Technique/Power Trade Off?

[Cornwall]

So... Assuming you've got a pretty decent interest in Martial Arts (sports mma - not thai chi death moves etc), but also can't dedicate your entire life to training and have to hold down a regular 9-5 and keep your other half happy you may be able to at a push commit to say 6 training hours a week -> How would you use them?

Bjj groundwork, Wrestling Takedowns and Clinch, Boxing or In the Gym lifting weights to gain power?

I understand that strength can be a big factor and certainly if you wanted to fight for a living then you would have to go to the gym and lift, but is 2 hours on the mat rolling more benificial than 2 hours in a gym working cardio and weights?

I've had one mma fight so far and managed to pull off a win. I never do any form of strength, weight training or cardio other than normal grappling/clinch etc in class and as it went to the third round the fitness nearly killed me. However I was more technical than the other guy and it paid off.

At low levels of MMA I think you're better at working on 2 of the 3 main fighting ranges and learning a bare minimum in the other just to survive rather than spread yourself too thinly.

Any other opinions out there. Just thought that it would make interesting reading.

:D

[Leigh]

Periodise your training. I'm in a similar boat to you but have managed to get into tremendous shape with correct planning. Speak to Alex Gold about it

[taffdragon]

Periodise your training. I'm in a similar boat to you but have managed to get into tremendous shape with correct planning. Speak to Alex Gold about it


this is something im interested in to, i dont fight myself but a lot of my mates in the gym do and as i seem to be the only one with the internet :rolleyes: i can pass on the advice to them. leigh what do you mean by "periodise" and could you give us some examples please. thanks.

[lovegrove]

Periodise your training. I'm in a similar boat to you but have managed to get into tremendous shape with correct planning. Speak to Alex Gold about it

Totally agree, speak to Alex about it. Will do you wonders.

[Wiegieboard]

In my opinion. Deadlift and shoulderpress once a week and spent the other 5 hours doing technique and sparring.

[Jay]

In my opinion. Deadlift and shoulderpress once a week and spent the other 5 hours doing technique and sparring.


surely if you have to minimise your weights to anything, it should include squats?

[Leigh]

this is something im interested in to, i dont fight myself but a lot of my mates in the gym do and as i seem to be the only one with the internet :rolleyes: i can pass on the advice to them. leigh what do you mean by "periodise" and could you give us some examples please. thanks.

Yeah sure. There are differents ways to periodise, which is basically to focus on one particular area for a while and then change that focus. For example, you may spend 6 weeks working strength with minimal cardio, then spend tehnext 6 weeks hammering fitness and just maintenance for strength

Do a search on google - there are loads of ways to splitit and not just attributes - pre-competition phase, bulking up phase etc

[taffdragon]

thanks leigh for the reply, ill pass it on. for strenth do you think squats,deadlifts,cleans kind of weights are best. and fitness would you advise doing some kind of martial art kind of training(?) to get fit or some kind of cardio like running mach or exercise bike. thanks again for the help, most appreciated.

[Leigh]

Yes, those types of exercises are ideal for strength. For fitness, I would supplement my martial arts training with additional cardio. At least for me, just sparring isn't enough for competition. Maybe some naturally fit freaks can get away with it but I have to leg it up and down hills and do hours of circuits

check the articles on Alex's site here (http://www.hardcoresportstraining.co.uk/articles.html) and in particular, the Off-Season Training For MMA article, which is actually a pretty good example of a periodised program

[taffdragon]

thanks a lot leigh. ill pass this on to the boys.

[mikiesbuk]

Powerlifting will give you great strength and power without putting on alot of weight/size.

At the moment I am doing no MMA, but if you do the following exercises once a week you should find you are making progress: -

1.) Chest - flat bench barbell
2.) Back - deadlift
3.) Shoulders - military press
4.) Legs - squat
5.) Arms - barbell/dumbell curl/whatever.

These in my mind hit the areas hardest/most overall.

Of course you could then split these down to 2/3 days a week - job done.

[Wiegieboard]

surely if you have to minimise your weights to anything, it should include squats?

Squats are an excellent exercise but I would choose deadlift over squat for my self because of the amount of muscle used in a deadlift. Depending on how you dead eg. standard/sumo/narrow stance, you can hit muscles similar to if it was a squat plus all of the supporting muscles in the hips, lower and upper back, abdomen, forearms etc. which comes heavily into play. Alternately you could do what I used to do when I was doing less weights and squat one week, dead the next. Personally I found that deadlifting gave me more benefit for my MMA than the squats did but I tended to wrestle more than I did standup. If you're bangin' in standup having the squat related fitness might benefit better in helping you stay upright when you've been cracked a doosie. Ideally, I'd say that being able to do both squats and deadlift would make you better as an athlete but I'd personally try to emphasize having skill over obscene athleticism especially on a tight schedule, hence the deads being my choice as a more wrestling orientated practicioner.

[Dead man's shoes]

technique is obviously very important

why not try this weights circuit?

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=3224902600571518938&q=randy+couture&total=915&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

[Wiegieboard]

LOL! I used to do that very circuit! It's a real killer but it gets your lactate threshold up SO SO high!

[Dead man's shoes]

yup

its pretty brutal

had an arguement with a colleague over it.

They said that only low to medium level athletes used circuits.

I told them to fuck off and to stop being so pompous.