UFC | Combat Trainer

Aug 24 2010

Frankie Edgar Strength Training

Category: Conditioning, MMA, Power Training, Strength Training, UFC, Uncategorized — Rob @ 2:03 PM

UFC 118 is upon us as is the long awaited rematch between the UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn as well as Randy Couture taking on James Toney. As you all know I love to give you a taste of how some of the top fighters/athletes train for fights. Now it’s hard to find recent video of strength and conditioning sessions for upcoming fights, so I just dig into the past.

In this video you will be taking a look at the current UFC Lightweight Champion of the World Frankie Edgar. We all know in the first fight Edgar was able to push the pace on Penn. He was able to use a lot of constant movement to squeak out a victory to win the championship.
How was Edgar able to keep this pace throughout the fight? It had to do with the type of conditioning sessions he was putting himself through. Edgar performed circuits that mimic what a fight would be like. The way to make these circuits work for you is to make them harder than the actual fight. When doing conditioning sessions prior to a fight you need to make sure that those sessions are going to be harder than what you will experience during the fight. The point is when you get in the cage you will be able to push the pace because your body has adapted to going harder in training.

So here is the Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar as he performs a pretty brutal conditioning session using circuit style training.

Tags: athletes, BJ Penn, Conditioning, fighters, Franki Edgar, James Toney, Lightweight Champion, MMA, Power, Randy Couture, strength and conditioning, Strength Training, UFC, UFC 118

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Aug 04 2010

Jon Fitch Strength and Conditioning

Category: Agility, MMA, Power Training, UFC, Uncategorized — Rob @ 7:41 PM

In my search for strength and conditioning footage of the fighters in this weekends UFC 117 card I came across a lot of Jon Fitch footage of his strength and conditioning. Other fighters are hard to come by but Fitch produces the video. Jon Fitch who fights out of the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), is taking on American Top Team (ATT) member Thiago Alves
In most of his videos he is doing agility work. We all know that agility is one of the key components to any strength and conditioning program and is essential for fighters and athletes alike to train.
In this video however, Fitch is using lateral jumps over hurdles with punches. Lateral jumps are a form of plyometrics which help train an athlete to become more powerful. I found this movement to be interesting and will definetly incorporate it into my fighters overall programs. Fitch we all know has great takedown defense. This exercise will help him react and move explosively when someone attempts to take him down. I also enjoy the MMA specificity that is added into the drill. After each set of hops Fitch throws a one-two combo, this makes Fitch focus on sticking the landing on the jump and then exploding with good technique with the one two. This in particular drill takes focus. Lack of focus will lead you to hit the hurdle and crash to the floor. So remember when watching these videos I post of pro fighters doing these exercises know that they are under the watchful eye of a professional, well at least I hope so.
Don’t forget to watch UFC 117 as Anderson Silva defends his title against Chael Sonnen. Also on the card UFC legend will take on Ricardo Almeida, Junior Dos Santos will go up against Roy Nelson as that will be a fun fight to watch.

Tags: AKA, American Kickboxing Academy, American Top Team, ATT, fighters, hurdles, Jon Fitch, Junior Dos Santos, lateral hops, Matt Hughes, MMA, plyometrics, Power, Ricardo Almeida, Roy Nelson, strength and conditioning, Thiago Alves, UFC, UFC 117

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Jul 28 2010

UFC Fighters Conditioning Routine

Category: Agility, Conditioning, MMA, Power Training, Speed, UFC, Uncategorized — Rob @ 11:07 AM

