Mariusz Pudianowski got me thinking about possibly incorporating some strongman training for MMA, since most of the movements resemble/have practical usage in MMA/grappling.
For example, the atlas stone movement looks pretty similar to a single or double leg takedown. Both movements require the coordination of all your muscle groups: upper and lower back, core, and lower body.
Another obvious example are farmer’s walks. They can build up a fighter’s grip and core stability.
Tire flips, log carries, among other events may give a similar fighting/grappling strength building effect.
Practical usage? He got his ass kicked.
Strongman training isnt useful for MMA at all /sarcasm
Tim Silvia vs Pudz is a poor example and should be taken with a grain of salt in this discussion. Pudz didnt lose because he wasnt strong enough. Pudz got beat because Tim outclassed him. I have hope for Pudz in MMA, but he cant walk into the cage like a brawler thinking he’s gonna beat guys that put maybe a decade in their skills training.
OP, give it a shot, it wont hurt you.
The other issue Pudz had was he didnt train for 5 min rounds. He trained to only give himself about 1 min and then he gassed because his strength levels are nuts but his cardio sucks.
I say give yourself a 4-6 week cycle of it or just mix in the moves to your current program and see what happens. I have never heard someone say they wish they were weaker.
There’s plenty of fighters that use some or all strongman methods in training. Kelly Pavlik comes to mind right away, and he doesn’t gas in fights.
Honestly, it’s probably more relative to fighting that doing squats and bench presses simply because of the nature of the exercise.
I know I’ve posted it before, but…
Strongman training is great for fighters. Lifting odd shaped objects like rocks, sandbags/waterbags, kettlebells, kegs, basically things which have no apparent handles or who’s weight shifts constantly much more closely resembles the strength required to lift a resisting human being than lifting barbells. There is also a very substantial grip component to many strongman training methods/events, which helps tremendously in fighting (especially grappling).
You’ve just gotta remember that (just like traditional resistance training), you’ve got to adjust the variables to achieve specific goals. In other words, you could go really heavy and intense to develop maximal strength or power. Or, you could go less heavy but try to extend the duration of your training to develop maximal endurance. Or you could go with a moderate weight but try to be as explosive as possible. etc…
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
There’s plenty of fighters that use some or all strongman methods in training. Kelly Pavlik comes to mind right away, and he doesn’t gas in fights.
Honestly, it’s probably more relative to fighting that doing squats and bench presses simply because of the nature of the exercise.[/quote]
He also runs.
[quote]punchedbear wrote:
The other issue Pudz had was he didnt train for 5 min rounds. He trained to only give himself about 1 min and then he gassed because his strength levels are nuts but his cardio sucks.
I say give yourself a 4-6 week cycle of it or just mix in the moves to your current program and see what happens. I have never heard someone say they wish they were weaker.[/quote]
It is literally impossible for a body that big to adequately supply oxygen to the muscles.
[quote]sardines12 wrote:
[quote]punchedbear wrote:
The other issue Pudz had was he didnt train for 5 min rounds. He trained to only give himself about 1 min and then he gassed because his strength levels are nuts but his cardio sucks.
I say give yourself a 4-6 week cycle of it or just mix in the moves to your current program and see what happens. I have never heard someone say they wish they were weaker.[/quote]
It is literally impossible for a body that big to adequately supply oxygen to the muscles. [/quote]
Which would make my point that he didnt prepare for 5 min rounds.
[quote]sardines12 wrote:
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
There’s plenty of fighters that use some or all strongman methods in training. Kelly Pavlik comes to mind right away, and he doesn’t gas in fights.
Honestly, it’s probably more relative to fighting that doing squats and bench presses simply because of the nature of the exercise.[/quote]
He also runs.[/quote]
Understood. But he doesn’t appear to lose snap on his punches, or do other things that would show that he can’t deal with the buildip of lactic acid.
That doesn’t really come from running as much as it does other conditioning work.
the better developed you aerobic system the slower you reach anaerobic threshold.
You’d think it would be a great tool for conditioning purposes. For developing strength and power, I’d stay away from a good number of the strongman lifts due to the risk of injury, and stick to conventional lifts (so far this works for me, and quite a few guys in my BJJ school).
[quote]sardines12 wrote:
It is literally impossible for a body that big to adequately supply oxygen to the muscles, when moving like Mariusz did his last fight. [/quote]
Fixed that for ya.
Lesnar is, as of right now, larger than Mariusz. He has yet to show significant fatigue. Adequate preparation and pacing are key.
He really hasn’t had to, but five rounds he wouldn’t last at a high pace. The fights where he has shown good conditioning had Lesnar laying on top most of the time.
Exactly. While the man has exceptional ‘cardio’ for his size (in fact other than Cain, I can’t think of another HW over 230 who’s displayed good cardio in the UFC), you’ll never see him putting on a Deigo Sanchez-like grappling fest. Scrambles for position wear you out, whereas holding position and playing a more conservative top game not so much.
[quote]rundymc wrote:
You’d think it would be a great tool for conditioning purposes. For developing strength and power, I’d stay away from a good number of the strongman lifts due to the risk of injury, and stick to conventional lifts (so far this works for me, and quite a few guys in my BJJ school).[/quote]
I was thinking the same thing. Drilling moves on actual guys is the best practice I can get, but I want to get as close as I can to that when I weight train. I don’t achieve the same sort of movement with traditional weightlifting movements. If I train strongman for not too much weight, but a lot of reps for movements similar to MMA situations, the applied strength and conditioning will transition over well to a live situation.
