Training for a mma fight

[miketyson789]

My names trevor, i aint really posted anything before but i read alot of the forum.
im 17 and training for a pro mma fight. im 187 pounds right now with 8% body fat, im 5'11-6'0.
i want to fight at 170, so i have to weight about 180-185 a week before the fight then cut the rest in water weight. right now my goal is to be about 6% body fat with the same or more strength. i lift monday wedsday friday and do cardio every day for 40 minutes at 130-150 heart rate, tuesday thursday saturday sunday i train mma.

wat should my lifting routine (sets/reps/exsercises) look like to achieve these goals? i train arms monday, wedsday is back and traps, friday is chest and a little shoulders. i cant train legs since my legs grow to fast and i cant have sore legs due to the running i have to do.

any advice is appreciated

[Matt Dickerson]

Your weight training should be constructed in a manner that prepares you the most for your chosen sport. Don't go about weight training with a bodybuilding mentality if you are an MMA fighter. Read these articles and you will get an idea of what I am talking about.

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/mma.htm

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/time_under_tension.htm

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/martial_arts_tips.htm

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/functional_training_for_wrestlers.htm

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/misconception.htm

[miketyson789]

thx man those are great articles

[ironshaolin]

hey man, whats up? How long have you trained MMA? Great stuff, I teach martial arts professionally, so I can understand where you're coming from. This has been the hardest thing for me for a while, trying to balance weight training with fight training, and after trying everything from doggcrapp to wrath's split to full body routines, here's what I've arrived at and am working on now, take it or leave it.
It's a program called "westside for skinny bastards". The creator really created it to help weak athletes get bigger and stronger without interfering with sport-specific training, which for me interprets to martial arts training/conditioning. First, I'll explain the split, then I'll explain the setup:

MON:(am) ME upper body
Mon: (pm) sport-specific training and conditioning
Tues: off, or restoration techniques
WED: sprinting, sport specific training and conditioning
THURS: Upper body repetition day
FRI: sprints, sport specific training and conditioning
SAT: ME lower body
SUN: off, or restoration techniques

ME is max-effort, because most skill comes from producing maximum effort from the muscles, which needs a strong muscle.
ME upper body day: First, pick your ME lift, something like incline, flat or decline bench press, close grip bench, floor press, board presses, rack benches, etc. Do as many warmups as you need, working up to one max set of 3 or 5(add weight every week)
Then add an assistance excersise; either dumbell incline/flat/decline for 3x8-12. Then a horizontal row, dumbell, chest supported, barbell, or seated with various handles, for 3x8-12. then a rear delt or trap excersise; cable scarecrows, bent laterals, rev pec dec, db or bb shrugs, etc, for 3x12-15 and finish the workout with WEIGHTED abs for 10-15 reps, 3 sets.

REPETITION UPPER BODY: pick one: pushups(hands on dumbells), bench press w/95lbs or 135lbs, and do 3 sets of max reps, 60secs rest in between.
TRICEP excersise, skulls, pushdowns, french press, OH dumbell press, etc. for 3x6-10.
VERTICAL pulling excersise: chins, rack chins, pulldowns, etc. for 3x8-12
MEDIAL DELT: standing/seated dumbell press, side lateral, bb military; 3x6-10
BICEPS: hammer curl, DB curl, BB curl, EZ curl, preacher curl, 3x8-10
AB CIRCUT

ME LOWER BODY DAY:
1 ME lift: olympic squat, box squat, front squat, good morning, deadlift, rack deadlift; pick one and do as many warmups as necessary, working up to a MAX set of 3-5 reps
UNI-LATERAL leg move: DB or BB step up, one legged squat, step up w/knee lift, lunge, walking lunge, reverse lunge, lunge w/step up, etc. for 3x10-20 reps
HAMMY: glute/ham raise, pullthrough, leg curl, etc. for 3x12
calf excersise: however you want to do it
grip training: heavy dumbell holds, towel pullups, thick bar holds, thick bar reverse curls or wrist curls, captains of crush grippers, 3sets

So thats the lifting split, you only have 2 max effort days in the gym, so that you don't get too beat up and can't do your fighting. The biggest differences between this and a traditional westside template, only 1 leg day. Most people who have to do sprinting, ground work, kicking drills etc. Can't recover from 2 leg days, so there's only one so you can train them for the fight. And instead of a DE upper body day, you have a repetition upper body day. You pick something and just go for as many reps as possible. I've found since doing this split, I can put more into my martial arts training because I"m not as beat up, but I'm still getting stronger in the gym.
Rotate excersises every 3 weeks, or as soon as you can't add weight anymore.

Hope that helps

[miketyson789]

ive only been training mma for 3 weeks, but i was an amatuer boxer for 2 years. im 17 right now and am turning 18 in 6 months. as soon as i turn 18 i want to fight.
thats a sick routine im gonna try it out next week.
one questions tho:
TRICEP excersise, skulls, pushdowns, french press, OH dumbell press, etc. for 3x6-10.
VERTICAL pulling excersise: chins, rack chins, pulldowns, etc. for 3x8-12
MEDIAL DELT: standing/seated dumbell press, side lateral, bb military; 3x6-10
BICEPS: hammer curl, DB curl, BB curl, EZ curl, preacher curl, 3x8-10

do you mean pick one exsercise for each of the muscle groups, like hammer curl for biceps or do you mean do 3 sets of all the exsercise listed

and also are the sprints necassery if its still 6 months till i fight? and how long should i sprint/ rest for

[Maharg]

Buddy, you might be better of going to a website dedicated to MMA, as opposed to a site for powerlifters and bodybuilders. You would get much better help from people who practice and live that life style as opposed to this one.

