strength and conditioning for mma Archives

Martial Artists Don’t Get It

Brazilian Jiujitsu is a sport which demands a lot of energy. Some adapt extremely well to the demands and their bodies become better able to express energy – both in the short term (strength) as well as the long term (endurance). Others adapt less well. Poor adaptation can stem from many causes. Oftentimes, the demands of ordinary sport participation ((practice and competition) are insufficient. These “deficiencies in demand” can be corrected by adding “supplemental” forms of training. Strength and conditioning is not a sport. It is a special form of supplemental training that targets deficiencies in demand for the purpose of fulfilling an athlete’s potential to express energy.

To maximize the benefits of strength and conditioning, it is useful to understand that strength and conditioning is supplemental and it is meant to correct deficiencies. This mental reference should encourage the careful addition of training stress. Some parts of an athlete’s body will be severely overtrained (short-term potential fulfilled) while others may be significantly undertrained (short-term potential unfulfilled). Most often, I see martial artists being smashed by extensive whole-body programs that simply wreck recovery and discourage participation. If an athlete’s stress tolerance only has room for additional grip and neck strengthening why are they doing squats, deadlifts, box jumps, HIIT, bench presses, kettlebell snatches and monkey contortions? Most programs for martial artists have zero benefits – only drawbacks. A weight room and strength equipment are a massive benefit as they allow training to be precise and predictable. For example, it is possible to measurably increase an athlete’s grip strength while completely avoiding stress to areas that may be vulnerable (such as their lower back, neck, knees shoulders etc.).

Exercises which bear no resemblance to BJJ abilities simply amount to more soreness and injuries with zero benefit

The whole point of strength and conditioning is to improve performance via increasing the potential to express energy. You want more energy at your disposal when you execute BJJ specific abilities like arm bars, grip breaking, chokes, framing, over-hooking, under-hooking, escapes, takedowns etc. etc. Always keep in mind our bodies will only enhance the energy expression capabilities of the systems that receive the demand. Clearly, strengthening your butt will not result in an improved ability to finish a rear naked choke. Strength and conditioning exercises must match abilities in terms of posture, muscle use, speed, duration and force output. This requirement for “specificity” is very nuanced – few athletes and coaches get it! For now, please consider that if the exercise you are performing (or contemplating performing) doesn’t look or feel very similar to the ability you want to enhance it is likely worthless. Consider as well that anyone teaching strength and conditioning for BJJ must be an expert in BJJ techniques. If they can’t demonstrate the techniques how can their exercises be relevant? BTW specificity also applies to flexibility as well – primal movement classes are a whole lot of work which will never improve BJJ abilities such as re-guarding.

The ability to meat hook, the ability to overhook and the ability to keep locked ankles are examples of BJJ abilities that use specific muscles and energy systems

If you are an experienced, hard-training athlete that wants to increase the amount of energy that is backing your martial arts skills consider supplemental strength and conditioning. One or two exercises are fine – you don’t need to commit to “buckshot” workouts. Determine which abilities you want to work on and look for exercises that match. At the very least do not participate in completely unrelated sports like Crossfit, gymnastics, olympic lifting, bodybuilding, powerlifting or acrobatics.

Time to get it

By taro

Why Cross Training Sucks (BJJ oriented)

BJJ enthusiasts are obsessed with the idea of improving their success in the sport. In the hind regions of their brains are memories of individuals with athletic backgrounds having a distinct advantage on the mats. With these memories as motivation, BJJ students will try any physical activity that inspires visions of glory. Popular choices include cross fit, gymnastics, rock climbing, bodybuilding, powerlifting, functional training and olympic lifting. Unfortunately, instead of glory, the result of cross training in other sports is always more fatigue, more injury and greater poverty. Cross training, or the participation in a sport for the sake of improving another sport, sucks for many reasons. Chief amongst these reasons is lack of specificity, superfluous strain and disregard for individual needs.

