How bad of a separation was it?
Mine was just a stage one, and it took close to a year for it to feel just about 100% and the mobility still isn't the same. I'm assuming at this point it never will be.

1-2. I'm hoping it'll get at least close. I can't even throw a football with the kids still. I can grapple & do light sparring with throwing half assed lefts. Time to learn to fight with an orthodox stance I guess. lol.

Yeah, honestly it was one of the worst (longest lasting) injuries that I've ever had. When it first happened, I couldn't even lift my arm to take my shirt off.

After about 6 months I started doing OH Presses and it still felt sloppy in there.

Not a video but…


Mixed Martial Arts. The fastest growing sport on the planet. Despite its roots tracing back hundreds of years through dozens of venues, in its sanctioned form it is in its infancy. As such the techniques for physical preparation for competition are varied, controversial, and at times extremely unorthodox. Unlike many mainstream sports, MMA can be difficult to program for, given its anything can happen nature. In football each player on the field fulfills a specific role with specific physical requirements: A linemen needs explosive and static strength. A receiver needs speed, endurance, and agility, a linebacker needs speed and strength, etc… The same could be said for most sports. With MMA, a fight can be a brawl, a technical (kick) boxing match, a grappling match, or a combination of all three. But just because anything can happen in the ring or cage, doesnt mean anything will do in the training room. Recently randomized training has been building in popularity, the problem with this type of training is the difficulty in tracking progress, and a lack of intelligent programming. Instead a well thought out, a practically planned approach should be utilized.

Where to start
Our bodies are tools. Without properly functioning tools it can be tough to get the job done. Despite its misuse, its important to talk about functional training. Meaning, our bodies must function properly first, before we can begin to tap into our true physical abilities. In simplistic terms, we must have acceptable range of motion and flexibility in our joints and spine. There are dozens of movement tests and screens you can find on the web, or in books and any decent coach should have a decent ability to identify and help remedy tight areas. This article isnt meant to be an in depth how-to but rather a why. On a quick note one of the quickest ways to identify mobility issues is the over head squat with a barbell using a snatch width grip. Most people cant squat to depth in this position off the bat and will show you where the athlete is tight. Its not the end all be all, but its an easy tool, and hits most common problem areas (ankles, hips, t-spine).

The OH squat is a great test of functional movement because of the great flexibility in the shoulders, thoracic and lumbar spine, hips, and ankles required to properly perform the movement. Interestingly the OH squat is not only a great test of these attributes, but a great developer of them as well. Of course if any movement issues are present, there are many drills that can be performed along with the squat to help increase flexibility and range of motion.
Proper positioning at the bottom of the OH squat is with the bar over the body with arms fully extended, head through the window, so that the bar aligns properly over the base of the neck, and aligns just over mid food, feet flat on the floor, hips lowered to the point that the hamstrings and calves make contact (also known as ATG).

Specificity of Training
Now that we have identified some main points of immobility or flexibility and how to correct them, its important to discuss the specifics of training, and the specificity required for athletes. The more advanced an athlete, the more important it is for that athlete to perform drills specific to their sport. For example your average deconditioned person will see health and performance improvements from any type of physical stimulation. While we might not view cycling as a strength exercise, if you were to test a deconditioned athletes max dead lift, and then re-test it after a month of regular cycling, you would most likely see an increase in the weight lifted. As the athlete advances in training, the necessity of specificity increases. A good example of this is Olympic Weightlifters. Their training revolves around three major movements: The snatch, the clean & jerk, and the squat. Sure they do some accessory work, but some variation of those lifts is done every day of training. If there were ever a sport on the opposite end of the spectrum from MMA its probably the aforementioned Weightlifting. Weightlifters are lucky that they are only responsible for two tasks in competition, snatching and clean&jerking. This makes the specificity of their training much easier than a sport like MMA which requires the athlete to be responsible for many different skills, which require many different types of fitness.

Choosing the focus of your training
MMA requires athletes to be well rounded, probably more so than any other sport on the planet. Making it more difficult, is sometimes a fight plays out where you dont utilize all the tools youve developed in training. This is something that is unique about MMA. A wide receiver will always have to run, jump, and juke. A fighter may spend 15 hours a week grappling, and never hit the canvas during the fight. So how do you design your training program? Lets first start with the general (broad) and then move into specifics.

