3 Weeks out from a fight, cut the weight lifting out?

[ChangeIsComing]

3 weeks out from a fight, not getting a lot of advice from my trainer so...here I am; Should the weight lifting be cut out entirely or should it be altered to pure strength, or volume/endurance training with weights? I did do a search but could not find a matching thread. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Kung Fu Kowboy]

Here. Let's ask two pro coaches and a professional fighter.

@DoctorTaco @biscuitsbrah @Sinister

 

[DoctorTaco]

3 weeks out from a fight, not getting a lot of advice from my trainer so...here I am; Should the weight lifting be cut out entirely or should it be altered to pure strength, or volume/endurance training with weights? I did do a search but could not find a matching thread. Any advice is appreciated.

How is your cardio?
Are you doing any cardio specific
Workouts?
What is your training schedule?
What is your lifting schedule?
How long and how consistently have you been lifting in your adult life?
What sport?

 

[ChangeIsComing]

How is your cardio?
Are you doing any cardio specific
Workouts?
What is your training schedule?
What is your lifting schedule?
How long and how consistently have you been lifting in your adult life?
What sport?

How is your cardio - Cardio is decent (240 lb HW)
Cardio specific workouts - Yes, intense bag rounds, running, ladder drills, HITT (mix it up)
Training Schedule - Mon/Wed am Yoga, PM Weights (Mon - chest, tri, shoulders, stretch, Wed - Back, bicep, legs Only calf raise, bulgarian squats or lunges), Tues/Thurs am Run 4-5k, rope, 5-10 mins, stretch, PM - 45 minutes kickboxing, 45 mins Hitt cardio, 45 mins sparring or hard conditioning. Fri - Rest/stretch, Sat - 45 mins Kickboxing, 45 mins Hitt, 45 mins sparring or more conditioning.
Lifting consistently for over 10 years, off and on prior for another 10-15.
Sport - Kickboxing this time around.

Let me know if you want more detail, and thank you for the response.

 

[DoctorTaco]

How is your cardio - Cardio is decent (240 lb HW)
Cardio specific workouts - Yes, intense bag rounds, running, ladder drills, HITT (mix it up)
Training Schedule -

Mon/Wed am Yoga, PM Weights
Tues/Thurs am Run 4-5k, rope, 5-10 mins, stretch, PM - 45 minutes kickboxing, 45 mins Hitt cardio, 45 mins sparring or hard conditioning.
Fri - Rest/stretch,
Sat - 45 mins Kickboxing, 45 mins Hitt, 45 mins sparring or more conditioning

If your body and mind are used to lifting consistently for 25 years then I wouldn’t change it. If you stopped lifting completely your brain is going to squirrel out and panick that you haven’t been doing enough.

You’re good for the next 2 weeks. For fight week I want you to work backwards from Saturday (assuming that’s when you fight) and figure out when you need to taper off so that you hit the ring with a fully recovered body. Fresh legs, fresh arms, and feeling a little bit of the itch you get when you don’t work out for a few days. I’m assuming you’re not cutting bc you’re fighting hwt, yeah?

Taper off the exercising fight week when ever you must to ensure you’re body and legs are fresh for the fight

 

[ChangeIsComing]

If your body and mind are used to lifting consistently for 25 years then I wouldn’t change it. If you stopped lifting completely your brain is going to squirrel out and panick that you haven’t been doing enough.

You’re good for the next 2 weeks. For fight week I want you to work backwards from Saturday (assuming that’s when you fight) and figure out when you need to taper off so that you hit the ring with a fully recovered body. Fresh legs, fresh arms, and feeling a little bit of the itch you get when you don’t work out for a few days. I’m assuming you’re not cutting bc you’re fighting hwt, yeah?

Taper off the exercising fight week when ever you must to ensure you’re body and legs are fresh for the fight

Yeah no cut, would need to chop off a leg or two to reach the -91KG division lol.

Thanks for the advice, greatly appreciated it!! Regarding the lifting, currently its more volume that strength...should I keep it that way for the next 2 weeks until I taper off or switch it up to more strength based, less reps more weight?

 

[DoctorTaco]

Yeah no cut, would need to chop off a leg or two to reach the -91KG division lol.

Thanks for the advice, greatly appreciated it!! Regarding the lifting, currently its more volume that strength...should I keep it that way for the next 2 weeks until I taper off or switch it up to more strength based, less reps more weight?

Look at it like this – you’ve been lifting for 25 years in preparation of this fight. What you do over the next two weeks won’t really affect that so long as you are fresh come Saturday night. Between now and then Make sure that you are physically recovered and healthy enough to get the most out of your last few sparring sessions, training sessions, etc.

you got this man.

 

[usernamee]

Look at it like this – you’ve been lifting for 25 years in preparation of this fight. What you do over the next two weeks won’t really affect that so long as you are fresh come Saturday night. Between now and then Make sure that you are physically recovered and healthy enough to get the most out of your last few sparring sessions, training sessions, etc.

you got this man.

I don't know about training for a fight but I do know that taking 2-3 weeks off from lifting makes me come back stronger, which makes sense. Now you've fully recovered.

 

[ChangeIsComing]

Look at it like this – you’ve been lifting for 25 years in preparation of this fight. What you do over the next two weeks won’t really affect that so long as you are fresh come Saturday night. Between now and then Make sure that you are physically recovered and healthy enough to get the most out of your last few sparring sessions, training sessions, etc.

you got this man.

