thai coach at the local Renzo Gracie Jiu Jutsu academy. While working as a personal trainer, I was exposed to a health club setting for the first time and I was amazed at how little people knew about real training, how many misconceptions they had, how mindless their training was, how they would go for years without any results, how popular worthless machines were and how uneducated the vast majority of the trainers were. Naturally, with my passion, my knowledge of Unconventional Training, and my drive to share training knowledge to help people to live strong, I became the top trainer at the club, then went working for another one and became a top trainer there as well.

After a while, I got fed up with the whole health club atmosphere; you know, people mindlessly watching brainwashing TV programs while walking on a treadmill and believing that they’re in some sort of a miracle “fat burning” zone. In 2005 I opened up my own facility, the Underground Gym, where I offered personal and group classes in martial arts, such as Muay Thai, Grappling, self defense, as well as conditioning disciplines, such as kettlebell lifting, Olympic weightlifting, joint mobility and bodyweight conditioning. At about the same time I started formulating my own conditioning method comprised from years of personal research and experimentation: Compound Conditioning.

Within the last five years I’ve coached several hundred fitness and martial arts clients (among them the East Coast MMA Champion and two North American Muay Thai Champions), produced three fitness instructional DVDs, co-authored a grip book, developed my own kettlebell and bodyweight training certification course, taught a few dozen workshops and certification seminars and established a solid reputation as a martial arts and strength and conditioning coach.

My overall modest competitive combat sports accomplishments include 15 full contact Muay Thai, Boxing, San Da and Low Kick Kickboxing fights in the ring with a 10-5 record (3 knockouts), 1st place at North American Grappling Championship, 1st place at Battle at the Beach Grappling tournament, 2nd place at NAGA Worlds grappling tournament, 2nd place at East Coast Judo Championship and a multitude of top three finishes in other grappling events. My goal with competitive martial arts was to have fun and to test myself under pressure against other people. Currently, I have retired from competitive combat sports to avoid too much trauma to my body that accumulates with a full contact fighting career, and to focus more on self defense aspects of martial arts. But I’m happy that I have done it in the past; it has taught me a lot about myself and I was lucky to remain healthy and well through my amateur fighting experience.

Today, I continue to work on new projects, learn something new every day, and still feel like I just got started because there is so much more to learn out there and I’m hungry and motivated to learn it.

Q: What superhero do you identify with the most?
A: My Slavic ancestors that lived in harmony in Nature and the Universe, upheld hundreds of thousands of years of warrior traditions, were extremely witty and fit and could fight exceptionally well with any weapon (but the best warriors preferred two swords and were completely ambidextrous). They are my superheroes and one day I hope to be a positive example for my grandchildren and further generations of my clan, as well as other people.

Q: What motivates you to keep your clients & yourself in shape?
A: Martial arts helps me with motivation tremendously because it feels real bad to be out of shape in a fight, or even in a sparring match. Back in my competitive fighting days (I stopped competing about two years ago and focused on training for myself and coaching), an upcoming competition would motivate me a great deal, mainly because I didn’t want to get my butt kicked. These days I don’t compete anymore, but I still train with all my active fight students and that motivates me to be in top shape.

I also truly believe in leading by example and living what you preach, so I feel that in order for me to teach martial arts and fitness I need to be in superb shape, so my students motivate me a great deal. But, either way I love being fit, learning new techniques and refining old ones, experimenting and innovating new exercises and drills, conquering new heights, and so I’m very self-motivated.

Also, I love sharing the knowledge and the experience that I acquired over the years with other people and I love watching them grow, so that motivates me to keep my clients in shape.

Q: What's your view of the current fitness world where it’s headed?
A: The world is very multifaceted and so is the fitness world, so it’s probably taking many directions right now, and all of it I might be now aware of, but I like one of the current trends of returning to the basics, to the movements, to the primal tools, like kettlebells, clubs, sledges and maces, etc. People are waking up on many levels and their fitness is no exception. I think that this trend will continue to grow and I’m looking forward to grow with it.

Q: Do you have any personal fitness goals that you're trying to achieve?
A: In the near future I would like to accomplish:

• Freestanding single leg squat with two 24kg kettlebells (I can do two 20kg right now)
• 16 foot L-Sit Rope Climb with 80lbs (I can do 60 pounds right now)
• Full Front and Back Levers ( I can do a solid Straddle Front Lever right now and a could-be-better Straddle Back Lever)
• 200 Kettlebell Snatches with 32kg kettlebell in ten minutes (I’ve done 220 with a 24kg kettlebell on more than a few occasions)

Q: Where do you see your business in 10 years?
A: I see myself owning a few martial arts and fitness training centers, running an annual health and fitness retreat in different parts of the world, teaching seminars and workshops, doing exhibitions and motivational speaking, filming and writing some more educational materials, growing a network of Compound Conditioning Certified coaches, and most importantly, enjoying the process of doing what I love. The plan is already implemented, for instance, I’m opening another brand new facility soon and it will continue unfolding from there.

Q: Where do you see yourself and your business in 10 years?
A: I see myself doing exactly what I'm doing now except on a more expanded level. I am truly lucky that I have been able to inspire and reach thousands of people at a global level with my line of DVD's, blog, and social media. On top of my fitness business, I've been consumed with my pregnancies and having kids. I'm the weird mom that has a hard time leaving my kids for longer than a day. Therefore, I have not been able to follow through with seminars in states outside of California and other areas of the world that people have kindly asked me to do. I see myself being able to make that happen in the very near future. In addition, I’d like to expand the unique BuggyBellz (kettlebell stroller class) concept internationally.

Q: Do you have any products coming out in the near future?
A: Yes, recently I recorded a few new DVD’s and I’m finishing up the voice over right now, so they should come out in the near future. The first one is a comprehensive bodyweight conditioning resource with many unique training exercises, the second one is my exclusive collection of ground based animal-like movement exercises with over fifty challenging moves that I use for warm ups and as a standalone workout, and another one is a Muay Thai kickboxing instructional. You can purchase these upcoming projects very soon, as well as my earlier kettlebell, bodyweight and joint mobility DVD’s at my website..

Q: Thanks for your time, Greg! Where can people find more information about you, your products, and your services?
A: They can check out my website: www.UndergroundGym.com