1. (Kick) Boxing and grappling
Nothing is more specific than performing the actual skills and drills you need in competition. If these two activities dont compromise the majority of your training, youre doing it wrong. This may seem some what obvious, however its surprising how many fighters dont go full speed during their training. Nothing will prepare you for these activities like performing them as if you were in a real fight. You can do battling ropes and burpees until youre blue in the face, but nothing will prepare you for throwing 150 punches in 5 minutes like throwing 150 punches in 5 minutes.

2. Strength training
There is really no instance where being stronger is a bad thing. Please take a moment to reread that sentence, because I want to be clear that I said stronger and not bigger. Now getting stronger without getting bigger is relatively easy. Its all about building CNS coordination and recruiting muscle fibers more efficiently. The problem is, this type of training builds specific strength. In this case meaning specific to a certain movement. This means that our strength training movements need to be as relative to our movement in a fight as possible. Moving on, the majority of our conditioning will come from live sparring, so our free gym time (meaning training not performing actual martial arts) should be used to address our weaknesses and building strength. Note: in the 2-3 weeks prior to a fight, the majority of your strength training should be replaced by additional conditioning. The strength gains in two weeks will pale in comparison to the stamina you can build in the same amount of time.

3. Aerobic training
Yeah thats right, I said it. As a strength coach Ill probably get harassed for even typing the words. The truth is MMA is a largely anaerobic sport, as is resistance training. Those systems get developed quite a bit, but we need to be well rounded, remember? Granted I put it third, because I think only a small portion of the MMA fighters training should be devoted to this. But a properly functioning aerobic system can help aid in recovery, improves quality of sleep (which helps recovery too) and is good for general health. Ideally this will be done in a low impact setting (stationary bike, swimming, etc) as the sport itself takes enough of a toll on the joints (punching heavy bags, getting arm barred and so on). Depending on the athlete 20-30 minutes a day should suffice.

Those are the basics of training priorities, now lets talk about specifics.

1. Specificity based on your fighting style
This is one of those things its so simple people miss it. Train to be able to fight the way you like to fight (or the way that its most effective for you to fight). If youre a big power puncher, then power endurance is of the utmost importance. If youre a grappler with an active guard you need explosive hips. If you like to grind people on the cage, you need good static strength and quickness. A great example of this is Nick Diaz. The majority of his conditioning comes from triathalon training. This is the source of hundreds of internet forum debates regarding physical preparation for MMA. Look at Nick Diazhe never gasses out! Nicks triathalon training fits his fighting style perfectly. Hes not a guy thats trying to knock you out with every single shot, hes going to pressure you by peppering you with shots over and over again. Whats more, is he is extremely accurate. Combined with his low level of muscle mass, aerobic focused training is perfect for him. If he were less accurate, or forced to clinch more, there is no doubt in my mind we would see him fatigue more during fights. The thing we must remember is that there is a cut-off point to all training. Aerobic training is important, but is the benefit of biking 20 miles instead of 10 worth the extra time and effort?

2. Specificity based on your game plan
Many fighters in smaller organizations dont have the luxury of seeing footage of their opponents before a fight or having much information about who they are going to fight, however if you know that your next match is against a strong wrestler, and you know youll be fighting to get off your back, on top of drilling those techniques you may want to spend some extra time developing explosive hip extension, and hip extension from a supine position. Examples of this would be barbell glute bridges, power cleans, single leg broad jumps, and band resisted runs.