Saturday night Dana White is giving us all a free UFC event on Versus. The card is pretty stacked, and if you are a big fan of the UFC you have been itching for the last month for some octagon action. The main event of the card is Jon Jones taking on Vladimir Matyushenko in the light heavyweight division. This can be a big stepping-stone for Jon Jones young career as many see him as the future champion of the division. With all that raw talent and youth on his side I tend to believe this as well. Jones is a pure athlete and the future of the sport.
Also on the card Mark Munoz will be taking on veteran Yushin Okami. Last April Munoz had a great come from behind victory over Kendall Grove defeating him with some vicious ground and pound. Munoz like Jones is a rising star in the UFC. Munoz is still going through some of the growing pains as all fighters do but he is well on his way up the ladder and becoming a serious contender in the near future.
As a treat for the site I was able to find some of Munoz’s strength and conditioning training. In this video he is doing a ten-minute non-stop conditioning circuit. In the circuit Mark is wearing a weighted vest. In this circuit you will see all different types of training going on. Each exercise is done for thirty-seconds. The circuit includes: speed and agility training, you will see him testing his core with medicine ball tosses, he performs plyometrics in the circuit to develop explosive power sledgehammers swings and some fight specific movements that you will see throughout the protocol such as ground and pound. So sit back and enjoy the next ten minutes and wish you were doing the circuit.

Tags: Agility, athletes, Dana White, Ground and Pound, Jon Jones, Kendall Grove, light heavy weight division, Mark Munoz, Medicine Ball Toss, MMA, octagon, Speed, strength and conditioning, UFC, UFC on Versus, Vladamir Matyushenko, weighted vest, Yushin Okami

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Jul 05 2010

Ground and Pound Conditioning!

Category: Conditioning, MMA, Mental Training, Strength Training, Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:58 PM

So I was on a mini-vacation for the Fourth of July, which of course is my favorite holiday. In any event I may have been away at the beach but I did not miss UFC 116 and it proved to be a great show once again. I went three for five with my picks and as my wife liked to point out Saturday night, “that’s pretty good for you.” But anyway, the main event at UFC 116 as you know was Brock Lesner going up against Shane Carwin. I had Carwin in this one and by all looks of it I thought it was going to be over in the first round when Carwin put Lesner on his back and pounded away on him.
As that was going on though Joe Rogan pointed out that Carwin could have easily tired himself out. If you are a fighter you know a relentless ground and pound, like the one that Carwin was displaying can take a toll on you physically as you need great conditioning to keep at it. As the round came to an end and Lesner survived the onslaught we could all see the physical strain it took on Carwin. Another thing that is affected when you cannot finish a fight when you have your opponent almost finished is the mental side of things. It’s almost a let down, but that is for another post.
As I sat and watched Lesner finishing off Carwin, I thought about the conditioning you need to have to sustain such a vicious ground and pound. A few weeks ago I had posted a conditioning protocol using a sledgehammer. In that same session I did a short one-minute “finisher” to my training session. This video was going to be used at a later date but after seeing the fight I had to put it up. Using mini-sledgehammers and the same car tire I did one-minute of straight pounding on the tire mimicking the ground and pound you find in MMA. Each mini-sledge weighs five pounds, the object here is to get out as many reps as possible in a minute. Obviously you can add time and see how many you can bang out. Check out the video below, you can see at the end I am a bit tired. This protocol will ensure that your ground and pound conditioning will be at top level. So go pick up some mini-sledgehammers and an old car tire and start your ground and pound conditioning today! Train Hard! Train Smart!

Tags: Brock Lesner, Conditioning, Ground and Pound, mixed martial arts, MMA, Shane Carwin, sledge hammers, tires, UFC, UFC 116

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Jul 02 2010

UFC 116 Predictions!

Category: UFC Predictions, Uncategorized — Rob @ 1:16 PM

This Saturday can be one of the biggest UFC Heavyweight championships fights in the history of the UFC, that is of course until either Brock Lesner or Shane Carwin have to take on Cain Velasquez in a few months. This card is pretty stacked even with the loss of Wanderlei Silva due to injuries. Nothing beats a great fight card on a my favorite holiday, the Fourth of July! So hope you all have a safe weekend and enjoy the fights!

