On the Aug. 4, 2023, episode of The Mike O’Hearn Show, O’Hearn hit the road to help train former UFC heavyweight champion and professional wrestler, Josh Barnett’s son, who has been wrestling and training for years. O’Hearn offered training tips to the young athlete that are applicable to other elite lifters as well.
Check out The Mike O’Hearn Show published on Generation Iron‘s YouTube channel below. O’Hearn reviews advanced training techniques and offers four key tips for lifting:
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1. Hinge at the Hip During Squats
Powerful hamstrings are a must for competitive wrestlers who need to drive opponents onto the mat. O’Hearn’s first training technique centers around the correct angles during back squats to work the legs’ connective tissue. According to O’Hearn, explosiveness and power derive from the hamstrings when connective tissue is trained, which can prove helpful for Barnett’s son.
O’Hearn has Barnett’s son hinge drastically at the hip, almost as if he’s bowing to someone in front of him, and then squat. His legs are aligned above his feet, and his chest is up, but the hip hinge allows for athletic positioning and maximum power. As the young wrestler goes down into his squat, he built momentum for an explosive concentric. “That’s what I think most strength coaches completely miss,” said O’Hearn, “is that it doesn’t come from movement. It goes from that explosion.”
This power squat technique involves the knees moving forward and slightly out, which O’Hearn says helps preserve the knees long-term. Instead of powerlifting from a weakened stance, where the knees take on all the load, O’Hearn demonstrated how to injury-proof the knees for power-squat longevity.
Other stances can develop strength when the body is compromised, but none will load as much weight as a power squat. For example, O’Hearn shows Barnett’s son a squat variation that strengthens the knee joints and everything around them and urges him to use less weight when loading the knees.
2. Mind-Muscle Connection
O’Hearn tells Josh Barnett’s son to perform more squat sets and to “pick” where the strength and explosion come from, saying, “I want you to move the exercise, I want the strength or the explosion to come from the contraction of the glute-hamstring, or I want to develop it into the quad. And that’s [in] time; that’s not from the start.”
Intentionally picking which muscles fire most ensures no lagging leg muscles. “Right now, your quads are going to always [take over],” said O’Hearn. “When you’re in the bottom [of a squat rep], it always goes back to whatever your strongest muscle is, but we want your weakest muscles to match that and go ahead. The mind-muscle connection is vital for achieving proper stage-worthy aesthetics, but it helps young athletes need to build lagging muscles.
3. Eat Carbs and Protein Before and After Training
Barnett offers this tip, “You need…carbs and protein around your training sessions — before and after — because the fat will slow down the absorption of your nutrients and protein synthesis… Which is great if, say, you’re trying to gain weight – fat, and protein before you go to bed [leads to] slow digestion all night long, and you’re full.”
4. Being Present While Lifting
One of the last tips O’Hearn offers is to be fully engaged while lifting. The former bodybuilding champion doesn’t listen to music while lifting, so his internal monologue can be present. He compares it to Barnett’s fighting days when the UFC contender had to focus on the opponent in front of him.
“Probably in high school right now, everybody’s screaming and yelling around you; it’s a lot of outside motivation, which is freaking awesome,” says O’Hearn. “But unless the guy in the head that’s doing the lifting is present…you’re safer, and then you can lift proper.”
Featured image: @joshlbarnett on Instagram
