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UFC 104 Training -Train Like MMA FightersGet Program Here Fighters and grapplers need to be incredibly fit all around. They need it all; great aerobic and anaerobic endurance, great strength endurance, power endurance and extreme mental toughness. There is a lot of confusion on how a fighter or grappler should train. Managing their time between training in the ring / mat and in the gym (or out of the gym) becomes important.
With all the time these athletes spend in actual skill and live training sessions their energy levels and the amount of recuperation is much less than the average athlete. A lot of their sparring is strength training per se. They are constantly pushing, pulling, lifting, rotating and more. Due to all of their time spent training we want to make sure we do not overdo it by pushing them more and more to the point where overuse injuries, mental and physical burn out become a side effect of the training.
Above, Fedor Emalianenko, the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time, stands amongst various size and shape kettlebells.
We use a variety of methods for training our grapplers but there is one way that has worked very effectively and you can use it or tweak it to see how it works. The art of coaching is key here so learning how to taper or apply training methods for each individual comes into play.
The problem with fighters is they have the mentality of “out working” their opponents. The philosophy of training smart equates to harder training for most fighters. This is where you need to understand their body while communicating with your fighters constantly. Asking about current injuries, emotional and physical state will be a huge step towards learning what works best for your fighters and grapplers.
We always start our work outs with a thorough warm up. We take some from the Parisi warm up, and also added some other calisthenics and band work using the Jump Stretch bands. We may also incorporate some light reverse hypers and kettlebell swings before we start the grunt of the work out. Sometimes this warm up is slightly extended to get the athlete mentally warmed up.
After working or going to school for half a day, then training at their dojo or club and then coming to strength train can be a long day. A good warm up with some pumping tunes might be all your athlete needs. As mentioned before, incorporate the “art of coaching” and determine if your athlete can go through a tough training session or if they need a lighter more recuperative day.
We will often start with a max effort exercise using short rest periods and reps in the range of 3 – 5 on our heavy sets. The warm up sets as we build up have a rep range of 5 – 10. Some examples of our max effort exercises might be:
Flat / Incline barbell or dumbbell bench press
Deadlifts (all variations: trap bar, straight bar, bent knee, sumo, RDL, and sometimes we add chains to the DL movement)
Heavy Rowing motion: 1 arm rows, bent over barbell rows, t bar rows on the grappler
1 arm or 2 arm clean and press or military press: Kettlebells, dumbbells or sand bags
Squats of all variations: box squat, sand bag squat (sandbag held in front or on shoulders), kettlebell squats
After the athlete performs a good 4 – 6 hard sets (on average, sometimes less & sometimes more) in the 3 – 5 rep range we move on to our time under tension training using various tools. The time under tension (TUT) builds great strength endurance as well as mental toughness.
The tools for time under tension can be almost anything, but here is a list of tools me way use for TUT:
Sandbags
Barbells
Dumbbells
Kettlebells
Sleds
Sledge Hammer
Bodyweight
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