Tags: Akiyama, Brock Lesner, Chris Leben, Chris Lytle, George Sotiropoulos, Krzysztof Soszynski, Kurt Pellegrino, Matt Brown, Shane Carwin, Stephan Bonnar, UFC, UFC 116, UFC 116 predicitons, Yoshihiro Akiyama

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Jun 10 2010

Sledge Hammer Conditioning

Category: Conditioning, Power Training, Strength Training, Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:02 PM

It was one of those days. I knew I had to get some training in but did not want to get in the car and head over to Gracie Barra Long Island for an MMA session. So instead I stayed home and had a great strength and conditioning session at home. As you have read in the past I am a huge proponent of looking into and researching all different styles and methodologies of training. One form of training that I wanted to check out was Marv Marinovich’s ProBodX. Marinovich trains former UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn and after getting a glimpse of some the training he was putting Penn through I wanted to do my research and check it out. So I went online and bout the book ProBodX, which is the basis of the training system. I bought the book in January and devoured the information, I even went out and bought some of the equipment and was going to give the exercise plan a run for it’s money. However there was not too much space in the hose to do it, as the baby girl has been claiming land fast. So the other day gave me a great opportunity to give it a shot. I brought all the equipment out to the backyard and followed the program laid out in the back. There was some exercise that I could do without and then there were some that I will be using to help my fighters with balance, proprioception, and use there body as one.

So I started the session off with the movements from ProBodX and I got some good training out of it. Then I moved on to the conditioning session. The other day I hit the local tire repair center on my way home. I asked the guy if I could snag some tires and he was very kind to give them to me. So armed with some tires and some sledgehammers I went to work. Here is what I did:

Downward Swings 1 minute

Right Cross Body Swings 1 minute

Left Cross Body Swings 1 minute

When doing the Downward Swings you need to use trunk flexion. Pretty much what that means is bending forward with your abdominals. The Right and Left Body Swings require some rotation on the swing. The little three-minute circuit worked out my whole body as I incorporated my legs in the swings. After the completion of three rounds or sets I was feeling pretty toasted, as it tested my conditioning level but also how much power I could exert during a long stretch of time. Usually after missing a training session at the gym I regret it but not this time as this strength and conditioning session felt great. Here is the video of the three-minute circuit.

Tags: BJ Penn, Conditioning, Gracie Barra, light weight champion, Marv Marinovich, MMA, ProBodX, sledge hammers, strength and conditioning, training, UFC

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May 03 2010

Gymnastics and MMA?

Category: Conditioning, MMA, Strength Training, Uncategorized — Rob @ 4:53 PM

In my You Tube adventures over the weekend I ran into this pretty cool video by world-class strength and conditioning coach Martin Rooney. If you don’t know who Martin Rooney is you should without a doubt pick up some of his books such as: “Train to Win”, “Training for Warriors” and his new book which should be a good one, “Ultimate Warrior Workouts”. He trains some of the best MMA fighters in the world. The first seminar I ever attended as a personal trainer back then was being co-hosted by Rooney. That seminar was the “Training to Win” seminar. It set me on the path to become a strength and conditioning coach. From that time on I have learned a lot from Rooney’s training techniques and philosophies. If you train fighters or any athlete you should look into Rooney’s methods of training to help guide you as a strength and conditioning coach.
In this video Rooney talks about some of the research he has been doing on kinesthetic awareness.. Basically kinesthetic awareness is being able to coordinate your body’s motion and awareness of where your body is in that moment and space. He shows us three gymnastic moves that will help improve our kinesthetic awareness. The three exercises he shows us are the cartwheel, the round off and the handstand. Sometimes we get caught up with the latest technology or new equipment in the strength and conditioning field, but many times going back to old school methods delivers just as good as results if not better. So check out the video below and don’t forget to Train Hard, Train Smart!

Tags: cartwheel, combat sports, gymnastics, handstand, kinesthetic awareness, martial arts, Martin Rooney, MMA, round off, Train to Win, training, Training for Warriors, UFC, Ultimate Warrior Workouts

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Apr 25 2010

Mental MMA!

