Fight Prep - May PM

[Neal Winkler]

Very nice, and very timely article in this months PM. I'm hopefully going to fight in my first MMA bout in October.

I was wondering if there was any reason in particular that you chose DL's, ring dips, and pullups? Or was it just an arbitrary decision because any good functional movements such as those will prepare one for a fight just as well as say squats, presses, and rows, or whatever?

My own fight prep will focus on increasing my strength in squats, DL's, presses, weighted chins, rows, and weighted pushups, while I just take it easy on the SSP by just doing technique work and light rolling/sparring. I'll do that until about 2 months prior to the fight and hit the endurance hard while taking strength work down to maintenance.

How does that sound? Any suggestions?

[Robb Wolf]

Neal-
I just wanted to keep things simple, safe and effective. The DL feels a bit more sport specific...really hammers the spinal erectors which help in posturing out of the guard and clinch situations. I like the ring dips for how easy they are on the shoulders and the balance issue. Pull-ups and rope climbs are just essential to a fighter IMO.

There is a strong desire to add more things but if we are increasing a basic press, pull and full body movement everything will benefit IMO.

As to your prep: How many days/week are you going to train? Double days? Triple days? How are you balancing skill work? Conditioning?

Certainly as the fight grows nearer you will need to shift to more sport specific endurance work but HOW are you going to do that? Are you going to separate out training on stand-up, clinch and ground? Ar you going to re-integrate that stuff and work lite MMA sparring? How are you going to analyze and evaluate your prep? How will you know you are making progress and by what standards? Who are you fighting? What skill sets and attributes do they bring to the game?

Not to overwhelm you ...just some stuff to consider. Right now is your "off season" time to improve base strength, skills and general conditioning. Something like the ME-Black Box template might be smart.

I hate structure and planning but things like this really benefit from that! I would talk to whomever is coaching you and get a smart but flexible schedule established...have it mapped out ahead of time. Follow it to the degree that it helps...modify where necessary.
Kick Some Ass!

[Neal Winkler]

Well, I was planning on doing the strength workouts every 2-3 days depending on how recovered I feel. Strength workouts will be an A-B split of deads, weighted pushups, and rows, or squats, presses and pullups, then throw in some planks and back extensions at the end. I'll of course warm up as well with some light boxing and rowing on my homemade rower, along with dynamic flexibility exercises. In between that I'll go to class and do only light technique stuff and light rolling/sparring 2-5 days per week depending on my schedule. This will serve for learning/movement efficiency (I mostly need work on standup and not nearly so much on the ground) and active recovery/base conditioning. If I only make it a couple of times to class then I'll work shadow boxing/bag work at home.

A couple of months before the fight I start to hit the sport specific conditioning hard. I think I'm going to do a Hi-Low sequence with Hi day intense conditioning work that's basically the same sort of thing you described in the article: switching out fresh people ect.. This will be followed by the same type of easy rolling/sparring that I described above for the Low day.

For my diagnostic workout I suppose I can do fight gone bad once per week on a high day before MMA class. If I'm not improving then I'll add a MetCon to a Hi day to make it a double day*. I'll do 3-4 Hi days per week, and on weeks I do three I'll throw in an additional metcon (besides the fight gone bad test). Of course one of the Hi days will need to include a strength workout for maintenence. So, that will be be at least two Hi days per week that are double days. Like I said, if I'm not improving in FGB, then I'll add another double day.

As far as my opponent goes you don't really know a lot about these people in the small shows so who knows... I hope that covers it all.

Oh, I'm 5'9". 140# @ 12% BF as meassured on DEXA.

210# squat. 260# DL. ~120# overhead press. ~80# weighted pushup. ~55# weighted pullup.

*double day is training twice in one day?

[Robb Wolf]

Looks good and yep on the double day. The fight gone bad should go up if the sport specific conditioning is going well. That is why its a valuable objective indicator of progress.

[Neal Winkler]

Thanks Robb, I'll try and do my best to make the PM proud.

[Robb Wolf]

Originally Posted by Neal Winkler

Thanks Robb, I'll try and do my best to make the PM proud.

No worries there Amigo! You will do great. Keep us posted and if you have ANY questions fire away.