After a layoff from writing for the website it is now time to tell you guys what I have been doing in the time period.  Last year at this time I got involved in running many different obstacle course races like the Metro Dash and several Spartan Races.  So I decided to use my coaching knowledge on how to train combat athletes and put it to the test with not only obstacle course racers but endurance athletes as well.  The results have been great with many people accomplishing their goals of finishing races to many of my top runners breaking personal records in their marathon and half-marathon times.

All along I was continuing to train combat athletes and educate myself on how to become a better coach.  This brings me to where I am today.  After obtaining my Level 2 Training for Warriors certification from world-class strength and conditioning coach Martin Rooney I decided that I would become an affiliate under his Training for Warriors system.  This move was a no brainer to me as I have been following many of the applications he was using with my own athletes.  This move will only help the Combat Trainer name and anyone who trains with me.  Martin Rooney, if you are not in the know, has three books out in the bookstore his latest Warrior Cardio will get you in kick ass shape and just in time for the summer.

With summer approaching here are few things that will be coming up in the Combat Trainer world.  The impending finishing of the garage gym that will allow me to run classes for many different types of athletes and that includes those weekend warriors.  The Combat Trainer competition team will also grow out of this as I have added a few more grapplers to the team and look to take them to a new level and help them achieve their goals.   There will also be seminars for people to learn how to train the most effective way and get in the best shape of their lives as well as for those running in any endurance type event including obstacle course racing.

Things are on the way up for Team Combat Trainer.  So finally I want to thank everyone who has been supporting me on this journey.  The ship is picking up steam and is ready to just keep going.  If you are interested in any of the classes that I will be offering you can email me at combattrainer@gmail.com.

Free Your Inner Athlete!

I believe I have said this once before but sprinting is one of the best if not the best conditioning tools a MMA fighter can use to increase not only their anaerobic conditioning but at the same time get leaner, stronger and more powerful.  Most people forget about this easy to use and most natural tool we have.  Fighters and their coaches love to put their athletes through different types of “MMA specific” circuits and use that as their only mode of conditioning.  I have caught myself doing this as well but as I grow wiser and grayer in the beard I have come to love and appreciate the art of sprinting.

Sprinting is a full body training session.  If you have not sprinted in a while then you will definitely have some muscle soreness in the following days.  Besides getting in a great conditioning session and increasing your stamina, there are a few more benefits from getting out and sprinting.  Sprinting will also help to cut off excess pounds and around this time of the year, who doesn’t need that.  With the loss of fat comes the increase of lean muscle mass, which will not only make you a better athlete and fighter but also make you look good, a definite bonus for you single fighters out there.  Sprinting will also help increase power while activating those Fast-Twitch muscle fibers necessary in fighting.  The benefit that I find to be very useful especially in the fighting world is the fact that a sprint session is very short.  With all the training that fighters need to go through to get on the mat or in the cage, shorter sessions in the strength and conditioning world will save you and your body from excess wear and tear.

If you have not put sprinting into your training this may be a great time to do it.   Check out the sprint program that I posted a few months ago, this will be a great place to start.  From there you can get into some more intricate and hit me up for a program to improve your strength and conditioning training.

Finally I will leave you with an awesome sprint session that I completed on New Years Eve.  After each sprint, make sure you get sufficient recovery time.  What I do is I gauge by my heart rate, once my heart rate drops between 30-40 beats I then complete the next set.  This is a basic ladder scheme, start off with a 100m sprint followed by a 200m , then a 300m and finally a 400m sprint.  I know I said finally but you are not done yet.  Once recovered from the 400m sprint, which for some can take minutes as you gather yourself, you then embark down the ladder starting with 400m, then 300m, 200m and finally 100m.  After a good solid warm-up, the sprinting should not take any longer than a half hour to complete.  Rest intervals will determine how long the session takes.

So get out to the track and get your sprint training on, because your conditioning will thank you in the end.

When it comes to training for MMA, fighters seem to only want to get there strength and conditioning in during fight camp.  For most fighters, training camp usually starts eight weeks out from the fight.  This is the time when majority of the fighters turn it up in the weight room.  The fact of the matter is that combat athletes should be doing their training in the weight room year round.

If a fighter just focuses on getting stronger in the weeks leading up to a fight they will not become stronger in the long run.  Every time they start a new training camp that fighter will have regain the strength he or she had lost in their time off from the gym.

