Issue 047
March 2009
By Hywel Teague.
The alarm clock goes off and it’s dark out. Your breath hangs in the chilly air, the tarmac slips by under your feet and you wonder why you are pounding the streets while normal people lie in their beds, hours away from starting their day.
Fast forward to later in the day. It’s the final round of sparring and the ‘best’ has been saved for last. The biggest, meanest, toughest dude in the gym is heading right for you. There’s no rest just yet – you’ve got five minutes of hell to survive before you can call it a day. To quote Dana White’s immortal words, “Do you wanna be a fuckin’ fighter?” If so, then this is what you can expect.
Commentators are fond of telling you MMA fighters train harder than any other athletes. You hear it all the time. How many times have you heard they train harder than Olympic athletes, or “They’re the triathletes of combat sports”? Let’s give them their due, most MMA fighters do train extremely hard, but to generalise that MMA fighters are the pinnacle of athletic achievement is pushing it somewhat. For every GSP (showing off his chiselled abs, even in the off season) there is a Ricco Rodriguez. It’s all about yin and yang.
One point worth considering is this: when it comes to balancing their training, MMA fighters are challenged in a way few other athletes are. For most sporting disciplines the concept is fairly straightforward. Sprinters train to become faster. Weightlifters train to lift heavier weights. They have the luxury of simple goals, measurable in numbers and easily tracked via progress analysis.
Herein lies the conundrum for those who train and fight in MMA. MMA fighters must balance their time in the gym between developing their physical attributes and working on their all-round skill set. They train to become faster, stronger, and more explosive, yet must still have the endurance to last 15 or 25 minutes in the cage. Now add the fiendish puzzle that is the combination of stand-up striking, clinch fighting, and submission grappling - all three ranges require special attention. To top it all off, they must also approach every fight with a specific strategy that is designed for each opponent. Not everyone gets it right. Many, many fighters don’t.
I’m not the person to tell you what is right and wrong when it comes to athletic development or skill refinement. We’ve got a bunch of experts and a section at the back of this very magazine for just that purpose. Me, I’m just a desk jockey. I never progressed past the rank of a hobbyist. I found my vocation on the other side of the fence, but I’m constantly around guys who are primed to kick ass. It sure as hell inspires me to keep the gut in check.
The great thing about MMA is that there is plenty of inspiration to get in shape. When your missus goes goggle-eyed over the toned and honed guys, strutting around in shorts that would look more at home on the beach, it gives you that kick up the arse needed to get into the gym and shift that extra baggage. MMA fighters aren’t exactly known for their flabby bellies, feeble arms, or spindly legs.
There are many fighters and high-profile fitness coaches to look to for inspiration. As editor of this magazine I’ve always sought to bring the best coaches to you, offering advice from their area of speciality. Whether it’s sprinting, stretching, or swinging a kettlebell, it all helps you get in shape, and if you know that your favourite fighters have used those very methods to get into top shape, well, all the better.
There is just one problem. Training like a fighter sounds like a great idea. Intense metabolic conditioning workouts sound just the ticket for burning off that fat, but if you want to work your kickboxing or jiu-jitsu, how do you fit it all in? If you’ve got a job you’ll be at a disadvantage right away. Pro fighters often train twice a day and sleep between sessions. Try explaining to your boss that your three-hour nap at lunch was because you’d had a particularly heavy conditioning session that morning. It probably won’t go down too well.
Training to get fit is one thing, but what is ‘fit’? Fit to fight a championship MMA fight? Here’s where you need some perspective. Even the fittest of fighters don’t necessarily look that great. We would all like to fight like Fedor, but whose guns would you prefer to have, his or Brock’s?
Unless you’re seriously overweight or out of shape, forget what your body looks like. It’s probably safe to leave the hardcore training to the pro’s, but don’t cut corners just because you’re not going to get in the cage. Train to be healthy. Be fitter, faster, stronger, and more agile than your slovenly co-workers. You’ll perform better in the gym, and you’ll look and feel good. And when your girlfriend starts paying more attention to you in your boxers than GSP in his ‘tighty whiteys’, you’ll realise it really is about survival of the fittest.
