Sep 11 2010

Benefits of Gymnastics for MMA

Category: Agility,Conditioning,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,Power Training,Speed,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:24 PM

Gymnastics is one of the oldest forms of exercise.  Its benefits are great for not just gymnast but other athletes as well.  The Spartans, one of the greatest fighting civilizations in world history, were said to train in gymnastics. If you saw the Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen UFC championship fight, you actually saw Sonnen use a forward roll to escape trouble.  The moment I could, my daughter was signed up for gymnastics because of the great benefits.

One of the benefits of gymnastics is learning how to control your body.  Controlling your body in just everyday life is essential but looking at it from a fighting standpoint, any great martial artist knows how to control their body well.  This development of coordination when training in gymnastics can also lead to better balance and can teach an athlete to learn how to fall to prevent injury.

Another benefit of gymnastic that can help any MMA fighter or Jiu-Jitsu player is the development of better flexibility.  Gymnastics athletes are some of the most flexible athletes in the world.  Flexibility plays a key roll in combat sports.  We have seen how flexibility has helped fighters escape from devastating submission that would tap many fighters.  Gymnastics will help fighters become much more flexible in the hips and the shoulder.

Becoming stronger and more powerful is another benefit of gymnastics.  Gymnasts are some of the strongest athletes in the world.  Using gymnastic in a fighters strength and conditioning program will also lead to great strength and power gains.

Above I spoke about how gymnastics teaches athletes how to control their body.  It also teaches an athlete or fighter kinesthetic awareness, which is knowing where your body is in space.  Why is this important to say MMA or Jiu-Jitsu?  A fighter finds himself in many different positions during a fight and sometimes on their back, at times on top of an opponent.

Recently I was reading an article by Dan John, in the article he was talking about different challenges.  One of the challenges was using gymnastic movements.  Using simple gymnastic moves this set of movements placed together challenged cardio and my awareness of where I was.  You will see in the video below how at one point when I get up I am trying to find my balance and find where I was as I headed toward the water.  In the first video I cut out two reps on each of the exercises.  The second part of the video we performed all reps. The small challenge consisted of; 5 forward rolls, 5 rolls over the left shoulder, 5 rolls over the right shoulder, 6 cartwheels a bear crawl finished off by a short sprint.  Give it a try; trust me it’s harder than it looks.

Train Hard! Train Smart!

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May 27 2010

Be Like Atlas!

Category: Boxing,Injury Prevention,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,Striking/Stand-up,Uncategorized — Rob @ 7:19 PM

The other day I reviewed a product called The Rotator.  It is an excellent tool to help prevent injury in the shoulders as well as to aid in the recovery of shoulder injuries.  As we all know the shoulder strength and flexibility is vital in combat sports like MMA, jiu-jitsu and boxing.  So how can we develop stronger shoulder’s.  I am going to give you a couple of exercise that will give you some strong shoulders.  Instead of just giving you some of the normal exercise that will just isolate the shoulder muscle I am going to give you a set of exercises that will not only work your shoulders but your quads and hamstrings.  As usual I will add a visual so you can see what the exercises look like, I know I work best with a visual as well as description.  With all these exercise start with just the bar as it can be taxing on the shoulder. As you get stronger add more weight.

The first exercise I want to discuss is the overhead press with a squat.  Start with the bar on your across you back as if you are going to squat, with your hands in a snatch grip.  As you lower yourself in the squat position you want to press the bar at the same time over your head.  At first it may be “hard” to do both movements at once but I know you will get it.  I like to stand with my feet a little wider in the squat more like a powerlifter to really get at those hamstrings.

The next exercise is the overhead squat.  In the same position as the overhead squat with a press and starting with the snatch grip, press the bar overhead and hold it there for the entire set.  You will now drop down and squat while holding the bar overhead.

The last exercise is and overhead press with a lunge.  You can do these stationary and alternate legs or you can find a stretch of the gym where you can walk and get at least eight reps in.  You will begin by pressing the bar overhead with the snatch grip.  You will then proceed to lunge forward alternating legs.

We can use these exercise for building strength and a conditioning protocol as well.  For strength gains do the following:

Overhead Press and Squat

4 sets 6-8 reps

Overhead Squat

4 sets 6-8 reps

Overhead Lunge

4 sets 6-8 reps

For Conditioning: (Using light weight)

Complete a  set of Overhead Presses and Squats for 8 reps followed by Overhead Squats for 8 reps followed by Overhead Lunges for  reps.  Do not rest in between

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May 25 2010

The Rotator: Strengthen Your Shoulder!