Thank you for the responses, truly appreciated.

 

[Sinister]

3 weeks out from a fight, not getting a lot of advice from my trainer so...here I am; Should the weight lifting be cut out entirely or should it be altered to pure strength, or volume/endurance training with weights? I did do a search but could not find a matching thread. Any advice is appreciated.

For future reference, weight lifting alone cannot make you bigger. That's a long-standing myth. Both boxers and wrestlers have worked with some form of weight lifting ever since the idea was invented that you could pick up and toss around sh*t that wasnt the human body. And even that IS weight-lifting. There are more functional means of building strength using weighted objects than just bars and iron, but the concept is still the same.

If increasing size is akin to building a house, lifting and other strength training is akin to having a strong crew. Cardio is akin to how long that crew can last. But can any crew build a 2-story house out of 1-story worth of bricks?

Food, are your bricks. You have to be eating in a way that causes muscle and/or fat storage, AND lifting (or not doing anything) to store either muscle or fat. So anyone who says dont lift because it makes you bigger, is mistaken.

From there its about finding a balance of your workouts vs your diet, otherwise you're ice-skating uphill and will end up having to do a massive last-minute cut of mostly water and it will effect your performance.

On a personal note I'm sorry your trainer isnt helping, that's some bullsh*t. I've rarely had fighters miss weight for mysterious reasons. Whenever it did happen they were very aware of how they f*cked up.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

The biggest red flag I see is that you’re training for a fight yet only kickbox 3 days a week

 

[Oblivian]

Since strength is the most important aspect in a fight, you should focus on that. Just ask @ROcknrollracing

 

[Hannibal Lector]

Keep it until 1 week out. 7 days out don’t lift. Last Heavy or max effort squats 14-10 days out, last heavy deadlift, 14 plus more days from fight or weigh in. 7 days for bench or anyother upper body movement. You want to enter a fight with a fresh CNS. I’m also assuming your lifting heavy or max effort style training, if your lifting lighter you can lift a little closer to the fight but no more than 7 days. Everyone is a little different, I loved to lift or do strength and conditioning high intensity and low volume. The rest of my training would focus on technique(martial arts, wrestling BJJ, mma specific usually striking etc). I would do strength or strength and conditioning 3x a week. I know lots of pro fighters that do none. Like I said everyone is different. Last thing you want to do is lift too heavy close to fight or lift on fight week and fight with a fatigued CNS.

But my answer is 7 days.

 

[DEVILsSON]

I agree with most others who say to lift a week before the fight.

I'd maybe gradually taper the strength workouts. I'd maybe do sets with weight you can do for 10-15 reps but only do it up to the point you can do them with good form and high execution speed. As soon as you notice form breaking down or your execution speed slowing down I'd stop there. So if for example you can do 15 pull ups but notice that at rep 8,9, or 10 etc you can't perform any more quick/explosive flawless reps, I'd stop at that point. Essentially you shouldn't be grinding out any reps or even doing reps which feel like a slight struggle.

Alternatively you can absolutely just stop 3 weeks before a fight and do zero strength training. You may even discover you'll feel stronger. It takes a while to lose strength and muscle.

You can also do conditioning density sets/complexes or something similar which will have some carryover to strength endurance(burpees, mountain climbers, squat jumps, KB snatches/cleans/swings/rows, etc).

 

[Stoic1]

I'd lift for endurance up til 1 week from the fight maybe 2x per week, especially if you are a HW. Then work weight manipulation.

 

[Cole train]

Aahh heavyweight fight, this will be great

As a former shitty hw ammy, cardio cardio cardio,

The biggest red flag I see is that you’re training for a fight yet only kickbox 3 days a week

My friend won his mma fight training once a week and never training grappling lmao

Ammy combat sports are epic

 

[Deaths Head]

3 weeks out from a fight, not getting a lot of advice from my trainer so...here I am; Should the weight lifting be cut out entirely or should it be altered to pure strength, or volume/endurance training with weights? I did do a search but could not find a matching thread. Any advice is appreciated.

Cut heavy lifting out a week to 8 days keep it moderate and completely stay off weights at least 4 days before, don’t make it complicated the closer you are to the fight the more rest is needed and fresh muscles and overall body so you won’t drain the night of ,listen to your body bc it depends how much your really doing you don’t want to lose any energy to the training you want it fight night .

The closer weeks to fight night the less heavy and long sessions you want like 3rd week out should be your heaviest longest sessions , 2nd week moderate and last week till fight very light but keep the motions going so you stay on form maybe one day very light lifting 4/5 days prior to keep your muscles in motion and work more on form / technique and going over game plan until it’s embedded in your head .

A better question is why your trainer has no advice bc that’s another job of his knowing the fighter bc he has to know what he’s working on and how hard the session is etc etc …….? Lol

 

[SandisLL]

Aahh heavyweight fight, this will be great

As a former shitty hw ammy, cardio cardio cardio,



My friend won his mma fight training once a week and never training grappling lmao

Ammy combat sports are epic

Am combat sports and beginning in MMA or BJJ might be really epic.
From almost 0 till beasts.

One club had BJJ blue belt, while if to search a bit, he had competed in Judo... Games and World Championship.
Or to feed contintal level medalist in Combat Sambo as debut MMA guy becuse it isn't fake stuff, he had 0-0-0 am or pro MMA record.

Or to feed for local level pro MMA bout boxer vs grappler.... etc stuff.