Jun 28 2010

Develop an Explosive Punch!

Category: Boxing,Conditioning,Injury Prevention,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,muay Thai,Power Training,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 7:38 PM

We all know that punching power is very important in combat sports that require you to, well punch.  Some of those would include boxing, Muay Thai, and MMA.  There are a whole bunch of other martial arts out there that use punching but these are just to name a few.  If you look at some of the most powerful punchers from the past like Mike Tyson, you will see that they use there entire body to generate force to deliver those knockout blows.  So we can all agree that punching is a total body movement from the ground up?  Great!

How do we develop a little added extra punching power?  There are many different exercises that can help us obtain a little added power to our punches.  Explosive pushups will help you increase the power of your punch as well as if you compete in such combat sports such as Judo or Jiu-Jitsu when you go to grab an opponent by the neck or gi for a takedown or to just control them.  We all know pushups are great for you and can make you strong.  If you have not already signed up for your FREE copy of the MMA Bodyweight Workout, you can do that up in the right hand corner.

Ok now back to what I was saying.  There are many different variations of pushups and all the different variations serve a purpose.  Explosive pushups help you develop power in your chest, shoulders and triceps all muscles that help when you are punching.  In a regular explosive pushup you go down in a normal pushup and when you hit the bottom position you push yourself up and your hands leave the floor.

The variation I will show you below is the explosive medicine ball pushup.  As you will see below this is a great exercise to not only help develop that explosive power but also help with your balance and as well as strengthening your stabilizing muscles.  As you strengthen your stabilizing muscle around the shoulder and chest you will notice how will become stronger and more powerful.  Just as a side note when performing this variation of pushup try and get the ball to stay still, you do not want to be chasing the ball around as you explode out from the bottom position.  This could lead to injury.  There are a couple of ways to add these in to your training. You can use them as part of a conditioning protocol or you can perform these after a compound movement like the squat or deadlift.  I personally would not use them after a set of bench-pressing because I want the exercise to be powerful or it defeats the purpose if you do it slow or already fatigued.  So check it out.  Train Hard! Train Smart!

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Jun 08 2010

Agility Drills MMA Style!

Category: Agility,Boxing,Conditioning,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,Power Training,Quickness,Speed,Strength Training,Uncategorized,Wrestling — Rob @ 8:12 PM

Before I start, agility is defined as the ability to change the direction of your body efficiently and effectively.   In order to perform agility drills effectively you need to be strong, powerful, have good balance and be able to control your body at all times.  Agility drills are very effective for training all sorts of athletes.  They increase the athlete’s performance and also help with the reduction in injury.  Today many athletes are prone to knee injuries and other lower body injuries, agility drills can teach an athlete how to control their bodies which in turn will help reduce the likelihood of these injuries.

Combat sports and athletes are no different from regular athletes and should have agility drills programmed into their strength and conditioning routines.  Fighters that compete in jiu-jitsu, MMA, boxing, and kickboxing are always changing direction.  Agility drills will help a fighter with their footwork as well as other aspects like takedown defense and takedowns.  Agility drills will make an athlete quick on their feet, as it will help any combat athlete as well.

The drill below is the 20 Yard Shuttle, it is used during NFL Combine and scouts use it to help them assess the players. The 20 Yard Shuttle is used as a test of lateral speed and coordination.  Like I stated above being able to change direction in a fight is essential.  So below is an example of the regular 20 Yard Shuttle and then a variation of it for combat sports.   In the variation I add sprawls to enhance reaction ability and help with the athletes ability to get up and continue to change direction in a fight.  In future article I will write about how to program agility drills into your strength and conditioning training.  Remember one thing when you do these agility drills or even speed drills, get a full recovery in, it’s not a conditioning session it’s an agility session.

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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 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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