Last weekend the gym I train at hosted an amateur MMA event - I had initially thought about entering this when I first decided to get a fight.....after one training session I knew it would've ended in embarrassment! So with that in mind it was cool to see the fights just to know what level guys are fighting at.
My training has been going well, I've really been enjoying my boxing and feel like it's really improving. The toughest session recently was two hours of MMA working against the cage, getting up with an opponent on top, knackering....
Lifting going well:
Deadlifts worked up to 13 x 122kg
Swissbar press worked up to 3 x 68kg
Cleans sets of 5 reps building up to 80kg
Added in some DB snatches at 32kg - very easy, need to push it a bit.
I have realised that the strength portion of my training is not progressing as I'd like but I think that this is due to the increase in conditioning work - Tabata, circuits, bag work - and dropping weight. I guess it's true that you can't serve two masters.
Warm-up ( shadow boxing, mobility, stretching)
3 x MMA circuits. Mixed it up and did different circuits.
40 secs each exercise moving straight on to the next for the first two.
Heavy bag boxing
Sprawl
Sandbag shouldering
Sit through
Dummy Ground and pound
Dummy lift/suplex
Plank
Resistance band shoot
Sandbag bearhug & twist
Heavybag boxing.
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Heavybag boxing
Resistance band arm drags
Resistance band shoot
Sandbag clean & Press
Heavybag knees
Sandbag rows
Dummy lift/suplex
Sprawl
Heavybag kicks
Heavybag boxing
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50 punch heavybag punchout
Sandbag clean & press x 10
Landmine twist x 10
Sandbag row x 10
Sprawl x 10
Get up with sandbag x 10
50 punch heavybag punchout
The get ups are soul destroying....
The idea with the last circuit is to get through as quickly as possible.
Sunday:
Warm-up ( shadow boxing, mobility, stretching.)
11 rounds of thai boxing on the heavybag. 2 mins 40 secs each round, 30 secs rest.
Ab wheel rollouts
Stretching.
Hopefully get some strength training in tomorrow. Nothing today - University work & daughter's judo.
This week has been a total bust training wise. Work, friends, family commitments has meant every night out and a whopping ONE training session - Boxing & Jits at Leicester Shootfighing. Hoping to get back on track this weekend as all the family are out at an event and I can get some decent training in.
I guess this is what it is to be trying to fight at forty alongside real-life commitments.
Having come to the end of a 5/3/1 cycle and as I stated before, I've really felt the decrease in strength as my levels of conditioning have gone up, I've significantly dropped my working max for bench & press. Whilst continuing to progress in the DL & TBDL.
Thursday - some great training, MMA striking & Jiu Jitsu. The MMA session was tough, focusing on muay thai combos. All padwork minus the warm-up, lots of kicking for two minute rounds. The Jits was great, playing open guard, doing a lot of lifting the opponent with the legs, this left my shins feeling it for days!
Sunday - 10 rounds of muay thai on the heavy bag, 2.40 per round, 30 secs rest. Followed by ab wheel.
The busy work and family life have continued so the training's had to pared down. I've written some about this on my blog http://fightingatforty.blogspo... sharing my view of the role of Zen practice in MMA training!
Anyway, the strength training has had to take a backseat this week - anathema to most T-Nation'ers I know!
I managed to fit in a session of thai boxing training, a session of clinch fighting and a session of Jiu Jitsu. Hoping to get some solid training in over this long weekend - we've got four days off in the UK due to the Queen's 60th Jubilee.
Circuits: Tried something a bit different.
1 min heavybag strikes
1 min shadow combination + sprawl
1 min dummy lift
1 min dummy ground 'n' pound.
done twice through with no rest.
1 min rest
1 min heavybag
1 min g'n'p
1 min dummy lift
1 min combo + sprawl
1 min heavybag
Ab wheel
Thursday:
Power cleans worked up in 5's to 5 x 75kg.
