Back to MMA, strenght and conditioning questions

[Keljag]

I've been away from MMA for 3 years, but will be having my first practice again tomorrow. Back in the day I fought 1 amateur bought that went pretty smooth, but I never touched the weight room during this time. My goal is to fight an amateur fight again within a time frame of 1-2 years.

This time around I want to do it right and include strenght and conditioning into my training regime. I however have no idea what would be optimal. I've been in the gym for the past 2 years working on buildig muscle and maintaining my cardio. I'm pretty sure this bodybuilding type training isn't the most effective way to train for a fight.

I've done some reading on this subject but couldn't really find an answer.. A program like Starting Strenght wouldn't benefit me much since weekly progression is no longer possible. Would a more intermediate strenght program complement MMA? Or should I look for more circuit oriented training?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Chad R. Thundercock]

Get a copy of Ross Enamait's Infinite Intensity if barbell training is not really your thing.

 

[Keljag]

Get a copy of Ross Enamait's Infinite Intensity if barbell training is not really your thing.

Looks great, will read into it! Thanks!

 

[Tosa]

I'd look into Juggernaut method for an intermediate program that'd fit well with training for other athletic qualities (Eg. conditioning) and doing skill work for MMA.

 

[Uchi Mata]

My training has been for grappling competition not MMA, but I found that Wendler's 5/3/1 allowed me to make gains while not being too taxing in terms of recovery to hurt my martial arts training. Periodization is very important as well. If you're 6 weeks out from a fight you should be doing a lot more cardio and conditioning stuff than heavy weights, if you don't have a fight booked there's not really any reason to go nuts on the cardio if you're making it through your skill workouts and sparring fine. I have a pro BJJ match coming up and I've backed off weights to once a week, replacing it with kettlebell complexes to complement my roadwork but as soon as my fight's over I'll go back to more lifting and drop the majority of the conditioning stuff. It's just not a good use of time unless I need my cardio and muscular endurance high like I do for a match.

 

[McBryde Mats LLC]

Westside for skinny bastards is a great place to start... or anything by Joe deFranco for that matter

 

[Genghiz]

Read Joel Jamieson's Ultimate MMA conditioning before you read anything else. It's a must if you're training for MMA. Ignore the cheesy title, the author's a UFC S&C coach, DJ Mighty Mouse is one of his fighters.

Look into Tactical Barbell (book 1) for strength programming. The waved progression style is much more forgiving for hard training athletes vs linear periodization. You can choose a two or three day template and customize your exercises so you're not stuck with a one size fits all approach.

Both of the above fit together perfectly and will give you a complete S&C plan to follow.

 

[CJM14]

Has anyone used Body by Fish from Scrapper aka Wayne Fisher's site? The workouts there seem pretty decent and I've mostly heard good things about him -- they were initially developed for martial arists as well.

 

[aus101]

When I started BJJ (only two sessions a week) I swapped back to training 5/3/1.

Cardio is done sport specifically but I should add in some recovery walks.

I cannot recover from more than 4 weights, 2 grappling sessions a week so 5/3/1 is as intense a program as I can muster.