Serious about fighting in amateur MMA, 22 years old, busy student, need a plan

[knucklehead1]

I am a 22 year old male 5'9" about 185 lbs. 20 percent body fat. I have trained jiu jitsu and mma striking before (about 2.5 years on and off) so I have some skill. I wasnt serious about fighting until I fell in love with the art of combat. Now I want to fight amatuer MMA and make sure I am ready.

School also takes up alot of my time. I am a busy student and I am finishing a bachelors degree in exercise science.

I cant train everyday like the MMA elite because I have school, will have work in the future, and other responsibilities of daily living.

I want to train 5 days a week. I think a solid 2 days off a week will help to limit overtraining symptoms.


That being said, I want train as rigorously as I can on my 5 days a week.


Could I work out 3-times a day on those 5 days or do you guys think that would be overtraining. I want to get atleast two training sessions/ workouts in a day but I bet i could do three some days.


I am not in horrible shape.

My 2 mile time is about 16:30 which isnt good but its not horrible.

Im just wondering what a good 5-day schedule would be like to get me ready for my first bout.

 

[LZD]

Which days can you train? What classes are available? What do you want to focus on most (striking/wrestling/bjj)?

Without the details I would suggest:

Mon: Train
Tue: Train
Wed: OFF - recovery - foam rolling and mobility work.
Thu: Train
Fri: Train
Sat: Train
Sun: OFF - recovery - foam rolling and mobility work.


If you're serious about competing, at 20% BF I would focus on losing weight. Eat a healthy diet. I am sure the classes will focus on enough cardio for starters. Closer to competition start preparing for the specific duration of bouts. ie 3 x 2 minute rounds etc.

As for how much to train.... start with one class per day (usually 90minutes right?). Spend a month or two getting acclimated, then slowly increase your load. It might be possible to do AM/PM classes, or perhaps you will be limited to doing double classes - ie, 3 hrs. That's ok.

Finally, take recovery seriously. Identify any mobility issues, and start working on them. Etc.

Eat sleep.

Edit: Also, I have needed to do double classes before. ie, MT 6-7:30, BJJ 7:30-9. My advice is to take one of them 'easier'. You don't have to go all out on the pads. Just go slowly and get the technique right, for example.

But above all, its quality over quantity.

 

[lts5025]

Depends on how much skill training is available to you.

 

[Bngel]

What can you train at what time how? This is s&c so yeah we can help, WITH the srtenght & conditioning ok i have no clue but i dont think anyone will make you a schedule that being said
I your goal is NOW mma i would suggest a 2 day split workout insted of working out 2 times (you want to spend most of the time sparring trainin g etc.) Jim Wendler 5/3/1 2 day split would work great & would be my #1 recomendation.. maybe also west side for skinny bastards defranco hast a in season 2 day split..
Edit: Yeah listen to LZD.. & we need more detalis
Cheers

 

[LegioTitan]

Where are you located??

If you are serious about locking on and being devoted the best thing you can do is seek out a knowledgeable strength coach and avoid a blanket slow lift program. IMO.

 

[Eric Brown]

If it matters than much to you, you will make time. A lot of us have been in the same position.

Save it with this "no time" shit. Find a way to get more out of your day. If your time management is that bad, you have bigger issues than fighting.

 

[ssdd]

Prioritize skill training 5 days a week, both striking and grappling 5 days a week. Joel Jamieson had something on his site about staggering your training so you alternate hard days and lighter days for best results.
Monday: skills, hard sparring, heavy bag work, lifting or conditioning
Tuesday: skills, light sparring, recovery
Wednesday:skills, hard sparring, heavy bag work, sprints/conditioning
Thursday: skills with more technique focus, light sparring
Friday: skills, hard sparring, heavy bag work, lifting/sprints/conditioning
Saturday: rest or something lighter
Sunday: rest

Do not run your body into the ground every day. I probably wouldn't do lifting, sprints, and conditioning on the same day, just prioritize one and miminmize another based on what you need to work on. If you want to get stronger lift 2x a week, if your conditioning sucks do that 3x a week and lift once a week to maintain. If you want to work on power hit the bag and sprint 3x a week, condition 2x a week, lift 1x- something like that. This is an ok DIY way ti approach it, of course a good S&C coach can structure and track it better, just make him/her coordinate it around your skill training

 

[IgorsOverhand]

Cardio Is King....Remember That

 

[jkuhlmann]

trying to lock yourself into a schedule might not be the best way to go about it......start training and the schedule will work itself out. Unless you're doing all private lessons, you'll have to design your training around the schedule of the academy. In a couple weeks you'll find some regularity. .....

until then, just make training your priority and get in there whenever you can, and rest when you need it. when it comes time to fight, your coaches should help you design a schedule, likely during off hours and class hours

 

[knucklehead1]

If it matters than much to you, you will make time. A lot of us have been in the same position.

Save it with this "no time" shit. Find a way to get more out of your day. If your time management is that bad, you have bigger issues than fighting.

I dont understand ur negative input. But hey haters are gonna hate.


To all u other guys tryin to help me, I really appreciate it. How does this schedule look (again this is just while I am a student, itll prolly change once i graduate).


