Please add feedback anyone else that has recently checked out some book titles involving combat sports…
Fit to Fight by Jason Ferruggia
Excellent book. While perhaps the quality of the book itself (pages, # of pictures, etc) could have been better the information is TOP NOTCH. Most books have an explanation for an exercise choice but Jason really imparted an understanding of the purpose and how to prioritize. The book is a lot smaller than I anticipated but he packs so much information in it I had to go over it 3-4 times to pick up on everything.
I loved the supplement section, he really cuts through a lot of bullshit and breaks down what he has seen work.
He pays close attention to getting brutally strong in a few exercises and makes sure that you understand (a theme he repeats) that this training is supplementary to your skill training.
Honestly, I can’t reccomend this title enough. I could go on but I probably wouldn’t do it justice. I think a lot of the ideas Chad Waterbury tries to get across in his articles are in the book. It’s hard for chad because he has such limited space to work with in his articles but the book touches on everything.
Training For Warriors by Martin Rooney
High quality book, a ton of great pictures, excellent motivational section. At first glance the book might seem divided into body part training but the purpose behind this is so that you have a variety of exercises with which to attack your weaknesses. But it is divided into bodyparts, which at first was a bit of a turn off to me. That said, the warm up (which Parisi is known for) is excellent, his mobility section is very detailed, likewise his nutrition section is awesome. I wish he would have went into his conditioning a little more, but i suppose there’s really not that much to say… just get in there and bust ass. Strong believer in proprioreception and touches on this quite a few times.
Building the Ultimate MMA Athlete by Diesel Crew
Diesel Crew is known for innovation and they definitely continued that legacy with this book. They go through mobility drills and anatomy, nutrition, supplement reccomendations…things all the other books touch on as well…
The book is divided into sections specific to MMA ‘styles’, clinch, stand up striking, ground n pound, submissions, etc… it then details exercises that you will probably never see anywhere else on how to improve your physical attributes for each of those aspects of MMA.
Could have touched some more on conditioning, but again, probably not that much to say.
Repeated themes I picked up from all the titles:
Before you even begin to add in any lifting to your MMA program take time to correct imbalances, improve flexibility and mobility.
Low body fat is the best thing you can do for your relative strength, health, and overall game. Nutrition is a very large ‘make or break’.
As Rooney said, “Whats more important to you, eating like crap or MMA?”
anaerobic endurance, consisting of interval training, bodyweight conditioning and complexes
jumping rope is fan-fucking-tastic
supplements are crap if you don’t have everything else dialed in, but if you do, they can be a huge benefit to you.
If Skill training is President, then conditioning is the Secret Service… It keeps you in the game.
Training should be to protect yourself from injury as well as to help you injure your opponent.
Train your neck and your grip
Other than a few indicator exercises (pullups being a huge one all 3 books home in on) strongman training contains the best overall bang for your buck exercises for MMA.
Don’t skip out on isometric training
Overhead squat is a great test of overall athletic ability (strength, flexibility, mobility, stability, grip, core, proprioreception, etc).
Who I’ll try to Review when I get some more time (two of my favorite combat sport S&C coaches)
- Ross Enamit
- Zach Even-Esh
