In a previous post I discussed the benefits of sandbag training and how beneficial it is for combat athletes like MMA fighters. In the video that followed I showed a basic sandbag carry using two 50 lb sandbags. In that same training session I decided to step it up a level. I added a sled to drag while I was carrying the 50 lb bags on either shoulder. I loaded the sled up to 90 lbs. Using leg drive to move the sled and upper body strength to hold the sandbags up this becomes a pretty grueling training tool.
While your lower body is focusing on driving the sled behind you, your core is focused on maintaining balance with the two sandbags weighing down on it. The sled drag like I have discussed in the past will help with the development of punching power and developing a more explosive takedown. Add in the sandbags and you now have also helped increase the abilities stated above. When you go to punch you use the muscles in your abdomen and the sandbags will help you with developing a stronger abdomen. Holding the sandbags on your shoulders act as if you have an opponent on your shoulder to finish off a takedown. Using the sandbags and sleds at the same time will help you become extremely strong so give it a try.
Looking for a great way to become the best-conditioned MMA fighter that you can be? Then do yourself a favor and get yourself a Prowler. I have pushed a Prowler in the past at places that I have worked or in training with friends. So I made it my mission before the winter was up to get my hands on one for my fighters and of course myself. Lucky for me I was able to land a “Prowler” now I have the quotes around it because it is not the exact Prowler that many know about. This one is a replica but works just the same. But when you can get something that looks almost the same and works just the same for $150 cheaper then hell yeah it’s a good price.
Anyway a Prowler is a big sled. You have seen many people pushing cars before, well this works just as good. A Prowler will do a couple of things that will help you as a fighter. When you sprint with the Prowler while adding weight to it you will feel like you just ran several 400m sprints. After using the Prowler you will notice how quickly your conditioning level rises.
Another benefit for fighters that the Prowler brings is the ability to develop lower body power. Just like dragging a sled behind you will help with lower leg drive so will the Prowler. As you push it you will be driving with your hips, glutes and hamstrings, all muscle that help develop power in your punches and explosive takedowns. These benefits alone are worth the price of a Prowler. No I don’t make any money selling Prowlers but I believe it is one of the best pieces of equipment out there.
Here is a quick circuit you can use with the Prowler. Load the Prowler up heavy weight in this case I started with about 150 lbs on the Prowler. I pushed the Prowler down one way unloaded 90 lbs and pushed it back the other way. In this video you will see that I go to unload the 25 lb plates but as I started I felt it would take to long so I decided to scratch that idea and head back the other way.
So if you are looking to invest a great piece of equipment go get yourself a Prowler and enjoy the training.
Some of the strongest guys I know are construction workers. They are always carrying around odd objects. This just makes them naturally strong. So taking a page out of their book I am starting to incorporate different ways to train using some of the methods that they do day in and day out with a little strength and conditioning added to it.
Training with sandbags is becoming very popular. It’s a cheap and effective way to get some good training in and get strong. As combat athletes it is the way to go especially with the high membership prices on MMA gyms now. Go to the local Home Depot and for around seven dollars and change you have yourself two sandbags each weighing fifty pounds.
Working with odd objects is a very effective way to train. Sandbag training is a great way to work on your strength, core strength, and balance and grip strength. The video below shows a very basic way to utilize your sandbags. To begin get both sandbags on either shoulder. Once you have them secured on you begin to walk with them for a short distance. As you will see I am using my backyard and using the distance I have available to me. When you come to a stop perform five squats with the weight. When putting down the weight don’t just drop it bend down and put them down one at a time it will improve your strength and time under tension.
Now for a beginner you can start with one sandbag over the shoulder. For those that are stronger then you can get, you can fill the bags heavier using a duffel bag or strong contractor bags and perform the same exercise. Look for more to come using the sandbags and how to get stronger.
UFC 128 is coming your way on Saturday night. Mauricio Shogun Rua is taking on one of the most exciting young fighters in the MMA world Jon Jones. The card is stacked once again with some really exciting fights. If you are new to site, first welcome and enjoy, you will notice that the week leading up to a fight I will search out the fighters on the cards performing their strength and conditioning routine. This helps those that are new to the sport or trying to learn new ways to train to get stronger and in better condition. Just a word to the wise. Some of the routines you see are designed as part of a program. This is not the only type of training that the fighters perform. So it is wise to do some research on strength and conditioning or ask a professional like myself.