Specificity is a term more BJJ students need to become familiar with. Physical activities, are distinct because of their specialized muscular, metabolic and movement demands. These demands are far more specialized, or specific, then most people realize. For example, many BJJ students believe powerlifting or other basic strength training programs are valuable in regards to improving their strength on the mat. Unfortunately, these activities will give little return on invested effort. For starters, most lifting programs are based on muscular efforts which expose the core. Lifts like deadlifts, cleans, bench presses, overhead presses and squats result in the exposure of BJJ’s most valuable real estate – the space between our hips and armpits. BJJ fighters actually exert a lot of muscular effort trying to cover the core. We pull our knees to our chest to battle guard passers and we squeeze our elbows tight into our ribs to stop underhooks, chokes and arm attacks. The ability to squeeze our limbs towards our core is also critical for finishing chokes, armlocks and for controlling the back. Bodybuilders, power lifters, cross fitters and other strength training enthusiasts come to the dojo with great general strength and power but have gross deficiencies in regards to performance factors specific to BJJ.

Cross fit attracts many BJJ enthusiasts as it is a sport which values the development of a fuel tank which matches muscular horsepower. Unfortunately, any return on invested effort would be minimal and likely masked by overtraining. While some BJJ students find the ten to fifteen minute WODs help with stamina, WODs are preceded by a variety of exercises which are specific to cross fit and not grappling. Additional hours of weekly training (with irrelevant exercises) is not desired by bodies already strained by full time BJJ training.

Yoga is another activity popular with BJJ students. Most hope to become lethal contortionists with improved posture and recovery. Unfortunately, Yoga is dedicated to its poses and movements – not with BJJ positions and movement. My BJJ student John, joined a Yoga class in hopes of gaining more flexibility for his rubber guard and butterfly hooks. John soon discovered Yoga instructors are in the dark in regards to the guard game. Some yoga poses actually do stretch the specific muscles required for John’s BJJ ambitions but the class did not spend enough time focusing on them. Yoga has hundreds of other poses to prioritize. BJJ students will find it hard to address their posture and pain issues in a yoga class. Not everyone has the same posture type or the same issues. It is impossible to accommodate the needs of the individual in a large group.

Specificity guarantees that most sports and physical activities won’t match the demands of BJJ practice or competitions. The primary reason people with a sporting history often excel at BJJ is that they are gifted athletes. They are naturally able to adapt to physical activity and have high movement intelligence. Some of us are not as naturally gifted and require more effort to excel at a sport. Supplement deficiencies in your ability to express energy with strength and conditioning. Strength and conditioning is not cross training. It is physical activity dedicated to improving a chosen sport and is not a sport itself. A strength and conditioning program for BJJ is designed to focus on BJJ muscles, BJJ energy systems and is customizable to the needs of the individual athlete. High energy governed by maximum efficiency is unbeatable.

By taro

Strength and Conditioning for BJJ – The Anti Kimura Muscles

Your arm is able to rotate outwards. It can do do this from a variety of positions and angles. The muscles that perform these functions are known as the external (or lateral) rotators of the humerus. BJJ aficionados should call them “anti-kimura” muscles. Regardless of name, they are crucial in a variety of situations:

1. They allow us to feel more confident when countering Kimuras, omoplatas, monoplatas or baratoplatas.

2. They give our shoulders stability when using a straight arm to pass, recompose the guard or post on the floor.

3. They reinforce the integrity of arm-frames when creating space against partners or posting on an elbow against the floor.

The biggest issue in regards to strengthening the lateral rotators is their complexity. Muscle fibres run in myriad directions to allow for a diversity of functions. Miss a muscle fibre in your strengthening program and your body will be missing a function. To get started, however, keep things simple and try the following three exercises.

