Training Schedule Help

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

Just wanted to get some opinions from greater minds than myself…

At the first of the year I am 90% sure that I am going to undertake a year long program of Olympic lifting. I’m not going to fight next year so why not. The goal is to get IMMENSLY stronger and faster. Training in this manner seems like one of the most appropriate ways.

Reasoning is that everytime I’ve ever trained olympic lifts specifically all my other lifts go up. Bench, Squat, Dip, Deadlift, Curls, everything. My flexibility is improved as well…

Olympic lifters are notoriously stronger, fast, and flexible. If you’re a strong man you have to practice SOME olift variations, and some of the more successful strongmen were previously O-lifters. Bloody Hell the benefits are too numerous.

In addition to lifting weights…I train MMA 2-4x a week depending on whatever else I have going on.

That is probably going to be conditioning enough and the rest of what I’ll be doing is just drilling technique. I’m conditioned as HELL now and I believe that simply by the pace I work at when training will keep my conditioning the same. Also if I keep a large workload, my capacity for work will not diminish and when it is time to switch up and emphasize more on conditioning I’ll be able to jump into an intense program rather than ‘work up’ to a certain level again (in theory).

The Program::

The QWA program notes that it doesn’t include conditioning work such as abwork and implies that something should be designed in its place.

I plan on implementing several types of exercises in order to fufill what I feel are holes in the program (as it applies to mma…for olympic lifting its perfect). These are how I see them playing out currently, they perhaps will not even occur depending how I feel while I’m using this training methodology.

Implementing the extra workouts/exercises will depend largely on how rested I feel. This is really a play by ear type thing that I"m just having prepared in advance.

Planned Assistance Work::

Sandbag work/gpp
1 arm dumbbell overhead squats
over head squats
zercher shoot lunge
plate scoots across floor
bilateral work (legs & upper body)
heavy chins/dips
neck training
torso training (obviously)
assorted grip work
MMA specific Conditioning
Dumbbell & Barbell Complexes
Sled Dragging
Movement efficiency (ladder drills,etc)

My questions are as follows::

1- Is this an effective method of becoming a more powerful mma athlete.

And thus

2- Could my time be better spent as far as developing strength specific to MMA.

Keep in mind that I’m not considering conditioning work (as i noted above) and technique training which I will address on my own time. Just being able to hit harder and move faster is my entire goal.

Comments, help? I’m having second thoughts as I can see perhaps better methods, but the QWA program is so sound I really don’t see why not use it. Especially if overall power development is the goal. Especially if the other, “better” methods can be subbed in or still utilized concurrently.

2

what is the QWA programme? Queensland Weightlifting Association?

Not sure of the details of the programme, but remember that strength-endurance is also of huge importance in MMA. Typically a pure o-lifting programme is geared towards a max effort lift which is over in the blink of an eye.

Don’t want to get into an argument about whether o-lifts are any better than less technical compound movements for developing power/whatever, (bottom line is they’re fun to do, and clearly effective so fuck it you may as well do them if you want to) but remember to differentiate between doing o-lifts to improve another sport and doing actual o-lifting. Hope that made sense. It did to me, but I’m very tired at the moment.

In case it didn’t I’ll illustrate what I’m trying to say with an eg: if you were an o-lifter, then increasing your snatch from say 110kg to 130kg is clearly an improvement in your sport. However, maybe if you were just using the snatch to improve your mma performance you might be better aiming to be able to snatch 110kg a bunch of times in fairly quick succession rather than for one big max attempt. Just my opinion anyway.

ps have you looked at mikesgym.org??

3

You needn’t do too much extra core/ab work or conditioning work if MMA practice is 4x/week.

If you can, get a coach for a few oly lift sessions and don’t be afraid to start out on the light side.
Oly lift 2x/week and conditioning with core involvement 1x/week is how I’d start.

Then see if you need more. Just start the first week kind of low volume. You can always up volume.

i made a few simple comments on exercises. overall looks pretty good.

What’s your mma weaknesses?
Striking: timing;distance;perception;defense (not much weight room stuff will do)
Takedowns: technique; power (oly lifts will translate well here) Juan carlos has some nice band work for this.
Submissions/ground; technique; neck; grip

Don’t forget some simple easy drop a 3lb dumbell and catch for hand speed is good. Do this from the bent dumbell row position. Or wheelbarrel races through the agility ladder on your hands…

Isometrics can be good too. Thibs calls them overcoming isometrics when it’s using a heavy load and not pushing on an immovable object. I like overcoming better and they are applicable to the ground. Similar energy system.
What is you major ‘style’ of fighting in mma?

I’ll post more later…I’d also like to see something with a jump. Like, box jumps or jump squats once in a while. Those exercises below aren’t one workout are they.
When you fight, how long are rounds?
Hitting harder can be tough. I gave some hand speed things which could be part of it. But that speed needs to be overlayed on a good technical punch. What does your striking coach say about your punch? It starts with the legs, which I think are covered and the core transfers power through the shoulder and through the hand basically.
So it’s about looking at the chain. Where is it weak? And HOW is it weak? Is it max strength you need? Ballistic? speed strength?

[/quote]
Planned Assistance Work::

Sandbag work/gpp
1 arm dumbbell overhead squats (hold dumbell in the other/down hand as well, it’s a great exercise)
over head squats
zercher shoot lunge
plate scoots across floor
bilateral work (legs & upper body) (unilateral step ups are great for mma. Mostly unilateral stuff)
heavy chins/dips
neck training
torso training (obviously)
assorted grip work
MMA specific Conditioning
Dumbbell & Barbell Complexes
Sled Dragging
Movement efficiency (ladder drills,etc)
. Just being able to hit harder and move faster is my entire goal.
[/quote]

4

Xen,

If you aim is to become a top class grappler or mma fighter you are I am afraid seriously deluded if you think that you should spend most of your time working on anything other than your fighting ability/skills.

You need to develop into a very good competetive wrestler/boxer etc You do not have the time to develop a set of skills that are a sport in its own right.

I am also afraid that the notion that
carrying out Olympic lifting will somehow make you super strong in the ring or on the mat is again simply fanciful. In my long experience the type of lifting carried out is not an obvious determinant in successful performance on the mat.

As you correctly wrote elsewhere- although criticised for it- the most significant thing that you can do is to gain size. This of course disregards the issue of weight categories. Within a weight category however it is too simplistic to believe that Olympic lifting will elevate your strength levels above that of the opposition.

5

[quote]peterm533 wrote:
Xen,

If you aim is to become a top class grappler or mma fighter you are I am afraid seriously deluded if you think that you should spend most of your time working on anything other than your fighting ability/skills.

You need to develop into a very good competetive wrestler/boxer etc You do not have the time to develop a set of skills that are a sport in its own right.

I am also afraid that the notion that
carrying out Olympic lifting will somehow make you super strong in the ring or on the mat is again simply fanciful. In my long experience the type of lifting carried out is not an obvious determinant in successful performance on the mat.

As you correctly wrote elsewhere- although criticised for it- the most significant thing that you can do is to gain size. This of course disregards the issue of weight categories. Within a weight category however it is too simplistic to believe that Olympic lifting will elevate your strength levels above that of the opposition.[/quote]

Ya I was just playing devil’s advocate on that previous thread anyway to see if anybody could present some decent reasoning against the case.

Unfortunately I just faced hostility at implying that lifting heavy isn’t the cure all to every ill.

And yes, just adopting the qwa training parameters would be a misnomer. I’d get stronger, but to what end…