UFC 117 is only a few days away and this card is stacked from top to bottom. We all know the main event pits Chael Sonnen going against defending champ Anderson Silva for the title. The one sided war of words has been well documented over the last few months and soon enough it will be time to close the mouth and step inside the Octagon.
For the next couple of days I am in hot pursuit of finding strength and conditioning videos of some of the fighters that are on the card at UFC 117. For starters I am going to begin with Ricardo Almeida who is taking on a legend in Matt Hughes. This is going to be a battle and I see it going to the judges. That being said both fighters will have to be in top condition.
Ricardo Almeida’s strength and conditioning coach is the world renowned Martin Rooney. If you follow strength and conditioning Rooney is one of the leaders in the industry and I myself have learned quite a bit from this great coach.
The video below is a short one. The deadlift is one of the best movements an athlete can perform. The deadlift builds the muscles of the posteiror chain. In this video Rooney has Almeida doing a variation of the deadlift. Rooney calls this modified version the sprawling deadlift. Obvious the sprawl is essential in MMA. The key to this lift is to do it as fast as possible and generate power. So don’t load the bar to heavy because it will not allow you pull it up fast. So check out this video. And don’t forget to watch Almeida take on Hughes this weekend.

Tags: Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen, deadlift, fighters, Martin Rooney, Matt Hughes, MMA, Power, RABJJ, Ricardo Almeida, sprawl, strength and conditioning, UFC 117