Fitness tips for fighters?

[Eddie]

Fitness is pretty important for a competitive fighter (san shou, mma etc). No fighter wants to enter the ring when he (or she) is not fit enough.

Usually our fitness regime include allot of roadwork (jogging, sprinting etc), bag work, partner drills etc and sparring. Unfortunately, a work out plan gets boring after a while, and one needs new ideas and challenges that might work better or just as well as your previous fighting training regime.

Any other suggestions on how you guys get yourself or your fighters fitter without boring them with the same work out sets month after month?

[sanjuro_ronin]

There is general fitness - jogging, swimming, playing sports like soccer, basketball and such.
And there is Sport specific training.

Boredom is kept to a minimum when BOTH are used correctly:

General fitness most of the time ( including the chosen sport) and focusing on Sport Specific training when coming into a fight/contest/match/championship.

[bodhitree]

fighters need both aerobic and anaerobic training. Most professional fighters work in peroidization so that they 'peak' for the fight.

These (http://www.grapplearts.com/Overtraining-Article.htm)


Articles (http://www.grapplearts.com/Tapering-Peaking-Article.htm)

can describe it better than I can.

Sport specific training is one of the keys.

[gwa sow]

i didnt read the above articles but check outsomething called tambala protocol sounds good. its not dirty altough it sounds that way. :D basically you work at 100% effort for 20 seconds and rest 10. rinse and repeat. you an do it with burpees,sprints, jump rope, bag work, whatever. read up on it. i beleived it was developed by a japanese scientist for an olympic team.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Tabata Protocol:

http://www.cbass.com/Tabata_GXP.htm

[gwa sow]

d@mn thats to much to read, or maybe i'm just lazy hehe

[sanjuro_ronin]

d@mn thats to much to read, or maybe i'm just lazy hehe

This protocol/training method is NOT for everyone, its for the advanced athlete that is looking to push his limits.

[AmanuJRY]

This protocol/training method is NOT for everyone, its for the advanced athlete that is looking to push his limits.

I disagree. That article seems to be written from the perspective of a bodybuilder not someone who is strength training. As in any excercise program, if you have heart issues or are severly out of shape, you probably need something more like physical therepy.

More info on Tabata intervals (http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/tabataintervals.html)and strength training (http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/strengthtraining.html).

[bodhitree]

With all the links this thread is getting it should be a sticky!


http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19757

[sanjuro_ronin]

I disagree. That article seems to be written from the perspective of a bodybuilder not someone who is strength training. As in any excercise program, if you have heart issues or are severly out of shape, you probably need something more like physical therepy.

More info on Tabata intervals (http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/tabataintervals.html)and strength training (http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/strengthtraining.html).

Tabata himself suggest it be used sparringly and more so by advanced practioners.
Granted he was refering to HIS protocol - 5 days a week.

[bodhitree]

Funny thing is the most successful grapplers I know (not mma fighters) don't do any conditioning outside of training a lot. They are monsters. One of the guys trains like 12 times a week at various schools around Pittsburgh. They both compete in advanced divisions. Crazy stuff.

[Three Harmonies]

Anderson Silva told us a couple weeks ago he HATES running. His conditioning is mat time, mat time, mat time. FWIW
Jake :cool:

[sanjuro_ronin]

Specificity rules, thing is, the Tabata method/protocol and many others can directly be used in a sport specific way.

[lkfmdc]

Tim O'Connor's Strength and Conditioning for Combat Sports (http://www.customflix.com/221649)

when you get through that, let us know ;)

[sanjuro_ronin]

Tim O'Connor's Strength and Conditioning for Combat Sports (http://www.customflix.com/221649)

when you get through that, let us know ;)

You little *****....LOL !! :D

[SevenStar]

Fitness is pretty important for a competitive fighter (san shou, mma etc). No fighter wants to enter the ring when he (or she) is not fit enough.

Usually our fitness regime include allot of roadwork (jogging, sprinting etc), bag work, partner drills etc and sparring. Unfortunately, a work out plan gets boring after a while, and one needs new ideas and challenges that might work better or just as well as your previous fighting training regime.

Any other suggestions on how you guys get yourself or your fighters fitter without boring them with the same work out sets month after month?

why are you doing the same sets? cycle them. Ideally, we try to start training for a fight at least three months out. That far out, you can break the training into cycles - baseline strength, power and endurance. Spend four weeks working each. the names of the cycles didctate the types of training done in each, in addition skill training should be done daily.

[MasterKiller]

Ideally, we try to start training for a fight at least three months out.

How often do you fight? Seems like you would be constantly cycling for fights.

[sanjuro_ronin]

How often do you fight? Seems like you would be constantly cycling for fights.

12 weeks seems kind of long..but it depends on how they cycle.
6-8 is what I was taught in boxing, I applied that to kyokushin and MT and it worked great.

[Wilson]

Check it out...

http://www.crossfit.com

Read the "What is Crossfit", "Start Here", and "FAQ" links to get an idea about what the site is all about.

