Issue 038
June 2008
Getting fit to fight with elite-level fighters
If you’ve been following mixed martial arts (MMA) closely over the past several months, there’s a very good chance that you’ve heard Jonathan Chaimberg’s name before. Whether spoken in the ring or given during interviews, fighters who work with him can’t say enough good things about the guy. A strength and conditioning coach located in Montreal, Canada, Jonathan is in charge of getting stars like Georges St Pierre (GSP), Denis Kang and Rashad Evans into top shape for their matches. Fighters travel across the country to train with him, and coaches like Greg Jackson have developed close working relationships with him.
Jonathan recently opened the doors of his JSport facility to give us a peek into an average weekend’s worth of work. In attendance for the two sessions we witnessed: GSP as he prepared for his hometown rematch against Matt Serra, Denis Kang getting ready for the DREAM middleweight tournament, plus David Loiseau and Jonathan Goulet.
Chaimberg’s workouts are something to behold, even on what we were assured was a ‘very easy day’ for GSP and Kang, who had already gone through a hard sparring session earlier that afternoon. Focusing on power and explosiveness, he shadows his athletes and pushes them to give him 100% on every lift, jump, or pull. While this breakdown of the workout we witnessed will give you a good idea of what some of the greatest fighters in the sport are doing to take their athleticism to the next level, a major source of its effectiveness comes from the coach himself, who monitors every movement of his charges to make sure they get the maximum yield from their efforts.
What their training session looks like
1. Tissue work
2. Warm-up
3. Rope pull, landmine torso unit, isometric neck contractions with swiss ball (repeated 3 times)
4. Hurdle jumps, prehabilitation exercises (GSP only) (repeated 3 times)
5. Rope pull, side press-ups, single leg squats with weights, chest press with dumbells, medicine ball pass (repeated 3 times)
6. Chin-ups with added weight, medicine ball slam (repeated 3 times)
7. TRX inverted row, slide board pushups (Denis Kang only) (repeated 3 times)
Tissue Massage
A foam roller is an easy and inexpensive way to work knots and soreness out of muscles. It’s also great for improving tissue quality and helps avoid injuries during the workout. Jonathan also uses a Wave Vibrating Platform which gives a thorough deep-tissue massage and stimulates blood circulation.
Warm-up
“Stationary stretching doesn’t cut it for this kind of workout, so we do an active, or ‘dynamic’ warm-up” says Chaimberg. “We rotate between fast and slow, doing inchworms, handwalks, lunges, lateral lunges, and resistance band work. These guys are like high performance race cars… We need to warm up their engines before putting them on the track”
Rope Pull
"We do a lot of lower body power training, so I like to incorporate some upper body work. Rope pulls are a great anti-rotary exercise that really help guys with their power and explosiveness. The key to getting the most out of the rope pull is maintaining good speed while making sure to explode with every pull. "
Single Leg Squats with weights
Single leg squats are excellent for building the strength and size along with balance and stability. GSP performs these with weights, lowering himself as slowly as possible and then exploding upwards.
Hurdle Jumps
“This is all about developing explosive leg power – this is what makes Georges go right through people when he shoots for the double leg takedown. The hurdles are set up over 44 inches, but Georges clears them easy.” Rather than rest between sets like a bodybuilder would, Jonathan has his guys do prehabilitation exercises like calf raises or work on the slide board to strengthen the groin muscle. “Jiu-jitsu and MMA fighters often get put into weird positions that make them susceptible to groin injuries. The slide board really helps to avoid that.”
Chin-ups with weights
“When Georges originally came to me his weak spot was his pulls. Now he does sets of chin-up triples with 100lb around his waist, followed immediately with six medicine ball slams. After you do a strength exercise, couple it up with something explosive. Guys that don’t do this might have the strength but they won’t be able to keep it up. You need power and endurance!”
TRX Suspension Training
“I’ve just started using the TRX suspension system with my fighters and it’s giving great results. Here Denis Kang is doing an inverted row exercise wearing a 40lb weight vest and his legs are also on an elevated platform.” The inverted row is performed explosively, with a slow release.
Modern athletes, modern methods
Once considered one of the most feared men at 185 pounds, David “The Crow” Loiseau has struggled with his career over the past few years since losing a brutal five round fight to Rich Franklin. But on March 29th, he returned to his winning ways with a dominating three round victory over Todd Gouwenberg at a Hardcore Championship Fighting event. The win was so decisive that two of the judges scored one of the rounds 10-8, while a third judge gave Loiseau two rounds at 10-8. The difference, according to the Crow? “My conditioning was through the roof. I got in great shape.”
David Loiseau is one of the many top fighters who’s strength and conditioning have excelled under Jonathan Chaimberg’s training. It is this new dedication to overall athleticism that is changing the way many mixed martial artists are training. It’s no longer enough to excel in your given art or across several arts. More often than not, it’s the fighter who enters the ring or cage with the best conditioning that comes out victorious.
No longer are bulging muscles or perfect tone good indicators for who’s in the best shape. The new kind of athleticism trainers strive for is all about a balance between size, strength, and cardio. Before, fighters may have simply spent more time pumping iron and running longer distances. Now, it’s understood that there are many more factors which go toward developing the best physical attributes for mixed martial arts.
For many people the future of mixed martial arts goes hand in hand with the trend for every more athletic fighters. As more and more fighters take their training to the next level under the scientific eye of trainers like Jonathan Chaimberg, it will be interesting to see how the sport evolves. Pat Miletich once said “I’d rather fight a great fighter with average conditioning than an average fighter with great conditioning.” One has to wonder what’s going to happen when great fighters with unstoppable conditioning become the norm.