Coming out of a fight, a combat athlete will take a few days to a couple weeks off from training.  Many just stop training in the weight room altogether until the next fight comes around.  This is what starts to happen once a fighter stops their strength and conditioning work.  Around two weeks after stopping, there is a reduction in strength and after thirty days the fighters strength will begin to diminish even more.  As far as anaerobic endurance that will start to show a bigger decrease after around two weeks. 

The concern is not so much about the anaerobic work for that will get done as the athlete continues to train on the mats and in the ring.  Through the technical training and the rolling and sparring the athlete will maintain a decent level of conditioning.  The problem lies more with the combat athletes strength training.  Like I said above the athlete will stop training in the weight room for the most part and lose what they had gained during the training camp.  Starting from square one every time a fight nears does not improve the fighter.  The recommendation here is for the fighter to train year round to not only maintain their strength but also to get stronger.  A solid strength-training program year round will be beneficial when fight time approaches.  A fighter will not have to focus in training camp on regaining the strength they had lost but rather will be able to build upon the strength and power they had gained prior to the start of the training camp.  An improvement of strength over time will also help with improvement in conditioning.

As the strength and conditioning coach there is also a benefit of knowing how long it takes for an athlete to start losing their strength gains.  If the coach knows that the athlete will see a decrease in strength at around two weeks they will be able to better plan the training cycle.  A coach can time out the cycles so the last of the heavier training sessions can be around two weeks out.  The important thing here is the coach must also know their fighter and the performances they have been having throughout the training camp.

Maintaining a solid strength and conditioning program even when you are not fighting will go a long way in improving yourself as a MMA fighter.

Drinking 8 glasses of water a day  is considered conventional wisdom that can be heard multiple times every day in settings all over the world including the MMA training scene.  Much like many things concerning training, the amount of fluid intake a person should have is more individualized than just a flat prescription of 8 glasses a day.   A fighter’s fluid needs are unique, and as such, need a unique approach.

Dehydration can cause a tremendous reduction in performance. If you’re dehydrated, your body and mind suffer greatly, increasing your rate of injury as well as endangering your health permanently .  In the cage this is a formula for disaster. There are two major reasons why an MMA fighter has different fluid intake needs than your average person and other athletes.  First  is that your activity level is much higher than people taking part in many other athletics.  MMA training is unusually intense long with periods of high intensity scattered throughout.  There is measurably  more fluid loss than a steady-state activity like jogging or running. Secondly, based on the level of conditioning required to be competitive and fit, mixed martial artists tend to have much more muscle mass than most. Glycogen , the carbohydrate  being stored mostly in muscle requires a lot of water and must stay hydrated.

How Much Fluid Do I Need As A MMA Fighter?
Everyone is different making figuring out exactly how much fluid you need isn’t quite as simple as 8 glasses a day. With a little bit of calculation and a dedication  to monitoring your progress; you can ensure you’re getting the right amount of fluid. Here are some general guidelines:

Before Training Hydration
• Drink at least15-20 fl oz. 2 hours before training
• Drink 8-10 fl oz. 15-30 minutes before training

During Training Hydration
• Drink 8-10 fl oz every 10 minutes
• If you’re training more than an hour and a half, drink 8-10 fl oz. of electrolyte replacement drink every 30 minutes you are training.

To assess hydration check your urine color. If it’s cloudy and yellow, then you know that you’re dehydrated. The toxins that your kidneys filter out aren’t diluted in a large enough urine volume to be invisible. If your urine is clear, you’re likely getting enough fluids.

Another  way to monitor your hydration is to weigh yourself before and after your training session. The vast majority of your weight loss during a given training session  is fluid. For example, if you weighted 155lbs. before your training session and weigh in at 153lbs. after your training, which means that, you lost 32oz. of fluid. (1 pound=16 ounces of fluid).

So, train hard, train smart and stay hydrated!

Grip and hand strength can often be an overlooked skill in MMA training.  From the observer, there may be many other components or athletic reasons that a fighter may win or lose a fight but more often then not, grip strength will never be mentioned.  It is a disservice to an MMA fighter’s career to overlook grip strength.

Grip strength is the applied by the hand to pull on or suspend from objects it is also used by strength athletes, referring to the muscular power and force that they can generate with their hands.

In MMA fighting your hands are the first point of contact to your opponent.  Having a good grip will help while in the clinch as well as submissions.  Grappling is the perfect example of where grip strength comes into play to either act as a turning point of the fight for or against your favor.

There are simple activities to add to your preexisting training that will grant you countless improvements in hand and wrist and finger.