1. Classic lying 90 degree raise (emphasis on the external rotators which also move the arm away from the body)

Essential cues:

Elbow bent at 90 degrees
Arm pivoting above ribs with neither forward or backward movement of humerus
Do not rest the elbow on the ribs

2. Planted elbow raise (emphasis on the external rotators which also move the arm towards the body)

Essential cues:

Humerus supported slightly in front of the body and slightly below parallel to the floor.
Press the arm down into the support (firmly but not near maximal effort) as the humerus is being externally rotated

3. Multiple plane posting

Essential cues:

Start in a perfect pushup position with the spine rock solid and the non working arm behind the lower back. Plant both hands on the floor if one is too difficult.
Shift the whole body to move the shoulder carefully beyond the borders of the planted hand.
Start with a shift behind the hand. Then in front, to the outside and to the inside. Hitting all four positions counts as one repetition.

***This is an advanced shoulder stability exercise and should not be performed more than twice a week. Only include it in your program for a four to six week period.

Feel stable and buy time (to find solutions) in bad situations. The anti-kimura muscles, while near invisible, are a major key to making BJJ fighters totally tenacious!

By taro

The Most Overlooked Muscles in MMA

All the glorified MMA conditioning videos and articles have one thing in common – none of them make an in depth attempt to properly train the hamstrings or calves. The knee flexors are crucial for striking and grappling performance as well as career longevity. Consider the following muscular functions:

– Drives the hips and propels the body forward
– Provides the mass necessary for impact and knockouts
– Powers the legs ability to clamp and squeeze opponents in a wide variety of grappling situations
– Lowers the centre of gravity
– Reinforces and aligns the knee

Every striker I have ever spoken to repeats “you hit with your hips”. Despite this mantra no one considers what is responsible for snapping the hips forward. Enlightenment only occurs after a fighter suffers an injury to either a calf or hamstring. Pain at the back of the leg completely inhibits hip drive and punches as well as kicks become anemic. Fighters often lament how increased muscular bodyweight makes them feel slow and sluggish. This perception won’t occur with appropriate ankle training. Powerful, well conditioned calves will make you feel light on your feet.

Strikers rely on the weight of muscles as much as they rely on their ability to generate strength and power. Would you rather get hit by a eight ounce bat or a thirty eight ounce bat? Calf mass provides the momentum that converts head kicks into knockouts and leg kicks into shock. Leg mass also serves as an anchor from which it becomes possible to accelerate the hip. Momentum and inertia are terms from fundamental biomechanics that should be familiar to all fighters.

In grappling, the legs are an awesome tool for controlling opponents. The hamstrings and calves are heavily relied upon to squeeze out any space behind the knee and clamp down on legs, necks, hips and torsos. Imagine trying to take and maintain back control without knee flexors. Attempts at arm-bars and triangles would be fruitless! For Judokas, hamstring and calf development is a major asset. If your uchimata is impotent, training the back of your legs provides an edge.

For a world champion, Marcelo Garcia has a physical structure that seems relatively unremarkable – until you see his calves. It looks as if fifty percent of his bodyweight is below the knee! Like those punching bags which right themselves (thanks to a heavy base of sand), Professor Garcia’s low centre of gravity makes him hard to sweep. Marcelo always returns feet to floor. Muscle provides more than strength and power, it can be used to strategically distribute weight.

Both the hamstrings and calves have muscular heads which cross the knee joint. These muscles directly influence the strength and alignment of the leg. To minimize the chance of knee injury it is imperative to have a high strength to length ratio. Long legs which are narrow and weak will be prone to injury. Physics favours those with strong, thick and short legs. Size and strength, however, do not guarantee good knee alignment. Good alignment helps prevent the occurrence of injuries by evenly distributing stress. Poor alignment concentrates stress and structures that bear the greatest burden become vulnerable. If you want your knees to support a long martial art career you had better learn how to manage (stretch and strengthen) your hamstrings and calves!