5/3/1 swissbar press 3 x 62kg (shit I'm weak!)
Up to June I had been pleased with my progress. I'd maintained a consistent pattern of training at Leicester Shoot and felt that I was improving. The conditioning still had a long way to go but even that was getting better. The came June, and with it massive work stress requiring extra attention, family members in hospital, an injured shin, a skin infection in the other shin and now finally a nasty gash in the previously injured shin! (Walked in to a broken sheet of glass). All-in-all this has led to me missing 3 â?? 4 weeks of training and feeling not a little pissed off.
Still, it's a case of train what you can, when you can. I can't deadlift but I can press, clean & use the trapbar. I can't grapple or kick with my left leg but I can box and kick with the right. When I've been pressed for time I haven't stressed about what I'm not doing, just found ways to get some work in â?? 15 mins of barbell complexes for example.
My last session at Leicester Shoot was an MMA sparring class. It's difficult for me to get to these as I need to look after my youngest on this evening so this was the first I'd been to in a while. Anyway, it was a testing session, building up from drills to limited sparring and then in to less limited for 3 minute rounds. By the time we'd finished I needed to sit for 15 minutes before leaving the gym, and I still looked like this....
Join date: Jun 2010
Location: Indiana, USA
Posts: 780
seeing as you train I was wondering how hard do you guys spar.... how often do the guys in your gym get injured. I have 3 guys preparing for a fight and we always seem to spar hard. we intend fo 50% but end up at more like 80 or 90.... any way just curious.
for my crew black eyes are weekly , usually a different person. we have had a minor knee injury, dislocated rib and a pulled shoulder muscle in the last month wit a total of about 10 guys rolling/sparing.
Hey thanks for the comment! Takedowns, depends really. We tend to work for underhook control and takedown from there, but generally no slams. Often times it seems that the people who are new to the class go too hard - last session I got battered by someone I've not seen at the gym before just because he doesn't know how to go at 50%. Even when you're working with someone good you get that crescendo effect where it just keeps ramping up - that happened to me a few months ago. Even so, there's very few injuries, the coaches just don't let it happen.
I haven't trained suplexes but when they do they get the crash mats down.
I feel like I'm getting some consistency in to things now, though it takes a bit of balancing. Yesterday I travelled 35 miles back from work straight to boxing, 25 min drive home, shower, change, out to a school function until 9.30. Not moaning, but it's like you read everywhere you don't get given time, you have to make it.
Saturday:
5/3/1 swissbar bench. 12 x 68kg (new cycle)
DB bench 3 x 8 @32kg SS with DB row 3 x 10 @40kg.
Sunday:
Bas Rutten 'All Round Fighting' workout. I find this really tough, it's basically 2 min rounds of thai combos on the heavybag with sprawls and sit-throughs thrown in to break up the rhythm. I made a pact with myself to get 6 rounds done as I haven't done it for a while but ended up doing 9. Finished with Ab wheel and some chins. My chinning is really poor so I'm going to throw them in to every session.
Monday - Nothing, Daughter's Judo session.
Tuesday:
Shitty work day, didn't get anything to eat all day from 7.30am to a shake at about 6.30pm. Was going to do power cleans & trapbar but after PCs just felt shit so did some assistance work instead. I have started to 5/3/1 programme my PCs.
5/3/1 Powercleans up to 5 x 70kg (Nowhere near a rep max but not a great training day)
Chins
Barbell press
Ab wheel
Wednesday:
Boxing. Great technical session at Leicester Shoot focusing on covering and firing back.
Been about three weeks since I last checked in, but I have been training....honest!
Because of the injury to my shin I've been limiting my fighting, until recently, to boxing. I've really enjoyed it and feel like I'm progressing. More about it on my blog. http://fightingatforty.blogspo...
Following gassing during sparring sessions I made the decision to incorporate an element of conditioning in to every session. I've mainly done this using sprints. For example, last session was 5/3/1 swissbar press. I did my programmed reps/weight followed by some rowing for assistance. Finally I did some interval sprinting - I'm working up from 10 sec sprint/20 sec jog x 5.
