Yesterday I posted a conditioning protocol using Farmer’s Walks, deadlifts and burpees. Last night after finishingup her strength training program I had Jessica finish off her session with the conditioning protocol. She had done a variation of the protocol the week before but we worked out the kinks. She pushed through it like a champion does as she gets ready for the Pan American Jiu-Jitsu tournament. Take a look at the video. Tell me what you think. I need a name for the protocol, anyone have any ideas? Would love to hear them.
Mar 31 2010
Conditioning in Action! The Journey Continues!
Mar 30 2010
Let’s Go for a Sprint or Walk…
Here is the age old question, should fighter use long distance running in their training? For years we have seen combat athletes from boxers to now MMA fighters using long distance running in their training. Now I am not here to tell you that long distance running is bad, hey if you want to do it great be my guest. But what I will tell you is that long slow distance (LSD) training will not help with your cardio in a fight. I can sit here all night and give you all the scientific study behind all of this or I can get straight to the point and not waste your time. I am here to research for you and give you what you want and what will work.
In a fight or grappling match of any kind, the pace of the bout is never steady. One minute you are scrambling around with an opponent the next you can be sitting in his guard waiting to make the next move or floating around the cage or ring using your footwork to make your next strike. Your heart rate is constantly rising and dropping back down and no amount of LSD training is going to help you with that.
It’s hard to break tradition and trainers are stuck in their ways and will not give in. It’s just as bad as MMA athletes and jiu-jitsu players using a bodybuilding routine to gain strength and power. Boys and girls it just ain’t gonna work! Some have realized the errors in their ways while others are still holding true to what worked well in the past will work now.
So what are we to do? Well for one you can stop LSD. So we know that LSD will not help your aerobic capabilities in a fight. I can also tell you that LSD will also wear on your joints and with all the bumps and bruises the body takes as a combat athlete the last thing you need is excessive pounding on the joints. Now I will sprint my fighters at times but not in excess because of the pounding on the joints. I like to keep my sprints short and sweet. Well there is really nothing sweet about sprinting now is there, but it is effective.
What do I like to do then to condition my fighters? Like I said above I do like to sprint them at times throughout their training. I like to take them to a track and have them do 400M sprints or have them sprint the straightaway’s and jog the bends. The latter sprinting protocol is effective because it raises your heart rate and it drops as you are jogging around the bend similar to what happens in a fight.
Using body weight and weighted conditioning protocols are the most effective way in conditioning a combat athlete. One can set up a protocol based on the time of your match or fight and then set up specific exercise that will mimic the competition you are in.
I am going to give you a protocol that I have been using with my clients and have been doing myself once a week for a little extra conditioning work. Get yourself a stopwatch, if you have one that counts down even better. You will do the following exercises for five minutes. If you need longer do to your specific fight requirements then add sets to it until you reach the time. This is fairly simple to follow but doing it is not that simple. All you need is 45-50 pound dumbbells and a room to walk about 20-25 yards. So here we go…
Conditioning Protocol
Farmers Walk twenty yards.
Five Deadlifts once you reach 20 yards.
Walk back twenty yards.
Five Burpees
Rest ten to fifteen seconds, depending on your level of conditioning.
Continue doing until the five minutes is up Rest one min in between sets. Do this for 3-5 sets depending on what sort of competition you are getting ready for. Go at your own pace to begin and then as you get better amp it up. You can always add heavier weight to the farmers walks as well. Train Hard, Train Smart!!
Comments Off
Mar 29 2010
The Secrets of Focus
Staying focused in the gym can sometimes be a daunting task even for fighters who usually have pretty good focus. There are so many distractions in the gym. Hey look at that cute girl over there! Gotcha ya! There are three secrets on how you as a fighter/athlete can stay focused in the gym. So here we go…
The first secret to maintaining your focus in the gym is this. If you are going to have a training partner, make sure that he or she is going to the gym to train not hang out with you. You can hang out with this person later.