3. Weakness training
Its important to address your weaknesses. So lets say youve never gassed out in a fight, but cardio (I really hate that term and its misuse in the community) is last in your list of attributes, you still want to take some time to work on your weaknesses regularly, because in MMA you never know. Sure youll never be a Clay Guida or a Nick Diaz, but theres no reason not to continue to improve. The most important thing is that you can perform the tasks you need and want to perform for 30 minutes. If youre a power puncher you better be able to throw with power for 5 rounds. If youre a wrestler you better be able to shoot with aggression for 5 rounds. If you have to work harder in certain positions because youre immobile, stretch.

con'td

Common mistakes
I often wonder how many martial arts coaches coordinate with an athletes strength and conditioning coach (if he or she has one). Most martial arts stem from ancient practices, as such some of the science behind the preparation for these activities is less thanwell, less than scientific. From personal experience, its annoying when I spend hours planning my own training in the gym, and then go to a martial arts class where I want to learn and practice MARTIAL ARTS and spend class time doing random conditioning drills the instructor cooked up on the spot. Ive been to classes where the warm up was 20 jumping jacks, 20 crunches, 20 push-ups, 20 leg lifts. Really?

1. Planning Recovery
In this country there seems to be a huge fear of over training. The human bodies limits are far greater than most realize, however with elite athletes such as high level mixed martial artists, it is a serious threat to consider. Not coordinating your rest intervals in time with your MMA training, and your physical preparation training can lead to serious injury. If your MMA coach thinks its his job to get you into shape, and youre working with a coach specifically for that task, get them on the same page ASAP. Your coach should know when, and how much you train MMA before writing you a program for the gym.

2. Randomized Training
This is more or less what the whole article is about. Every exercise selected, every rep performed, every session should be planned with purpose. This can be most difficult with circuit training. Which exercises do you use? What time intervals do you use? How many rounds do you do? If you really wanted to maximize your training, I would hire a statistician to calculate the average number of punches, kicks, take downs, submissions, etc performed in each round of each fight of your opponent. Based on that information I could create an extremely specific program which would maximize your results without any wasted effort, energy, or extraneous training. This may sound like a ridiculous amount of work, however in the upper echelon of MMA it could revolutionize a fighters training.

3. Improper strength training
Its a sad but simple truth: most peoples idea of strength training still involves 3 sets of 10 reps of bench press, and bicep curls. As such fighters tend to build unnecessary muscle tissue that just weighs them down and taxes their energy systems. In general bilateral work will develop broad strength, and unilateral work will develop specific strength. Obviously it would vary athlete to athlete, however I would probably program 1 broad strength builder per session (squat, pull-up, etc) and use the rest of my strength training time developing unilateral specific strength (Bulgarian split squats, DB push-presses, cable rotations, etc). I would avoid high rep sets (hypertrophy range). I would also avoid sets to failure. As someone that will be pushed to their limits in training, the last thing an MMA fighter needs is muscle failure and CNS burnout. Training to failure also tends to lead to micro-trauma in the muscle and delayed onset muscle soreness. Its unnecessary. Using Olympic style Weightlifting as an example again, in a Soviet system, a lifter will perform anywhere between 10-30 sets of snatches, cleans and jerks in a single session, with reps ranging from 1-5 per set. This develops the ability to be explosive, over and over and over again. But the athlete never gets to the point where they cant perform. Training is tapered in waves, building the athlete up, breaking them down, and then building them up again. This speaks to General Adaptation Syndrome; the phenomenon of the body adapting to a stimulus, and then breaking down if the stimulus remains constant without reduced intensity. Its one of the first things all new trainers learn when acquiring their certification, but often gets forgotten and over looked in their programming.

4. Training like the pros
This statement doesnt apply to high level UFC fighters, but Ive seen amateur fighters, and people who participate in MMA as more of an advanced hobby pull a training plan out of a magazine or youtube video, because fighter XYZ does it. Youre not that person. You are not Randy Couture, so dont train like him. You dont fight like him, you dont have the same physical history, you dont have the same physical attributes, genetics, strengths, weaknesses, etc If you see something you like, and want to incorporate it in your training, great, go for it. But make sure your training is your training.

