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!
Feb 24 2011
Bisping MMA Training
Feb 05 2011
Vitor Belfort Training
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!
Nov 13 2010
Training with Rocks
Thursday I had the day off from work, now I knew I was going to go train jiu-jitsu and muay Thai at night but I really wanted to get a strength session going in the morning. I had been planning this session all week, and I knew exactly what I was going to do.
Now my backyard is not the biggest backyard you will ever see but it would work just fine for what I was attempting to do. A while back I was cleaning out the back of the garage so they could install a fence in my yard. There beside the pot of gold I found some pretty big rocks. I knew one day that these rocks would put me to the test in training I just did not know how.
Well I figured out a great way for one of these rocks to test me. So I headed behind the garage and rolled this bad boy out into the backyard. Now I am a really crappy judge on weight, I was thinking this rock weighed about 60-70 pounds but in fact when I brought out the scale and nearly broke it I found that it weighed in at about 125-130 pounds. The wife did not seem to happy when I told her I almost broke the scale.
After a brief warm-up this is what I did. I brought out my sled threw on a thirty-five pound plate and attached it me. I picked up the rock, which I thought weighed 70 pounds and did two laps around my backyard with it. I repeated this for six sets. After doing the first set, which was about 50 yards total, I felt as if I rolled with someone in a jiu-jitsu class. My heart rate was up and my muscles were fatigued. This was my first time doing this training session so next time I will add some more weight to the sled to increase the intensity.
After the rock carry I used the same weight on the sled, I attached these wide grip pull up handles to the sled and did 6 sets of explosive rows. As I pulled the weight across my backyard I used my entire body to assist in the pull. Squatting down slightly and then exploding backwards. I was feeling my legs burning but the rock carries had more to do with that than the explosive rows.
To finish off the session I grab the two 35 pound plates and did overhead carries for 15 yards then did 5 presses and walked back the other way with the plates overhead.
This concluded my training session in the yard. So why am I telling you this. Look around your yard find some heavy stuff and put together some type of training with it. Take what you have and go to the next level and stop making excuses that you can’t get it done. Train Hard! Train Smart!
Aug 19 2010
Sleds and MMA
I know winter is only a couple of months away but I am still going to have a discussion about sleds. Not the sleds you ride down a snow covered hill on in the middle of winter but the sled that will turn you into a well conditioned, powerful fighter.
Sleds can be used for different reason’s, sleds can increase strength, power and can be used for conditioning purposes. Another great reason to use the sled is to help with the development of speed in sprinters. The sled forces the athlete to maintain the posture needed in the acceleration phase of a sprint. This phase in a sprint is almost similar to when an athlete in MMA, Jiu-Jitsu or wrestling takes a shot for a takedown.
The sled pull in the video below is to teach my fighter how to drive off the ground and use the force off the ground to develop speed. I was not working on sprint mechanics I was trying to make the fighter stronger in a position that she will find herself in.
As you will see I loaded the sled up with a good amount of weight to force Jessica to really drive off the ground. This not only developed strength in the range of motion needed it also worked on her conditioning. This is the first step in using the sled to develop a faster shot for a takedown. Step two will be to lower the load and have my fighters sprint with the sled and the last step is going to be having my fighters take actual shots with the sled with a light load. This is one of my field studies to see if I can develop much faster shots with my athletes.
Train Hard! Train Smart!
