Apr 29 2010

The Journey is Rocking!

Category: Agility,Conditioning,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,Power Training,Quickness,Speed,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 9:37 PM

And so the journey continues and it is getting better and better as we move along.  As we all know Jessica is a 2010 Pan American champion but last week on a weekend visit to Chi-town it just so happened that there was a Naga taking place at the same time.  So what does any true Samurai do, they fight and that is just what Jess did as she once again took another tournament and continues her pace to becoming a great MMA champion.  This Saturday she will be competing in the New York Open jiu-jitsu tournament.

Look at that Samurai Sword!

The best thing about this is that after this tournament I have Jessica for a whole four weeks of strength and conditioning.  I am excited about this, as we have had to pull back a little on the strength training due to the fact that she was competing in tournament every couple of weeks.  I now have her for a full phase of training.

So here is what the program is going to focus on.  I am going to keep the same strength-training program that I had mentioned in one of my previous titled “What’s a Strength Coach Supposed To Do?  So she will follow that specific program two times a week with conditioning protocols at the end.  I will now be adding another day in there and it will focus on some different aspects of strength and conditioning.  The extra two days will focus on some functional exercise to help improve balance and mobility.  Along with that I am going to be adding speed, agility, quickness and reaction drills to these days.  I want to improve Jessicas athletic ability with this day.  We will be working on multi-directional work, cone drills and even some sprint work.  I know if I turn her into a better athlete that it will turn her into a better fighter.  This just goes to prove that not all strength and conditioning training for MMA fighters needs to be “sport-specific”.  Many times you need to take a step back and develop your fighters athletic ability it will only improve their fight game.  One thing that I am excited about testing and have been using myself is the reaction ball.  The way this ball bounces it is going to improve her reaction time on the mat and in the cage.  Look for my next post in the next day or so as I go through the progression of how I taught Jessica to snatch in out last session.  Until then Train Hard, Train Smart!

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Apr 25 2010

Mental MMA!

Category: Jiu-Jitsu,Mental Training,MMA,Strength Training — Rob @ 11:00 AM

“It’s ninety percent mental.”  It’s what we hear all the time about not just MMA but many other sports.  Ok so then let me ask you something if it’s 90% mental and only 10% physical then why do we have our fighters spend so much time training the physical and so much less time training the mental side of their game.

We all know how mentally taxing getting into cage, ring or stepping on the mat can be.  Fighters can drain themselves from just anticipating the moment.  How many highly touted fighters step into the UFC for the first time, end up freezing up and just not performing to expectation?  Did they lose all their talent? Not at all.  Mentally they were not able to handle the situation.  Many of those fighters do come back a second time around and end up winning in their second fight.  The talent is there the mental training is not.

One of the most important things to work on when you are doing your mental training is visualization.  You need to immediately begin to learn how to use visualization.  This is a skill that is imperative to your performance on and off the mat.

If you can visualize this...

Then you can visualize this!

Let’s make this easy, start off with simple visualization practice.  Before heading out to any kind of training session, be it a strength and conditioning session or jiu-jitsu session, visualize what you want that training session to look like.  Close your eyes focus on walking into the gym, what do you hear, what do you smell (which could be nasty but…) what or who do you see?  Then visualize the physical work that will take place during your training session.  If it’s jiu-jitsu visualize rolling with someone in the class.  What will you attempt to try, what will you do if you get caught in certain positions?  How does this help?  Say you do get caught in the position that you had visualized.  You are now more likely to stay calm and work your way out of it just like you imagined you would have.  Visualizing certain positions is like drilling and you can do it over and over again.  The more you visualize your training or a fight the better your results will be.

You can use visualization throughout your whole day.  As you are driving you can practice your visualization, just don’t close your eyes.  So start off small when you begin to use visualization.  Start with a training session, then start visualizing an actual competition or fight and then work your way up to long-term goals that you have for your fight career.  This one tip on mental training can lead to vast improvement in your fight game.

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Apr 22 2010

Functional Correction and MMA?

Category: MMA,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:35 PM

Hey everyone, hope all is going well with your life and your training.  This week I had a sinus infection but gave me time to write some stuff since I did not make the gym on Monday and Tuesday.  One thing I wanted to share with all of you was a review on Tim Hull’s, Functional Correction, manual.  For those of you that do not know Tim Hull he is a physical therapist and has loads of experience in the fitness industry.  Tim is always willing to share his wealth of knowledge with people. Check him out at his site http://thestrengthdoctor.com  That being said I wanted to share my thoughts about Tim’s manual Functional Correction.