Category: Injury Prevention,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,Striking/Stand-up,Uncategorized,Wrestling — Rob @ 8:22 PM

In any combat sport be it MMA, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, judo, boxing and kickboxing, shoulder strength and flexibility are essential.  Internal and external rotation of the shoulder is important in throwing, pulling, pushing or even punching an opponent.  Many combat athletes have a tendency of injuring their shoulders.  Constant wear and tear leads to overuse and puts a combat athlete at risk.  Strength and conditioning coaches should give some attention to not only strengthening the shoulder but also making it more flexible, you know the shoulder locks in jiu-jitsu could hurt.

Recently I had the honor of trying out a product that works on the two aspects mentioned above. The Rotator, which was created by Scott Kay and produced by Joint Mechanix LLC, is an excellent product that helps with shoulder strengthening and flexibility.

Along with The Rotator, I received instructions on how to set it up, a sheet with different exercises that can be performed with The Rotator the Strong-Arm band and the Velcro strap to perform the different exercises shown.  Another thing that came with the Rotator was a DVD that gives us some great information on the shoulder joint and external and internal rotation exercises.  (Side note: check out the blooper segment)

After taking it out and playing with it for a few minutes I knew instantly that this product would be of beneficial use to not only combat athletes but people in general. So I gave The Rotator a solid run for the last four weeks or so. I used the Rotator 4-5 times a week.  I did the basic internal and external exercises that are shown on the video and on the sheet that came with The Rotator.  Majority of the exercise were very easy to figure out especially with the use of the pictures and video.  There were one or two that at first I had trouble getting the position right but I found the groove.

Before the four-week period was up I found that The Rotator was working well for me. During my Thai Boxing training my shoulders felt stronger and I was able to do the conditioning drills at a higher pace.  On the grappling mat I found my flexibility had improved in my shoulder especially when people were attacking my shoulder for different submissions.  I also found it useful in the weight room as well.  With the snatching and overhead pressing it has helped improved my training sessions in the gym.  I am going to continue using The Rotator to help my shoulder flexibility and strength out.

So if you are a combat athlete or you just want to strengthen your shoulder and make it more flexible definitely go get yourself a Rotator.  Your shoulders will thank you.  Below is the video of the introduction, which is found on the DVD that comes with your purchase of The Rotator. Come check out the site just click here http://therotater.com/wp/

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Apr 29 2010

The Journey is Rocking!

Category: Agility,Conditioning,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,Power Training,Quickness,Speed,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 9:37 PM

And so the journey continues and it is getting better and better as we move along.  As we all know Jessica is a 2010 Pan American champion but last week on a weekend visit to Chi-town it just so happened that there was a Naga taking place at the same time.  So what does any true Samurai do, they fight and that is just what Jess did as she once again took another tournament and continues her pace to becoming a great MMA champion.  This Saturday she will be competing in the New York Open jiu-jitsu tournament.

Look at that Samurai Sword!

The best thing about this is that after this tournament I have Jessica for a whole four weeks of strength and conditioning.  I am excited about this, as we have had to pull back a little on the strength training due to the fact that she was competing in tournament every couple of weeks.  I now have her for a full phase of training.

So here is what the program is going to focus on.  I am going to keep the same strength-training program that I had mentioned in one of my previous titled “What’s a Strength Coach Supposed To Do?  So she will follow that specific program two times a week with conditioning protocols at the end.  I will now be adding another day in there and it will focus on some different aspects of strength and conditioning.  The extra two days will focus on some functional exercise to help improve balance and mobility.  Along with that I am going to be adding speed, agility, quickness and reaction drills to these days.  I want to improve Jessicas athletic ability with this day.  We will be working on multi-directional work, cone drills and even some sprint work.  I know if I turn her into a better athlete that it will turn her into a better fighter.  This just goes to prove that not all strength and conditioning training for MMA fighters needs to be “sport-specific”.  Many times you need to take a step back and develop your fighters athletic ability it will only improve their fight game.  One thing that I am excited about testing and have been using myself is the reaction ball.  The way this ball bounces it is going to improve her reaction time on the mat and in the cage.  Look for my next post in the next day or so as I go through the progression of how I taught Jessica to snatch in out last session.  Until then Train Hard, Train Smart!