Haphazard performance of deadlifts, hamstring curls or kettlebell and sled exercises will not improve your martial art performance. Proper hamstring and calf training demands an in-depth analysis of movement and muscle function. The right muscle fibres have to be targeted with effective exercises and programs. Any errors and your efforts will be fruitless. Hopefully this brief discourse inspires more coaches and athletes to comprehensively contemplate the calves and hamstrings!

By taro

Strength and Conditioning For BJJ – Five Points to Ponder

The concept of strength and conditioning is misunderstood by the majority of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu practitioners. This misunderstanding is resulting in injuries, wasted effort and jaded athletes. Below are a few points to help define the role of strength and conditioning in your quest to improve as a BJJ warrior.

POINT ONE

Strength and conditioning for Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is not bodybuilding, powerlifting, olympic lifting, gymnastics or crossfit! These are all sports that are only concerned with their distinct physical activities. Their intentions are definitely not to improve BJJ performance! A strength and conditioning program for Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is specifically designed to condition BJJ muscles and BJJ energy systems.

POINT TWO

A strength and conditioning program is not just lifting weights. A program may address several fitness components including strength, power, general endurance, muscular endurance, muscular balance and mobility. Tools used by a strength and conditioning coach include barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, bodyweight, rubber bands, gymnastic rings, resistance training machines and more. Exercise choice is based on effectiveness and is not limited to any particular discipline. Exercises associated with gymnastics, olympic lifting, calisthenics or even yoga can be part of a strength and condtitioning program provided they are relevant to the sport and athlete.

POINT THREE

Strength and conditioning is not about skill development. The primary concern of strength and conditioning is the development of the body’s energy systems (muscles and metabolism). Some exercises may resemble actual BJJ techniques but the intent is to strengthen the muscular system. Skill work is ALWAYS best addressed in actual practice under the supervision of a qualified BJJ coach! Unless a strength and conditioning coach really knows jiu-jitsu, mimicking movements in the gym may ingrain bad habits or simply be a waste of time.

POINT FOUR

BJJ training is a complete workout which improves strength and cardiovascular fitness. Serious practitioners do not need the additional burden of an extensive strength and conditioning program. Most will benefit from a program that is limited to a short list of specific needs. For example, poor grip endurance, bridging power or hip mobility may be hindering an athlete’s success. To address these needs a strength and conditioning program would only require an hour of extra work per week. Bear crawls, burpees, Tabatas and agility ladders won’t be necessary!

POINT FIVE

The intent of strength and conditioning is not to turn BJJ athletes into untechnical goons. Efficiency should always be the ultimate goal of jiu-jitsu athletes. However, having a high reserve of energy is a definite asset in practice or competition. Furthermore, consider the unpredictable realm of self- defence. Outside the dojo, battles are not controlled by weight classes and time may be limited to milliseconds. You may need a big burst of energy to compensate for imperfect conditions and imperfect technique. Going into battle, all warriors need to be as prepared as possible. Arm yourself with an astute strength and conditioning program!

By taro

Strength and Conditioning for Punching Power

The development of punching power is largely the subject of lore. Lore dominates whenever valid scientific data is sparse. Rather than wait for the academics, I believe reasonable conclusions can be made using logic, dedicated observation and everyday tools. To answer the question “what physical attributes are required for great punching power” the real-world scientist can use a number of methods to find a reasonable solution. One method, popular in manufacturing, is reverse engineering.

Rather then build a high performance car based on pure theory or trial and error, the process of reverse engineering takes an existing vehicle and breaks it down to reveal its working components. Similarly, take an elite level athlete and put them in the weight room – their physical attributes become readily apparent. Having had the opportunity to watch and even train a few world-class muay thai athletes a few observations stand-out:

a. They are terrible on agility ladders and wobble boards. Even the most elite of strikers, gifted athletically to the highest degree in their sport, look inebriated when first introduced to these gadgets. Obviously, the skills required for powerful striking are completely distinct from the skills required to balance on a wobble board or run an agility ladder. Contrary to popular assumption, there exists many different types of balance and many different types of agility. Skill work needs to be highly specific to affect sport performance (this is especially true at the elite levels of sport). Strength and conditioning sessions should address the development of energy systems and not resemble a second-rate repeat of practice.

