Issue 012
April 2006
Mike ‘Quick’ Swick was one of the contestants on the first series of The Ultimate Fighter. 27 years old and fighting out of the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California, Swick earned his nickname by finishing his last two fights in the UFC by KO in a total of 42 seconds. Here the exciting young middleweight shares with us his training and diet plan.
Mike’s fight preparation training schedule
Monday
12pm- Fight Training (Sparring Day)
“First we do focus mitts, bag work and shadow boxing, then we spar three to five 5-minute rounds. We wear headgear, shin pads, 16oz gloves, cup and a mouthpiece and it is pretty much full on MMA fighting from there. After sparring we then grapple three 5-minute rounds, switching partners each round. We then work on technique drills. After this we will do conditioning drills.”
5pm- Cardio and Strength
”Usually I will run or use the airodyne machine and lift weights, as well as do push-ups, dips, and pull-ups.”
7pm- Jiu-Jitsu, Grappling and/or more Sparring.
”During this time I do jiu-jitsu (no-gi), or spar with some of the kickboxers and boxers in the gym.”
Tuesday
12pm- Fight Training (Grappling Day)
“As with Monday we do focus mitts, bag work and shadow boxing. We grapple five 5-minute rounds, then we do some technique sparring for three or four 5-minute rounds and work on technique drills. We finish off with conditioning drills.”
5pm- Cardio and Strength.
As before
7pm - Jiu-Jitsu, Grappling and/or more Sparring.
As before
Wednesday:
12pm-2pm - Fight Training (Sparring Day)
5pm- Cardio and Strength.
7pm- Jiu-Jitsu, Grappling and/or more Sparring.
Thursday:
12pm-2pm - Fight Training (Grappling Day)
5pm- Cardio and Strength.
7pm- Jiu-Jitsu, Grappling and/or more Sparring.
Friday:
12pm-2pm - Fight Training (Sparring Day)
5pm- Cardio and Strength.
7pm- Jiu-Jitsu, Grappling and/or more Sparring.
Saturday:
12pm-2pm - Fight Training
”Today is a slower day as far as the gym goes. We will work on different things that change from Saturday to Saturday. We still do lots of focus mitts and bag work as well as conditioning. We will also work on our super-secret AKA techniques! Ha ha…”
5pm- Cardio and Strength.
Sunday:
Off Day.
”I’ll rest and do nothing but maybe do some stretching. If for some reason I missed training a day during the week I will use this day as a catch-up and work out.”
Diet info:
Mikes diet when training for a fight will include foods such as wheatgrass, fish, chicken, tuna, spinach, and “all kinds of other healthy stuff”. As for supplements, Mike prefers a Xyience vanilla shake blended with frozen berries and a scoop of glutamine.
The kind of food Mike must avoid when training for a fight is the usual stuff people would consider unhealthy, such as alcohol and carbonated beverages, McDonalds Big Macs and fried foods, but Mike also avoids foods too high in sugar, fat or diary, including milk and pork. That said, when Mike isn’t training for a fight he lists his favourite foods as pizza, fried chicken, fried pork chops, Ben And Jerry’s Brownie ice cream, steaks, and Mexican food!
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