Conditioning for Combat Sports
Conditioning for combat sports is a lot more than just road work and training until we spew our guts. Strength and conditioning is under looked by many within the mixed martial arts community. Frankly, there isn’t a large extent of content out there in regards to how to specifically improve fitness qualities for fighters without over burning them. We witness a variety of crazy montages of fighters just going insane hitting stuff but to what end is that going to benefit them?
Before we get into how we can improve our conditioning for fighters, I want to introduce myself and why this would be worth a read. My name is Matty and I am the founder of Movement Strength and Conditioning. I’ve been within the strength and conditioning community for more than 5 years and I’ve been involved with sports such as Muay thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Powerlifting, Olympic Weightlifting, Rugby and CrossFit. Having been a fighter myself and going through all other training protocols of each sport, it gave me a perspective on what we SHOULD be doing compared to what is commonly being done.
What does it mean to be a conditioned fighter?
To start off, what does it mean to be a conditioned fighter? To be fit? To be fast? To be agile? There are so many different physical aspects that we need to consider for each martial art. Having the aerobic capacity to last rounds and recover, having the speed to be faster than your opponent, having the strength to maintain and overpower positions. All of this while having the best technical standpoint within your fighting style is what it means to be a conditioned fighter. The guys over at Fight Camp Conditioning do a great job at evaluating the needs and assessing each fighter to differentiate their programming.
Managing stress
Like with everything, training is a stress upon the body. Your combat training in the ring, on the mat or in the octagon are all stressors upon the body. Most martial artist would train anywhere from 4-6 days to work on their technique and improve their craft. 4-6 training sessions is already more than what an average human being would do for their regular training. On top of this we then have to add strength and conditioning? That's too crazy. Figure this though, despite the amount of volume and work they do, they can benefit from adding in conditioning intelligently if fatigue is managed correctly.
How its done?
Conditioning for fighters should be precise and based off the bio energetic demands. Taking into consideration of their combat training, we need to take into consideration their lifestyle and also their individual weaknesses. I go by the minimal effective dose which is doing the minimal amount of work to progress. I believe this is the way to go for injury prevention but for longevity within the game. That aside, we need to look at what each fighter needs and how to improve that. Road work is awesome for building aerobic capacity but is it going to benefit a high level BJJ fighter who spends most of their time rolling and scrambling? Probably not. So what do we do? We add specificity to the bio-energetic demand. For example, adding in an aerobic capacity circuit which involves the same movement patterns you see within BJJ would be more applicable to the sport of BJJ. BJJ has a lot of hip extension, rotation and isometric strength/endurance. An aerobic circuit with Pallof Presses in a Dead Bug, Single Arm Rotating KB Swings or Dead Ball Over Shoulder Throws for example would be much more applicable at APPROPRIATE loads. Again we have to take into consideration the amount of stress they are already doing outside and not just hammer them until they spew. This also does not condemn road work or any use of aerobic training as useless, but evaluates it’s priority for each athlete. A question often asked is how long would we do this for? Well how long are the rounds in each fight? How many times would we expect them to fight in a single day? Consider all factors so that the fighter is physically prepared for the demands of the day but just enough so that you don’t burn them out (remember minimal effective dose).
Other considerations
One thing mentioned above was the bio-energetic demands of the sport. What are the bio-energetic demands? Well you have your energy systems such as the ATP-PC (Anaerobic) system, Glycolytic (Lactate) System and then your Aerobic System. Sprinting 100m is Anaerobic and to the opposite, Triathlons would predominantly be Aerobic. Rugby for example is a combination of everything and combat sports have to be taken into consideration in the same manner. Phil Daru of American Top Team who trains world class athletes and multiple UFC champions evaluates this really well within his content. Combat sports have a high sprint repeatability to which we do explosive movements and we do it often within a long period. An example is a Muay Thai fighter throwing knees, elbows, kicks and punches at maximum power for a bout of 3-5 minutes or a Freestyle Wrestler performing takedowns and slams for the duration of the match.This would be categorised as Anaerobic Power and the same can be said about Lactate Power in which we need to perform a powerful movement multiple times in a row up or resist against strong isometric resistance up to 30-60 seconds. An example is a Boxer going for a long combination to secure a knock out or a Sambo fighter resisting an arm bar so their arm doesn’t snap. Understanding these demands helps to evaluate the tools required to get the job done.
I hope this blog helps to give a little insight on conditioning for Combat Sports and helps you all with your training. If you guys have any request on any training or nutrition related topics, please give us a holla and we’ll try our best to help out!
Peace out Movement Fam!
Coach Matty