To say former UFC lightweight champ Sean Sherk has a lot of training experience is a huge understatement. ‘The Muscle Shark’ has been bringing scary levels of strength and conditioning to the Octagon since UFC 30, way back in 2001. Here the inventor of the low-oxygen Training Mask shares his insights into staying physically and mentally fresh all year round.

1: Recycle your intensity

For pros like Sherk, the training cycle isn't based on the calendar but on making sure he hits peak condition on fight night. That means turning the intensity dial up or down to match his goals. “Training camps are balls to the wall. Three workouts a day, don't leave the gym, eating lunch in the break room; it's a full eight-hour day,” Sherk says. “Out of camp, it's training for an hour and a half and you're done.”

After the fight, it’s time to get back to basics to avoid burnout. Sean explains: “If you're three or four months away from a fight you can use the time to work on new techniques and learn new things. A month out and you're only focused on your opponent, your game plan and your conditioning.”

2: Recycle your ideas

“Fighting’s been on my mind for many years,” says Sherk. “I’ll be driving down the road and boom, I'll come up with a new strength or conditioning training idea. You’ve gotta grab a pen and write it down so you don't forget about it. I don’t keep a specific training diary anymore, but I have books and books of stuff that I’ve written down over the years. They’re things I can re-use in seminars and in my training camps.”

3: Recycle your attitude

Relentless dedication is Sean’s key to MMA success. “Professional fighting is a ‘24 hours a day, seven days a week’ commitment and you’ll get out of it what you put into it,” he says. “I don’t look forward to getting up and going to the gym every day. There are times when you get burned out and tired of a routine. But if it’s something that’s going to win fights for you, then you just have to do it regardless. 

“For me it’s a job so I just find what will get me to my goals regardless of whether it’s fun or if it’s hard. For me, technique drilling is ungodly boring; it’s 45 minutes a day to drill my routine of 300 submissions, reversals and escapes four times, 1200 movements in total. But it's such a huge part of the game that it has to be done. 

"The average guy isn’t going to spend that much time doing something that they don’t enjoy because they don’t have to get into a cage and fight somebody with 10 million people watching.”

Sherk adds: “If you're a recreational MMA trainee then variety is important to keep it fresh and exciting. Most people with regular nine-to-five jobs get bored easily and they’re more easily tempted than someone who does MMA for a living. I always tell people to make it fun and put a lot of variety in it to keep their interest levels high.” 

4: Recycle your records

While Sherk doesn’t need to write down his sets and reps any more, he still scientifically tracks the effects that training has on his body from camp to camp. “I wear a heart rate monitor for pretty much every workout, even when I’m lifting weights. I want to know how high I can get it and how fast I can get it to drop,” he states.

“Out of camps I’ll get my heart rate up to maybe 170–175BPM, but in camp I'll get to 190BPM, then with a one minute break I'm down to 110. That’s what training’s about, working your butt off for five minutes to see how high you can get it them resting for a minute and still being able to go out and fight again.”