Functional Correction will not only help recover from injury quicker but will also keep your chances from injuring yourself lower.  Tim goes through how muscles imbalances in your body can lead to injuries or aches and pains in other parts of your body.  His in depth insight how the body works together and certain muscles should not be neglected is useful information for all everyone.

After giving a lot of good information on the body he not only gives us the exercises that we should be doing but he accompanies it with great photos to help you with the visual.  Tim gives us the 7 Daily Essentials.  These exercises should be done on a daily basis and are great on days you are not training for they will help give you greater flexibility and keep you healthy.  If you have ever done a dynamic warm-up some of these exercise may be familiar to you but Tim does a great job of picking out the seven best one’s that you should use on a daily basis.  Tim then gives us a whole slew of exercises that help with our mobility as well as for the use of activating our muscles.  With each picture he gives us a picture with what the exercise helps us with and a brief description of how to do the exercise.

If you are an athlete and especially if you train in MMA or any combat sport I highly recommend picking up a copy of Functional Correction.  Putting many of these exercise in your training regime will greatly reduce the likelihood of injury and help you stay on the mat and keep on training.  Just click on the link below to check out your copy of Functional Correction.

http://thera-strength.com/manual/functional-correction-manual

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Apr 20 2010

Take a Break from MMA!

Category: Jiu-Jitsu,Mental Training,MMA,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 9:12 PM

If you are a strength and conditioning coach then you know the importance of having deloading weeks in their programs.  Many coaches fail to have their athletes deload and this can lead to weaker athletes as well as injury.   For those of you that are MMA athletes or grapplers let me briefly explain to you what deloading is. Deloading is a segment of training session that aid in the recovery of your body.  They normally happen every four to eight weeks after an intense training program.

If you are training an MMA athlete you must have deload weeks placed in their programs.

MMA athletes are notorious for intense training weeks of many different aspects of each discipline required to be a MMA fighter.  On top of that they add strength and conditioning sessions and that can lead to problems because they never allow themselves time to recover.  Recovery for these athletes is imperative and must be taken seriously.

That being said if you are an MMA fighter you must look into deloading in your overall training.  I know, I said it, basically you should schedule weeks within your training to deload from all aspects of training.  Yes that means all aspects of training, don’t try and sneak a sparring session in on your deload week.  Here is what I am proposing you can pick a cycle of training, be it four, six or eight week cycle and deload on that last week.

What are some of the benefits of deloading? No you are not just sitting on your ass during the deload week eating and watching TV.  For starters it is an active recovery session.  These deload sessions will help reduce the risk of injury or rehab an injury, help with the repair of muscles or muscle building, help your flexibility and help you mentally.

How do you organize your deload week?  You can have three or four sessions during your deload week.  During this week you are focusing on active recovery.  Make the sessions short and sweet.  So in each session you should have some type of dynamic stretches to increase your flexibility and get more blood flowing to the muscle.  You can also use body weight exercise to get the blood flowing as well.  If you want to do any training in any specific martial arts you will just do the technique work.  NO SPARRING OR ROLLING!! One thing you can do during your deload week is look at tapes of fights or jiu-jitsu tournaments.  This will vastly improve your game as well and will pump you up when you get back into training the following week.

I know this is hard for the MMA athlete but it is important to making gains on and off the mat.  At first these sessions will be very strange to you.  You may not even know what to do with your free time during that week but you will see improvement in your skills and gains in your strength and power.  So remember add the deload week in your training, you will thank me later.  Train Hard! Train Smart!

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Apr 15 2010

What’s a Strength Coach Supposed To Do?

Category: Conditioning,MMA,Power Training,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 6:58 PM

If you have been following my blog, you are familiar with Jessica Richer.  If not here is the quick run down.  Jessica is an aspiring MMA fighter.  She just won the Pan Am games in jiu-jitsu and is well on her way to achieving her dream.  The one thing I have learned about Jess is that she does not stop.  She is always doing some kind of training.

Recently I have been trying to get her on a consistent strength and conditioning program.  The problem is that Jessica has a hectic competition schedule.  She takes off from lifting about five days prior to her competitions.  She averages about one competition every three weeks.  This leaves usually two weeks of hard work in the weight room.

So this is what I am doing to combat this problem.  I am just going to focus on what she needs the most as an athlete.  He conditioning level is great and she gets enough of it with the sparring she does on a daily basis.  So the conditioning is the least of my concerns when I train her.   So the training sessions will focus more on strength and power development.

