This week the UFC stopped through the great town of Omaha.
Omaha’s own Jake Ellenberger threw down in a hellacious battle against Diego Sanchez. It was one heck of a fight. I highly respect Jake “The Juggarnaunt” for his hard work and tenacity to climb the UFC ranks and I’m looking forward to him continuing to dominate.
So, in light of the UFC stopping by and by popular demand through my Facebook Fan Page, I thought I would dedicate this week’s Thursday Throwdown to the UFC and make it an all out MMA focused strength and power session.
For this training session, the focus is basic – 3 strength /power movements combined with 3 power / conditioning movements.
Now before I get into the actual workout, it’s important to know WHY I choose the movements and set up I did.
When you look at the sport of MMA, there’s certain abilities and qualities you must possess to be a truly successful fighter.
Those qualities are:
1) Mental Toughness (You gotta be a damn FREAK with a KILLER instinct to be one of the best!)
2) POWER
3) Stamina
4) Skill
5) Strength
6) Speed and Agility – Supreme Athleticism
I ranked those in the order I feel they rank in terms of importance.
I ranked strength a little bit lower then power and stamina as when it comes down to the sport of MMA, many times you’ll be going the whole length of the match so you MUST be able sustain your power output for extended periods of time. It does you no good to be explosive in the first few mins then be tanked after the first 3 mins. You must possess high amounts of power endurance.
If you’re STRONG, but out of shape, you will get destroyed and eaten alive by a better conditioned and skilled fighter.
Bottom line, you want to have a good balance of qualities across the board, but it’s always difficult to even everything out. All fighters will be different as some will be fast and explosive, but not very strong and other will be strong as hell, but not very fast or highly conditioned.
The guys at the top are EXPLOSIVE and have a motor that never quits running. Their also strong for their weight which is key.
Now, the workout I’m about to go over will help build up a bit of strength and some serious power endurance.
You will be tested both physically and mentally. Of course, why would you ever have it any other way?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4yKdkWp4bE
Here’s the set up:
1A) Sandbag Shouldering x 4 total x 40 secs – use remaining amount of time is used for REST
1B) Power Rope Slams x 20 secs
2A) Sandbag Squat x 4 x 40 secs – use remaining amount of time for REST
2B) Burpee Box Jump x 20 secs
3A) Sandbag Push Press x 4 use remaining amount of time for REST
3B) Mobile Plank with Band x 20 secs
You’ll be doing 3 min rounds of 40 secs of a STRENGTH / POWER movement then a 20 sec round of a POWER / CONDITIONING movement for a TOTAL of 9 rounds.
As you can see, You’ll do three different supersets in a row to make it a 3 min round. After you go through a 3 min round, you’ll have a 1 min break in between for recovery. The recovery period is used to help you get a little bit of your wind back so your not completely worthless during your strength /power interval. Overtime, you will wear down which is where you’re overall conditioning and MENTAL TOUGHNESS will come into play.
This is where it gets interesting…
See if you can’t get in 9 Rounds of this 3 min circuit!
Go ahead and take yourself through this challenging MMA style circuit and let me know how it goes!
If you don’t have all the specific equipment, jut improvise with some other movements similar to the ones I use.
Bottom line, get yourself a SOLID sandbag. One you can throw around a bit and it will take the beating for a long long time.
I highly recommend BRUTE FORCE SANDBAGS for that.