These guys knew how to train together.
Many times I see friends training together and they sit around and bullshit during training time. If you are serious about training and getting stronger drop the friend and get with a training partner. Someone that has equal intensity as you do is very important. I am not saying that you can’t train with someone, what you need to do is find someone that has similar goals and focus as you and will push you when you need to be pushed. Sometimes we need that person next to us pushing us along to get us through the tough parts of a training session. But what you don’t need is a training partner that wants to talk about life’s problem, or what club you are going to later that night. So do yourself a favor if you do indeed enjoy training with someone make sure they are on the same page as you this way you can keep your training sessions at a maximum level.
On to secret number two. If you are training alone which most of do, unless you need your partner like stated above, do not use an I Pod or any other mp3 device. Yes that means take the headphones out of your ears. Now you are saying, “ Rob, I focus a lot better when I use my headphones, I get a better training session in.” My answer to that is… Do you? Let me ask you a question now. When you compete in MMA, Jiu-Jitsu or whatever the case may be, are you listening to music? Hmm the answer is no. So why listen in the gym.
Either this goes or your focus goes.
You make the choice.
Everyone puts their favorite songs on their mp3 players so you end up singing along if not out loud, which would piss me off, then in their head. Focusing on the music takes away from the focus on the training session. When training in the weight room you need to be focused on your technique of every lift. If your technique sucks just like in the combat sports, you will not improve or in this case get stronger. Some say it gets me through my workout quicker, last time I checked an hour is and hour with or without headphones. The music is just a distraction. Where is your distraction during a fight?
Secret number three to staying focused during a training session. Ok maybe two secrets, because all of you should know this. If you are heading to train what is the most important thing you need to bring with you? No not your water. It’s your plan. Or like we like to call it in the strength and conditioning world, your program. If you are a fighter and you are training there should be no question that you should have a program. There are a slew of benefits of having a program and those are for another day. The one I want to talk about is your plan and your focus. You walk into a training session without a program you are doomed. You do not have a focus for the training session. Without a focus for that particular session you will not achieve the goals you are looking for. Being ale to focus on your program will take you to new heights. So get a program and follow it if you have not done so already. Focus on the specific exercises and protocols of the program. A strength coach I used to work with once said to me, “Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.” So if you want to keep your focus during your training session then come prepared with a plan. Remember Train Hard! Train Smart!
Mar 27 2010
UFC 111 Predictions GSP v.s. Dan Hardy
Check out the quick video of my UFC 111 predictions. GSP defends title against Dan Hardy. Interim Heavyweight bout between Frank Mir and Shane Carwin It’s always fun to come back and make jokes about how I pick the fights wrong. Enjoy the fights everyone.
Comments Off
Mar 25 2010
Your Philosophy Sucks!
What is your philosophy? This is always a question that strength and conditioning coaches get asked. There are a slew of different philosophies out there from people saying that functional training is the best or Olympic lifting is the only way to make you more powerful. The training philosophies will never end. Now I am not the type of person to bad mouth the way people like to train their clients. Remember, mom always said, if you got nothing nice to say don’t say anything at all.
In reality, I love to learn. When I started out in strength and conditioning, I was always looking for ways to train clients. I was fortunate to be turned on to a few coaches who had established philosophies and programs. I learned a lot from these coaches. I have also heard some of these coaches bad mouthing other peoples programs.
I have read countless books on the subject of training. Some better than others but I can say that within almost everyone of those books I was able to take something away from it to enhance my coaching. This brings me to my next point educate yourself as much as possible. Just learning one style of training from one coach and following it religiously does not make you a better coach it just makes you a follower of that particular coach.
