I believe I have said this once before but sprinting is one of the best if not the best conditioning tools a MMA fighter can use to increase not only their anaerobic conditioning but at the same time get leaner, stronger and more powerful.  Most people forget about this easy to use and most natural tool we have.  Fighters and their coaches love to put their athletes through different types of “MMA specific” circuits and use that as their only mode of conditioning.  I have caught myself doing this as well but as I grow wiser and grayer in the beard I have come to love and appreciate the art of sprinting.

Sprinting is a full body training session.  If you have not sprinted in a while then you will definitely have some muscle soreness in the following days.  Besides getting in a great conditioning session and increasing your stamina, there are a few more benefits from getting out and sprinting.  Sprinting will also help to cut off excess pounds and around this time of the year, who doesn’t need that.  With the loss of fat comes the increase of lean muscle mass, which will not only make you a better athlete and fighter but also make you look good, a definite bonus for you single fighters out there.  Sprinting will also help increase power while activating those Fast-Twitch muscle fibers necessary in fighting.  The benefit that I find to be very useful especially in the fighting world is the fact that a sprint session is very short.  With all the training that fighters need to go through to get on the mat or in the cage, shorter sessions in the strength and conditioning world will save you and your body from excess wear and tear.

If you have not put sprinting into your training this may be a great time to do it.   Check out the sprint program that I posted a few months ago, this will be a great place to start.  From there you can get into some more intricate and hit me up for a program to improve your strength and conditioning training.

Finally I will leave you with an awesome sprint session that I completed on New Years Eve.  After each sprint, make sure you get sufficient recovery time.  What I do is I gauge by my heart rate, once my heart rate drops between 30-40 beats I then complete the next set.  This is a basic ladder scheme, start off with a 100m sprint followed by a 200m , then a 300m and finally a 400m sprint.  I know I said finally but you are not done yet.  Once recovered from the 400m sprint, which for some can take minutes as you gather yourself, you then embark down the ladder starting with 400m, then 300m, 200m and finally 100m.  After a good solid warm-up, the sprinting should not take any longer than a half hour to complete.  Rest intervals will determine how long the session takes.

So get out to the track and get your sprint training on, because your conditioning will thank you in the end.

Drinking 8 glasses of water a day  is considered conventional wisdom that can be heard multiple times every day in settings all over the world including the MMA training scene.  Much like many things concerning training, the amount of fluid intake a person should have is more individualized than just a flat prescription of 8 glasses a day.   A fighter’s fluid needs are unique, and as such, need a unique approach.

Dehydration can cause a tremendous reduction in performance. If you’re dehydrated, your body and mind suffer greatly, increasing your rate of injury as well as endangering your health permanently .  In the cage this is a formula for disaster. There are two major reasons why an MMA fighter has different fluid intake needs than your average person and other athletes.  First  is that your activity level is much higher than people taking part in many other athletics.  MMA training is unusually intense long with periods of high intensity scattered throughout.  There is measurably  more fluid loss than a steady-state activity like jogging or running. Secondly, based on the level of conditioning required to be competitive and fit, mixed martial artists tend to have much more muscle mass than most. Glycogen , the carbohydrate  being stored mostly in muscle requires a lot of water and must stay hydrated.

How Much Fluid Do I Need As A MMA Fighter?
Everyone is different making figuring out exactly how much fluid you need isn’t quite as simple as 8 glasses a day. With a little bit of calculation and a dedication  to monitoring your progress; you can ensure you’re getting the right amount of fluid. Here are some general guidelines:

Before Training Hydration
• Drink at least15-20 fl oz. 2 hours before training
• Drink 8-10 fl oz. 15-30 minutes before training

During Training Hydration
• Drink 8-10 fl oz every 10 minutes
• If you’re training more than an hour and a half, drink 8-10 fl oz. of electrolyte replacement drink every 30 minutes you are training.

To assess hydration check your urine color. If it’s cloudy and yellow, then you know that you’re dehydrated. The toxins that your kidneys filter out aren’t diluted in a large enough urine volume to be invisible. If your urine is clear, you’re likely getting enough fluids.

Another  way to monitor your hydration is to weigh yourself before and after your training session. The vast majority of your weight loss during a given training session  is fluid. For example, if you weighted 155lbs. before your training session and weigh in at 153lbs. after your training, which means that, you lost 32oz. of fluid. (1 pound=16 ounces of fluid).

So, train hard, train smart and stay hydrated!

This Sunday the UFC will be live on Versus. In the main event Rick Story will be taking on Nate Marquardt. In this segment of mma strength training, Story and his coach are working on agility using the agility ladder and a band. The agility ladder is a great tool to use, well for agility. Actually there are a couple more uses for the agility ladder. One being in preventing injury, especially in the feet and ankles. I recommend if you use the agility ladder to train with it barefoot as it will help strengthen your feet and ankle.
There a re a few more ways in which the ladder can improve your athletic performance. Using the agility ladder as a warm-up is a great way for an athlete to get their heart rate up, loosen up their muscles and get your central nervous system firing for the training that is to come. Another way to use the ladder is as a conditioning tool. For example preparing one of my fighters for her last fight, I had her doing ladder drills for nine minutes straight which was the amount of time her fight was. Now she choked the girl out in the first round but the ladder really did improve her conditioning.
In the video below Story uses the ladder not only for agility but with his coach pulling on his waist while performing the drill it also forces Story to use his core to stabilize himself as he goes down the ladder. The progression here would be to get the drill, which is a jumping jack down the ladder down first then add the band into the mix.

