Planning the Daily Workouts

Sorry for the hiatus, I have been putting a lot of effort into reading workout routines and trying to develop one to meet my needs. Since I will also be going to MMA classes at night, I will have to do these routines in the morning. I also want to make sure that I am not killing myself in the morning or using up all my energy, which will leave me sacked for class. I have to be able to train effectively in the gym so that I can improve as a fighter, but also supplement that training to increase my strength, flexibility, and speed. The flexibility part is key as well. I don't want to just lift weights and put on mass and lose my flexibility. It is crucial for me to craft a routine that will give me what I need so that I can not only compete, but win as well.

So given all the requirements I listed above, here are some of the thoughts I came up with. This is sort of rough right now because I am still researching, but feel free to help me improve my ideas before the routine is set in stone.

The Routine should incorporate the following:

-Some sort of Yoga or flexibility increasing exercise. I get very little of this type of workout at all and to add it in any capacity would be a great improvement to my current training.

-Strength training via body weight training such as techniques learned in The Naked Warrior by Pavel Tsatsouline and The Gladiator Conditioning Program by Mark Hatmaker. These two books teach fundamentals for building fighting strength and would be the key to my strength training. They allow me to build up my strength, endurance and range of motion without sacrificing speed and agility.

-Some sort of cardio conditioning that would not take too much time nor dip into my reserves for the rest of the day. I specifically mean long distance running because the trauma on my legs (takes days to fully recover), the time it would take to actually run the distance, and the amount of fatigue I would have later that night.I was thinking sprints and short distance higher speed runs. This would help with the explosive stamina training needed for grappling.


-Skipping rope and plyometrics for foot work. This is simple and obvious. I may just need to find the right plyo mix for me.


-Last but certainly not least, meditation. I need not take some time each morning to clear my mind and focus on the present. I want to be able to get the clear and "in the moment focus" I get when I am in combat outside of the ring as well. I think the only way I can do this is working on it and training myself to block out all the nonsense that clouds my thinking.


So taking all of this into consideration, I should have a program ready for your review by late Sunday. I want to start on this in the morning so that it does not interfere with my other daily obligations. Here to hoping that it works out well. Thanks for reading.

Greasing the Groove

Since starting back into MMA, I have been looking for new techniques and routines for improving my strength and agility. I noticed that no matter how much I lifted and what types of routines I was using, my strength did not seem to improve too much. I was certainly getting bigger, but my muscles were always fatigued and sore, and the mass I was putting on was making me less flexible. Injury was always something I was concerned about because of the muscle fatigue and lack of flexibility.

I then heard about body weight lifting and decided I would take a peek. I was turned on to Pavel Tsatsouline by a video blogger on YouTube by the name of silverfuturist. Here is a link to his actual post about it: silverfuturist

I checked out Naked Warrior, and I highly suggest you do the same on the right, and was blown away by the simplicity of the program. It is very difficult to perform some of these moves in the very beginning, but by following Pavel's instructions, I have found myself doing the moves and gaining more strength each week. I could not believe that simple body weight exercises could be so beneficial. His program also does not take you to muscle failure, which was great for me because I was able to continue fighting at a high level with no risk of injury like before.

His method of GTG (Greasing the Groove) allows me to work on my overall strength throughout the day without spending all my time in a gym working one or two exclusive muscle groups. This allows me to continue to focus on work, family, and actual fight training. I loved this book and highly recommend that any of my followers check it out.

That is all for now. Thanks for reading.