training in the 21st century - mixed martial arts training

As a prolific personal trainer in the City, my services are constantly in demand to a number of professionals with a shortage of time and high expectations. Part of my role as their fitness guru is applying the latest technology to obtain fast and concise results. Gone are the days of barking out "20 press ups as fast as you can!". I have to look at each client as an Olympic athlete and scrutinise technique more than anything as, unfortunately, more and more people are subjected to poor instructing which leads to muscular and postural injury. The highest cause of sickness at work is back pain, which is down to poor posture and lack of exercise to these core muscles. The same can be said of today’s MMA students as they are missing a vital aspect of supplementary training.

One of the 1^st fighters to address this issue was Frank Shamrock who looked at all the other professional athletes from basketball, baseball, American football and ice hockey and realised the difference between the fighter and the athlete: The athlete is multi-skilled. The quarterback doesn’t just practice throwing the ball to the wide receiver. He is trained in plyometrics, speed and agility drills, strength and conditioning, fast- and slow-twitch muscle fibre movement. Why? Simple: he is a more efficient and successful athlete.

Look at the last couple of fights Frank had at the UFC and who does he thank – Javier Mendez for his boxing, Dr Vic his Chiropractor, TK for his judo & guard, Mo Smith for his kickboxing, even his ex wife was his strength & conditioning coach. He has a team of experts behind him who tell him how to train, eat, drink and sleep correctly and what is the result? …Oh, and it does help that he is genetically gifted for the sport.

So what does the average MMA student do? A bit of BJJ. A bit of striking. Go for a jog to get ‘fitter’. This is where the old school still lingers, "cos it didn’t do me no harm". Prime example: do a set of one arm press-ups and straight away you will find a minimum of 4 problems.

You will have a weaker arm
Your body will compensate for the lack of strength and co-ordination
You will prefer to work with one side of the body
You will therefore have an imbalance

Over the following weeks I will explain some supplementary techniques that will improve your training and overall fighting, whilst keeping you a bit more injury free!

Swiss Ball work

The Swiss ball was actually developed by an Italian toy manufacturer in 1963 for use by therapists in Switzerland – hence the name Swiss Ball. The key to this piece of equipment is that it causes the intrinsic muscle in the body to fire and help balance the body. Try balancing on one and see how long before you fall off. Apart from looking like an epileptic dancer for a few short seconds, throwing your arms and legs around to try and counter your over-balancing, you body will start to fire smaller internal muscles to keep you on the ball. Now imagine that you are on the ground with an opponent and the two of you are scrambling for position – ever been off balance, or tried to explode out of a position? It is those same intrinsic muscles that are firing to start your skeletal muscles to perform the movement.

What is the 1^st muscle to fire when you punch or kick someone? Tricep, deltoid? Hip flexor, quads? Both wrong. The very first muscle to fire is your abdominals.

Exercise No 1

Swiss ball control. Use the Swiss ball to switch from side control to scarf hold and repeat to the opposite side. This engages your balance, control and fluidity of movement.

Body reversal. Lie facing down, arm out in crucifix position with the ball on your chest. Sweep your leg through and rotate the body to face up (just like an escape from a failed shoot as opponent sprawls on you.

Plank. Place your elbows in line with your shoulders on the ball and extend your legs to balance on your feet. Keeping your back totally flat, slowly rotate your elbows in a small circle. Your core will be working the abs and lower back, whilst all the muscles around the shoulder have to work to keep the movement going. Try this for 1 min and increase both time and size of circles.

Medicine Ball

The old staple of the boxing gym and slowly made its way to the forefront of modern exercise techniques. This piece of equipment can be used as an impact exercise for conditioning to the abs as well as for plyometric training drills. They now come in different sizes and textures.

Most boxing gyms will have large leather or suede medicine balls weighing between 3-5kgs, used for abdominal training with a partner. These exercises will incorporate passing the ball between each other in a variety of movements and angles; rotating from side to side, sitting up and passing the ball, etc.

The new modern medicine balls now come in a variety of sizes and weights that allow people of a lesser stature to use them (girls, of course!). Much like the way the swiss ball works for the core of your body, the medi ball (as they are named and marketed) can be used for arm and shoulder stability.

Part 2 - Plyometrics

Part 3 - Speed