I love to go to the book store, now every time I go more than likely I am leaving with some book on some subject I am interested. For instance, I went today to look for one book that I have wanted to read and left Borders with three books. But anyway, there are two places I always go when I am at the bookstore, besides looking at the tasty treats at the built in Starbucks. I hit the martial arts section and the fitness/weightlifting section. I usually grab a handful of books and browse through them. Sometimes they are brand new books I have never seen before and sometimes they are books I have already looked through. Why do I do this? For only one reason to see if I can find something new either that I missed the first time around or something that I have just discovered. I can take that one thing that I picked up in the book and easily implement it into a program. If I see results with it then I will keep it around and go back to it when I need it. Like I told my wife a few months ago, I have learned more from self educating my self than any class for CEU’s or school has ever taught me.
I also love to just talk to people about their training. The things they like to do, the things that work for them and have them tell me about their philosophies on training. These people do not even have to be certified, I can tell a person knows what they are talking about when I talk to them. There are people out there right now who are not certified but are fantastic coaches. /trainers.
So in essence I do not prescribe to one almighty training philosophy. Oh no is that a sin to say. Do I have a base of where I go from, hell yeah but I am always on the path for new things and not looking to stay stagnant.
So here I go, my philosophy is a living philosophy. Yes just like the Constitution is a living document. I don’t stay static with it. Things are always changing in how I look at training. That does not mean I am all over the place with my training methods, I have specific ways I implement things into my philosophy. Our minds and bodies can easily adapt to different things. We not only need to keep our bodies guessing but our minds as well or we become dull. We always need to be sharpening our sword if you know what I mean. So turn your training philosophy into a living philosophy. Always pursue new knowledge. Always sharpen your sword, for God’s sake you are a warrior aren’t you. Train Hard, Train Smart!
Comments Off
Mar 24 2010
The MMA Journey Continues
We are moving ahead in Jessica’s training. Monday Jessica learned how to clean. This was the first time that she cleaned. She picks things up very quickly and power cleans will be put into her program. Then we worked on her deadlifts we did 4 sets of 4 reps at 75% of her max. For the conditioning portion of the training session I had Jess doing some Farmers Walks with the Hex deadlift bar. Now the gym we train at is small but I was able to have her go about ten yards. When she reached ten yards she dropped the weight and did five burpees. She then came back the ten yards and deadlifted the weight for five reps. She did five sets of theses with 30 seconds of rest in between each set. The look on the other trainer’s faces when she was doing this was priceless. It’s not like I was doing anything crazy with her just a little conditioning protocol. Hmm maybe next time I will have her just run on the treadmill, nah that’s no fun. Another thing I love when I ask her how she is feeling during the training session and she says,” I love it!” Right now Jessica is learning the right way to lift and getting her body conditioned for what is to come down the road in her actual program. A little GPP work, as we like to call it. This week I am planning out her program and going to be writing it out over the weekend.
Jessica’s next big competition is the Pan Ams in three weeks. She is gearing up for that. Strength and conditioning wise I will be focusing on getting her stronger in the next couple of weeks but really going to focus on her conditioning and muscle endurance. After this tournament she will be competing in some smaller tournaments. Her next big jiu-jitsu one after the Pan Ams is the New York Open this summer. We will be kicking it into hire gear for that one. Another thing we are looking forward to here at Combat Trainer is the possibility of Jessica getting her first MMA fight over the summer. That will be some exciting news and I will keep you up to date on when and where she will be fighting.
I will place video of Jessica training in upcoming post as well as some of her tournament footage. Here is another one of her matches in a jiu-jitsu tournament. Jessica is in the blue and gray rash guard.
Comments Off
Mar 22 2010
Building Bulletproof Ankles
One aspect of training that is usually overlooked by many, and that includes me at times is ankle stability. In any sport there is always a rash of ankle injuries. Just take a look at NFL injury reports during the season and that will tell the story, or how wrapped up their ankles are during a game. This is no different for the combat athlete, be it a jiu-jitsu player or MMA fighter, ankle injuries are prevalent.