b. Performance on basic strength exercises is modest (though definitely not pathetic). Even with a little practice elite level strikers put up moderate numbers on the squat, deadlift, bench press and chin-up. Great strength in these exercises seems to be of little significance to great punching and kicking power.

c.They have tremendous knee flexion strength. Without prior experience, powerful strikers put out incredible numbers on hamstring curl machines. This makes sense as the calf and hamstrings are probably the most important muscles for launching the hips. It is no coincidence most muay thai practitioners have great calf development! Thick calves also serve as a club at the end of a shaft – providing the mass necessary to penetrate soft tissue and shatter bones. Hard kickers also have extremely strong thigh adductors – necessary for turning the hips and femurs. Absorbing impact against bodies and heavy bags also requires reinforced musculature.

d. Heavy hitters excel at biceps curls. The biceps are often dismissed as non-functional, beach muscles but they are well developed on fighters! I am graced with the opportunity to watch Jorge Blanco train (Spanish kick-boxing champion and trainer of many UFC champions). He has amazing biceps development. I have seen him playfully curl seventy pound dumbbells despite never having formally trained biceps. Strong biceps development makes sense on powerful punchers as upper-cuts and hooks perfectly match the functional characteristics of the biceps. Whether high levels of biceps strength is necessary for accelerating the arm or simply absorbing impact is unknown.

e. Strikers kick butt at situps. While this finding may be biased as situps are routinely performed as part of traditional practice, there is little doubt powerful abdominals, obliques and hip flexors are consistent attributes of great strikers. This makes sense as these muscles have to accelerate the significant mass of the upper body via a very long moment-arm (the spine!).

f. Heavy hitters tend to do very well at triceps exercises, especially skull crushers. Whether this is due to the hard elbow extension required to launch a fist or to absorb impact with a heavy target is unknown. Exceptional performance on skull crushers may also be due to the demands of holding targets for training partners – especially muay-thai pads.

Reverse engineering offers great insight into the physical attributes of powerful strikers. However, there exists much more to the process of training athletes than simply performing the exercises emphasized above. Always consider individual style as well as physical status. Focus on strengthening energy systems that still have capacity for training stress. Repair, or allow to recover, energy systems that are over-stressed. Mindless, debilitating workouts are the last thing hard-training athletes need.

Workshop! Strength and Conditioning for Brazilian Jiu-jitsu

Bodybuilding, powerlifting, crossfit and gymnastic programs do not improve BJJ performance. The physical demands of these programs do not match the demands of BJJ practice or competition. Such non-specific training results in decreased energy output, increased incidence of injury and diminished confidence. Customized strength and conditioning programs, on the other hand, target muscles and energy systems that are relevant to BJJ performance. Specific training increases energy output, reduces the incidence of injury and improves confidence! Take your first step to developing a successful strength and conditioning program for BJJ and attend this three hour workshop.

Attendees will learn:

Why BJJ specific muscles are untrained by most generic exercise programs

What type of energy metabolism is BJJ specific

How to perform key exercises

How to perform key stretches

What type of training heals injury and improves resilience

High level BJJ performance relies on energy. Strength and conditioning is the ultimate tool for developing energy-producing systems capable of victory.

Where: Openmat MMA, 593 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON

When: Saturday Dec. 19th 2015

2:00pm to 5:00pm

Cost: 60.00$

Spaces are limited! Please register at tarodomuscle@gmail.com

By taro

strength and conditioning for mma

Martial Artists Don’t Get It

Why Cross Training Sucks (BJJ oriented)

Strength and Conditioning for BJJ – The Anti Kimura Muscles

The Most Overlooked Muscles in MMA