Conditioning coaches and personal trainers are frequently asked questions by trainees that are difficult to answer. This is because most trainees asking these questions miss the bigger picture. I often get asked about things like 'drop-sets', 'cluster training', and 'time under tension' (lifting tempos). These are advanced methods that have little effect until you have developed a reasonable base of strength & conditioning.
I like to think of it in terms of 'building the foundation before the house'. Everybody wants the luxury 4 bedroom house, but nobody cares about the foundation it's built on. It reminds me of that old moral story about the man who rushed to build his house on soft sand, and it collapsed, whereas his neighbor took his time, and built his house of flat rocks, where it remained safe.
Too often, guys ask me how to add 30kg to their squat, when they can't perform a few single leg squats. Some are so concerned about getting extra plates on their bench press when they can't even move half of that weight in a standing position, where punches actually occur!
Likewise, outside of the performance realm, skinny 17 year olds want to know all the best exercises for to blast their 'inner' chest and 'peak' their biceps, when they can't even deadlift 50% of their bodyweight off the floor.
You've got to build the foundation, or bake the cake first, before putting the icing on top. Here are my 5 'Basic Rules' of Strength & Conditioning. If you abide by these principles above all else, you should see huge gains in strength and overall MMA fitness:
1. Maximal Strength is THE Basic Principle
Maximal strength is the single most important fitness quality to any athlete, or trainee looking to build size or burn fat. Every other quality invariably depends on your level of maximal strength - the most force your muscles can generate in one effort.
Think about it, the stronger a muscle is, it can keep contracting for longer without getting tired - giving you improved endurance.
The more force it can generate, the more speed it will contract at - giving you more power.
The more strength a muscle has, the more range of motion it can perform through - increasing your flexibility.
The stronger the muscle around your vital joints, the less chance you will tear a ligament or damage the bone - decreasing your injury risk.
Don't worry about power, endurance, agility or anything else until you have first gained some impressive strength in relation to your body weight. Keep practicing until you can perform a few single-leg squats, pull ups and single-arm press ups. It will come, and you'll be shocked at how much your MMA game will improve with this simple change alone.
2. Compound Exercises before Isolation
Leading on from the last point - the only way to develop REAL strength that is usable in combat is through compound exercises that use as many muscle groups as possible. As I've said a hundred times, the deadlift is THE measure of strength for an MMA warrior. The deadlift is a measure of hip strength, grip strength and upper back pulling power - some of the KEY components to martial arts performance.
While I don't believe that all single-muscle, isolation exercises should be eliminated, I do think you'd better have a damn good reason for including them. Perhaps you are rehabilitating a muscle, or it is just a weak and inactivated muscle that needs targeting. Maybe you just want to get bigger triceps to look good in a t-shirt? I'm okay with that, but only if you get your dips or dumbbell presses in first! Isolation exercises are supplementary - they are not used to build overall strength, but can be used once your main lifting is done. They always go last in the workout!
3. Understand Sport-Specificity & its Limitations
'Sport-specific' is a term that has been misunderstood by many of us strength coaches in the past. In reality, it isn't as great as we first imagined it to be.
For example, as a fighter, you spend 2-3 sessions per week in sparring, repeatedly throwing punches and lifting opponents. As a result, your shoulder and triceps muscles are taking a beating all through the week. Now you come to the gym, for your 'sport-specific' session, and start doing loaded dumbbell punches, hitting the bag, more heavy shoulder and chest exercises - putting more strain on the same muscles.
Something tells me that can't be good in the long term. In reality, strength & conditioning sessions should be used to focus on the opposing muscles that aren't being fatigued as much. Strength & conditioning should really be about fixing the muscle weaknesses that daily life causes us to have. Most of the time, correcting your weaknesses is what leads to improvements in performance.
The weak hips from sitting all day, the weak shoulder and tight chest from rounded-shoulder posture, weak backs from too much benching while the pull-up bar collects dust. These are the muscles that all trainees need to really be focusing on.
The amazing thing is, when you strengthen your back and hip muscles, your chest and triceps will instantly be able to produce more force. That's right; you can actually increase your bench press by paying attention to your back, with no chest / triceps training at all!