[bobbymart]

bro I have been doing mma for years now and I follow a bodybuilding routine but I emphasise on explosiveness.... I hit the compound movments bench, squat, dead's, and overhead presses and I do them fast with good form and explosivness when it comes to you'r ground game this will help you out a ton, I do a 4 day a week split so I get plenty of rest and 3 days a week I train mma and to keep my endurance up I jog 5 days a week for 3 miles post workout m,w,f,s I drink eaa nitro after I lift before cardio tues thurs I just jog when I wake up.

monday- chest / shoulders am, mma pm
tues- off
wed.- back am, mma pm
thurs- off
friday- legs am, mma pm
saturday- core/ sometime I do calves and grip exercise
sunday- off

has worked for me but I change up my splits every few months I have been thinking about doing westside training letley to me weights and mma go hand in hand you need explosive strength and rest just keep that in mind and you will be ok... one last thing eat like it is you'r job we burn a ton of calories lifting cardio and mma all take their toll on us.
their are plenty of us mma guys on animalpak.com too lots of good advice.

[bobbymart]

Buddy, you might be better of going to a website dedicated to MMA, as opposed to a site for powerlifters and bodybuilders. You would get much better help from people who practice and live that life style as opposed to this one.

there are some of us mma guys around to help out

[Maharg]

there are some of us mma guys around to help out

I never doubted that at all. Its just, i figured there are some sites where there are those better suited to the job.

[bobbymart]

yeah there definetly some other sites yo ucan check for some good info if anyone is interested pm me and I have one or two sites with some ideas for mma style exercise my problem with them is they are all geared for endurance but you can bodybuild and build endurance at the same time with proper supplementation timing and a good cardio regimine most mma sites just train for endurance and that will make you lose size now for mma you dont want to be too big however you can still be a relativley large person and a good fighter look at Sean Sherk and Phil baronie hell Ken Shamrock had a 600lb bench and a 400+lb squat you think he tained like a mma fighter? it is possible we just have to work a bit harder.

[violator]

hey man, whats up? How long have you trained MMA? Great stuff, I teach martial arts professionally, so I can understand where you're coming from. This has been the hardest thing for me for a while, trying to balance weight training with fight training, and after trying everything from doggcrapp to wrath's split to full body routines, here's what I've arrived at and am working on now, take it or leave it.
It's a program called "westside for skinny bastards". The creator really created it to help weak athletes get bigger and stronger without interfering with sport-specific training, which for me interprets to martial arts training/conditioning. First, I'll explain the split, then I'll explain the setup:

MON:(am) ME upper body
Mon: (pm) sport-specific training and conditioning
Tues: off, or restoration techniques
WED: sprinting, sport specific training and conditioning
THURS: Upper body repetition day
FRI: sprints, sport specific training and conditioning
SAT: ME lower body
SUN: off, or restoration techniques

ME is max-effort, because most skill comes from producing maximum effort from the muscles, which needs a strong muscle.
ME upper body day: First, pick your ME lift, something like incline, flat or decline bench press, close grip bench, floor press, board presses, rack benches, etc. Do as many warmups as you need, working up to one max set of 3 or 5(add weight every week)
Then add an assistance excersise; either dumbell incline/flat/decline for 3x8-12. Then a horizontal row, dumbell, chest supported, barbell, or seated with various handles, for 3x8-12. then a rear delt or trap excersise; cable scarecrows, bent laterals, rev pec dec, db or bb shrugs, etc, for 3x12-15 and finish the workout with WEIGHTED abs for 10-15 reps, 3 sets.

REPETITION UPPER BODY: pick one: pushups(hands on dumbells), bench press w/95lbs or 135lbs, and do 3 sets of max reps, 60secs rest in between.
TRICEP excersise, skulls, pushdowns, french press, OH dumbell press, etc. for 3x6-10.
VERTICAL pulling excersise: chins, rack chins, pulldowns, etc. for 3x8-12
MEDIAL DELT: standing/seated dumbell press, side lateral, bb military; 3x6-10
BICEPS: hammer curl, DB curl, BB curl, EZ curl, preacher curl, 3x8-10
AB CIRCUT

ME LOWER BODY DAY:
1 ME lift: olympic squat, box squat, front squat, good morning, deadlift, rack deadlift; pick one and do as many warmups as necessary, working up to a MAX set of 3-5 reps
UNI-LATERAL leg move: DB or BB step up, one legged squat, step up w/knee lift, lunge, walking lunge, reverse lunge, lunge w/step up, etc. for 3x10-20 reps
HAMMY: glute/ham raise, pullthrough, leg curl, etc. for 3x12
calf excersise: however you want to do it
grip training: heavy dumbell holds, towel pullups, thick bar holds, thick bar reverse curls or wrist curls, captains of crush grippers, 3sets

So thats the lifting split, you only have 2 max effort days in the gym, so that you don't get too beat up and can't do your fighting. The biggest differences between this and a traditional westside template, only 1 leg day. Most people who have to do sprinting, ground work, kicking drills etc. Can't recover from 2 leg days, so there's only one so you can train them for the fight. And instead of a DE upper body day, you have a repetition upper body day. You pick something and just go for as many reps as possible. I've found since doing this split, I can put more into my martial arts training because I"m not as beat up, but I'm still getting stronger in the gym.
Rotate excersises every 3 weeks, or as soon as you can't add weight anymore.

Hope that helps

Nice routine shaolin....worth looking into.....