Fighters Only

Issue 070

December 2010

By Barry Gibson, kettlebell and fitness instructor and 3rd dan black belt in judo is a strength and conditioning trainer to some of the UK’s top MMA fighters (including TUF 9 winner Ross Pearson).

Periodization is the science of peaking physically for competition. In issue 21 I talked about how to plan strength training, power training and conditioning in the run-up to a fight: first the strength phase and then the power phase.

This time around I’m looking at the all-important power-endurance phase – also known as fight conditioning. Whatever label you attach to it, it’s possibly the hardest stage of training, especially with us at Grapplefit! Over an eight-week fight camp, it’d probably take up a three to four-week period depending on the athlete. It’s the stage where we try to build up a tolerance to the dreaded hydrogen build-up that is known as lactic acid. The body creates lactic acid to help when you run out of energy, but if too much builds up the muscles become tired and ache. You’ll be pleased to know that the only way to improve your ability to cope with lactic acid build-up is with lots of grueling power-endurance circuits.

Power-endurance circuits are designed to flood the muscles with lactic acid and force fighters to raise their tolerance level to this energy-sapping substance. The more exposure to this type of training the athlete has, the better able they are to cope with the feeling of heavy limbs that can so severely inhibit performance.

A power-endurance workout will see you undergo intense exercise with limited rest between rounds. In a fight you need to be just as explosive at the end of the round as you were when you started. When working only on developing power, rest periods of two to three minutes are the norm. Now you’re going to cut down the rest times to get your body used to that dreaded lactic acid.

SAMPLE POWER-ENDURANCE CIRCUIT

Rack pull x 5 reps
Overhead tyre toss x 5 reps
One leg front reach x 8 reps each leg
V-ups x 20 reps

Perform the above straight through without any rest. Move quickly from drill to drill. Rest for 10–20 seconds once complete. Repeat for a total of three to four rounds.

The above circuit would be done in the early stage of the fight conditioning phase. As we get closer to fight time, I have the fighters doing ‘fight circuits’, which replicate the actions you’ll perform in the ring. These are a firm favorite of mine here at Grapplefit, but the fighters don’t seem to like them as much!

Power-endurance fight circuit

Start off with the leg-blaster complex (squats, lunges, jump squats and jump lunges done back-to-back for 24 reps each) then jump straight into the following: