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 lightweight champion is back at UFC 125 on New Years Day, as Frankie Edgar looks to defend his title against the only man to beat him Gray Maynard. Yesterday we took a look at Maynard putting the Battle Ropes to the test. Like I said both of these fighters are always in great shape come fight time.
Today we will take a look at Edgar training for this fight. In this video you will see all the different types of training Edgar does in preparation for a fight. There are agility ladders to improve his footwork. As we saw in his last two fights against BJ Penn we saw that edgar had great footwork. Using the agility ladder in training has helped him improve in that aspect of his fight game. You will also see him using hurdles to develope lower body power. Having an explosive lower body helps in all aspects of the fight game from punching and kicking to takedowns. We also see him using a stabilty ball to help improve dynamic flexibilty and core strength. The sledge hammer also makes an appereance, just another tool that produces power as well as core strength. Kettlebells which many combat athletes have now incorporated into their strength and conditioning also make their way into his training. Turkish Getups with a kettlebell is a great movement to add strength to the entire body. Give them a try and let me know what you think.
Now remeber when looking at this video be aware that there is a plan or program for what he is doing. This could be one session where each of the exercises you see stand alone and is not a conditioning protocol. Many fighters out there see these things and just go out and try and perform them without knowing where it fits in their training. By looking at the date on the video this is more than likely a General Preparation Session, which is used to get the athlete ready for the work that is to come ahead in the training for the months ahead.
Happy New Year! If you are looking to take it to the next level I do offer online training at a discount for the New Year. Make the investment in your career and make 2011 your year.
As a New Year arrives so does another UFC card, UFC 125. This one will feature some interesting fights on the card. First off we have Frankie Edgar defending his lightweight title against the only guy to have beaten him, Gray Maynard. Also on the card Chris Leben takes on Brian Stann, Leben looks to continue his winning ways in the octagon with a victory. One matchup I am looking forward to is Brandon Vera going up against Thiago Silva. This may turn out to be a stand-up war and a very exciting bout.
A few months ago I had the pleasure of interviewing Bradon Vera’s strength and conditioning coach Doug Balzarini. He spoke about training Vera and how he goes about training fighters in general. If you have not heard the interview give it a listen, you could pick out some important training information for yourself. So knowing the Vera fight is this weekend I also wanted to give you a glimpse at some of the training Doug does with Brandon as they get ready for a fight.
You will notice the use of the agility ladder in the beginning of the video. Making a fighter more athletic is one of the keys to creating a championship fighter. The work on the ladder will improve Vera’s footwork. After the agility the video moves into some strongman training which will help develop Vera’s overall strength, power and conditioning. The type of work Balzarini puts Vera through pays dividends the night of the fight. You can visit Doug Balzarini’s site at http://dbstrength.com.
Fight Week is approaching and the card is UFC 125 on New Years Day. The main event for the lightweight championship will feature Frankie Edgar going up against Gray Maynard. The winner gets a matchup to unify the WEC title and UFC title against Anthony Pettis and his crazy kick.
For the rest of this week I will be posting some interesting training footage from many of the different fighters on the card. Another matchup on the card is Marcus Davis and Jeremy Stephens. I have a feeling someone will be knocked out in this one. A loss for either one could put their UFC career to a finish, so this fight should be a good one.
In my search to bring you some of the type of training that these MMA fighters do I came across Marcus Davis performing a different kind of movement to help with his ground and pound. The movement was “created” by Kevin Kearns who is one of the top strength and conditioning coaches in MMA at the time. Using a type of Bosu Ball and light dumbbells Davis lays on the ball and mimics ground and pounding an opponent. As you can see the ball provides an unstable enviroment in which Davis needs to be firing on all cylinders to keep doing the movement correctly. I will let Kearns do the rest of the explaining.
By Wilson Pitts
Boxing uses interval training. You do an exercise and raise the heart rate and then you stop or slow down and let it return to normal, then repeat. The trainer adjusts the number of intervals, the duration of each, and the intensity, and also the amount of recovery. It is a dieing art and science that has been applied to the training of race horses, greyhound dogs, and fighting dogs, as well as boxers and wrestlers.
Boxing training also uses rope skipping and shadow boxing in what today would be called plyo-metrics training. These exercises, often done on a sprung wooden floor, developed a light, bouncy step, and improved lateral movement and agility. They provide another type of interval at the same time they improve your fighter’s quickness and balance. The conditioning and the agility program work together. These basic training methods are used with the beginner along with core development through abdominal training and later bag punching.