5. Lacking Tracking
If you have no way to measure your progress, you fail. This is the only way to know if what youre doing is making you better, worse, or keeping you at a plateau. Tracking things like resting heart rate, maximal strength (via 5 rep set of deadlifts, or 1 rep max of squats), heart rate recovery, VO2 MAX, joint range of motion, PSI of punches, punches per minute, etc is the key to success. Again this may seem like a lot of work, but these are the things that will set you apart from your opponents. Too many people rely on how they feel. As is often said in the Weightlifting world: How you feel is a lie.
6. Not putting it all together
In my Weightlifting training, I rarely train cleans by themselves. If I clean its almost always followed by a jerk. Why? Because in competition, I clean & jerk together. I see a lot of fighters sparring, I see a lot of fighters rolling (often times having specific coaches, and specific gyms for each), but not spending as much time practicing MMA. Its okay to develop certain aspects of your game, just make sure you spend an equal amount of time practicing these skills together.

Simplifying it all
As you can see this article is more of a guideline rather than a specific how-to. Here are some of the cliff notes for you people who hate to read or think:
1. The Majority of your conditioning should come from full speed sparring or rolling.
2. Strength training should be a major focus in your gym time (non martial arts training)
3. Unilateral strength crucial to MMA
4. Coordinate your training for optimal recovery
5. Program based on your game plan
6. Address your weaknesses
7. Track your progress
8. Avoid training to failure

In Conclusion
If you take anything away from this I hope its that you need to train yourself based on your needs. That your training needs to be specific to you. Dont train hard, train smart. Think critically about what it is that you need, and plan. Set bench marks for yourself, and test them often. Plan out your training beforehand. Never walk into the gym without a plan. Remember that training is training, eating is training, recovery is training. Dont leave your fitness to chance.

The hip opener sequence is great for people that like to play guard or throw traditional style Thai kicks. And in the cool down the flossing of the shoulder with the barbell is great for surviving kimuras and keylocks.

These are great, it's cool to see people share their passion for sport with anyone they can! I'm kinda doing the same with striking techniques and workouts. Here's a couple of the ones I made, not trying to hijack your thread just add to the collective awesomeness of it!

Cheers!

Striking techniques


Striking based workouts


One about getting punched and struck in the face.


Stretches for hip flexibility and kicks

Any recommendations for body weight circuit training? I have to take about 25 days off and I've been doing really basic workouts. I'll stretch, shadowbox and then do something like this.

x amount of squats
x amount of pushups
x amount of lunge walking
x amount of bicycle (ab workout while laying on my back, not cycling)

I'll do that 3 times usually and then burn myself out with planks. I don't feel like I'm gaining anything as much as I'm just maintaining. I'd really like to incorporate more movement into what I'm doing, something that builds more functional strength. Also, any speed workouts I could do would be fantastic.

Thanks in advance, man.

This thread is about mma training, not strength results. The hammer will give you a more full range of motion in addition to more cardio than all the combination of exercises you posted. Those kettebell exercises don't offer much in the way of full extension of the core and you aren't activating your kinetic strength fully.

Excellent video man. I want to buy one of those big tires. What sledgehammer do you recommend for hitting it a lot of times or casual use? I'm saving money for one of those. Seems like a solid workout. I fav'd that video.

at your size? likely a heavier sledge, so a 16 would probably suffice, unless you are purely using it for higher reps and gpp work then you likely would go with a 12.

After watching the videos in this thread I have decided that I should start doing more of this stuff. So I have signed up at Planet Fitness and will be doing some Crossfit there since the real Crossfit place near here is way too expensive.

not sure if posted but anyone have muay thai video links i can watch and practice on a bag i have at my gym?

BTW guys if anyone is interested in for bjj/boxing/wrestling conditioning check out Joel Jamiesons book (trainer of Demetrious Johnson).


He had a thread on Sherdog a long time ago that blew my mind. My conditioning sucked when I wrestled cause all I did was HIIT. Turns out you actually need to do a good amount of aerobic conditioning (low intensity stuff) to build up a cardio base.


If you look at a lot of "old school" boxers they did a lot of roadwork which was a low intensity jog for about 5-7 miles a day. Stopped doing sprints and started doing that and never looked back.

Idk bail hay

For a hobbyist in BJJ with a 9-5, how would you suggest working S&C into a weekly routine? I train 3/4 times a week. Right now I Do:

Monday - train
Tuesday - lifting, full body
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - train
Friday - rest
Saturday - train
Sunday - rest