In this video you will see Kurt Pellegrino and Miguel Torres performing a five minute conditioning circuit. Pellegrino, who is taking on Glieson Tibau has a great strength and conditioning coach in Jon Chaimberg. The five minutes mimics the time in a round. The circuit consists of many different exercises. You will see sprints, plyometrics as well as medicine ball work and bodyweight exercises. The circuit is designed to raise the athletes heart rate the way that it would in an actual fight. This is a real tough workout so if you do give it a try make sure you work up to five minutes. Meaning maybe instead of doing it for five minutes the first time you try do a similar circuit but start at three minutes. Watch within a week or two you will be rocking and rolling at five minutes.
Train Hard! Train Smart!
Life is full of so many choices, should I get my coffee at Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks, should I shave Sunday night or Monday morning and the list goes on and on. When it comes to training there are also a slew of exercises that we can choose from to help us achieve our goals. But if I had to make a choice between exercises as to which one I would use to get strong I would choose to deadlift.
So why would I choose to deadlift over all other exercises. First off the deadlift kicks ass and is fun. Now let’s get into some quality reasons. The deadlift is a great exercise to help train and make the posterior chain stronger. In combat sports or any sport for that matter the posterior chain is of utmost importance for optimal performance.
The deadlift works on improving strength in your hamstrings, and glutes having a strong posterior chain will help in combat sports when trying to take an opponent down or picking an opponent up. We all know why having strong glutes and hamstrings will help your performance but a strong back is also essential when involved in sporting events. Along with strong glutes the deadlift will also increase the strength in your back.
In combat sports a strong back is key, as many movements during a fight require you to pull an opponent. If you are pulling some heavy deadlifts in training you will see how much easier it will be to pull your opponent all over the mat or cage. Having a strong posterior chain will help in combat sports when trying to take an opponent down or picking an opponent up.
Deadlifts will also increase your grip strength. In my own training I have seen my grips improve dramatically especially in jiu-jitsu gi training and in the clinch. Deadlifting has given me a strong grip, which has save me from submission plenty of times on the jiu-jitsu mats.
Deadlifting can also reduce the risk of injury. By adding deadlifts into your programs you will be doing your body a favor by keeping it injury free. Deadlifts can also help with the rehabilitation of IT Band injuries, which are common in many athletes. If you use sprinting in your training you can run into an IT Band issue.
If you are looking to improve your performance in the field of battle then you need to really start to deadlift. If I had to pick one exercise to do for the rest of my life I would make the choice of deadlifting. Below I will give you two videos that you should watch if you want to improve your technique on the deadlift.
Another fight that will be taking place at UFC 127 is Michael Bisping taking on Jorge Rivera. Searching the You Tube archives for some training footage, I was able to find this great video of Bisping training at Strength and Performance in the United Kingdom. This is one of the best training videos I have found in a while.
In the video you will see many of the movements that I have been preaching to add into your strength training programs for about a year now. You will see as he performs a variation of box jumps but using tires to develop lower body power. Plyometrics are essential for enhancing your performance as an athlete. He then moves on to Zercher Squats to build strength in the lower body as well as increase his core strength. With the Zercher squat, you hold the barbell against your chest, which makes the squat a little awkward at first. In order to keep from not falling forward you need to “tighten” your core. Bisping then moves into jump shrugs which help develop power in the athlete.
You will also see how he uses the sled to perform explosive pulls with handles attached to it. In this video I actually learned a new movement as he uses the barbell across his waist to do hip ups. This movement will help with explosive power in the lower body and mimics using your legs to bridge out of a move.
Like I said earlier this is one of the best training video’s out there as it shows many of the movements I have been telling you about. Once these movements are programed the right way, you will be getting strong in no time.
Train Hard! Train Smart!
Tomorrow Fedor Emelianenko will be taking on Giant Silva in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament. Coming off his loss to Fabricio Werdum it will be interesting to see how Fedor responds. I am thinking that he will be coming out to destroy Silva convincingly.
When I though about putting up some of Fedor’s training video, I was very surprised to see that there was actual stuff out there. Thinking about how he leads a pretty much private lifestyle I though it would be harder to come across some training material. But lucky for Combat Trainer I was able to find some!!