So where do we need sport-specificity? Conditioning is where specificity is vital. The minute your endurance session goes longer than the amount of time you are to spend in a competitive match, your endurance training is no longer specific to your sport!
You need to be specific in that you train as you hope to perform. MMA is composed of short bursts of high power, repeated over and over. Jogging, cycling and rowing don't come into this at all. Bodyweight circuits and metabolic resistance training rule all for conditioning.
4. Total Body Training
This is another aspect where specificity rules in your strength or power training. You use your body as a whole in combat. You don't use your arms one day and your legs in the next fight. So why do many fighters still train their body this way in the gym? Total body sessions are ideal for beginners to a structured weight routine, and even for most advanced trainees looking for performance.
If you do want to add even more muscle size you can opt for an upper / lower split, but generally you cannot go wrong with a total body workout, 2-4 times per week.
5. Technique
Technique comes before all else when using free weights. There's no point in cheating reps in order to lift more weight. Cheating brings stronger muscles into play to lift the weight, so the muscles you initially wanted to stimulate are ignored. Not to mention that your risk of injury multiplies.
Keep it safe, getting hurt in the weight room is the last thing you want. If you train with a partner, don't EVER let them touch the bar. They can spot you, but only incase the bar is going to fall on you. If they help you in any physical way to lift a weight, then YOU did not lift it. You have failed unless you lifted it all on your own. This is the way I have always personally trained.
Therefore I can only bench press or squat what I alone am truly capable of, and would not recommend using straps, belts, gloves or any other stuff that just serves to make an exercise easier.
You are a warrior, competing in the toughest and most ancient sport known to man. You are the modern day Spartans. Do you think they used a belt to 'brace' their back before lifting a heavy object off the ground? Do you think Roman gladiators would wear straps around their wrists before pulling themselves up to a ledge, y'know 'cause their forearms would give out?
No way! Man-up and get developing some REAL strength, and you'll be launching your opponents up and dumping them back down so fast they won't know what the hell happened!
Those are some basic principles that I believe strength & conditioning should abide by. Remember, a strong foundation will count for 80% of your success. Everything else is just a bonus. Likewise, if you have a weak foundation, it will contribute to 80% of your failure. Build the foundation, keep it simple and effective.
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Justin_Devonshire
I like to think of it in terms of 'building the foundation before the house'. Everybody wants the luxury 4 bedroom house, but nobody cares about the foundation it's built on. It reminds me of that old moral story about the man who rushed to build his house on soft sand, and it collapsed, whereas his neighbor took his time, and built his house of flat rocks, where it remained safe.
Too often, guys ask me how to add 30kg to their squat, when they can't perform a few single leg squats. Some are so concerned about getting extra plates on their bench press when they can't even move half of that weight in a standing position, where punches actually occur!
Likewise, outside of the performance realm, skinny 17 year olds want to know all the best exercises for to blast their 'inner' chest and 'peak' their biceps, when they can't even deadlift 50% of their bodyweight off the floor.
You've got to build the foundation, or bake the cake first, before putting the icing on top. Here are my 5 'Basic Rules' of Strength & Conditioning. If you abide by these principles above all else, you should see huge gains in strength and overall MMA fitness:
1. Maximal Strength is THE Basic Principle
Maximal strength is the single most important fitness quality to any athlete, or trainee looking to build size or burn fat. Every other quality invariably depends on your level of maximal strength - the most force your muscles can generate in one effort.
Think about it, the stronger a muscle is, it can keep contracting for longer without getting tired - giving you improved endurance.
The more force it can generate, the more speed it will contract at - giving you more power.
The more strength a muscle has, the more range of motion it can perform through - increasing your flexibility.
The stronger the muscle around your vital joints, the less chance you will tear a ligament or damage the bone - decreasing your injury risk.
Don't worry about power, endurance, agility or anything else until you have first gained some impressive strength in relation to your body weight. Keep practicing until you can perform a few single-leg squats, pull ups and single-arm press ups. It will come, and you'll be shocked at how much your MMA game will improve with this simple change alone.
