I posted earlier about my first MMA fight, and people were very kind and helped me out training quite a bit. I’ve learned much on this site about training/nutrition. I’ve decided that I’m going to kinda keep an online journal here of my training for my next fight. Here’s a little of my background and situation. I’m 23 years old. I trained in karate for 18+ years and have been training in BJJ for about 1.5 years or so. I’ve also trained a good bit in boxing and have started to do Muay Thai a lot over the last few months. I consider my handspeed and overall fighting experience my biggest strength and my explosiveness/wrestling my biggest weakness. I also work a full-time job and go to college. I am an amateur MMA fighter now, my first fight was on Feb. 10th. It ended in a draw. I busted the kid up pretty good, but he was able to take me down a few times, so I’m guessing that’s why the fight was close. About 18 months or so ago I was about 50 lbs heavier than I am now, so its been quite a journey for me. I’m going to post my workouts and stuff on here. Feel free to give me any advice, but don’t be an asshole. My next fight is coming up on March 31st. I’m fighting a guy who is 0-1 and supposedly has a kickboxing background with very little ground experience. I do know from Sherdog that he was TKO’d in his first fight, bu that was about a year ago. Since my fight on the 10th, which was a Saturday, I rested on Sunday and Monday and got back to training in the weightroom on Tuesday, which was the 13th. I took the rest of that week off from my MMA gym to let my mind rest some and will be back there starting tomorrow.
I’ll start my workout posting with today just because I don’t remember exactly the weights and such that I used on Tuesday and Thursday. My goals are to spend two weeks or so bldg strength/muscle back after cutting weight. Then I’ll get right back into raising my lactic threshold and overall endurance. I train @ my MMA gym on Monday, Wed, and Thurs…and w/ my Gracie Jiu-Jitsu guy on Saturdays. Because of the high volume of training @ the MMA gym, I usually build my lifts 2 to 3 days/wk around one main lift. You’ll see that the first day I’m posting I did deadlifts.
As an amateur w/out the ability to train full-time, I am not ready to do much more volume in the weightroom. I need to improve my explosiveness, stamina, and foot quickness (as far as physical traits go), and (as far as MMA skills go) my wrestling and head movement/defense. Thanks!
Sunday Feb. 18, 2007
Deadlift
1 set of 8 @ 135 lbs
1 set of 3 @ 225 lbs
1 set of 3 @ 275 lbs
1 set of 1 @ 300 lbs
2 sets of 1 @ 310 lbs
1 set of 5 @ 225 lbs
Wrist Curls
3 sets of 10 @ 35 lbs DB’s
Hex Dumbell holds
2 sets of 30 secs @ 25 lbs DB’s
Explosive Calf Raises (barbell across my back and exploding up mostly through ankle extension)
3 sets of 10 @ 225 lbs
About nutrition. I’m a little more relaxed at the moment because I weight 174-175 lbs and I will fight @ 170 lbs. I’m not one of those folks who keep a real detailed log, but I’ll give you an idea. I’m currently supplementing w/ Alpha Male (5 days on, 2 off), Spike Shooters, Fish Oil, and the unflavored Biotest Whey. About 4 weeks out from fight I’ll take HOT-ROX and nix the Spike until after.
Sunday, Feb 18th, 2007
Breakfast-Protein Shake, Oatmeal
Lift
Lunch-G’ma’s (always a cheat meal on Sundays here) Mashed Potatoes, Beef & Noodles, green beans, corn, biscuits
Snack-Cottage Cheese & PB
Dinner-Chicken fajita rollup, fries, salad w/ french
Bedtime-Protein Shake
Nice stuff dude, keep training hard and smart, because it will pay off sooner or later.
Regarding your lifting I think you should do more stuff like BP, Power cleans, and some shrugs. I know the most important thing in mma is technique, but having a strong body is a plus.
Also, I got a question, how much do you pay for your bjj or mma lessons?
I do clean and jerk on one day, and bench press on the other…i’m working on my grip strength via some info on the recent article on here because I feel that is a weakness. I pay $60/month to train @ my MMA gym…that’s unlimited training, but that price is going up real soon. I pay $30/hr private lessons for my Gracie instructor.
I had MMA practice tonight. I worked out with my team for about 2 hrs. Tonight was mostly boxing with some muay thai thrown in. We started w/ 3 rounds 3 min each of jumprope. Then we did 3 five minute rounds of shadow boxing. Then we did 10 rounds of 3 min each on the bags. We did different combinations and such for each round. Good workout overall…tomorrow will be some grappling stuff and conditioning. I’m going to try the “magic 50” workout that that Ross guy wrote up…www.rosstraining.com Later fellas
Ok so the Magic 50 thing was a bitch for sure. Here’s how it goes for y’all to see.
5 DB snatches each arm
5 DB swings each arm
10 burpees
Rest 1 min…repeat for 5 sets
I used a 50 lb DB and the burpees are done by squatting…thrusting back into push-up position, do a push-up, explode your feet back up landing in a full squat, and jump as high as you can. Great workout! Then I did…
2 sets hex DB holds w/ 25 lbs for grip
2 sets 10 reps reverse DB curls for grip and wrist strength
2 sets 12 reps neck extension and flexion w/ a band
Then I practiced grappling technique focusing mostly on chokes and passing the guard today and sparred for 3X5 min rounds
All right tonight was a combo practice of wrestling and muay thai. We did some shadow boxing and had to sprawl or shoot or whatever on the whistle. We worked for 3 five min rounds. Then we hit the bags for 6 three min rounds. Then we wrestled some just working takedowns/defense.
For condition we did a sprint workout where we ran up 2 flights of stairs, sprinted down a hall thats about 25 yds long and then jog back. We did that cycle 12 times w/ no rest. So all in all a good day’s work.
Sorry, off a day. Yesterday I did Iso DB Push Presses w/ 60 lb DB for sets 3 sets of 5. I super-setted that with pull-ups. Also 3 sets of 5. Then I did Iso Flat DB presses. By the way, when I do these I only hold one DB at a time. Tuff variation. Hard to keep your body from flipping off the bench. Good core exercise. I did the Flat Presses with a 75 lb DB and again it was 5 reps each side. Then I did some upper-body plyo and a power punch increasing drill proposed by that Ross Eminant (or however you spell his name). Good stuff. Today I did a conditioning drill. I did 10 burpees, 10 Med Ball Slams, and 10 Sprawls, rest 1 min and repeat 4 times. I also did some reverse curls, wrist curls, and plate pinches for grip. And some isomentric neck holds with a jumpstretch band around my head. Good times.
Ok today I went up to my Gracie Jiu-Jitsu instructor. I had a 1 hr private lesson then did his two hour class. It was a great time. If you live in or around northern Indiana then you should look up Chet Schemahorn. He’s a great teacher. Day off from conditioning today.
Well my March 31st fight has been cancelled. I guess the promoter is cancelling the show to focus on a bigger show @ the end of April. So I’m not sure whether I’ll fight before that show or not…