-Pull-ups using a gee looped over the bar or oversized pull-up handles

-Hammer work

-Simple plate rotation exercises

-Squeezing a simple spring clamp

-Farmers walks using two or three fingers with plates

-Climbing wall activities

Do not allow this small body part to lose a big fight. The hands are not to be taken for granted during training and should be strengthened like any other body part to avoid injury and weakness.

With all the training that goes into MMA sometimes it is hard to keep track of the progress you are making.  This is where journal keeping comes into play.  Journal writing is not for little girls anymore.

Keeping a journal for strength training progress is a basic coaching tool that has been often overlooked and seldom talked about.  That  Jiu-jitsu practitioners keeping journals of what they learned in training classes should be of no surprise when record keeping and statistics are a part of so many competitive sports.

When I speak of keeping a journal I am not just talking about keeping a record of what you learned in class.  A journal should be of your experiences in training, weaknesses, strengths, mental impressions, triumphs and failures on the matt as well as your plan for your next trainings.  Note how those moves worked for you in training, how you felt during a training session, if you have done back to back training session did you feel fatigued?  If you train at different hours, when do you feel your best?

Keeping a journal helps enhance your training experience.  When looking back at your journal you should look for the things that worked for you and the things that hindered you.   Always look for the mistakes you have made and your specific plans to improve upon them. Write down your weaknesses and then a few months later go back and see if you have improved upon them or neglected them.  Writing them down will help reinforce your need to work on them.

Go out and purchase yourself a small notebook that you can carry around and a pen.  Start writing down everything that you experience in training and watch how your development  become elevated.  Your weaknesses will become strengths and your MMA game will improve dramatically by just having a more complete knowledge of yourself.

It is easy to find direction in your training when you are awaiting a moment in the near future when you will be fighting your next MMA opponent.  A great challenge to any athlete, MMA fighters included is to make every single training session saturated with purpose, a fight nearing or not.

Training sessions for athletes and MMA fighters are an optimum time to actively train both your mind and body for upcoming challenges.  If you are approaching training as one separate from the other then you are doing a disservice to both your mind and body.  Mental hardiness as well as physical toughness is built in training.  Without a purpose training can get lackadaisical, unfocused and in turn less effective to prepare an MMA fighter.

Deciding an achievement focus for your training session is a good way to keep your MMA session focused and goal driven.  Every workout then becomes a way to reach success and address weakness.  You must decide what your training achievement focus is and what will spell success for your workout.   The achievement is up to the fighter, the person being trained and their corner to decide.

Finding a purpose for your training in MMA will also allow you to take full advantage of all of your resources.  With purpose for your sessions you can focus on the different schools of training that make up your support training system.  This is also the time to see if you are neglecting one facet of your training over another hence allowing you to prepare to add more of what you have been lacking.

Many times what we do most in our own training sessions will be what we are best at.  This broadens the gap between our strengths and weaknesses.  Our weak points will stay weak and our strong points will flourish until the weak negatively impacts overall performance.  Making the purpose of a training session to identify your weaknesses and then making the purpose of following sessions to address such downfall areas will do wonders for your MMA performance.  There is no option but to tackle what may be a weakness if you plan to.  You just stick to your purpose daily.

Just as an Army plans for combat, so should the MMA fighter be training for their own challenges.  There is no room for misdirection in training when you have a challenge to meet. Plan a purpose for training every time you train.  Do not waste your own precious time nor energy both physically or mentally with undirected training sessions.  You will find that the purpose driven training session will leave you feeling more efficient, accomplished, well trained and mentally focused.

There are not many times in the life of an adult that can send your anticipation wheeling like a child awaiting Christmas or a visit to your favorite theme park.  When you are lucky enough to recapture these feelings of excitement as a “grown up” you would be a fool not to jump at the chance, or in this case, jump squat at the chance.  Visiting Martin Rooney and taking part in the Training for Warriors Level 1 Instructor Course was just this type of experience for this fitness professional.

Upon entering the Parisi Speed School location in Paramus New Jersey you are immediately in training awe.  The facility itself is impressive beyond most people’s training dreams and a feeling of wanting more is palpable.  Within minutes will be some of the most impressive motivational as well as physical teaching and mentoring possibly in existence.

Martin has an amazing presence that makes you want to share both his belief in physical and mental fitness as well as pushes you to question the things that you have been sold by the fitness industry.  It becomes obvious the difference between a job and a calling to this man, if it was just a job he would push you to think what he thinks, when it is a calling as he has he drives you to find your own meaning and place amongst greatness in the field.