I am taking the original program that I designed for her and using them in two-week blocks instead of four-week and focusing on strength and power in the same training sessions.  This way there is not just one focus when she is training.  With the conditioning left to her, for the time being till her competition schedule frees up, I can now devote all training sessions with her to the development of her strength and power gains.   In the two weeks of training I will amp up the intensity and the volume of the session to get the most bang for my buck and then have one light deload session five days out from her competition as well as dynamic flexibility work on that day.

A few years back I read about a system that a Canadian strength coach by the name of Jean Boulet devised, it was called the Canadian Ascending/Descending system.  Basically the system calls on the athlete to train different types of strength all in one training session.  This program will work well for MMA fighters as well as any combat athlete.   The original program called for upper and lower body splits but I looked at the time it was taking me to get through the training sessions and combined the two, upper and lower body and designed one training session.  The original program looked like this:

Slow-Speed Strength Exercises

Strength-Speed Exercises

Ballistic Exercises

Shock Exercises

Depending on the day the athlete would either ascend or descend.  Ascending you would go from the Shock exercise up to the Slow-speed exercises and on the descending days you reverse it going from the Slow-sped exercise to the Shock exercises.  I have taken the and basically supersetted the two. If the fighter is  ascending on the lower body that training session I will have the fighter descend on the upper body, supersetting it with the lower body exercises.  This works great for saving the athlete time in the gym when they can be at home recovering.  So I have now taken the system and working it into two-week blocks to train Jess and get the maximum results out of her in the shortest time possible.  If you train fighters or grapplers who are always in competition mode this will work great for them.  Be strong everyone!

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Apr 14 2010

Come take the Journey to the Pan Ams!

Category: Jiu-Jitsu,MMA — Rob @ 7:48 AM

The stage was set, for this years Pan American Jiu-Jitsu Tournament. Jessica headed out to Irvine, California for a weekend of jiu-jitsu. The Pan Ams are one of the most important and best-attended jiu-jitsu tournaments in the world. Jessica was going to meet up with some tough competition at this tournament.
When she arrived in Cali she needed to cut six pounds. Now Jess has been practicing weight cutting for a couple of tournaments now and things have been going great and the Pan Ams would be no different. But before she headed for the scale again and the official weigh in she still had those six pounds to get rid of. Jess headed over to the local LA Fitness and jumped in the sauna to kill off some of the water weight.


“Don’t look at me strange, I will tap your ass out!”

The next day she heads over to the Bren Event Center for the official weigh in and makes the weight no problem.  So now the next step is actually stepping out on the mats and winning.  Take a look at the Bren Center all decked out for the Pan Ams.

Where the magic happens.

Many of the top jiu-jitsu players in the world compete in the Pan Ams.  It is an honor and a major achievement to win this tournament.  Jess has been putting in a lot of time on the mats and in the weight room and has been making crazy improvement.  So it’s no wonder when she stepped out on the mat she rolled right through the competition with no problem.  when I say no problem I really mean no problem.  She had three matches that all went the distance, that is eighteen minutes of grappling.  Jess dominated each opponent as none of them were able to score one point on her.  That is eighteen minutes not one point scored.  Pretty damn good if you ask me.  She is well on her way to becoming a superstar.  Look out fight world!

“You’re the Best Around…”

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Apr 12 2010

Develop Balance and Strength for MMA on One Leg!

Category: Conditioning,MMA,Strength Training — Rob @ 10:20 PM

Ok when people think of body weight exercises many think about using them for conditioning or in the use of plyometrics. I am here to tell you that you can also get strong with just the use of your body. There is one exercise that will make you strong and help you become more in touch with your body because of the concentration level that you will need in order to perform it. Let’s get into this.
The one-legged squat above all other lower body weight exercises will develop strength. We all know about the squatting and the benefits of doing squats. If you do not have a barbell for squats and want to develop strength in your lower body doing the one-legged squats will help you. The reason you will develop strength is simple, you are using one leg to squat your entire body weight. This exercise will transfer over into MMA in different ways. Take a look at when a fighter is being taken down; they must maintain balance on one leg many times. Being able to perform a one-legged squat will help develop that balance as well as strength to maintain your position. Another way the one-legged squat will help develop strength specific to MMA is when you are taking a shot. It may not be in the same plane of motion however when taking a shot you will need to push off one leg. Squatting with one leg will give you the strength in order to effectively takedown your opponent.
When starting to use this exercise you may need the help of a bench or chair in order to complete a rep. As you get better you will be able to complete reps without the use of anything. When attempting the one-legged you must maintain balance at all times and keep your body tight. By tight I mean tensing your entire body throughout the entire movement. If you loosen up then you will find that you will loose your balance and not be able to complete the squat. So if anyone tells you that you can’t get strong with just your bodyweight or that body weight exercises are for conditioning, you can now show them that they are not. Here is a video of Pavel Tsatsouline doing the one-legged squat or the Pistol.
Please feel free to sign up for the MMA Body Weight Manual on the right hand side. It will show you how to program this exercise as well as other bodyweight exercise in order to get the full potential out of your body. Just type in your email and your copy will be sent to you will receive your copy immediately. Now go Train!