In this video you will see Fedor using different types of training to get stronger and more powerful. By the looks of things it looks as though Fedor had an outdoor training facility constructed for him and his team. I definitely would not be surprise if they used this strength training playground year round, even in the cold weather.
If you have never done any strength training outside, then this spring you should really get on it. I began incorporating a lot of outdoors training into my own training and it has not only made me stronger but it is also a lot of fun to train outside. So if you are looking to spice up your training get outdoors as soon as possible and train like Fedor.
The ability to pull an opponent in during a fight is an important skill to have in combat sports such as MMA and jiu-jitsu. If you have ever seen one of my training programs you will notice that pull-ups are a staple for my fighters. Using all different types of grips to work the many different pulling angles a fighter may see in a fight. Pull-ups are the king of all pulling exercises. I can already hear the whining out of some about how you can’t do that many. Get up on a bar and do some damn pull-ups and get out as many as you can. I still have trouble with pull-ups.
But this post is not about the pull-up but rather increasing your pulling strength in general. On many post in the past you have seen me pulling a sled or running with it attached to me. Sleds are a valuable tool I you have access to one and if you don’t go out and buy one. You know they are good when you see some the chain sporting good stores carrying them.
The sled increases strength and explosive power depending on the movement that you do with it. If running with the sled like I mentioned above, a fighter will develop explosive leg drive which can lead to faster takedowns and more powerful punches and kicks.
So while training Jessica Richer for the Abu Dhabi qualifying tournament we came up with a different way to use the sled to help improve pulling strength from the guard. Now I am sure I did not invent it nor will I claim I did but I have never seen anyone pull sleds in this fashion.
So if you are looking for sport-specific training and looking to improve your guard try these three variations of the sled pull to increase pulling strength and power. There are three variations the first is with the heals on the ground, this is the easier of the two. The second is what we called the open guard pull, which was difficult, and finally the third was the pull from the closed guard. So if you own a sled give these a try.
At UFC 126 Vitor Belfort is attempting to win the Middleweight Championship from Anderson Silva. Belfort has some of the fastests hands in MMA and some of the most powerful punches. If Silva can stay on the outside and circle away and use that great footwork of his then I think he will be able to defeat Belfort.
However, I stink making fight picks so I will stick to what I know I am good at and that is strength and conditioning. In the video you will see below you will have the opportunity to look at some of Belfort’s training. This video is great because it shows many different aspects of one of his training sessions. They call it a physical therapy session but some of the training he does in the video could be someones regular training session.
In the video he works on what looks like running mechanics. The reason for this looks like to warmup the central nervous system. But working on running mechanics could have a transfer into footwork in a fight.
After that they move into a dynamic warm-up. Now I have not gone into much about warming up on my site but I will tell you I use a dynamic warm-up prior to all of my athletes training sessions. You will also see him work on some core work as well as his lower back. You will also see Vitor do one of my personal favorites Prowler pushes and heavy sled drags.
If you take a close look as this training session you will notice that he works a lot on his lower body. You want to know why Belfort is fast then just take a look at his training methods and you will see why.
Train Hard! Train Smart!
The other day I posted a couple of videos of Jon Jones training. Jones is a great athlete and is well on his way to becoming champion one day. But before he can become champ he needs to defeat another great athlete in Ryan Bader at UFC 126.
In this video Jones is performing one the best strength training exercises, the deadlift. The deadlift is a great movement that will work on improving strength in your hamstrings, glutes and lower back. I have all my fighters and even the average clients perform deadlifts. Deadlifts can help with picking up opponents off the ground, can increase both punching and kicking power and help with a fighters takedowns.
In the video below you will see Jones performing the deadlift. Now what I love about this video is the proper technique Jones uses on the lift as well as the fact that he re-sets after each rep. The deadlift is a tough exercise and with heavy weight it can really tax the body. Re-setting after each rep of the deadlift will ensure proper technique in the lift and will reduce the risk of injury.
So if you are looking to add deadlifting to your training mix take a look at this video for the proper way to do it. Is it by far perfect? No, but Jones does show some really good technique. Add deadlifts to your training and you will see your strength improve greatly.
