Mainstream? Yes MMA has gone mainstream if you have not figured it out by now. With the growth of the sport also comes many new participants are joining the ranks in the amateur circuit. Now we all know that MMA training is tough and if you are a serious amateur it is very time consuming.
For the most part if you are serious about getting a career started in the cage you will have to make an investment in yourself. Yes you will have to spend some money on quality MMA training but you will also have to make an investment in your time. Unlike the majority of the pro fighters out there amateurs also have full time jobs that take up their time. Add this on top of the countless hours of training in jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing and muay Thai it can leave an athlete wanting to quit.
I am in the middle of a training camp with Jessica Richer for her upcoming MMA debut this Saturday, May 14th. Jessica is an amateur fighter that has the full time job and is still able to pursue her dream of fighting. With that being said in a few months I am going to put out a manual detailing the training of Jessica. This manual will help guide amateurs in their training and other life commitments. The manual will serve as a detailed guide to help amateur fighters out there reach their potential and be a successful fighter. The manual will also come with a DVD that will have Jessica’s strength and conditioning sessions as well as the program that I wrote for her. If you are serious about a career in fighting then you will want to get your hands on this. Here at Combat Trainer I strive to help everyone achieve his or her goals! Those that want will, those that don’t, won’t.
People have often asked me how I developed my meaty legs. I mean lets face it, I got some thunder thighs, as my wife says! However, thanks to a lot of specific training I have a lot of thunder striking from those thighs….and shins….and feet!
One of the big inspirations for my workouts goes back to Apideh Sit Hurin. “Who?” many ask. If you plan on improving your stand up, then you should definitely know Apideh! Holding seven titles at one time is no joke, and is unheard of in the fight industry, yet he did it! he was the Muhammad Ali of Thailand, and a legend in his own time. Having a reputation for knockout power and one of the most powerful Tdae (Round kick) in history, someone once asked him how he developed such power. He said he would get up in the morning, set his alarm for thirty minutes, and do squats till it went off! Now thats dedication! So with that idea in mind, lets get to work:
Let us start with running;you see according to most Muay Thai schools of thought you should always run on the balls of your feet. Why you may ask, and the question is quite simple:
1) You develop the muscles your actually going to be using for training and fighting.
2) Your not damaging the knees.You see when you run in the standard way your knees take up to two thirds more weight on them then your actual body weight! Just take a look at this chart to understand a little better.
If you run on the balls of your feet your ankle creates a springlike affect, thereby taking the pressure from your knees and back. If, like most, you are afraid of tearing the skin off your feet, then look into special shoes like Vibram Five Fingers.
After my runs I usually finish with “Combat Burbee’s”. You see, Burpee’s by themselves didn’t suck enough, so I modified them!
If you’re not familiar with my patent pending, awe inspiring Combat Burpee’s,
then allow me to explain:
Similar to a standard squat thrust,
you bend down,
keeping your back straight,
drop your hands to the floor just in front of you,
pop your legs straight out behind you,
do a single push-up,
in midair pull your legs back beneath you,
jump straight into the air from the crouch,
pull your knees up waist level,
land on the balls of your feet.
In between and during, I will often add Hindu Squats and Hindu push-ups to the mix.
What is a Hindu Squat or push-up? Watch the video!
A few key points,
Hindu Squat:
As you come down breath out and in on the way up, Think Accordion!
Heels come up as you bend your knees, works both sides of your leg.
Try and do them somewhat rapidly, builds endurance.
DO NOT add weight! Instead focus on endurance in reps!
Hindu Push-ups:
Vary the width of your arms to work different muscle groups.
Get your chest as low to the ground as possible!
Breath in as you dip.
Breath out as you pull your bod back, works the abs!
Try to start with sets of five, these are hard at first!
There you go amigos and amigas, some of my standard roadwork I use to keep my cardio and endurance up to par. Word of note, I do use Vibram Five Fingers when running, I find there is a lot less damage done when I use a bit of foot covering! And if in mid winter, make sure to wear a face mask for protection against the cold!
Clay Guida is taking on the legendary former Pride champion Takanori Gomi at UFC 125. Both fighters are looking to make a run at the lightweight title. In this segment UFC 125 fighters training I am going to show you a conditioning protocol that Clay Guida did this past summer. Guida could be the best conditioned fighter in the UFC. Guida never stops moving during a match and keeps the same pace throughout the fight.
In this video you will see Guida using a kettlebell to perfomr a bunch of different exercises from swings to cleans to squats. During the session you will see him add in different bodyweight exercises as well from burpees to explosive pushups. While watching I noticed he does keep the rep range lower during the kettlebell exercises. The exercises chosen for the kettlebell are meant to be explosive in nature. Doing rep after rep takes away from the power, so to maintain the explosivness make sure to keep the rep range low and explode with every rep.
Kettlebells are another great tool to add into a strength and conditioning program. If used the correct way a combat athlete will become powerful. But remeber when using a kettlebell it is wise to learn the techniques required to perform each movement this will only help an athlete out in the long run.