There are some free links to the Crossfit Journals that are very good also.

I can tell you from personal experience that this works and it definitely mixes it up. I seriously recommend going slow at first. I thougth I was in great shape and I was the sorest I've ever been after the first workout I tried. Now I know I am in much better shape than the standard body building workouts I used to do. Good luck.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Check it out...

http://www.crossfit.com

Read the "What is Crossfit", "Start Here", and "FAQ" links to get an idea about what the site is all about.

There are some free links to the Crossfit Journals that are very good also.

I can tell you from personal experience that this works and it definitely mixes it up. I seriously recommend going slow at first. I thougth I was in great shape and I was the sorest I've ever been after the first workout I tried. Now I know I am in much better shape than the standard body building workouts I used to do. Good luck.

Crossfit is one the best places to go for general fitness and more so if you are the kind that gets bored with the "meat n potatoes" workouts.
You will almost always get sore because they are always getting you to do stuff your body is not used to.
Gotta love those sadistic *******s.

[SevenStar]

How often do you fight? Seems like you would be constantly cycling for fights.

depends on the fighter. we do have a guy who has had 5 fights over the past year. I'll be fighting again early next year.

[sanjuro_ronin]

depends on the fighter. we do have a guy who has had 5 fights over the past year. I'll be fighting again early next year.

Why so far away ?

[Eddie]

why are you doing the same sets? cycle them. Ideally, we try to start training for a fight at least three months out. That far out, you can break the training into cycles - baseline strength, power and endurance. Spend four weeks working each. the names of the cycles didctate the types of training done in each, in addition skill training should be done daily.

we do cycle the workouts, what Im looking for are new ideas for workouts. Im interested in fitness workouts mostly.

[SevenStar]

interval running, interval bag work, interval shadow boxing, medicine ball, sledgehammer, oly lifts, kettle / club bells?

[stricker]

at the mma gym we've been doing tons of MMA/wrestling conditioning circuits. theye AWESOME

for 5 mins MMA fighting :

1min boxing sparring
1min clinch wrestling (underhooks, take back, plumm)
1min sprawls
1min boxing sparring again
1min clinch wrestling again

other good standing bits to try would be to take 5 of :
1min jab-cross-shoot to pick up partner, take in turns
1min push-pummell (try to push each other across the room)
1min thai kick pushbacks
1min neck wrestling
1min kick sparring
1min back escape
ideas go on forever...

or on the ground a tough one is :
1min mount escape
1min guard pass
1min sprawls
1min mount escape (other way round)
1min guard pass (other way round)

swap other bits in eg side control escape, whatever... that's perfect for prepping for submission wrestling

for all of them its basically a 5 minute round then 1 min rest, repeat x times to replicate the fight you're aiming for (submission, thai, mma, etc)

i think in terms of SPP it's as close as you can get to rolling for rounds, but its more intense as in rolling you can stalemate, stall, rest, etc. with these its all hard work non-stop. and youre using basic skills your gonna need. both sides of the drill practice their part, so one person is holding mount while the other is escaping.

in that way IMO it seems better than what anderson silva said mat time mat time, of course he's a full time pro so can swap in fresh partners, train all day etc... or even better than tabata as it's more specific to the rounds and the kind of attributes being trained.

of course sometimes you have to adjust for skill/strength level eg occasionaly let someone pass your guard or escape mount a little bit easier but still keep it up just so your pushing them perfectly at their limit (like padwork etc) build skill and strength and condition all at the same time

also everyone in the gym is pushing each other. the sprawls we count to 10 round the room for the minute, usually get a bit more than 40 done in the minute.

thats quite hard work (especially the mix of wrestling and boxing is hard as the arms lose their snappiness quick from wrestling) and the half of the circuit after the sprawls in the middles always hard too...

oh, on my blog on the training and health forum you can see where i've been doing these...

[SevenStar]

yeah, those are killer. And when we rotate intervals, the person training for the the fight will do each interval with a new partner, so that he is always working with a fresh, non-tired person. It wears you the fug out.

[stricker]

oh yeah man!!! fresh partners are horrible

[bodhitree]

depends on the fighter. we do have a guy who has had 5 fights over the past year. I'll be fighting again early next year.


I'd like to know the whens and wheres so I can come cheer you on!

[ccsraj]

Fitness is pretty important for a competitive fighter (san shou, mma etc). No fighter wants to enter the ring when he (or she) is not fit enough.

Usually our fitness regime include allot of roadwork (jogging, sprinting etc), bag work, partner drills etc and sparring. Unfortunately, a work out plan gets boring after a while, and one needs new ideas and challenges that might work better or just as well as your previous fighting training regime.

Any other suggestions on how you guys get yourself or your fighters fitter without boring them with the same work out sets month after month?

Best practice results in best result.Fitness depends on both physique and mental also.if work plan gets bored then you can practice yoga,which relaxes you both physically and mentally.