Category: Jiu-Jitsu, MMA, Mental Training, Strength Training — Rob @ 11:00 AM

“It’s ninety percent mental.” It’s what we hear all the time about not just MMA but many other sports. Ok so then let me ask you something if it’s 90% mental and only 10% physical then why do we have our fighters spend so much time training the physical and so much less time training the mental side of their game.

We all know how mentally taxing getting into cage, ring or stepping on the mat can be. Fighters can drain themselves from just anticipating the moment. How many highly touted fighters step into the UFC for the first time, end up freezing up and just not performing to expectation? Did they lose all their talent? Not at all. Mentally they were not able to handle the situation. Many of those fighters do come back a second time around and end up winning in their second fight. The talent is there the mental training is not.

One of the most important things to work on when you are doing your mental training is visualization. You need to immediately begin to learn how to use visualization. This is a skill that is imperative to your performance on and off the mat.

If you can visualize this...

Then you can visualize this!

Let’s make this easy, start off with simple visualization practice. Before heading out to any kind of training session, be it a strength and conditioning session or jiu-jitsu session, visualize what you want that training session to look like. Close your eyes focus on walking into the gym, what do you hear, what do you smell (which could be nasty but…) what or who do you see? Then visualize the physical work that will take place during your training session. If it’s jiu-jitsu visualize rolling with someone in the class. What will you attempt to try, what will you do if you get caught in certain positions? How does this help? Say you do get caught in the position that you had visualized. You are now more likely to stay calm and work your way out of it just like you imagined you would have. Visualizing certain positions is like drilling and you can do it over and over again. The more you visualize your training or a fight the better your results will be.

You can use visualization throughout your whole day. As you are driving you can practice your visualization, just don’t close your eyes. So start off small when you begin to use visualization. Start with a training session, then start visualizing an actual competition or fight and then work your way up to long-term goals that you have for your fight career. This one tip on mental training can lead to vast improvement in your fight game.

Tags: Jiu-Jitsu, Mental Training, MMA, strength and conditioning, training, UFC, visualization

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Apr 08 2010

MMA and the Olympics?

Category: MMA, Power Training, Strength Training, Uncategorized — Rob @ 10:00 PM

We have heard rumors about Mixed Martial Arts maybe one day being part of the Olympics. Who knows if this will ever happen but this is not what this post is about. I want to discuss training that has been over looked by not only fighters but many athletes as well. What am I talking about? I am talking about the Olympic lifts. Recently on the UFC Primetime show, we saw George St. Pierre (GSP) doing the Snatch. This is proving that the Olympic lifts are valuable to any strength-training program.
What are the benefits of the Olympic style lifts? These lifts are known to develop power as well as great flexibility in the hips, legs and shoulders and the whole body is trained when performing these lifts.
When I learned the lifts two years ago I saw the immediate benefit to doing them. I instantly began to incorporate them into my fighters program. When fighters ask me what are the best exercises the Clean and Press is always mentioned. Obviously there are benefits from the other lifts as well.
There is one negative about the Olympic lifts. For most athletes or fighters they are hard to learn. There is a lot of technique that goes into these lifts and it takes a while to get the hang of them. The better your technique gets the more you will be able to lift. With the Olympic lifts poor technique equals bad results. But if you can get good at them it will extremely improve your athleticism. Trainers say it’s a waste of time to teach these lifts because they take so long and fighters need to focus on other types of training before a fight. What about the time that they are not preparing for a fight do these trainers just stop strength training all together? This is the perfect time to teach your fighters the Olympic lifts. During this time you can focus on showing them one lift and let them get good at it. Then you can incorporate them into their program.
When I teach my fighters these lifts I am not looking to make them Olympic weightlifters, I just want them to learn the lift effectively enough to be able to perform the lift explosively and not get hurt. The key here is to teach them how to control their bodies while exploding during the movement as fast as they can. In upcoming weeks I will be posting more about the Olympic lifts.
Below is a video of someone I used to train MMA with. He was also an Olympic lifter in high school when I met him. I ran into him at the gym a few weeks back and he trained with me. Here is video of him power snatching. Take a look at his technique pretty good after a couple of years lay off.