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Apr 22 2010

Functional Correction and MMA?

Category: MMA,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:35 PM

Hey everyone, hope all is going well with your life and your training.  This week I had a sinus infection but gave me time to write some stuff since I did not make the gym on Monday and Tuesday.  One thing I wanted to share with all of you was a review on Tim Hull’s, Functional Correction, manual.  For those of you that do not know Tim Hull he is a physical therapist and has loads of experience in the fitness industry.  Tim is always willing to share his wealth of knowledge with people. Check him out at his site http://thestrengthdoctor.com  That being said I wanted to share my thoughts about Tim’s manual Functional Correction.


Functional Correction will not only help recover from injury quicker but will also keep your chances from injuring yourself lower.  Tim goes through how muscles imbalances in your body can lead to injuries or aches and pains in other parts of your body.  His in depth insight how the body works together and certain muscles should not be neglected is useful information for all everyone.

After giving a lot of good information on the body he not only gives us the exercises that we should be doing but he accompanies it with great photos to help you with the visual.  Tim gives us the 7 Daily Essentials.  These exercises should be done on a daily basis and are great on days you are not training for they will help give you greater flexibility and keep you healthy.  If you have ever done a dynamic warm-up some of these exercise may be familiar to you but Tim does a great job of picking out the seven best one’s that you should use on a daily basis.  Tim then gives us a whole slew of exercises that help with our mobility as well as for the use of activating our muscles.  With each picture he gives us a picture with what the exercise helps us with and a brief description of how to do the exercise.

If you are an athlete and especially if you train in MMA or any combat sport I highly recommend picking up a copy of Functional Correction.  Putting many of these exercise in your training regime will greatly reduce the likelihood of injury and help you stay on the mat and keep on training.  Just click on the link below to check out your copy of Functional Correction.

http://thera-strength.com/manual/functional-correction-manual

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Apr 20 2010

Take a Break from MMA!

Category: Jiu-Jitsu,Mental Training,MMA,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 9:12 PM

If you are a strength and conditioning coach then you know the importance of having deloading weeks in their programs.  Many coaches fail to have their athletes deload and this can lead to weaker athletes as well as injury.   For those of you that are MMA athletes or grapplers let me briefly explain to you what deloading is. Deloading is a segment of training session that aid in the recovery of your body.  They normally happen every four to eight weeks after an intense training program.

If you are training an MMA athlete you must have deload weeks placed in their programs.

MMA athletes are notorious for intense training weeks of many different aspects of each discipline required to be a MMA fighter.  On top of that they add strength and conditioning sessions and that can lead to problems because they never allow themselves time to recover.  Recovery for these athletes is imperative and must be taken seriously.

That being said if you are an MMA fighter you must look into deloading in your overall training.  I know, I said it, basically you should schedule weeks within your training to deload from all aspects of training.  Yes that means all aspects of training, don’t try and sneak a sparring session in on your deload week.  Here is what I am proposing you can pick a cycle of training, be it four, six or eight week cycle and deload on that last week.

What are some of the benefits of deloading? No you are not just sitting on your ass during the deload week eating and watching TV.  For starters it is an active recovery session.  These deload sessions will help reduce the risk of injury or rehab an injury, help with the repair of muscles or muscle building, help your flexibility and help you mentally.

How do you organize your deload week?  You can have three or four sessions during your deload week.  During this week you are focusing on active recovery.  Make the sessions short and sweet.  So in each session you should have some type of dynamic stretches to increase your flexibility and get more blood flowing to the muscle.  You can also use body weight exercise to get the blood flowing as well.  If you want to do any training in any specific martial arts you will just do the technique work.  NO SPARRING OR ROLLING!! One thing you can do during your deload week is look at tapes of fights or jiu-jitsu tournaments.  This will vastly improve your game as well and will pump you up when you get back into training the following week.

I know this is hard for the MMA athlete but it is important to making gains on and off the mat.  At first these sessions will be very strange to you.  You may not even know what to do with your free time during that week but you will see improvement in your skills and gains in your strength and power.  So remember add the deload week in your training, you will thank me later.  Train Hard! Train Smart!

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