Sundays - OFF

Mondays - Training 11 - 1:30
Training 7 - 10

Tuesdays - MMA Conditioning, Lifting

Training 7- 930


Wednesdays - same as Monday

Thursdays - OFF

Fridays - MMA Conditioning, Lifting

Open Mat 6-8pm

Saturdays - Fight Team 1-4 pm

Lifting 7pm

 

[LegioTitan]

Arlecchino wasn't being a negative hater he was making a valid point.

I know D1 athletes that run two a days for skills, spend over an hour on their assigned weight program, have a p/t job, and somehow still maintain he required student athlete GPA, or higher.
Are they better than you? Doubtful.
Just have to work on your time management.

If it's something you really want to do you have to commit yourself to it and understand that your lifestyle will have to change around a bit.

Just step back and look at your training like a head coach would. Look at the time you need to spend studying/in class/at work and fill in the blanks from there. Make a chart if need be. Hell, I do.
Assign times for sport specifics(sparring, rolling, pad work, etc), strength training, and GPP conditioning.

 

[Eric Brown]

I dont understand ur negative input. But hey haters are gonna hate.

I am not a hater.

I know what it is like to be a collegiate athlete. And a coach. And everyone who was remotely successful that I know never made the "not much time" statement/excuse.

Do not worry about how much time you have, worry about what you need to do to achieve your goals. If that is not your primary focus, you are going to fail. This is not negative input, it is pointing out a fundamental flaw in your approach.

 

[knucklehead1]

I am not a hater.

I know what it is like to be a collegiate athlete. And a coach. And everyone who was remotely successful that I know never made the "not much time" statement/excuse.

Do not worry about how much time you have, worry about what you need to do to achieve your goals. If that is not your primary focus, you are going to fail. This is not negative input, it is pointing out a fundamental flaw in your approach.

I didnt say "I dont have much time." All I said was that I was a busy student. School does take up a decent amount of time for me, especially because I am keeping my GPA over a 3.0.

That being said, I dont know if I should train everyday.

Alot of the fighters at the gym im going to take atleast a day off a week.

I want to train 5 days a week and go balls-to-the-wall training on those 5 days.

2 days of recovery should keep me from overtraining.

I should see what my body can handle

 

[Jake Pudenz]

I didnt say "I dont have much time." All I said was that I was a busy student. School does take up a decent amount of time for me, especially because I am keeping my GPA over a 3.0.

That being said, I dont know if I should train everyday.

Alot of the fighters at the gym im going to take atleast a day off a week.

I want to train 5 days a week and go balls-to-the-wall training on those 5 days.

2 days of recovery should keep me from overtraining.

I should see what my body can handle

I just graduated college last spring and I will tell you this, I never had more free time than when I was in school. I had my GPA over 3.0 as well.

I think you will find it more difficult to train for a fight after you're out of school with a full time job if you think that you're too busy now.

 

[Eric Brown]

I didnt say "I dont have much time." All I said was that I was a busy student. School does take up a decent amount of time for me, especially because I am keeping my GPA over a 3.0.

"School also takes up alot of my time. I am a busy student and I am finishing a bachelors degree in exercise science.

I cant train everyday like the MMA elite because I have school, will have work in the future, and other responsibilities of daily living."

A 3.0 GPA is not all that difficult, and should not take up that much of your time in comparison to adult responsibilities. You are not doing yourself any favors here by missing the obvious point that three different people have made in this thread.

Many of us have been where you are right now. Be smarter and learn from the experience of others, not just your own. School takes up a decent amount of time for everyone. Big shit, there are 168 hours in the week. The same responsibilities of daily living that you mentioned in your first post are the same responsibilities that everyone else has.

You blatantly stated that you cannot train every day. This is a load of crap. Every athlete that does well has sacrificed to do this. The key words being sacrifice. If you are not willing to make the sacrifices in your daily life that another fighter is, when you meet him he will beat your ass.

Being a superior athlete in any sport is not about talent or genetics. These things are so common millions of assholes waste them every day. It is not even (as much as a coach like me would like it to be) about how you train, or who you train with. If there is one thing that separates a great athlete from everyone else it is the sacrifices he made to get there.

Suck it up and find time.

That is all there is to it.

 

[thewhiteSRR]

Man that was awesome ^^^

 

[HIMBOB]

Just an FYI,
I work 45 hours a week, am doing my MBA part time (>3.5 GPA) and train about 8-10 hours per week while school is in.
I drop off the training at exams times, and then ramp up to 12 hours a week when no school.
I live by myself, I wash, clean and cook for myself.

And I have very active social life.

How is all this possible??

I watch basically no TV (I watch recorded TV only, always stuff I want to see not just killing time) and spend next to no time on computer games. Easy sacrifices to make cause I enjoy training.

Pretty much that is the key to MMA, if you dislike the training you will never be good. MMA isn't a sport you can do just for the time you are in the ring, if that is the only time you enjoy and all you look forwrad to you will not maintain.



As many others have said, it is a good idea to be smart about you program but you don't know what it is like until you do it. For instance I could do 3 hours hard training in a day and bounce back fine, but a 45 minute weight session takes me a day or two to recover from.