Structuring my weekly training schedule with limited days

[jerellem]

Hey fellas, I need a little help and any advice is appreciated. I need to know which workouts to pick and how to decide where to put them. I train and plan to compete again in MMA pretty soon. The problem is, I'm a firefighter/paramedic and we work 24 hrs a day. That's a problem for me because I'm at one of the busiest stations in my city and I most likely won't be able to do anything that day, other than an early morning run. We work different days every week. Our schedule is like this for example:
Week 1 - M,W,F
Week 2 - W,F,Su
Week 3 - F,Su,T
See the pattern? I train MMA and supplement with 2-3 strength workouts a week with sprints and LDR incorporated as well. My MMA gym is only open Mon-Thurs and I have access to a boxing gym on Fridays. So the days I'm not at work, I tend to want to pile all the stuff that i wanted to do but couldn't because of work on top of my workout for that day. I'm sure it's too much to run sprints, lift heavy, then MMA training for 2 hrs all in one day. I feel like I'm asking a lot so I'll apologize now. But, how would you structure your workouts? Would you drop anything or try joining multiple gyms to have more days available to train? Again, any advice is appreciate, thanks.

 

[Maxtheripper13]

Getting to your MMA training has to be the priority. Make that the goal and then extra conditioning is just a bonus.
I have a similar sort of schedule with work and I am about to move into another job that is exactly the same as you said above.

I use tactical barbell, in particular the fighter template, as my strength work. I do a small three exercise cluster,but only have one heavy barbell lift within it. My current cluster is Bw Pistol, benchpress and 20 kg weighted pullup. I do the minimums required and treat it as practice. I finish up with a quick 10 min conditioning program. I currently do overhead carries and farmers walks for this. It covers both my core and some quick anaerobic style conditioning. I may also sub in a hard set of swings or burpees.This is easy to recover from and I can complete this before work and still be effective at both mma/bjj and work.

I do 2-3 running style conditioning sessions on other days. One day is a faster paced 5 km or 30 min run or a couple sets of intervasl adding up to a decent distance. The other day is a longer 60 min run that I take pretty easy and is just to get outside and clear my head.

The secret is to understand and work out your priorities. Your priorities should be work then MMA. Those two alone allow you to compete in the sport you love. The rest is just to make you better at both. You just need to get the minimum effective dose of strength work in and also some longer endurance. Your MMA training will cover the anaerobic side of things. I find that training before work is the best way to make sure it all gets done.

Easier, consistent training in your case is the way to go. You can train hard, but the ability to make small improvements over time will lead to better results than destroying yourself everyday in the gym.You need to think in years instead of months and aim for small gradual improvements while keeping yourself fresh.

Good luck.

 

[jerellem]

Very helpful. Thank you.

 

[jerellem]

Very helpful

Getting to your MMA training has to be the priority. Make that the goal and then extra conditioning is just a bonus.
I have a similar sort of schedule with work and I am about to move into another job that is exactly the same as you said above.

I use tactical barbell, in particular the fighter template, as my strength work. I do a small three exercise cluster,but only have one heavy barbell lift within it. My current cluster is Bw Pistol, benchpress and 20 kg weighted pullup. I do the minimums required and treat it as practice. I finish up with a quick 10 min conditioning program. I currently do overhead carries and farmers walks for this. It covers both my core and some quick anaerobic style conditioning. I may also sub in a hard set of swings or burpees.This is easy to recover from and I can complete this before work and still be effective at both mma/bjj and work.

I do 2-3 running style conditioning sessions on other days. One day is a faster paced 5 km or 30 min run or a couple sets of intervasl adding up to a decent distance. The other day is a longer 60 min run that I take pretty easy and is just to get outside and clear my head.

The secret is to understand and work out your priorities. Your priorities should be work then MMA. Those two alone allow you to compete in the sport you love. The rest is just to make you better at both. You just need to get the minimum effective dose of strength work in and also some longer endurance. Your MMA training will cover the anaerobic side of things. I find that training before work is the best way to make sure it all gets done.

Easier, consistent training in your case is the way to go. You can train hard, but the ability to make small improvements over time will lead to better results than destroying yourself everyday in the gym.You need to think in years instead of months and aim for small gradual improvements while keeping yourself fresh.

Good luck.

Very helpful. Thank you.

 

[Maxtheripper13]

all good mate. It was actually early morning when I wrote that as I was preparing for some training before an early start.
They have the latest tactical barbell for sale at the moment on amazon if you don't own it.
The programming is nothing special, but the book drilled into me that consistent training trumps smashing yourself everyday when you have to account for things like lack of sleep or physical work.

 

[selfcritical]

Above suggestions are good, ultimately the three concepts you want to keep in mind

1) Submaximal training- some of your work days are going to fatigue you considerably, so you need to be able to complete your workouts when you aren't completely fresh

2) Undulation. Just because you hit weights, skill training, and sprints in the same day, doesn't mean you have to hit them in an overloading fashion every time you touch them. You can have back-off sessions in weights, do tempo runs for active recovery on sprints, etc. By having a high-low-medium structure, you can touch adaptations frequently enough to keep them from decaying, while staying fresh enough to hit it very hard at least once a week. And by consolidating your hardest weightlifting and your fastest sprints the same day, you can ensure you actually recover on recovery days.

3) Autoregulation. You need to be able to adjust your workload based on how well you've recovered and adapted. Building workouts that you can scale volume up and down, and having a gameplan for what to do if you aren't fresh is pretty useful. Keep track of RPE's, HR information, daily HRV if you can. Know what's happening to your body so you can adjust the plan as needed.

 

[vrain]

All good advice. I'll add if you're getting Tactical Barbell make sure you get the 3rd edition. Just released, tighter material with a bunch of new stuff including strength-endurance/muscular-endurance block training.