Fighters Only

Issue 162

Time and again we’ve seen MMA fights come down to conditioning. It needs to be treated like a science.

There has to be a purpose behind sports conditioning. It’s not about how much punishment you can dish out during the workout. It is about how much punishment you can have the athlete ready for come fight day. Equally a trainer doesn’t want his fighters to be injured during a training camp or after a bout.

I know of two pro fighters that were instructed by their strength and conditioning coach to lift weights and run after their weigh ins!

Didn’t they ever hear the football coach’s mantra, ‘save it for the game’?

When I first worked with UFC fighter Kenny Florian over four years ago, I wanted a system specific to elite MMA athletes. Most of these fighters were training like bodybuilders rather than fighters in the weight room. They didn’t know any better, having read ‘this cool workout’ here or there. I decided to break down what they needed for fighting and place it into phases over the three to six months they normally have to train. Phase one would be strength and hypertrophy. Phase two would be explosive power. Phase three is what I call ‘gas in the tank.’

Let’s look at phase 1, building basic core strength and overall bodywork.

Muscles aren’t isolated in the cage, so we certainly don’t isolate them when training. Core strength is essential for punching, kicking and grappling power. You can be ‘limb strong’ but ‘core weak’.

When this happens your foundation falls apart. It’ll materialize as a high injury rate and muscle imbalances just for a start.

Spend energy on the support structure initially and that will carry you through to grinding sessions and eventually the fight.

To clarify, ‘the core’ is basically a box. It includes your internal and external abs, lower back muscles, glutes, hips and shoulder blade region.

Imagine two lines on your back from opposite shoulders to opposite hips making an ‘x’. This encompasses the core. In one-way or another, the core needs to be strengthening during all phases of our system.

Now let’s look at the explosive power phase.

Explosive power is essential in any sport, but especially in MMA.

It’s the ability to launch a quick burst of energy into a punch, kick, throw, or a counter during a fight. This is a different energy system that needs to be taxed. It should to be targeted in a specific way so the body learns that action and remembers the feelings that go with it. Plus the body needs to be able to replenish those quick-energy stores.

I prefer athletes to perform these workouts prior to the ‘gas in the tank’ phase. There’s a carry over into phase three that compliments running phase two before. To accomplish this we use a variety of plyometric drills. Some are unique and some are traditional. Again, I favor big muscle group work here.

The final ‘gas in the tank’ phase mimics a fight. When one of my 15 pro fighters steps into the cage, I never want them to question their conditioning.

Kenny Florian once said: “Kevin makes you cry in training so you laugh in battle,” and this sums up my intentions. The workout has to be on the brink of torture, as long as it remains scientific and realistic.

Here’s the kicker: if you do not spend time on phase one, you won’t be able to cut it in phase three. Otherwise, you’re asking for an injury. Heavy weight four weeks out before a fight is not going to make you throw a harder punch. You need speed, agility, power and gas to go!

30 to 40 seconds of these exercises with little or no rest will make you realize what condition these fighters need to be in. Try it and you will see why they call me ‘Dr. Evil’...

Exercise Phases

Phase one: strength exercises