When you enter a Training for Warriors Certification you will also find yourself amongst like minded people from places as far as Spain and Canada who have very purposefully landed in front of this man to gather all he has to know as well as challenge themselves physically.  Personal Trainers, Army Rangers, Law Enforcement, and champions meeting in one location with intentions to absorb as much as possible.

The information both shared and experienced hands on is priceless.  There is more given and received in two days at the TFW Certification Seminar than in most month long courses, including physical challenges that your body will not soon forget.  No secrets kept, no fitness miracles just hard work and result oriented training, common sense and a willingness to question “why”?

Martin’s methods of evaluating client’s physical weaknesses are practical and vital to good training.  The TFW concepts on addressing these weaknesses in “prehab” as well as  warmup components are helpful and can instantly be added to your personal as well as your client training sessions.  Martin explains the place new and popular workout gadgets have in a program and when the good old basics of fitness should be relied upon.  Sprints, barbell complexes, and multiple challenges are explained to keep clients physically challenged and mentally engaged.

Be willing to release the Warrior Within, enter Rooney’s world with an open mind, a hunger to change both yours and the lives of others and not just physically.

Periodization for MMA Training:

It is of no surprise that to get stronger and accomplish physical feats in MMA Training that one must work hard.  A more difficult concept to accept is that although there is a time and a place for spontaneous physical activity in MMA training and “seizing  the workout moment”, in order to see consistent growth one must plan a route to get there, this is referred to as Periodization.

What is periodization for MMA training?

Periodization is the structuring or cycling of your MMA training in a particular order to achieve certain goals.  Your goal may be to accomplish something in a certain time period, lasting all rounds,  going a certain distance, reaching a personal max.  Each of these things are reachable goals if you have a plan to reach them.Periodization is beneficial to athletes and people involved in MMA training for a variety of reasons.  Periodization will assist in avoiding getting stuck in plateaus, you can plan to change your training regimen to avoid slumps and boredom. Having a plan for your MMA training will also guard against overtraining.  When you plan your training there must also be a plan for a deload or resting period of a day or week, depending on how you are training.  Avoiding overtraining is essential because during deload is when you will reap the gains from your  MMA training program.  It also allows for life to occur while training, giving balance between training and other obligations.

There are many types of periodization depending on your MMA training focus.   In most cases the trainee will chose linear and non linear also known as undulating. Many programs begin with linear. Linear simply means that you should start out light in load. Use a light load and a low number of repetitions (reps) and sets. Over a period of weeks increase the weight, number of reps, and sets of your exercise routine. Not making these changes in weight and reps are the biggest mistakes I’ve seen people make in their MMA training. They join, and start out light which is good. But they never progress. If you are trying to firm or build muscles with one set ten pounds and you don’t see any results, doing one set with ten pounds for years won’t do anything for you. You will have to progress to a more intense exercise routine and heavier load. Unfortunately, even linear periodization will stop working for you eventually. When this happens it’s time to introduce undulating periodization to your MMA training routine.

Undulation by definition means to go back and forth. Your body will inevitably adjust to the stress of MMA training, that you are putting it through, in order to make more gains then you must shock your body.  In non linear you do this by a planned variation of weight, reps and time.  You can go between these two phases for a lifetime of  MMA training.

Not planning your workouts is like planning to stay stagnant in your training.  Plan well, plan ahead and plan to succeed.

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”

—-Muhammad Ali

This Sunday the UFC will be live on Versus. In the main event Rick Story will be taking on Nate Marquardt. In this segment of mma strength training, Story and his coach are working on agility using the agility ladder and a band. The agility ladder is a great tool to use, well for agility. Actually there are a couple more uses for the agility ladder. One being in preventing injury, especially in the feet and ankles. I recommend if you use the agility ladder to train with it barefoot as it will help strengthen your feet and ankle.
There a re a few more ways in which the ladder can improve your athletic performance. Using the agility ladder as a warm-up is a great way for an athlete to get their heart rate up, loosen up their muscles and get your central nervous system firing for the training that is to come. Another way to use the ladder is as a conditioning tool. For example preparing one of my fighters for her last fight, I had her doing ladder drills for nine minutes straight which was the amount of time her fight was. Now she choked the girl out in the first round but the ladder really did improve her conditioning.
In the video below Story uses the ladder not only for agility but with his coach pulling on his waist while performing the drill it also forces Story to use his core to stabilize himself as he goes down the ladder. The progression here would be to get the drill, which is a jumping jack down the ladder down first then add the band into the mix.