Over training is a very real problem for fighters and the effects are just as bad as not training enough. The old trainers were able to adjust rest and recovery intervals to bring a fighter in at peak condition on a specific date. Many of today’s fighters “leave it in the gym” by over training. Overtraining is brought on by doing the same workout too many times, this is called “staleness.” The fighter does a high intensity interval and doesn’t even breath hard, he has done it too much. Make him do something he is not used to and he will gasp for breath like he didn’t train at all. When a fighter is stale he acts listless in sparring, bored in camp or the gym, and often does not sleep well. This is very similar to the effects of under training.
The old guys could detect overtraining by a change in the fighter’s body odor or by a lack of sweat when they were doing a workout. Today we look for elevated at rest heart rate, as well as irritability and the other signs, as an early warning sign of overtraining.
Not resting enough when undergoing heavy training is another cause of overtraining. Boxers need a lot of sleep, in bed by 9 at night and at least an hour nap during the day. Over eating can also bring on many of these symptoms because of too much stress put on the body from training and eating too much. The body does not get to rest between workouts because it is digesting. Often fighters try to compensate for feeling stale or bored by eating more. This is a mistake even in heavyweights who don’t have a weight limit and think they can eat anything they want. No snacking between meals, no meal replacements, and no eating after dinner. Charlie Goldman used to search Rocky Marciano’s room for food The Rock would stash and eat in the middle of the night.
UFC 124 is just around the corner and once again a Martin Rooney trained MMA fighter is on the card, Jim Miller who will be taking on Charles Oliveira. Jim and Dan Miller both train with elite strength and conditioning coach Martin Rooney for their UFC fights. Rooney is one of the coaches in the world and has taken many pro fighters as well as many other athletes to the next level.
In this video we will see one of Rooney’s conditioning sessions with Jim Miller. Rooney uses many different training implements to get the job done in about 5 minutes. Miller starts off with the sledgehammer, which increase power in the abdominal region, he then moves on to one of my favorite pieces of equipment the Prowler. The Prowler will improve a fighter’s lower body strength and power. This power in the lower body will help improve punching and kicking as well as help develop an explosive takedown. Next he moves to bands and does a whole bunch of pulling movements. The agility ladder is next. This will help improve a fighter’s footwork and coordination. Since Miller has gone through the other exercises especially the prowler his legs are a bit fatigued, doing the ladder in this fatigued state is more difficult than it looks. Finally he finishes off with the kettlbell swings, which develops total body power.
Each exercise is done for a minute with a short recovery in between each other exercises. This type of conditioning is grueling but will get you prepared for a fight. They are also simple to create pick five exercises and do them for a minute and you have your MMA round.
At the end of the video you hear Rooney telling his fighters that getting their heart rate low in between rounds is important. If they are able to have a lower heart rate than their opponent at the start of the round then they have an advantage. An opponent with a higher heart rate will fatigue quicker in the next round, which will be an advantage to you.
Detroit look out UFC 123 is upon us and it should be a fun and exciting card. There are some exciting match-ups. I will be a wedding but will have the fights taping so when I get home I can watch them.
Earlier this week I put up a video of Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis working on his explosiveness through hurdle hops as well ad his agility by using the ladder. Coming by footage of some of these UFC fighters performing their strength and conditioning is tough at times. I like to show you what some of the top fighters in the world are up to.
The video below is of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson performing a weighted conditioning session. Rampage takes on former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida at UFC 123. This video is something he did for Men’s Fitness so I don’t know how true this training session really is cause I feel at times they are showing off for the camera but it looks like something he may perform,. Anyway the video only shows small segments of each movement that he performs and gives the sets and rep scheme for each one. This circuit looks like a conditioning protocol. Within the protocol you will see that his quickness, strength and power are all put to the test.
The thing is with these conditioning protocols is to be creative and challenging. Now when I say challenging some will take that as they have to puke or it’s not good. Never understood this. I never try to make my athletes puke, if they do they do but that is not the objective of training. But to get back to it try designing your own protocol and if you want to shoot it by me I will give it a run for my money. You know where to find me.
Well enjoy the fights everyone. GO BJ PENN!
