понедельник, 19 августа 2013 г.

Meet Brian Stann

For Silver Star recipient, U.S. Marine, and former UFC fighter Brian Stann, fitness was a matter of life and death.

Eric Velazquez, N.S.C.A., C.P.T.

You won't see Brian Stann strutting around town wearing the Silver Star he was awarded for gallantry in action during combat in Iraq in 2005. This Marine wears modesty better.

Stann takes more pride in the fact that all 42 of the Marines in his platoon survived a harrowing six-day battle, due largely to their mythical ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome, and in part to their relentless dedication to maintainingstrength and conditioning.

“The Marine Corps wants you to do things when you’re tired,” Stann says. “It puts pressure on you. When you’re run down, you don’t want to shoot straight, you don’t want to do this or that. But when you’re fatigued in combat, you still have to operate efficiently. So our workouts are tough. It’s about shared misery, shared sacrifice, and shared suffering, because that’s what war is. Every single Marine can understand that he has to do this for the guy next to him, at the very least.”

War put fitness into perspective for Stann, but the Pennsylvania native prided himself on physical excellence long before he was leading some of the world’s toughest men into battle. And in the years after leaving active duty, he marched boldly into the Octagon, for combat of a different sort. For Stann, in one way or another, punishing, character-defining workouts have always been about survival.

MAKING A MARINE

Stann, 32, played ironman football (offense and defense) for Scranton Prep School, but was primarily known for his athletic dominance at quarterback, where he set school marks for passing and rushing. Then, in the first game of his senior season, he dislocated his throwing shoulder, forcing him out of the pocket and onto the line. Despite the injury and the fulltime move to defense, he received serious recruiting overtures from Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Yale. Stann, however, had a different destiny, and enrolled at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.

After four years of suiting up at outside linebacker for the Midshipmen, Stann graduated from the Academy and headed to Quantico, VA, for Marine Corps Officer Candidates School. As a high-scoring officer-in training, when it came to selecting his military occupational specialty, or MOS, he had plenty of options.

Brian Stann's Silver Star Workout

Get Silver Star strength with this intense workout from the U.S. Marine and former MMA pro.

Brian Stann's physique has been conditioned for victory both on the battlefield and in the Octagon—and it shows. Though recently retired from the UFC, Stann continues to perform workouts that reflect the high intensity and never-quit attitude of a pro fighter.

Here's a glimpse at Stann's usual Wednesday workout.

Grappling

Workout

"We'll have a roomful of guys and I'll generally lead them through a 10-to-15 minute dynamic warm-up," Stann says. "We'll drill some technique then start doing situational rounds with different scenarios you might encounter, or that one of us might be preparing for. We'll go full contact, using strikes with gloves on. After that, we'll cool down and we're done.

Intensity:

5 Rounds x 5 Min. Each

Strength & Power

About the Workout

"When I lift, I'll do exercises designed to build strength and power, such as the bench press, squat, pull-up or power clean," Stann says. "Closer to a fight, this would shift to more conditioning and speed-based movements. I try not to do stuff that's too isometric—fighting is more dynamic, so you can train that way. I'll do a good, active warm-up, sometimes taking up to 20-25 minutes, then get into my lifts."

Workout

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Triset +
Single-arm Dumbbell Snatch	3	5, 3, 3
Bench Press w/Pause*	3	5
TRX Row	3	12
Triset +
Barbell Squat	3	8
Pullup	3	8
TRX Atomic Push-up**	3	10
Triset+
Single-leg Deadlift	3	6
TRX Knees-to-chest***	3	10
V-up	3	15

*Lower the weight to your chest and pause for a count before exploding the weight upward to full extension as quickly as possible.

**See instructions at bottom of page.

***With your feet in the stirrups of a TRX, assume the top of push-up position, tucking your knees in toward your chest.

+ Rest 90 seconds between trisets

Single-Arm Dumbbell Snatch

Hold a dumbbell and let it hang between your legs. Drop your hips and bend your knees, then explosively reverse direction, thrusting your hips forward. This creates momentum to drive the weight up in one motion. Finish with the dumbbell locked out overhead.

TRX Atomic Push-up

Rest your toes in the stirrups of a TRX suspension trainer and assume a push-up position. Perform a push-up, forming a pike position with your hips up at the top of the movement.

Brian Stann's Supplement Stack

What does a Marine and former MMA fighter use to stay at the top of his game?

Even heroes need some help keeping their bodies in peak condition. Here are the supplements that Silver Star recipient and former UFC fighter Brian Stann uses to ensure he's always ready to go.