This is the first in an ongoing series of articles from guest blogger and Strength & Conditioning coach William Wayland of Powering Through. If you have any questions about this post or S & C in general as it relates to MMA and BJJ then please leave a comment below!
Caught in the trap
When we start out in MMA and BJJ more appears to be better, initially as many classes as we can get in appears a powerful stimulus for adaptation. When this slows we look elsewhere; “strength and conditioning” brings its promise of increased fitness and power to augment our abilities. Most practitioners and fitness buffs mean well but often fall victim to the most common mistake I see in fitness work for MMA and BJJ. Excessive volume loading or “The Volume Trap” as Vernon Gambetta puts it.
Volume at its most simple is the total amount of work you do, thus equates to the amount of rounds, sets you do during a training session. Generally as volume increases intensity (how hard you work) goes down, but as volume decreases we can increase intensity. Sprinters would represent the ultimate intensity athlete and marathoners low intensity. But some try to have their training cake and eat it. For beginners volume is a terrific stimulus for improvement, because like an unmolded piece of clay anything you do at first will shape it.
So we establish a relationship between work and improvement, the temptation is to pile it high “a little got me here so surely more must be better”. We start to mould ourselves the wrong way, we become an athlete that becomes a circuit master a low intensity wizard, all the time we chip away at our strength and ability to recover. We have to take a moment and consider what the needs of the sport are. Great you can do a gruelling 40 minute circuit! But is this what my sport asks of me? Training is not an end unto itself it is a means to an end.
Volume loading is easy, 6 minute rounds instead of 5, 4-5 rounds instead of 3, 15 reps instead of 10. When progress stalls the temptation is only to add more. This is the easy route of increasing the difficulty of your workout, just more and more no thought required. You feel you need to do more to get better, more of the same. This is the quick path to decreases in performance, micro injuries like tendonitis, stress fractures and burnout. MMA fighters and BJJ athletes have an addiction to work more than any other athlete I know, this is testament to the strength of spirit they have. But an objective athlete or coach needs to take an objective look at what they are doing.
Consider the intensity of your efforts: is what I am doing matching the intensity of my effort on the mats or in the cage? Intensity however is hard, it hurts, but hey competition hurts, competition is uncomfortable and challenges us. Almost every fighter I talk to usually admits they do too much when they give it some thought. Youtube does’nt help when we see our favourite fighters exhausting themselves in cool training montages. Don’t get caught in the trap.
Upping Intensity
Effectively to up intensity you have to do more work in less time. This can include more repetitions or a higher work weight within a given work period. Here a few preferred methods for putting intensity into your general conditioning training.
Sprint Interval Training
Currently coming into vogue is sprint interval training; I don’t mean HIIT which has longer work periods. Im talking 20-30s flat out work followed by 2-3 minutes rest. In a recent NSCA piece they stated that “high intensity interval training may also be suited to enhance endurance without compromising strength and power. For example, among the adaptations that occurred after repeated 15 to 30 s sprint interval training program were significant increases in PC, glycogen and maxium oxygen consumption”. Total amount of work in these sessions might be only 3 or 4 minutes, but every sprint needs to be 100% effort nothing less will do!
Mobility work
Usually warm-up with 500m at moderate pace
Interval 1
30 seconds (all out sprint) 3:30 rest
Interval 2
30 seconds (all out sprint) 3:30 rest
Interval 3
30 seconds (all out sprint) 3:30 rest
Interval 4
30 seconds (all out sprint) 3:30 rest
Interval 5
30 seconds (all out sprint) 3:30 rest
Interval 6
30 seconds (all out sprint) 3:30 rest
Interval 7
30 seconds (all out sprint) 3:30 rest
Interval 8
30 seconds (all out sprint) 3:30 rest
Cool down, stretch
Total Worktime: 4mins total rest: 28 mins rest Complete training time : 32 mins + warmup
Complexes
To quote Alwyn Cosgrove “A complex is a circuit using one piece of equipment, one load, and one space.”Simply put you pick up a barbell, dumbbell or kettlebell limited in weight by your weakest exercise and do 3-4 or more exercises consecutively. For example, front squats for 8 reps, push presses, Deadlifts and back squats. I like athletes to time their work periods and then rest either 1:1 or 1:2 work to rest for examples we might do 3-4 rounds. Workouts generally take less than 20 mins. You can use altering rep schemes such as 8,5,3 adjusting load accordingly. There is a lot of scope for creativity.
Sample complexes
Javorek’s Barbell Complex #1
Barbell upright row x 6
Barbell high pull snatch x 6
Barbell behind the head squat and push press x 6
Barbell behind the head good morning x 6
Barbell bent-over row x 6
Dan John Complex A & B
A
Row
Clean
Front squat
Military press
Back squat
Good mornings
B
Power clean
Military press
Back squat
Good mornings
Behind the neck press
Front squat
These are high Intensity methods, they are hard, they hurt, but they are however kindly brief! Mixed with strength sessions they are potent for building fitness, burning fat and improving your general conditioning. Consider they marathon runner and the sprinter, why would one training like the other. When it comes to volume, less is defiantly more, so choose your methods wisely.