The ankle and its function are very important in sports. Let’s take a look at the importance of it in combat sports such as MMA. When we go for a takedown our ankle extension is key in being able to push through the movement. If we go for any type of kick, once again our ankle extension is pivotal in producing power. Even in the basic footwork of a boxer, ankle stability is important. One way to help prevent ankle stability issues is to strengthen the feet. Strengthening your feet will help prevent many issues that may arise in your ankles. In the past I have had some ankle issues and have found that working on making my feet stronger has helped. Seems simple enough, stronger feet, equals stronger ankles. Another aspect to focus on when training for ankle stability is balance. Balance is a key component to your ankles being strong and will go a long way into building bulletproof ankles.
One recommendation I have when working on foot strength and ankle stability, is to train barefoot. If you have sneakers on your feet will not get the proper stimulation they will need. They will have too much protection in training which will not let the muscles of the feet develop and get stronger. The stronger the muscle in your feet the more stable not only your ankles will be but the rest of your body. There are many exercises that we can add into our existing strength and conditioning programs.
The first exercise I am going to describe is a very basic balancing exercise. You are going to stand on one leg knees slightly bent and hold yourself there for 30 seconds. Yes like I said very simple. To make it more difficult try closing your eyes while balancing on the one leg, this will develop better use of your internal sensory receptors. Remember what you do for one leg do for the other. So alternate legs when performing this exercise.
The second exercise that I will discuss, are single leg reaches. To start off place three cones out around you far enough that you will have to reach out and extend your body to touch them. One cone will be in front of you one, to the left and right of you. Next stand on one leg like the balancing exercise discussed first. You will then reach out and touch the cones one by one. Do three round trips then take a rest.
The third exercise requires some type of balance disc or if your gym has one a Bosu Ball. This exercise is a little more advanced. You will stand on the disc or the Bosu Ball with both feet and medicine ball. If you have a partner, great, if not you can find a wall to the throw the ball against. What you will do is throw the ball to your partner and they will throw it back at you. If using the wall stay kind of close so the ball is sure to come back to you at about chest level. To increase the difficulty of this exercise, stand on the disc or the Bosu Ball with one leg. Talk about balance and ankle stability.
So do these exercises and you will see a dramatic improvement in your ankle stability and balance. Remember Trai Hard! TrainSmart!
Mar 20 2010
UFC on Versus
UFC on Versus. Main Event Brandon Vera takes on Jon Jones. Here are my picks for the fights on the main card.
Comments Off
Mar 18 2010
Why Do You Train?
Since this is a site devoted to training combat athletes, I am looking for reason as to why you guys like to train in combat sports. Do you do it because you want to be a pro fighter one day? Do you do it for exercise? Do you do it because it is something different? Do you do it for self-defense? Do it for the discipline? Do you do it for fun or do you it because you just want to compete here and there?
Back when I was a kid, I always wanted to train in some kind of martial arts. I never had the opportunity to do so. The closest I got was being on the wrestling team in high school. But that was no fun since my mom did not want me to lift weights for fear of me stunting my growth. What a silly myth that is, and to make matters worse I am still short anyway but even better than that I am a strength and conditioning coach now. So being a skinny kid on the wrestling mat did not fair work out to well for me.
So once I was able to afford the payments to join a school, I ran out and joined a muay Thai school. I fell in love with training in muay Thai, and was doing a little jiu-jitsu on the side as well. There was weeks I trained 6 days, I even gave up lifting weights for a short time because I was having so much fun. But the reason I train is to just have fun and learn how to defend myself.
Combat sports, be it boxing, MMA, jiu-jitsu whatever the sport may be, can be and will be taxing on the body. What makes the average person want to train in such a discipline? Who likes to go home with the bumps and the bruises? Is it fun, hell yeah it is. So I want to know, why do you train? What makes you get in your car drive to your school and bust your ass? Leave a comment telling me why you train, I would love to know. Until next time, remember, Train Hard, Train Smart!!
Next Page »
