Body Building Workout Program for an MMA Fighter?

Question:

I'm an aspiring MMA fighter. I currently train jiu-jitsu and kickboxing for a total of three to four times a week. My question is in regards to weight lifting/cardio. I want to make sure my training is appropriate for my goals. Here's a break down of what I'm currently doing. Does this look good?

Day 1:
1 hour of cardio before I train
Chest and triceps:

Flat bench dumbbell press 3 x 14-20
Incline dumbbell press 3 x 14-20
Decline press 3 x 14-20
Cable fly 3 x 14-20
Dips 3 x 14-20
Cable pushdown 3 x 14-20
One arm pronated pushdown 3 x 14-20

Day 2:
1 hr of cardio 2 hours before I train
Shoulders and abdominals

Smith Military Press 4/5 x 10-12
Lateral raise 4/5 x 10-12
Front raise 4/5 x 10-12
Shrug 4/5 x 10-12
Abs

Day 3:
Same cardio as day 1
Back and biceps

Lat Pull down 4/5 8-12
Seated Row 4 x 8-12
Cable row upper 4 x 8-12
Back Extension 4 x 12-20
Preacher curl 4 x 6-10
Dumbbell curl 4 x 4-8
Seated curl 4 x 8-10
Cable curl 4 x 8-12

Day 4:
1 hr cardio

Day 5:
Same Chest routine as Monday

Day 6:
Legs

45-degree leg press 4 x 8-12
Leg extension 4 x 8-12
Leg curl 4 x 8-12
Calf raises 4 x 8-15

Answer:

This is a typical body building style program and it's not of much use for an aspiring MMA fighter, any grappling sport, or any other sport for that matter. Here are some problems with your current program:

1) You're training too often. You don't get stronger while lifting weights but rather from the recovery process that should take place. Based on your program, you only rest one day and for all I know you're still doing jiu-jitsu or kickboxing on that day since you didn't specify what days you do those on.

2) You're doing too many sets per muscle group. On day 1 alone there's 12 sets just for chest. This is way too much. You should focus on the minimum amount required to elicit the desired training adaptation. Any more than that and you're just cutting into your energy reserves that could be used for recovery.

3) Several of the exercises chosen are poor choices (leg extension, smith machine press, front raise, cable flyes, etc.) or redundant. For instance, all your elbow flexor exercises (bicep exercises) are with a supinated grip and again, you don't need 16 sets to get the job done.

4) The strength qualities needed for MMA or any grappling sport are: Relative strength, explosive strength, and strength endurance. (Functional hypertrophy could also be included unless your body fat is very low and you're already within your weight class.) The majority of your repetition ranges are for strength/endurance. There's no work done for the other two strength qualities.

5) You're performing straight sets when you should be super setting antagonistic muscle groups. This will allow you to get more work done in a shorter given unit of time and will assure that your body is balanced on both sides of joints so you're structurally sound.

An example of straight sets is doing a set of a barbell bench press, resting, and then doing another set of barbell bench presses. An example of super setting antagonistic muscle groups would be doing a set of the barbell bench press, resting the desired amount of time based on your goals, and then doing a set of seated cable rows.

6) The cardio workouts you're doing are way too long and close to your weight training workouts. Stop doing cardio before lifting weights and don't do any steady state, traditional aerobic based cardio. You should be getting plenty of effective conditioning while training in your sport. If you're not, you should time your rest intervals between rounds and make sure that they're progressive. If you can't do this, have your coach do it for you.