UFC Live on Versus is this Sunday and with a pretty good card to boot. Since I have not written for the site recently, this week I will feature some of the fighters MMA strength and conditioning training. The first person I will feature is Matt Mitrione. Mitrione takes on Christian Morecraft in a heavyweight battle. This TUF alum has really made a name for himself and is proving he belongs in the UFC. With each fight he has you see great improvement in his game.
In the video below produced by none other that Mitrione you will see how explosive this combat athlete really is. His strength coach combines plyometric hurdle hops with the twenty yard shuttle. Using track hurdles you see lower body explosiveness out Mitrione as he jumps over six hurdles. These hurdle hops help Mitrione generate force off the ground. Being able to generate alot of force of the ground will help combat athletes become more powerful strikers and help them have explosive takedowns. As soon as he finishes the hops he sprints to a set of three cones for the 20 yard shuttle. the 20 yard shuttle helps all kinds of athletes with their agility.
Separately these two exercise are great, when combined it adds a little conditioning element to it. My recommendation is to not go out and try this short combo of movements but to train them separately. work on your power using the hurdles but remember in order to do the hurdles you need to develop some kind of strength. As for the agility make sure when performing agility drills to get ample rest in between sets. They are agility drills intended to work on your agility not your conditioning.

MMA strength and conditioning training is very important for all fighters

As UFC 130 rolls around Saturday night the importance of MMA strength and conditioning will be seen. One of the fights on the main card is Rick Story taking on Thiago Alves. In an effort to bring you the best in MMA strength and conditioning training, I found a few videos of Story training in the past for upcoming fights. In this segment of MMA strength and conditioning training Story’s coaches incorporate the use of dumbbells in his training.
Dumbbells are a great tool for fighters. Even though the trend is going towards the use of kettlebells, fighters should not forget about the importance of dumbbells in their training. In the two videos below you will see Story use the dumbbells in a complex fashion. You will notice as completes different exercises without putting the dumbbells down.
This type of complexes can be used as a warmup or if the combat athlete increases the intensity it can also be used as a way to condition. Whatever the case may be, when training coaches should use all the tools at their disposal to get the results that their fighters need.
Train Hard! Train Smart!

Last summer I posted some videos of training on the beach and how it can help you with your MMA training. From sprinting on the beach to training in the water the benefits are great. Hey if Daniel Son did it in the karate kid and it helped him win why not you? Training at the beach can help with your balance and your strength.
Sprinting on sand for instance helps with strengthening your ankles. Because the sand is an unstable as you take each stride your foot and ankle need to adjust to the different levels of the sand. This instability leads to stronger ankles and less injury for a fighter.
I have not done this for the past couple of UFC events but with UFC 130 on the horizon this Saturday, I have gone out to find video of some of the fighters on the card training. One I came across is one of the main event contestants Matt Hamill as he trains in the ocean to begin his preparation for Quinton Rampage Jackson. As you will see in the video Hamill is wrestling in the water with his trainer. This type of training is pretty unique and helps a fighter become stronger. Just going in the ocean to have fun can be tiring try wrestling around as the waves hit you. You will see how it not only tests your balance but your strength as well.
So as summer approaches head to the beach and get some training in. Throw a kettlebell in the trunk and have a blast as you get a tan. I am sure the ladies will think it’s hot. Just remember the sun tan lotion.
Train Hard! Train Smart!

UFC Fight Night Live is tomorrow night and in the main event will pit Antonio Rogerio Nogueira going up against Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis.  While waiting in line at the UFC expo in Boston I had the pleasure of meeting Davis’ father and had the opportunity to talk to him for about an hour.  Somewhere in the United States Davis’ dad will be watching his son fight wearing his Combat Trainer tee shirt.

You could really say that I am connected to Mr. Wonderful for I had the chance to interview his strength and conditioning coach, Doug Balzarini, a few months ago as well.  So you know who I will be rooting for in the main event. Searching for training footage, I came across Davis training with what is known as a Slosh Pipe.  Now this Slosh Pipe is a mini version of the normal Slosh Pipe that would serve as a great training tool.

I first came across a Slosh Pipe when I met a training partner of mine and I also read about them in an article written by Dan John.  A typical Slosh Pipe is about nine feet long and four to six inches in diameter.  You fill the pipe, which by the way is PVC pipe, fill it up with about 30-40 pounds of water.  Now cap both ends of the PVC and then start walking with it, pressing it overhead, think of something to do with it and I am sure that it will be challenging with the water sloshing around.

In the video below you will see Davis using a mini version of the Slosh Pipe to work on his rotational power.  As you know having explosive rotational power can be very beneficial in MMA and in sports in general.  It will help with punching power, your takedowns and other aspects of MMA.  So if you looking for a cheap way to get strong look to get to a hardware store and make yourself a Slosh Pipe.
Train Hard! Train Smart!
Rob DeCillis CSCS