Beginner Strength/Conditioning Outline

Hey Sherdoggies

Getting back into MMA again after bodybuilding/gym ratting.
My cardio is terrible and my strength is good from doing PHAT

Lifts at 185lb 5'10 are currently

Squat -265x5
Dead 315x5
Bench 180x5

Heres my proposed routine to get me ready for training again.



---------Strength

Strong Lifts- Monday Wednesday Friday

Will follow Stronglifts with 10 mins of HIIT such as sledge hammering, bag throwing, tyre flipping style excercises.

---------Conditioning

Steady State jogging for 30-40mins- Tuesday Wednesday

I aim to build up general fitness.



Once i join my gym again i want to train MMA/MT/BJJ at least 3 times a week.
I was thinking of dropping the Conditioning (jogging) as my cardio should be improved by going to class.

Strength workouts i will try to keep at 3x a week but maybe 2x would be better.


My Questions as a SC noob.

1) General Critique
2) How long should i wait til joining MMA again.
3) Would 3x5 be better once i do join MMA? (recovery issues)

Cheers

 

looks awesome go get em tiger!

 

If you're that strong already and you're doing a sport why are you so keen on strong lifts?

Do something that has more built in adaptability like WS4SB or 531.

 

When I read that you plan on doing MMA, I want to add my 2 cents in to your workout plan.

I think you should spend more time with BJJ/MT/MMA as that will increase your cardio and endurance plus your technique. If you do the right technique, that will get you working harder and you just practice it over and over again. Sparring sessions will help increase your stamina by a lot and so is rolling on the mat.

I think you should spend no more than 1 hour for heavy lifting. Take shorter rests, if you can, get no rest like Rich Franklin's workouts. Let your body recover for a day or two from weight lifting and just focus on the other things like you've mentioned; bag throwing, tire smashing, etc.

I don't train MMA but it's always on my mind a lot and wish I would have gotten into it when I was younger. Personally, if I were to train, I'd spend more time working on technique, and train my cardio like I'm training for a triathlon. For strength, I'd do a lot of workouts that will help build my explosiveness and balance.

 

I have to disagree.

For strength training, you should mainly be training strength. If someone wants to train balance, they should train that. But they shouldn't want to use their strength training sessions to train balance... unless they've decided they don't want to train strength. If they want to train explosiveness, yes, that's a great idea but unless you are doing Oly lifting you shouldn't be doing it all the time. You need to do max effort stuff too to develop and maintain your strength, otherwise your power will decrease. Explosiveness stuff doesn't need to be done all the time anyway, you either do it every now and then or you have special periods when you focus on it (usually after a period when you have been working on max strength).

If you are training strength, you most definitely should not train with very short or zero rests. Even less so if you are training explosiveness. For training strength you need to be pretty well rested between sets (upto 5 minutes) in order to be refreshed enough to hit the optimal levels of intensity. If you are doing explosiveness work the rests may need to be even longer. You shouldn't be trying to doing slow and sloppy explosiveness/power movements- these are done fast and ferociously, or not done at all.

If you do lots of sets of barbell exercises with no rest, or with regular on/off periods, it becomes barbell complexes. These are a form of HIIT/anaerobic endurance exercise. They can be a useful tool for HIIT but they are not to be confused with strength training. In fact, HIIT interferes with strength development significantly.

 

I like your program. I would get back to the MMA gym as soon as possible. I would recommend incorporating the Olympic lifts into your strength and conditioning program. Keep training hard and good luck with the MMA.

 

This. Keep strength strength, don't try to turn it into conditioning.

 

+1 for doing something else than Stronglifts. The program is for complete beginners, which you clearly aren't. Some 531 template would probably work better.

This makes no sense. For strength, you do workouts that help build strength (duh). That said, balance and explosiveness are usually a by-product of proper strength training.

 

That strong?

are those numbers in Kgs?

 

Just found a NSAC paper called Periodization for Mixed Martial Arts (December_2013_35.6.pdf) search for it, I can't link it from my phone. I haven't read the whole thing since I was reading it while waiting for something at work, but it says to train in blocks and to pair low intensity interval training with a 1:1 work:rest intervals with hypertrophy training in one block, and to pair high intensity interval training with strength and power work in another block. With that strategy you can build strength even if you're at a high level. It says dont do much LISS, because of the interfering adaptations.

I will it say if strength and size are a concern, it would be easier to focus on getting really strong before starting concurrent MMA training. Don't do any other cardio work until you are happy with your strength.

 

Periodization is the only approach that makes any sense for a serious fighter. Way too many times on here, you'll see someone come in essentially asking "I need better conditioning, my strength sucks, I lack power, my mobility is poor, I need to improve my technique, and I spar 5 days a week. What program should I do?" Sorry, but NO ONE can concurrently improve that many factors at the same time unless they are a complete beginner.

 

Starting training MMA ASAP. It takes far longer to develop skill and technique than it does to develop your S&C. I'd drop lifting back to to 2 days/week to allow for more recovery from MMA training and do something other than Stronglifts.

Also, as usual Jaunty's post is top-notch.

 

:icon_chee

 

Strong enough that he's probably already done a linear progression. But that's easy to ask.

OP, have you already done a linear progression program such as Stronglifts or Starting Strength, and if so, did you already stall?


I would say that Stronglifts is not ideal for recovering if your primary goal isn't strength.

 

Appreciate the feedback everyone.

Lifts are all in lb's.

Ive done Starting Strength on and off for a long time, as i have gone back to MMA and bodybuilding style stuff. I would say based on my experince it would be hard to increase those lifts while doing MMA, i frequently stall around my current lift numbers.

Cheers

 

I'd be willing to save time and just wire the money straight to your account in Nigeria if we don't have to read any more nonsense like this.

 

lol

 

This is the best post I've seen in a while. I wish more people understood the necessity of periodization.

 

Jaunty once again displaying elegance and style.

Well done, sir.

 

Fuck outta here