I’ve got my strength, skill, and flexibility training down (well good enough 
)… But I have no clue as to how I should develop my cardio. I know I need the full package. Phosphate-Creatine system and Anaerobic Endurance especially. But I also know I need a solid aerobic capacity to go the distance, maximize my usage of the anaerobic systems, and allow for more training volume/better recovery. How the hell do you do this? What’s the right volume? What kind of ratios?
How long have you been doing MMA? Where do you train? What style, and what does a week of training typically look like for you? Endurance is usually the least of your concerns when it comes to MMA (if your base if BJJ or wrestling).
I just started training this month. I train 2-4 days a week in Kirkland,WA.
Style? Boxing/Kickboxing/Submission Wrestling would be an accurate description I think.
I do weight training 4 days a week (2 Day Split) a long with some isometric stretching at the end of the workout.
I work on dynamic flexibility every day and at the end of each day I perform static stretching.
I’m interested in adding some GPP workouts and some endurance related stuff. I’ve been doing some light roadwork (20 minutes at an aerobic pace) 2 days a week because it’s cheap and I can do it just about anywhere.
It looks as though you will need to subtract from yrou workload rather than increase it. At most, you should be doing 2-3 hard MMA workouts per week (for sure not 4), and weights right after, not on off days preferably (sometimes things cannot be avoided, but it is optimal if you do as suggested above). If you want to add some conditioning (GPP is for athletes who have an on and off season), search the site for information on TEMPO workouts (or even easier, but the Forum Review E-Book)
Flexibility everyday? NICE! That is good stuff.
The benefits of roadwork is all myth meant only for Rocky movies. Again, replace this on your off days with TEMPO. You main aerobic base will come from training. I know that I have nothing left over after I train MMA.
“Less is More.” (SPEED TRAP, by Charlie Francis). Remember this and you will do better than your competition (who knows, perhaps you and I will meet in a competition someday…which is why I won’t give you all my secrets).
NaRkEd,
spar,spar,spar…take a short break and then spar some more.
oh yeah, and spar with guyz who have 2 qualities:
1) they can kick your ass
2) they are mature enough to not have to prove it constantly
running, weights, etc etc are just icing, unless your gonna compete as a runner or weight lifter. Otherwise keep that stuff to a minimum and NEVER at the expense of sparring.
David W, on this site has posted some great threads on functional strength training if you really want to do weights. Compound lifts (just a couple), low reps, high weight, low volume…bang bang bang…in and out, so you have more time to recover and…SPAR
good luck
td
Don’t forget to wrestle…much different than stand up, I can spar all day, but I get winded from ground fighting real quick…
Why don’t we change this thread into a discussion of how to develop all the traits that a mixed martial artist should have?
If you guys want to give it a go… let’s atleast throw down some guidelines.
- Train For Competition Under Pride Rules: http://pridefc.com/about/rules.htm
- Would Compete In The Middleweight Class (Under 205 Pounds)
- Discuss One Trait At A Time (Strength, Endurance, Flexibility, Technique)
- Outside Training Doesn’t Interfere With Sparring
The reasoning behind these guidelines is that someone who only trains for one style is limiting themselves as a mixed martial artist and making the sport more specific (different training for boxer than grappler). Also, in the heavyweight class heavier is almost always better. Certainly there are exceptions, but if someone puts on more muscle mass and retains their technical ability and maintains enough endurance; they will be better. [Removed :)]
Narked,
Can you remove the last sentence of your last post (just go to the edit function). Lets not even mention that stuff. I will talk to the WebMaster to see what can be done about starting up an exclusive MMA Thread.
Oh well… here’s a sample of what I’d like to discuss/post. I’ll cover the topic in a couple of posts so I don’t go crazy/get carpal tunnel.
MMA Strength - Special Topic: The Hands and Forearms Part 1
In MMA strong hands and wrists/forearms are necessary. If you’ve ever hit a really heavy bag where the sand had gone down to the bottom you know the role the wrist plays in stabilizing your hands for the punch. If your wrist can’t handle the power delivery and your punch is not perfect (how often does that happen in a fight?) you will need strong wrists in order to deliver maximum power and to prevent injury. The grip is paramount in submissions. It’s really hard to hold onto your opponents limbs… especially when they get sweaty. If you have big hands you know the advantage this allots you. If you have small or average sized one’s (like me) you’d better train them super hard.
Getting Ready:
I learned quickly that fighting can screw up your hands quick. One “oops” and suddenly your fist is throbbing. There are really good reasons to tape your hands in boxing :). Even daily life can have a major toll on the hands. Lifting odd objects and repetetive actions such as typing have lead to crippling arthritis, carpal tunnel, and just generally pain. If your hands are even the least bit sore/twitchy than this section is for you. Now time for the measures you’ll want to take for to bring your “hand health” up to par.