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Apr 08 2010

MMA and the Olympics?

Category: MMA,Power Training,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 10:00 PM

We have heard rumors about Mixed Martial Arts maybe one day being part of the Olympics. Who knows if this will ever happen but this is not what this post is about. I want to discuss training that has been over looked by not only fighters but many athletes as well. What am I talking about? I am talking about the Olympic lifts. Recently on the UFC Primetime show, we saw George St. Pierre (GSP) doing the Snatch. This is proving that the Olympic lifts are valuable to any strength-training program.
What are the benefits of the Olympic style lifts? These lifts are known to develop power as well as great flexibility in the hips, legs and shoulders and the whole body is trained when performing these lifts.
When I learned the lifts two years ago I saw the immediate benefit to doing them. I instantly began to incorporate them into my fighters program. When fighters ask me what are the best exercises the Clean and Press is always mentioned. Obviously there are benefits from the other lifts as well.
There is one negative about the Olympic lifts. For most athletes or fighters they are hard to learn. There is a lot of technique that goes into these lifts and it takes a while to get the hang of them. The better your technique gets the more you will be able to lift. With the Olympic lifts poor technique equals bad results. But if you can get good at them it will extremely improve your athleticism. Trainers say it’s a waste of time to teach these lifts because they take so long and fighters need to focus on other types of training before a fight. What about the time that they are not preparing for a fight do these trainers just stop strength training all together? This is the perfect time to teach your fighters the Olympic lifts. During this time you can focus on showing them one lift and let them get good at it. Then you can incorporate them into their program.
When I teach my fighters these lifts I am not looking to make them Olympic weightlifters, I just want them to learn the lift effectively enough to be able to perform the lift explosively and not get hurt. The key here is to teach them how to control their bodies while exploding during the movement as fast as they can. In upcoming weeks I will be posting more about the Olympic lifts.
Below is a video of someone I used to train MMA with. He was also an Olympic lifter in high school when I met him. I ran into him at the gym a few weeks back and he trained with me. Here is video of him power snatching. Take a look at his technique pretty good after a couple of years lay off.

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Apr 05 2010

Can you Juggle?

Category: Jiu-Jitsu,MMA — Rob @ 8:45 PM

Today I was sitting on my couch watching a little opening day baseball. I am a Mets fan so insert joke here… Anyway as I was sitting there I get a text message from Jessica. Everyone knows who Jessica is, and if you don’t let me give you a quick refresher. Jess is an aspiring MMA fighter and I have no doubt in my mind that she will be a great MMA fighter one day. That being said her text read basically told me that she was stuck at work and was not going to be able to make our training session tonight and she did not even think she would make jiu-jitsu class. I could feel her pain through the text so much so that it inspired me to write this post tonight and get it out there.
If we were able to train tonight I was not going to train her hard because of the fact that she has the Pan Ams this weekend and she needs to be fully recovered. But what if this is a normal week? She misses out on some good training. And that is one of the problems with up and coming amateur fighters. They have so much to juggle in their lives that sometimes getting training sessions in are difficult. Some amateurs hold down full time jobs, school plus all the different training that needs to be done as well as family life. This can turn into a problem at times. Shane Carwin, the UFC interim heavy weight champion has a crazy schedule with work and travel to all the different gyms. He is the spokesperson for being able to juggle every thing on his plate and still be a top fighter in the world. Here is an example of his training week.