I've also put sled dragging back in. I carry my sled weight back pack style out to the farm track about 1/4 mile away, pull walking for 1/2 mile then 30 metre sprint/30 metre walk on the 1/2 mile back before carrying it all 1/4 mile home.
5/3/1 Power Cleans working up to 3 x 77kg. Not happy with this, the sets before this felt really easy but the 77kg was a struggle. I've lifted more than this.
25/08 Decided to to do some different stuff before starting a new 5/3/1 cycle:
Dumbell snatch: worked up to 5 x 36kg each arm.
Log press, worked up to 5 x 70kg
Swiss bar grappler press up to 8 x 50kg. (like this:
Sprints 5 x 10 secs.
26/08 10 x 3 min rounds muay thai heavy bag. 30 secs between rounds. Ab Wheel.
27/08 Power cleans, working up to 8 x 70kg
Swiss bar press, up to 6 x 54kg caught my chin going for the 7th rep which threw me off
Sprints 5 x 10 secs
28/08 MMA training, clinch work at Leicester Shootfighters
29/08 Bas Rutten all round workout - kinda like fighting circuits with no rest for 28 minutes.
Good training so far this week.... Spent the weekend at the Paralympics mostly watching judo - just awesone - so the weekend contained no training but was tiring all the same - lots of walking, late nights, long drive, etc.
Tuesday
5/3/1 deadlift worked up to 112kg x 12 (felt I could've got more but my youngest daughter interupted halfway through!)
Snatch grip high pulls 3 x 5 x 50kg.
Dummbell rows 3 x 15 x 32kg (thick handles).
Wednesday
10 x 2mins thai boxing heavy bag
Core work.
Thursday
1hr MMA class
Followed by the MMA fitness session at Leicester Shootfighters. Essentially this is a 6 station, 12 exercise circuit. I'll put more details on my blog ( fightingatforty.blogspot.com ) but here's a video taster:
Last week went back for the MMA fight circuit at Leicester Shoot. I knew I was coming down with a cold but still went for it, hence performance was nowhere near as good.
Also got in some bag work & 5/3/1 swissbar bench working to 68kg x 10
The cold laid me out over the weekend so no training.
Last night had a great no gi training session led by legendary UK Judoka Neil Adams. Neil was World Champ in 1981 & silver medallist at 80 & 84 Olympics. ( http://naeffectivefighting.com... ) Lots of judo style throwing without the gi and then some armbar drills. Absolutely knackered after two hours of training but loads of stuff to try out next time on the mat. I'm gonna put a full review of the seminar on my blog ( fightingatforty.blogspot.com ) but here's a taster of the man in action.
So last week I didn't think I was going to be able to do a conditioning session at Shootfighters but at the last minute someone offered to give my daughter a lift leaving me free to stay on and do the circuits.
The first session was grappling training (1hr) focusing on half guard sweeps and then 15 mins of rolling (free sparring). I rolled with one of the fighters/coaches and got beasted for ten minutes before rolling with the Head Coach who must be 60 lbs lighter than me..... got absolutely thrashed and was knackered.
Followed this with an hour of boxing technique/pad work.
Finally on to the conditioning circuit, same format 1 min work/30 secs rest/1 min work/change station:
Bag work/Floor bag hops
Crash mat sprints/T push-ups
Bicycle crunch/skipping knees
med ball burpees/partner clap plank
Pad work
Cage wall climb/wall sits
I'm not ashamed to say that it took me until Sunday to recover!
Sunday:
5/3/1 Swissbar bench up to 10 x 55kg (New cycle)
5/3/1 Trapbar deadlift up to 12 x 100kg
Dumbbell rows 2 x 15 x 32kg (thick handle)
Monday:
6 x 3 min Bas Rutten Thai Boxing on the heavy bag
Plank.
