Issue 082
December 2011
Want to train like a TUF warrior? Fighters Only goes behind the scenes of The Ultimate Fighter to bring you the ultimate workout from the reality show’s elite coaches
Just as avid fight fans anticipated, season 14 of The Ultimate Fighter has delivered fireworks. Trigger-happy tongued middleweights Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping and Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller are at verbal swords while the bantamweights and featherweights are going at it with no remorse. It couldn’t get much better – or could it?
At Fighters Only we’re dedicated to delivering you the elite in combat training, so we infiltrated the TUF set with exclusive behind-the-scenes access with the coaching teams to reveal exactly what workouts they used to prepare their fighters for success. And in the trenches of the TUF studio gym, it appeared shots were being fired from the first day of filming.
“The atmosphere was intense, everyone wanted to win and ensure they got the upper hand. You couldn’t get much more testosterone flying about and this was just in the first few days,” says Zoran Dubaic, one of Bisping’s coaching team who appears on the show.
Sean Keefe – Dubaic’s partner at Strength and Performance, the strength and conditioning facility where Bisping has built his power and supercharged his cardio for his last three fights – added: “There was a lot of friction between the two teams. The tension was building. I could feel it in the air, but we left before anything properly kicked off.
“There were times where people would go overboard with the sparring and you had to remind them they’re sparring and not fighting. People got caught up in the heat of the moment. No one wanted to let their guard drop and miss out on anything as there was a risk of not getting through. It was really tough on them, both physically and mentally.”
After his devastating loss to Wanderlei Silva, Bisping turned to the Strength and Performance team to step up his physical training. The move clearly paid off with The Count powering his way to a three-fight winning streak. It seemed an obvious choice to uproot Dubaic and Keefe and fly them to Las Vegas to ensure Bisping’s TUF team benefited from the same knowledge.
“We were training the guys six days a week, twice a day, two hours each time,” says Keefe. “At first it was twice a week so it was more circuit-type sessions. That involved things like battling ropes, Airdynes and total-body circuits for three sets of five minutes. Then we did a lot of prehab work such as foam rolling, stretching and back work.
“It’s really important to do this prehab work. It’s just getting the message across to the fighters because they don’t think they need it, but when they see the benefits they’re convinced.”
Of course, with 16 fighters to coach also comes 16 egos to juggle. Fortunately for the boys from S&P, that didn’t phase them.
“We were tough on the guys. They don’t know us and they’re used to doing what they normally do,” Keefe explains.
“If you’re there saying don’t do that and they say, ‘This is what I’ve done for all my fights,’ then they’re not gonna listen to you. You have to put it to them and usually they’ll take it on board for next time.”
As with every TUF series, there are always the revelers.
“There was a couple of guys who’d come into the gym with steaming hangovers,” says Keefe. “It starts as individuals but then it would split up as a team so it’s all about helping your trainer partners bond as you get further through, rather than staying up and getting wasted.”
As the weeks went by and tensions flared, Keefe also reveals that all the usual gameplay came into it.
“While the fighters were already focused as their careers depended on it, some tried to play games. Some kept their little injuries quiet, some were more open about stuff like that. Yet some would bluff injuries to throw each other off. At the end of the day, it’s a game show. People learned how to play the game.”
And no one was more familiar with ‘the game’ than Bisping himself. For him the TUF gym is familiar ground after wining season three way back in 2005 before coaching ‘Team UK’ against Dan Henderson on season nine in 2009.
“Mike and Mayhem were going at it a lot. They’re both big personalities. Mike is Mike – he’s a brilliant guy but he’ll be the first to admit he’s a bit cocky,” says Dubaic. “He’s been in the UFC for years now and he’s earned his stripes. As for Miller, he’s crazy. He’s seriously not quite all there. He was trying to wind Mike up but he took it in his stride.
“I think Mike did a great job. He had a lot of respect even though he’s the pantomime villain. He gave a few Any Given Sunday-inspired speeches that got the fighters motivated. He was also full of one-liners.”
Keefe also agrees that Bisping did himself justice on the show. “He earned the guys’ respect. To start with it was a bit like, ‘Who the f**k are you? You’re just some English guy,’ but as the show went on everyone warmed to him. Miller was trying to play the English card every now and then to try and wind him up and make him out to be the British bad guy. But in Vegas, everyone loved him and they were coming up and saying, ‘Alright Mike, you’re one of my favorites.’”
So how was Bisping as a coach compared to an athlete?
“He’s the same as a coach as he is as an athlete,” says Keefe. “When it comes to training he wants people to give 100% like he does. If you’re not and you’re messing around he’ll shout at you. When he’s in a training session himself he doesn’t want to talk to anyone because he’s in the zone. He’s a tough love kinda guy. He trains hard but plays hard.
“Mike didn’t find it tough training the guys as much though because he’s been there before. His main problem was he found it frustrating because he couldn’t get more physical with them. They’re fighting at 135lb and 145lb and Mike’s walking around at 210lb.”
One thing Bisping was sure to find tough is Mayhem’s fast tongue; a deciding factor as to who’ll break the other’s confidence when it comes to their showdown at the The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale on December 3rd in Las Vegas. But it seems confidence is something Bisping has never been lacking in.
“Yeah, you have to be confident being where he is at the top of his game,” laughs Keefe. “They’ve both got mouths on them but Mike’s a big boy so he holds his own.”
FACE THE PAIN
If you want to become ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ we’ve got Sean Keefe and Zoran Dubaic to provide two workouts they used on season 14 of the show and a typical workout they’ve used with Michael Bisping ahead of his clash with Mayhem Miller.
“We’ve provided a great warm-up routine we did with the fighters during TUF and then a sample 3x5 circuit,” says Keefe.
“We’ve also compiled a two-day strength training routine we’d typically do with Bisping as his camp starts getting into gear and then we’d start to decrease the volume and amount of exercises we do as we get closer to fight night. Right now, we want to push him hard with the aim being to increase his strength, speed and power. Enjoy!”
TUF Training circuit
Tire Battle
Box Jumps
Bear Crawl
Ball Slams
Burpee Chin Up
Battling Ropes
Prowler push
Sledgehammer
Body Shoulder Rolls
BodyMan Get Up
3x5mins, 60 SECS rest
TUF warm-up routine
Foam rolling:
IT Band
Quads
Hip Flexors
Hamstrings
Adductors
Rhomboids
Piriformis/Glutes
Calves
Lats
Pecs
Infraspinatus
Arches of Feet
Stretch:
Glutes
Hamstrings
Hip Flexors
Calves
Chest
T-Spine Mobility:
Ext on Foam.Roller
Quadrupled T-Spine Ext
Hip Mobility:
Mountain Climbers
Fire Hydrants
Activation:
Glutes - Bridges/X-Band Walks/Clams
Psoas - Leg Lift
Lower Traps - Pullaparts/Blackburns
Core - Plank
Movement in Place:
Lateral Squat
Squat (Good Form)
Reverse Overhead Lunge
Movement:
Cross Behind Lunge
Knee to Chest
Leg Kicks
Spiderman
Cradle Walks
Bear Crawls
...
