Issue 042
October 2008
THE DINKY NINJAS
As you’d expect from Scotland’s top fight team, The Dinky Ninjas have a work ethic as strong as their sense of humour. We visited The Griphouse gym in Glasgow for one of their squad training sessions to see how Scotland’s bravest get ready for battle.
The Dinky Ninjas benefit from having personal trainer and pro fighter Paul McVeigh as one of their team members. A sports scientist and one of the brains behind strength and conditioning website www.fightingmind.com he has spent a lot of time researching and experimenting with various training methods (often on himself) to find a stable workout programme to put the team through.
With factors such as strength training, cardiovascular training and recovery to consider (on top of skills and drills), Paul lays out in the following how the Dinky Ninjas get fit to fight.
Designing the Programme
We strength train two days a week, more than this seems to adversely affect recovery and the ability to develop in other areas. Within the week we try to train the following movements (as opposed to muscles) within two workouts.
Explosive lift Olympic lift or plyometrics
Horizontal Press Bench press, dumb-bell press
Vertical Press Military press, dumb-bell shoulder press
Horizontal pull Inverted row, dumb-bell rows
Vertical pull Pull-up variations
Two leg knee dominant Front squat
Two leg hip dominant Deadlift
One leg knee dominant Single leg squat or split-squat
One leg hip dominant Single leg deadlift
We focus a lot on leg development, particularly single leg development, more than other programmes as I feel it is of more importance in MMA. For bilateral knee-dominant development I prefer the front squat, as it is easier to teach than the back squat and if you balls it up you can drop the bar. With the back squat you can cheat by leaning the chest forward to give the illusion of depth. The front squat also puts less loading on the spine.
For our explosive lifts the clean-grip snatch is used in preference to the regular snatch (or cleans) as, again, it is easier to teach. I tell the guys to try and throw the bar at the roof but hold on and we usually get a good lift. The clean grip is a pretty good tweak on the regular snatch as it seems to be easier on the athlete’s shoulders, but less weight can be lifted. That doesn’t really bother me too much, as my main concern is to ensure the guys don’t get hurt while lifting.
The harness gym pull-ups and inverted rows are fun, and a lot harder than their straight bar cousins. You can change the hand position during the lift for varying effects. The super sets and Tri sets save time and allow more work to be done during the session.
Block Training Cycle
I don’t really keep reps and set ranges fixed for the duration of a training cycle. During a four-week training block each week will have a different emphasis, to prevent adaptation and plateau, to encourage sustained improvement.
This protocol is only used for the superset exercises and the first exercise in the Tri sets, due to time constraints and recovery. The explosive exercises in this block will be held at three sets of five reps. The other Tri set exercises will be held at two sets of eight reps.
Conditioning
I strongly feel that the best form of conditioning that an athlete can do is to perform in his sport. No amount of running or circuit training will make up for a lack of sparring. Before a fight all our fighters can complete six five-minute rounds of sparring with fresh guys. This sort of training makes a fight feel like a day off.
Another sports-specific session we put the fighters through is the ‘double-barrel drill’ (so called because it has been known to make people shit and vomit after completing it. This isn’t the aim, simply a hilarious consequence if it occurs).
We begin by analysing our fighter’s opponent and seeing what aspects of the game we will need to address. This could be anything from defending single legs to attacking the back. We then combine these aspects into a circuit lasting six minutes. A sample workout could look like this.
1st Minute Thai pads and sprawl
2nd Minute Opponent starts in on a double leg takedown, you defend
3rd Minute You start in on a single leg takedown and try to finish
4th Minute Start in side control, keep your opponent down and look to mount
5th Minute Opponent starts on your back with hooks in, work to escape
6th Minute From half guard work back to standing
7th Minute Rest
Continue for two to five rounds.
Ensure you have fresh sparring partners and someone to encourage and corner you.
Week 1 Foundation Phase
Prepares the athlete for the next stage and allows the coach to introduce and teach new lifts volume and intensity are pretty low here.
3 sets, 8 reps
Week 2 High Volume
Volume is increased usually by raising the number of sets
3 sets, 8 reps
3 sets, 4 reps
Week 3 High Intensity
Intensity is increased by increasing the load.
5 reps
3 reps
2 reps
5 reps
3 reps
2 reps
Week 4 De-load and Testing
Volume and intensity are reduced during this stage. We will add a third lifting session during this week. This will be a testing day where the athlete builds up to their maximum performance in four tests: such as the vertical jump, five rep maximum squat, one rep maximum bench press and so on.
3 sets of 3 reps on two days (test on the third).
Recovery
After workout we encourage our athletes to implement as many recovery strategies as they can from the list below. Recovery is an important and often overlooked aspect of training. We recommend our fighters to do the following:
Foam Rollers
Stretch
Contrast showers
Sleep
Ensure correct post-workout nutrition
Did you know?
The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses.
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