Dexterity: The better hand dexterity you have the better muscular control. While it is likely neurologically related, John Brookfield (hand strength legend) has noted that when he improved his hand dexterity his hand circulation improved and conversely his hand health went through the roof.
Extension: Finger extension, the opposite of closing the hand will help you bring balance to the muscles of the hand. There isn’t a lot of research done in this area. But the general consensus on “The Gripboard” is that doing extension exercises contributed to overall hand health and injury prevention. John Brookfield agrees as well.
Hot/Cold Soaks: These are called contrast baths. Basically you have one bucket of ice water and one bucket of really hot water. I insert my arms (or 1 arm if I want to surf the web) up to the elbow and alternate buckets when I can’t stand the heat/cold. I like contrast baths. Others dig super hot soaks. Either way you won’t go wrong. Cold soaks on their own don’t seem to be very beneficial.
Mittens: If you wear mittens in your daily life or to bed and use a lotion to prevent drying the increased heat will improve circulation to the hands and make them good as new in the morning. Awesome recovery qualities. Infrared tests have shown that being of Eskimo descent may have the same effect.
Massage: Duh! As always… get a fine looking member of the opposite sex to do this for you
Supplements: I’ve never used a joint supplement or been big on performance ones. Too expensive for me and why let your body expect anything more than good food? Go with the basics. A good multi-vitamin (I like Trader Joe’s Brand… but if you have a suggestion be sure to post) and maybe some fish oil if you like that.
What and When? (Note: This Is My Opinion):
Prehab (Stuff You Do Before Injuries Happen):
One Dexterity Exercise Trained The Same As Normal One’s: Examples - Palms Down Dexterity Balls, Towel Roll-Ups, Bar Twirling
Extension Exercise At End Of Workout (High Reps): Examples - Sand Blasting, Jar Lift, Finger Extension against Rubber Bands
Rehab:
Heat Therapy
MMA Strength - Special Topic: The Hands and Forearms Part 2
Integrating Below The Elbow Work Into Your Training:
One could say there are many ways to integrate grip and forearm training into your program. But almost always I see two methods. The assistance method and the separation method. There’s really no need for fancy periodization for the grip. Not all that much is understood about training the extremely large number of muscles below the elbow (over 20). It’s generally accepted in the grip community that most of one’s grip power comes from the tendons in the arm and CNS efficiency. There is such a large discrepancy in grip power unexplainable by muscle size. The muscles used in closing the hand are extremely small, yet can exert serious power. In fact on the Gripboard just today a poster known as “Bender” who is a Captain of Crush and has bent a Grade 5 carriage bolt said that in the last year of grip training his forearm has not grown at all but he is still making good progress on strength. Oh well… I’m ranting. From experience and science (Zatsiorsky, 1995) we know that smaller muscle groups recover faster. In fact some of the most successful programs include extreme volume in the form of max effort singles. How many you ask? Well… you’d do about 10-20 singles above 90% for a maximal strength phase for your total body in the course of a week. The forearms can take 5x that volume. Many of the most successful programs in grip are based on one principle. Lots of intensity and lots of volume. In fact; Joe Kinney, the first man to ever close the #4 COC Gripper (see www.ironmind.com), frequently did 120 supramaximal eccentric “negatives” over the course of a week.
Assistance Method: You “throw in” a few grip exercises at the end of a strength training session. This method produces solid results and is not to be discouraged. But it’s the “anything is better than nothing” route. This is way you should go if grip is not necessary for your sport (not MMA) or you just don’t have the time to do serious training. I’d go with exercises that give you the best bang for your buck and always do max effort style work. Singles, singles, and more singles. In grip you must train maximally all the time for the best results. All other strength is built on maximal strength and in grip there is little to no detrimental effects from super-volume training so long as you take care of your hands.
Separate Schedule: This is how I like to train grip. I do it one a schedule separate from the rest of my body and in the comfort of my own home. But to better my training economy I always integrate grip into regular strength training whenever possible.
Training Frequency: Now that you have an idea of the volume limits of grip training you’re probably wondering how often. Grip training seems to follow the normal strength training rules as to frequency. Some guys train once every 10 days and make results. These guys are uncommon. Frequency is a very personal thing. I do have to say though, once you hit daily training increasing the frequency is not very fruitful. It’s like the Bulgarian weight lifting schedule. Is 12 or even 36 times a week that much better than 6 times a week. On the other end of the spectrum… you should be breaking PR’s in grip training every workout early on. Don’t train so infrequently that you’re not making good progress. Obviously if one workout goes bad it’s not a big deal, but if you don’t break any PR’s for 2 or 3 weeks I would definetely evaluate your program. One of the great things about grip training is that you can micro-load. Many awesome exercises can be done using the sand and bucket loading method. Even if you can only lift a pinch more sand than last time it’s good enough. In the end I’d have to say it has more to do with personality than anything else. I’m a 4-6 times a week guy myself.
Volume: I’ve already touched on this; but it once again is a personal thing. And I’ve got to say, without hand therapy… super volume programs (though enormously successful) will give you sore achy and dangerously close to being injured hands. The right amount of volume for me is the volume that leaves my hands feeling “normal” most the time; but still allows for PR’s in workouts. I don’t use heat-based hand therapy unless I’m injured. I generally increase volume from week to week when I’m doing the same workout. Then after 4 weeks or so when I switch up the exercises and scale back the volume to accomodate the new exercises.
Intensity: Basically for me there are three intensities… the most important which is max effort. Max effort is 3 reps and below. Then for exercises like the towel rollup and wrist rolling I will perform one full (concentric and eccentric) rep for max effort. Then there is explosive effort. The key for this is that the time you allow to complete the lift is very short. In grip being explosive is more about learning to grab/lock onto things quickly with power and for demonstrating your strength quickly. Then there is endurance stuff. This is in the 1-2 minute range or 20+ reps on your standard exercises.
Cycling: For a change of pace, complete development, and a break for the tendons ligaments of the hand after every 2 cycles (8 weeks) that I focus on maximal and explosive strength I’ll go on a 2-3 week microcycle in which I do endurance based lifts (this is great fun for competing with friends as well). Variety is always good and I always come back stronger when I return to my maximal work.
Intensity Early On: Don’t do super-heavy maximal effort stuff immediately if you haven’t trained your hands hard before (e.g with manual labor). You wouldn’t do a max effort squat the first time you used it and you shouldn’t do it for grip. If you do not condition your hands with lighter work you will get tendonitis (I did 
). Work up to it. You’ll only have to do it once.
I will cover exercises in my next post.
any idea how Randy Couture trains his hands???
td
Who knows? I would bet a lot of guys in MMA only train their hands by doing submissions. But if you have a bigger hand in MMA you’ll have a stronger grip because you can wrap more of your hand around the opponents limbs. Guys with really big hands (like noguiera) can sometimes touch their thumb and fingers when grabbing on some of the smaller parts of the forearms and ankle. This allows them to have a more secure grip without having to exert so much pressure with the hands. If you lift thick-handled bars you’ll immediately see this. That is why guys are always raving about Noguiera and Schilt’s grip strength.
By training grip strength specifically, (which will come naturally from regular sparring), won’t you be sacrificing time which could be spent training another aspec of fighting? TD gives some world class advice “keep that stuff to a minimum and NEVER at the expense of sparring.”
MMA Strength - Special Topic: The Hands and Forearms Part 3
Exercises and Real-World Program Advice:
I’m not going to lie. You can make great grip progress using the same exercises over and over and over again. Very successful programs are based on using extremely limited numbers of exercises. The famous Holle brothers (Nathan has closed the #4 and Gavin has bent the RED nail) base their training programs (based on the info I have) on doing the feats of strengths or squeezing grippers and bending nails… and doing it as quickly and as hard as possible. But in my opinion this kind of training is myopic and boring. To fully develop the grip and forearms one should take the path advocated by John Brookfield. Where you vary your exercises often and take a creative and fun approach to training.
The Types of Grip and the Roles of The Forearms:
Crushing Grip: This the strength of closing one’s hands into a fist. This is the strength used when one closes the COC grippers or crushes a potato into a pulp.
Supporting Grip: The strength used for supporting thick-handled dumbbells and similar objects (most specific to MMA).
Pinch Grip: The strength used when gripping objects such as block weights and pinch blocks. The key here is the thumb is worked super hard.
Individual Finger: The strength used for finger lifts, fingertip pushups, Eagle loops like devices.
Special Interest Group - The Last Two Fingers: These fingers are incredibly weak in most people. One’s grip strength can catapult just by training these fingers specifically. These fingers are in the strongest position leverage-wise for closing COC grippers (motivation++).
Wrist Flexion: Think wrist curls.
Wrist Extension: Think reverse wrist curls.
Back Lever: Weaver lift to the rear.
Front Lever: Weaver lift to the front.
Pronation: Turning the wrist so that the palm is down.
Supination: Turning the wrist so that the palm is up.
Supporting Wrist: Isometric strength in the wrists. Very important for bending, arm wrestling, and fighting.
