Issue 064

July 2010

Paul McVeigh is a sports scientist and professional fighter, and is ranked the number one bantamweight fighter in Europe. He trains fighters out of The Griphouse gym in Glasgow, Scotland.

Keeping to our recurring theme of definitions, conditioning has way too many. Cardio, fitness, metabolic efficiency, energy system development and ‘fueling your gas tank’ all boil down to the ability to complete three to five, five-minute rounds of competitive MMA at a high pace and without a noticeable decrease in technical ability. 

Those involved in our sport are obsessed with being brutally fit to fight. A quick trawl through my own DVD library reveals a vast number of products aimed at the mixed martial artist looking to get a conditioning edge. I have only one DVD aimed at those wanting to improve their performance from an increase in strength. 

All of this is evidence of the combat athlete’s masochistic nature. We are fascinated by hardcore conditioning workouts, and this is further encouraged by the training footage shown on the UFC’s All Access shows and the fight promos. 

The Conditioning Problem

We have mentioned before the importance of strength development and all the goodies it brings to the table. 

Strength training is physically demanding and requires a significant chunk of our energy reserve. So too, do useful activities such as sparring, grappling, hitting pads, pressure drills and wall work, all of which (when performed with intensity) can be seen as conditioning tools in themselves. 

I feel that additional conditioning work on top of all this is excessive and often counterproductive. If the energy reserve is maxed out, expect decreases in important physical qualities, motivation and technical ability. 

The Experiment

I came to this controversial opinion as the result of training athletes at The Griphouse in Glasgow, and also via an experiment I conducted on myself last year. I decided that for the first time in my life I would remove the vicious conditioning routines I knew and loved from all my in-season training programs.  

I did no running, no circuit training, no Tabatas, no sprints or complexes – nothing that could be mistaken for supplemental conditioning work. Instead I decided which days would have a conditioning emphasis and which days would have a technical emphasis. 

On conditioning days I would have hard sparring sessions, intense padwork rounds, pressure drills and wall work. On the technical emphasis days I would do similar training, but the goals would change – instead of getting tired, it would be about technical development and the implementation of strategy. 

The result of this experiment were three fights in which I was in the best physical shape of my life. I was strong (for a bantamweight, anyway) and turbo fit. This was particularly evident in my bout with Chris David, which was a physically grueling wrestling contest. All three of these fights went the distance (damn, I need to get on that) with conditioning never being an issue. 

When Additional Conditioning is Appropriate

OK, so I am over my “Oh look at me, I am a controversial trendsetter” moment – now I will fill you in on when additional conditioning is a good idea, although I’m still going to recommend significantly less than most guys. 

I prefer the high-intensity, low-volume craziness that Tabatas entail. The 20:10 seconds work-to-rest ratio is soul crushing. If done with an appropriate intensity, four minutes is all you need (many of the elite Japanese athletes that were involved in the initial study failed to complete the eight rounds). 

I also like utilizing fight-specific circuits that replicate physically demanding techniques likely to come up in a bout against your next opponent. A day of Tabatas and a day with a fight-specific circuit after strength training will keep you set.  

The main reason to add in supplementary conditioning work would be when your skill set overshadows that of your training partners, and you do not receive a conditioning effect from sparring. 

Sparring is your ultimate conditioning tool. If you want to be ready to do three five-minute rounds of MMA, get a bunch of tough dudes and spar with them for rounds – it’s really that simple. If you are smashing their faces in, it’s not really that productive and throwing in some Airdyne sprints might be a good call. 

Another good reason would be when you cannot trust your sparring partners not to smash you to bits. This is where the team mentality comes in and everyone should be trying to ensure injuries are minimized while still beating each other up. Every team has its mentally unstable liabilities who were never hugged. If you have tons of these guys, find a new team with less douche bags – or do some conditioning and less sparring. Hard sparring is the most important aspect of your fight preparation – it sucks to do, is tough and ego shattering, but you should not be getting injured. 

Mon - CE - Hard sparring, pad work, floor bag and grappling

Tue - TE - Game plan run-through, technique work, positional drills and light pad work

Wed - TE - Fight-specific circuit and hard pad rounds, strength training

Thur - TE - Wall work, light pad work, and game plan run-through

Fri – CE - Strength training, Airdyne Tabata, hard pad work and floor bag rounds

Sat - CE - Hard sparring and wall work

*Conditioning Emphasis (CE) Technical Emphasis (TE)