Once again another UFC event is upon us. UFC 123 in the Motor City where Quinton Rampage Jackson will take on Lyoto Machida and completing their trilogy will be Matt Hughes and BJ Penn. The card looks like it should be a good one unlike UFC 122 where I felt it was like the Superbowl some years where the commercials were better than the fights. Well all the cards can’t be winners lucky for us all it was free. One fight I am interested in seeing is Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis take on Tim Boetsch. Davis is one of those fighters that is very athletic. Lucky for us all there is some video of Davis doing some of strength and conditioning training.
Agility is a great skill to have not only in the sport of MMA but just in regular life. Having good agility can help protect you from injury. In this video you will see Phil Davis and Dominic Cruz doing some hurdle hops as well as using the agility ladder to improve their athleticism. You have seen me using agility drills to help improve my fighters speed and agility before. This just proves my point that creating athletic fighters is the way the sport is heading and in reality is already there. So if you are not training for speed, agility and quickness then you better get on it! Enjoy the video! Train Hard! Train Smart!
In a MMA fight a fighter must be aware of where his body is at all times. We have seen many fights won in a scramble and the fighter who has been able to control their body the best has usually been the one that has come out on top. In my coaching I have been working on finding new ways to work what is called kinesthetic awareness. A few months ago I posted a video with Martin Rooney discussing the use of gymnastics to increase kinesthetic awareness. In that video Rooney shows us three gymnastic movements that will help improve this critical component in combat sports.
Another thing that I have been working on in my coaching laboratory is combining two components of athleticism while training. Obvious many of you know about combining strength sessions with power and or conditioning within a training session. What I have been doing is combining gymnastic movements within agility drills. Here is what I am doing in my coaching. I start off with basic agility drills such as a box drill and have the fighter perform the drill. This gets the fighter using his body the right way. After completing 3-4 sets of the standard drill I then add some new move into the drill. Using basic gymnastic movements like forward rolls and cartwheels help with kinesthetic awareness within the drill. Finally I also add a MMA specific movement into the drill, like a punch combo, a knee or a defensive move. I have found that this is helping the athletic ability of the fighters and as the sport evolve’s athletic fighters will be taking over the MMA world. So give the drill below a try. Train Hard! Train Smart!
Being agile in MMA and many other combat sports are very beneficial. Training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai has made me realize how important being agile really is. That is why when I train my fighters we work on agility drills to make them better.
As a kid free playing outside was the agility drill. Playing touch football out on the street and having water gun fights with all the neighborhood kids we all learned how to be agile without even realizing it. I remember playing “Kick the Can” crawling under bushes, rolling across the grass, running for cover before you were called out by the person that was “it” even cheating at times when you were so caught but never admitted it. Yes, people cheat to win and always will, no big surprise there. There were countless games that we played that being able to change direction at a moments notice helped win and let’s be honest who does not like to win, I know I do.
The problem today is that many of these children do not have these opportunities to play like this. Actually let me rephrase that many of these children choose not to participate in these activities for whatever reason. I am not going to get into the lazy child rant now I can go on for days about that. The thing we need to learn though is that these many of these children are growing up and wanting to become MMA fighters. With the growth of the sport we are seeing more and more children leaning that way.
So now back to the point here. In MMA and many of the other combat sports out there we need to train to become more agile. Many times in a fight we find ourselves in scrambles, or using our footwork just to get out of the way of a punch or set up a devastating attack.
Agility drills are also easy and fun to set up. Easy meaning they are easy to find a place to train them by no means is it easy to actually do them. Find an open field or your backyard if it’s big enough, buy yourself some soccer cones or if you can’t manage that use some rocks, just don’t fall on them and go! Let me say this though about agility, speed or quickness drills, they are meant to work your technique and make you build on those qualities not as a conditioning session. So make sure to get a good recovery time in between sets. This is not to say that the drills are not challenging. The drill in the video below was challenging and worked my heart rate a bit as well as my muscle endurance.
As you will see in this video I use multi-directional work as well as MMA specific moves to create an agility drill. You will see in the video as I begin to slow down but at all times try to keep proper posture and technique on all the movements. Being able to move fast from one movement to the next and maintain control of your body is another key to the drill. So give this one a try on your way to becoming a combat athlete. Who knows maybe a good game of “Kick the Can” will start on the block and you can school all the young bucks with your newfound agility.