Special Interest Group - Elbow Flexion: I have constantly been reminded that some of the muscles in the forearm are responsible for elbow flexion. That means some kind of curls should be in your program. The thicker the bar the better. I try to convince myself that all the weird types of chins I perform will satisfy this group and neglect to use curls in my program.
Program Design: Joe Kinney tells us not to train the wrists the same day as the grip. I took these words to heart. And I just happen to really dig the two day split approach. Certainly “total lower arm” approaches work… but I’m not a fan as I have trouble making PR’s more than two or three times a week and those PR’s are big boosters (Testosterone levels through the roof). Experiment and find out what is best for you though. I always like to make sure I perform nearly all the functions of the wrist and grip over a week.
What I’m Doing Now:
Grip Day (Done 2 Days A Week)
Towel Chins - Workout scheme for Pulling Muscles
Towel Rollups - MAX Effort (I work up to it Westside style)
Fingertip Pushups - Usually about 5 Reps… I don’t feel safe going any lower
Block Toss - Terminate set once I loose explosiveness.
Sand Blasting - High Reps/Cooldown
Wrist Day (Done Day After Grip Day)
Open and Close Hands/Rotate Wrists to Warmup
Bending - Max Effort (After PR is reached I do some explosive bends with weak nails to get the shaky feeling out of my hands)
Thor’s Hammer w/ Sledge - 3-5 Reps
Thick Bar Wrist Rolling Palms Down - MAX Effort
Isometric Weaver Over Face - Max Effort
Cooldown w/ Dexterity Balls
Exercise Descriptions:
Towel Chins: Get a sturdy towel, loops it over a chinup bar, grab both ends and proceed to do chinups.
Towel Rollups: Get a towel about the size of a gold towel. Hold it by the end and then roll it up into a ball w/ one hand. Attatch weight via a rope and bucket.
Fingertip Pushups: Do pushups on your fingertips… If you’re feeling really gutsy put your fingertips on towels and move the towels forwards and backwards.
Block Toss: With a light block weight (end of a dumbbell) throw it back and forth between hands catching it with an overhand grip.
Sand Blasting: Fill a bucket w/ sand, insert hands, and then rapidly open and close with force.
Bending: Bending Nails… It’s really hard to explain and beyond the scope of this article. Search google.
Thors Hammer w/ Sledge: Take a sledge and pronate and supinate your wrist.
Thick Bar Wrist Rolling: Make a thick bar wrist roller and wrist roll.
Isometric Weaver over Face: Damn these descriptions are getting tough… I think I’ll just take some pictures soon.
Dexterity Balls: Rotate Lvl 2 Dexterity Balls using exercises from JB’s course.
Rest Intervals: Start at one minute between sets and gradually decrease it week to week. You’ll feel it when it’s too low.
You can’t spar day and night or you’ll be overtrained. Grip is one of those things you can do that won’t have any negative effects on your sparring. Surely you could replace grip training with some skill training; but most of us are slaves to our school’s schedule and can’t train whenever we please. My solution…spar as much as I can and train grip as well. It doesn’t take long to train grip either. I really think you should give it a try before you knock it. You’ve got nothing to lose.
First off, interesting thread.
Secondly, It has been mentionned that sparring is king. One could say that it is equivalent of trackwork for a sprinter. The problem is that unlike trackwork, everything is a lot more variable. The question that comes into my head is how does one recover from all of the sparring. Groundwork has a lot of eccentric muscle contractions and striking has a lot of impact related damage. This is in addition the variablility of recovery needed per session (depending on how hard one got beat). How does one make a planned program with these variables in mind, namely the addition of assistance work, weights and supplemental endurance work.
Just some thoughts, i am not a MMA person, just a martial artist (hapkido), although MMA sounds like fun (in a masochistic type of way ).
Chris,
I know you have set up programs for combat arts type people. What do you think regarding grip strength? Wouldn’t grip strength be increased with proper resistance training? I am sure doing dead lifts will increase grip strength as will Power Cleans etc. Should time be taken from an overall program to train grip strength?
http://www.t-mag.com/nation_articles/260chin2.html
“I personally have very small hands and always had a weak grip. This greatly impaired my performance in the Olympic lifts, deadlifts, and chin-ups. Only when I started to work hard on my hands and forearms did these lifts improve. As you can see in my forearm pictures, what was once a weak point is now one of my strongest.”
but…
“I’ve rarely seen athletes who possess enough hand strength to fully utilize the strength of their body. Exceptions include hockey players, grapplers, and gymnasts who develop a lot of wrist and hand strength practicing their sport. As a result, including some hand strength exercises can be a good way to increase almost anyone’s chinning power.”
The jury is still out