No, I don’t have any plans for MMA. The one plan that would be the closest is the “Fiready” on T-nation.
I’m in a similar situation though as I’m doing lots of fighting work… martial arts 3x a week and boxing once a week and I’m gearing my own training more toward that.
While, for obvious reasons I cannot provide you with a program here (you can check out Fiready, it would be a close fit), here are a few things that I’ve learned myself:
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Conditioning is king. Yeah, strength helps, but lack of conditioning is a zillion times worse than lack of strength. Especially since have lots of strength when you first start to learn can actually make it harder to learn proper technique as you tend to over-rely on your strength, and because of the adrenaline you will tense up… the more muscle you have, the more likely you are to gass out when under high adrenaline. I learned this the hard way myself.
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While you can find relatively “weak” grapplers (at least in the weightlifting sense), you won’t find any decent ones with poor conditioning. This should be your top 3 priorities (conditioning, conditioning and conditioning). Especially since you are likely starting from a point where your strength is closer to where it needs to be than your conditioning.
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It’s impossible to learn proper technique if you are gassed out, so re-read points #1 and #2
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That’s why in my own training I have two weekly workouts that are anaerobic capacity/aerobic power sessions. Typically those kinda look like Crossfit WODs but without high-skill exercises and ideally using exercises that do have a carryover to fighting.
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Those conditioning sessions are typically 4-6 rounds of 4-6 exercises covering the whole body. Here are some exercises I like to use:
- Dips
- Farmer’s walk
- Bear hug carry with a boxing heavy bag
- Barbell zercher carries
- Prowler pushing
- Snatch-grip high pull
- KB "hook rotations (holding a KB with both hands in front of you, elbows bent, perform the rotation asped of a hook with the hips and trunk)
- KB swings
- KB long pulls (similar to a KB high pull but you lift the KB up to the full overhead position, but in a straight line, not like a KB swing… you can see this exercise if you look for Alexander Karelin workout on Youtube)
- Zercher squats
- Boxing heavy bag “RDL” (basically like a supplex… hold the bag in a bear hug, bring it between your legs as if lowering a RDL then lift up to full extension)
- Assault bike
- Rowing ergoment
- See-saw overhead press for speed
- Hitting a tire with a sledgehammer
- Chin-ups
I typically pick 4 to 6 per circuit and repeat the circuit 4-6 times. Normally I’m shooting for 25 minutes of work (equivalent to 5 rounds of 5 minutes).
- My strength sessions are quite minimalist. It’s 2-3 whole-body sessions per week using 4 exercises. My personal choice is:
- Snatch-grip high pull from blocks (I’d do power cleans or power snatches, but I don’t have enough mobility yet)
- Zercher squats
- Weighted dips
- Barbell curls (curling strength is actually quite important in grappling)
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Prior to the strength workout I use a “warm-up” that also has an impact on conditioning. Some of the exercises will not be familiar, I’ll try to film them eventually, but you can find most of them on Youtube (although they might have another name)
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That warm-up/conditioning is done without rest between exercises, typically for 30 seconds per exercise.
A. Dopamineo band exercises:
A1. Russian curls
A2. Boxing footing drills holding the bands
A3. Hooks with the bands
A4. Slam down
A5. Judo over shoulder throws (right)
A6. Judo over shoulder throws (left)
B. Plate drills
B1. “Around the head” with a 25lbs bumper plate (clockwise)
B2. “Around the head” with a 25lbs bumper (counter-clockwise)
B3. Plate lift overhead
That lasts around 5 minutes, sometimes I do it twice.
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It might be a good idea to add neck and grip work.
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End each workout (strength, conditioning or MMA) with abs work.
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Don’t train to gain muscle. I find that I actually gained muscle training this way, mostly in my arms, back and traps. But that’s the result of the performance training. Purely hypertrophy work will likely do more harm than good.
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You will likely need to do plenty of mobility work, especially for the shoulders and hips.