Yesterday I posted a conditioning protocol using Farmer’s Walks, deadlifts and burpees. Last night after finishingup her strength training program I had Jessica finish off her session with the conditioning protocol. She had done a variation of the protocol the week before but we worked out the kinks. She pushed through it like a champion does as she gets ready for the Pan American Jiu-Jitsu tournament. Take a look at the video. Tell me what you think. I need a name for the protocol, anyone have any ideas? Would love to hear them.
Here is the age old question, should fighter use long distance running in their training? For years we have seen combat athletes from boxers to now MMA fighters using long distance running in their training. Now I am not here to tell you that long distance running is bad, hey if you want to do it great be my guest. But what I will tell you is that long slow distance (LSD) training will not help with your cardio in a fight. I can sit here all night and give you all the scientific study behind all of this or I can get straight to the point and not waste your time. I am here to research for you and give you what you want and what will work.
In a fight or grappling match of any kind, the pace of the bout is never steady. One minute you are scrambling around with an opponent the next you can be sitting in his guard waiting to make the next move or floating around the cage or ring using your footwork to make your next strike. Your heart rate is constantly rising and dropping back down and no amount of LSD training is going to help you with that.
It’s hard to break tradition and trainers are stuck in their ways and will not give in. It’s just as bad as MMA athletes and jiu-jitsu players using a bodybuilding routine to gain strength and power. Boys and girls it just ain’t gonna work! Some have realized the errors in their ways while others are still holding true to what worked well in the past will work now.
So what are we to do? Well for one you can stop LSD. So we know that LSD will not help your aerobic capabilities in a fight. I can also tell you that LSD will also wear on your joints and with all the bumps and bruises the body takes as a combat athlete the last thing you need is excessive pounding on the joints. Now I will sprint my fighters at times but not in excess because of the pounding on the joints. I like to keep my sprints short and sweet. Well there is really nothing sweet about sprinting now is there, but it is effective.
What do I like to do then to condition my fighters? Like I said above I do like to sprint them at times throughout their training. I like to take them to a track and have them do 400M sprints or have them sprint the straightaway’s and jog the bends. The latter sprinting protocol is effective because it raises your heart rate and it drops as you are jogging around the bend similar to what happens in a fight.
Using body weight and weighted conditioning protocols are the most effective way in conditioning a combat athlete. One can set up a protocol based on the time of your match or fight and then set up specific exercise that will mimic the competition you are in.
I am going to give you a protocol that I have been using with my clients and have been doing myself once a week for a little extra conditioning work. Get yourself a stopwatch, if you have one that counts down even better. You will do the following exercises for five minutes. If you need longer do to your specific fight requirements then add sets to it until you reach the time. This is fairly simple to follow but doing it is not that simple. All you need is 45-50 pound dumbbells and a room to walk about 20-25 yards. So here we go…
Conditioning Protocol
Farmers Walk twenty yards.
Five Deadlifts once you reach 20 yards.
Walk back twenty yards.
Five Burpees
Rest ten to fifteen seconds, depending on your level of conditioning.
Continue doing until the five minutes is up Rest one min in between sets. Do this for 3-5 sets depending on what sort of competition you are getting ready for. Go at your own pace to begin and then as you get better amp it up. You can always add heavier weight to the farmers walks as well. Train Hard, Train Smart!!
We are moving ahead in Jessica’s training. Monday Jessica learned how to clean. This was the first time that she cleaned. She picks things up very quickly and power cleans will be put into her program. Then we worked on her deadlifts we did 4 sets of 4 reps at 75% of her max. For the conditioning portion of the training session I had Jess doing some Farmers Walks with the Hex deadlift bar. Now the gym we train at is small but I was able to have her go about ten yards. When she reached ten yards she dropped the weight and did five burpees. She then came back the ten yards and deadlifted the weight for five reps. She did five sets of theses with 30 seconds of rest in between each set. The look on the other trainer’s faces when she was doing this was priceless. It’s not like I was doing anything crazy with her just a little conditioning protocol. Hmm maybe next time I will have her just run on the treadmill, nah that’s no fun. Another thing I love when I ask her how she is feeling during the training session and she says,” I love it!” Right now Jessica is learning the right way to lift and getting her body conditioned for what is to come down the road in her actual program. A little GPP work, as we like to call it. This week I am planning out her program and going to be writing it out over the weekend.
Jessica’s next big competition is the Pan Ams in three weeks. She is gearing up for that. Strength and conditioning wise I will be focusing on getting her stronger in the next couple of weeks but really going to focus on her conditioning and muscle endurance. After this tournament she will be competing in some smaller tournaments. Her next big jiu-jitsu one after the Pan Ams is the New York Open this summer. We will be kicking it into hire gear for that one. Another thing we are looking forward to here at Combat Trainer is the possibility of Jessica getting her first MMA fight over the summer. That will be some exciting news and I will keep you up to date on when and where she will be fighting.
I will place video of Jessica training in upcoming post as well as some of her tournament footage. Here is another one of her matches in a jiu-jitsu tournament. Jessica is in the blue and gray rash guard.