Since there's no off season for your sport and you're training in it three to four times a week, you need to be concerned with time so you don’t over train, therefore, you should select exercises that give you the most return on your investment. I would also only weight train two to three times a week. I can't promise that you still can't over train since I don't have enough information form you (namely diet) but there's certainly less of a chance than what you're currently doing.
Here are some better exercise choices. Select only one exercise from each group:

Pressing Exercises:

Incline dumbbell press, palms facing each other
Parallel-bar dips
Close grip barbell bench press, shoulder width grip
Barbell or dumbbell floor press
Standing barbell press

Upper-Body Pulling Exercises:

Parallel grip chin-ups
Supinated shoulder-width chin-ups
Wide grip pronated grip chin-ups
Incline dumbbell rows
One-arm dumbbell row
Rope face pulls
Parallel grip seated rows

Leg Exercises, Hip and Knee Dominant:

Back squats
Front squats
Dead lifts, clean-grip, sumo, or snatch-grip
Romanian dead lifts
Power cleans
Split squats
Lunges, decelerative or accelerative

Assistance/Remedial Exercises:

Elbow flexor family (bicep)

Elbow extension family (tricep)

External rotator family

Calves family

Abdominal family

So here's a three-day sample routine that shouldn't take more than an hour. (Listed are exercise, sets x reps, tempo, and rest interval):

Day 1

A. Power Cleans: 4 x 3-5 x 11X0 x 240 second rest
B1. Standing barbell press: 4 x 3-5 x 20X0 x 120 second rest
B2. Parallel grip chin-up: 4 x 3-5 x 3010 x 120 second rest
C1. Lying decline dumbbell tricep extension: 3 x 6-8 x 3010 x 90 second rest
C2. Seated zottman curls: 3 x 6-8 x 3010 x 90 second rest

Day 2

A. Clean-grip dead lift: 3 x 6-8 x 2110 x 180 second rest
B1. Dumbbell floor press: 3 x 6-8 x 31X0 x 90 second rest
B2. One-arm dumbbell row: 3x 6-8 x 3110 x 90 second rest
C1. Incline bench powell raise: 3 x 10-12 x 60 second rest
C2. Incline garhammer raise: 3 x 10-12 x 3020 x 60 second rest

Day 3

A. Telemark squat: 3 x 12-15 x 2010 x 75 second rest
B1. Parallel dip: 3 x AMRAP (as many reps as possible) w/body weight x 2010 x 60 second rest
B2. Pronated grip seated cable rows: 3 x 12-15 x 2011 x 60 second rest
C1. Seated dumbbell external rotation, arm on knee: 3 x 10-12 x 3010 x 60 second rest
C2. Seated calf raise: 3 x 15-20 x 2210 x 60 second rest

Take one day off between workouts. Once every four to six workouts you should change all loading parameters: sets, reps, tempo, rest interval, and exercise selection. Keep in mind that this is only a sample program and there are many other great exercises you could do that will help you, also, in order for a weight lifting program to be more specific for you, I would have to do a structural balance assessment on you and get more detailed information.

Chris Grayson
Graysontrainingsystems.com

Cutting Edge Training or Entertainment Training

Just the other day I was training one of my jiu-jitsu guys and we saw a trainer having his client stand on a bosu ball while performing a dumbbell lateral raise with one hand and an over head dumbbell press with the other hand. This is ridiculous. The first problem is your forced to stand bow legged. This puts a lot of stress on the ligaments of the knee and ankle. If you stand on one foot this wouldn’t happen but you still have the second problem, reducing the load because you’re unstable, therefore recruiting fewer motor units and not properly loading the prime movers of the lift. If you did the same exercise on the ground you would recruit more motor units and thus get stronger because you don’t have to perform this balancing act. But even if you’re on the ground still don’t do the exercise mentioned above, it still sucks. Hopefully you already know that.

As far as training the abdominals or “the core”, which I’m so tired of hearing it called.There are a some good exercises that you can do but recent research has shown that direct “core” training only works for about six weeks anyways. You’ll actually build stronger and better abs from squatting and dead lifting over any direct abdominal exercise because you have to stabilize the spine through abdominal bracing.

Some people think you will develop better coordination and reaction time..... Wrong. You will get better at the specific lift, however, it won't transfer into better coordination in other places. The fact is coordination is 90% established by the age of 12.