Monday
11:30 – 1:00 – lifting at UNC
5:00 – 9:00 – Grudge Training Center
Tuesday
9:30 – 12:00 – Grudge Training Center
5:00-6:00 – Wrestling
6:00 – 7:30 – Easton’s BJJ
Wednesday -
11:30 – 1:00 – lifting at UNC
5:00 – 9:00 – Grudge Training Center
Thursday -
9:30 – 12:00 – Grudge Training Center
5:00-6:00 – Wrestling
6:00 – 7:30 – Easton’s BJJ
Friday -
11:30 – 1:00 – lifting at UNC
“If I can do it, YOU CAN TOO!”

5:00 – 9:00 – Grudge Training Center
Saturday -
10:00 – 1:00 – Grudge Training Center
Sunday -Rest
As you can see Carwin does not stop on his way to the top of the MMA world. But Carwin is the exception not the rule as many fighters fold under the extreme pressures of life and finding time to train as well. Here is the one thing that will help you along the way of keeping that busy schedule and being able to train to become a champion one-day.
One of the most important things to do is to create a schedule similar to what Carwin has and sticking to it.
Each hour that you are not at your job or with your family should be planned out. If you have a strict plan set for yourself every week then it will be hard for you to deviate from that plan. Jessica has a plan for herself every week. She knows when she is training what and at what time. Most martial arts gyms have classes scheduled so it’s easy to make your plan around those classes. Now I know things come up at the spur of the moment but this plan will help keep you on track.
So you will have your nights or days, depending on the fighter, when you train jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing, judo and strength and conditioning. What does a schedule like this prevent? It prevents you from not attending your training session and it also prevents you from not knowing what to do when it comes to what to train for the day. If you spread your training out evenly you will hit all aspects of training in the week. Some days you may have to schedule two different sessions but as long as you know what they are you will be better prepared to not miss those sessions and be more focused when you get there. One piece of advice when setting up this schedule of training is not to forget the rest and recovery days. They are potentially the most important part of the schedule. Think of yourself as your own business. Businesses make plans to ensure that they will be successful. Why not do the same for you? Plan your schedule and you will see your MMA game take off to new levels.
Train Hard! Train Smart!

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Apr 03 2010

Flip This!

Category: Conditioning,MMA,Power Training,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:20 AM

We have all seen it before athletes flipping tires. This is not some new fad in the fitness industry. So what is the fascination with this form of training? First off training by flipping tires is fun and a different form of training. As we all know people like a little variety and fun in their lives and tire flipping can deliver both. They can be used to develop strength, power and also used as a conditioning protocols.
Many combat athletes especially in MMA are now utilizing tire flipping into their training. What are some of the benefits for these combat athletes that use tire flips in their training? First flipping tires can develop strength. As a fighter you can use the tire to develop power and finally you can use it as a conditioning tool as well.
Let’s look at how it can develop strength. Now I don’t recommend just jumping right in with your fighters and just start flipping tires because it is the in thing to do. Make sure your combat athlete has a good base of strength training to start with. This will help limit the possibility of injury to your athlete.
Trainers can use the tire flip to produce strength. If strength is your goal with tire flipping, I suggest that you pick a tire that is relatively heavy and as with most exercises you do to develop strength choose a repetition range between 1- 5 reps and 3-5 sets. If you are looking to develop power then pick a tire that weighs less. Remember when training for power you want to explode with the external resistance.

Tire Flipping is Fun!

Having too heavy of a tire will prevent that from happening. Once you find a tire suitable for you to move at a good speed I would suggest that you do 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps. Remember you want to drive the tire up and over as quickly as possible to develop your explosiveness. Finally if you are looking to add a conditioning with your tire flipping it can also be done. Again you do not want to go super heavy on the tire. I would keep the weight moderate. You can flip for reps or add different exercises along with it to get your desired training effect.
Here is a sample training session that I have used. Now this day was just dedicated to flipping tires outside in the nice weather and just having some fun while getting strong and getting a little conditioning in as well.
We started out with a dynamic warm-up and moved on to a more specific warm-up by doing partner tire flips for 3 sets of 8 reps. After the warm-up we moved on to 4 sets of heavy tire flips at 3 repetitions with jumps onto and off the tire after each rep. Then we moved on to a conditioning protocol using tire flips (with a lighter tire than used for the strength work), sprinting and pushups. So this is what it looked like:
Dynamic warm-up
Partner Tire Flips 3 sets 8 reps.
Strength Work 4 sets 3 reps with jumps on the tire and off.
Conditioning 3 sets timed at five minutes. 5 tire flips, sprint 20-25 yard and back, 10 pushups, 5 tire flips. Rest for 10-15 seconds after the last five tire flips then continue for five minutes.
Here is the protocol in action.

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