2. Compound Exercises before Isolation
Leading on from the last point - the only way to develop REAL strength that is usable in combat is through compound exercises that use as many muscle groups as possible. As I've said a hundred times, the deadlift is THE measure of strength for an MMA warrior. The deadlift is a measure of hip strength, grip strength and upper back pulling power - some of the KEY components to martial arts performance.
While I don't believe that all single-muscle, isolation exercises should be eliminated, I do think you'd better have a damn good reason for including them. Perhaps you are rehabilitating a muscle, or it is just a weak and inactivated muscle that needs targeting. Maybe you just want to get bigger triceps to look good in a t-shirt? I'm okay with that, but only if you get your dips or dumbbell presses in first! Isolation exercises are supplementary - they are not used to build overall strength, but can be used once your main lifting is done. They always go last in the workout!
3. Understand Sport-Specificity & its Limitations
'Sport-specific' is a term that has been misunderstood by many of us strength coaches in the past. In reality, it isn't as great as we first imagined it to be.
For example, as a fighter, you spend 2-3 sessions per week in sparring, repeatedly throwing punches and lifting opponents. As a result, your shoulder and triceps muscles are taking a beating all through the week. Now you come to the gym, for your 'sport-specific' session, and start doing loaded dumbbell punches, hitting the bag, more heavy shoulder and chest exercises - putting more strain on the same muscles.
Something tells me that can't be good in the long term. In reality, strength & conditioning sessions should be used to focus on the opposing muscles that aren't being fatigued as much. Strength & conditioning should really be about fixing the muscle weaknesses that daily life causes us to have. Most of the time, correcting your weaknesses is what leads to improvements in performance.
The weak hips from sitting all day, the weak shoulder and tight chest from rounded-shoulder posture, weak backs from too much benching while the pull-up bar collects dust. These are the muscles that all trainees need to really be focusing on.
The amazing thing is, when you strengthen your back and hip muscles, your chest and triceps will instantly be able to produce more force. That's right; you can actually increase your bench press by paying attention to your back, with no chest / triceps training at all!
So where do we need sport-specificity? Conditioning is where specificity is vital. The minute your endurance session goes longer than the amount of time you are to spend in a competitive match, your endurance training is no longer specific to your sport!
You need to be specific in that you train as you hope to perform. MMA is composed of short bursts of high power, repeated over and over. Jogging, cycling and rowing don't come into this at all. Bodyweight circuits and metabolic resistance training rule all for conditioning.
4. Total Body Training
This is another aspect where specificity rules in your strength or power training. You use your body as a whole in combat. You don't use your arms one day and your legs in the next fight. So why do many fighters still train their body this way in the gym? Total body sessions are ideal for beginners to a structured weight routine, and even for most advanced trainees looking for performance.
If you do want to add even more muscle size you can opt for an upper / lower split, but generally you cannot go wrong with a total body workout, 2-4 times per week.
5. Technique
Technique comes before all else when using free weights. There's no point in cheating reps in order to lift more weight. Cheating brings stronger muscles into play to lift the weight, so the muscles you initially wanted to stimulate are ignored. Not to mention that your risk of injury multiplies.
Keep it safe, getting hurt in the weight room is the last thing you want. If you train with a partner, don't EVER let them touch the bar. They can spot you, but only incase the bar is going to fall on you. If they help you in any physical way to lift a weight, then YOU did not lift it. You have failed unless you lifted it all on your own. This is the way I have always personally trained.
Therefore I can only bench press or squat what I alone am truly capable of, and would not recommend using straps, belts, gloves or any other stuff that just serves to make an exercise easier.
You are a warrior, competing in the toughest and most ancient sport known to man. You are the modern day Spartans. Do you think they used a belt to 'brace' their back before lifting a heavy object off the ground? Do you think Roman gladiators would wear straps around their wrists before pulling themselves up to a ledge, y'know 'cause their forearms would give out?
No way! Man-up and get developing some REAL strength, and you'll be launching your opponents up and dumping them back down so fast they won't know what the hell happened!
Those are some basic principles that I believe strength & conditioning should abide by. Remember, a strong foundation will count for 80% of your success. Everything else is just a bonus. Likewise, if you have a weak foundation, it will contribute to 80% of your failure. Build the foundation, keep it simple and effective.
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Justin_Devonshire