I believe most trainers have poor resources for information. They find these so-called expert trainers doing all these unstable exercises on these devices, call it "functional training", and claim it to be cutting edge. The one’s making these outrageous claims simply do not know how to get someone strong. What’s trendy often gets confused for cutting edge and that’s hardly ever the case.

Chris Grayson
graysontrainingsystems.com

Circus Training for Ass Clowns

This is a bad idea regardless of why you train but I'll stick to the fighting sports (mma, jiu jitsu, wrestling, judo, etc.) since that's what this blog is for.

First of all you should be training with free weights and not machines. Machines will have little to no carry over to your sport. Movements should always conform to your body and not your body conforming to movements that are in fixed positions.

There is chaos in fighting sports. You never know where your opponent and therefore you are going to be from second to second. You constantly have to make subtle to major adjustments. This is the same way that you need to train. How you train will determine how you'll perform. 



Also, the man in the video is forced to go into spinal flexion, which puts a lot of compression on the spine. Going into flexion with a lot of weight on your back is a recipe for injury. If this guy continues to perform these circus training exercises he'll probably find himself in a chiropractor's office or even worse, under a surgeon's scalpel. 



Stick to the basics. Don't try to think out of the box until you're a black belt, so to speak, in biomechanics, physiology, and kinesiology.

Chris Grayson

graysontrainingsystems.com

"Nothing Happens Untill Something Moves"

"Nothing happens till something moves"
Albert Einstein

When Einstein spoke these words it was said that he had a twinkle in his eye. He wasn't just talking about physics but about life in general.

I've pondered this idea often lately and I can't think of anything currently going on in my life where it doesn't apply. If you think about it in regards to the fighting sports it really makes sense. If you're stalling or waiting for your opponent to act, most likely you'll be defending more than attacking. Like the saying goes, "the best defense is a good offense". I've noticed from my own experience that as long as I'm moving I'm better off than just sitting there. Perhaps this is common sense to most people and I'll admit, it's certainly not rocket science. But I'm often surprised how people can know something but still seem powerless to change what they know.

Last week during a jiu jitsu class I got choked out from a guy I can usually beat. He used my own gi. I got pissed off and complained about how much I hate the gi. I was tired and instead of moving and making my opponent play defense, I let him control the match and cried about it like a little bitch after getting my ass kicked. My point, if not obvious is, own up and control the situation you're in. Don't let you circumstances control you. Whenever I feel tired and don't want to go the extra mile I think about the people out there creating the life they want through hard work and persistence. These are the people I admire and want to emulate. We are our own worst enemies and are usually the one's standing in our way own way.

Get out of your way.

Chris Grayson
graysontrainingsystems.com

Predictor Lifts For Grappling Sports

For every sport there are certain key lifts that once performed by the athlete will tell you how well they will do in the sport. Once a predictor lift is improved it will correlate with an improvement in performance. Different sports have different predictor lifts. So a soccer player and a swimmer should not be tested the same. These lifts will tell you the optimal strength for the sport in relation to percentages of body weight. For grappling sports like jiu-jitsu, greco roman wrestling, and judo, here are the best predictor lifts to test:

Close Grip Incline Bench Press with fat bar: Grip should be about 12 inches from thumb to thumb.

Medium Parallel Grip Chin-Up with thick handles.

Back Squat: The more you can back squat the easier it is to throw someone.

Grip Strength with various grip tests: The relationship between grip strength and performance in judo and wrestling is as high as 96%. The hands are the first thing that connects you to your opponent. The guys with the best grip had the best performance.

You do not necessarily have to do the predictor lifts to improve them. You can train accessory exercises that target the muscles that are used in the key lifts. I've found the best results if you change the accessory lifts every 2-4 weeks or once your weights aren't going up by at least 2% or reps by 1 every workout. If you're not training the predictor lifts directly, make sure you're testing them every so often. I usually test my athletes every 4-6 weeks.

Chris Grayson
graysontrainingsystems.com