Mike Mahler – Aggressive Strength for MMA
Salepage : Mike Mahler – Aggressive Strength for MMA
“What sort of workout should I do for MMA or BJJ?” is one of the most commonly requested questions I get. Of course, the same question could be asked about any sport.
Sometimes strength instructors will write magazine articles explaining exercise routines for various sports and martial arts, but I have an issue with this cookie-cutter approach: these programs wind up being one-size-fits-all…but-me!
Creating training regimens is an art as much as a science. Before cramming numbers into random sets and reps on paper, you should know something about the athletes with whom you’re working, because the improper workout prescription may sometimes cause more harm than good. Martial arts and grappling are very difficult hobbies, and those who participate in them are often fanatics who are already prone to the feared overtraining. Participation in these arts, for the most part, provides the specialized conditioning required for same, i.e., if you want to be a good grappler, you have to grapple; if you want to be a good boxer, you have to box, and so on. The astute strength coach examines his athlete to identify any flaws in his armor. For example, if I have a BJJ player who is flexible and has high muscular endurance but lacks strength, it makes no sense to put him on a yoga-based conditioning program or endurance training. It seems sense to increase his absolute strength as much as feasible. Similarly, if I had a fighter with excellent strength but little gas, and even worse, tight connective tissue, I’ll put him on an endurance-building program and concentrate on loosening up his joints and boosting his mobility. This is how it’s done, and following a program from a magazine may not be appropriate for your specific collection of deficiencies. I want to deal with the athlete’s weaknesses rather than his strengths, and no two athletes should have the same program (unless they happen to be twins.)
I’ll give you another example: a software I made for myself. I’ve been in Philadelphia for a month, training in BJJ and submission wrestling at Maxercise. The workouts have been quite difficult. There will be a lot of sparring and live exercises. During team practice sessions, everyone in the room has placed in the top three in the world in their respective categories—this is truly elite training. As a 55-year-old athlete, training with young kids is taxing, and I must be cautious about adding supplemental exercise. My shoulders and elbows were troubling me, and both of my shoulders were tweaked. I decided to design a program that would be shoulder-strengthening while also mobilizing, short in duration so as not to overtax my recovery, and allow me to practice the basic kettlebell skills required for my upcoming seminars. Here’s the program I chose to address my specific weaknesses:
1) Screw Press aka Bent Press *this is an old-school lift that focuses on the upper torso and works the shoulder at an unusual angle that you may find yourself in when training BJJ. It’s the only press I’m aware of that works and stimulates the lats, which are important shoulder stabilizers.
2) 3-Move Clubbell Kinetic Chain: a) shield cast b) mill c) 45-degree angle lockout
3) Long-Arm One-Arm Cycle Clean and Press *this adds a whole-body conditioning element. It is shoulder/arm intensive, but with repeated, explosive leg drive, providing a metabolic effect overall.
When compared to double-kettlebell drills, none of these exercises are particularly strenuous, so they don’t interfere with my recovery from the heavy, live-grappling sessions. They specifically mobilize and strengthen my joints where they are needed, allowing me to recover from a rigorous training regimen. In other words, this workout is a type of active recovery.
The sister workout is a high-intensity, low-rep strength workout that consists of two movements:
* a standing, one-arm clean and press, then very slowly lying down, taking an entire minute to get down on the floor, then getting back up, pausing for a moment in each position.
This super-slow warm-up included a side-plank and, once in the recline, an arm-bar.
It took 2 minutes to complete one repetition of the entire exercise with the 24 kg.
This was super-set with a set of:
2) Weighted Pull-Ups * from a dead hang with a 10-second pause at the top with the throat over the bar
I did three sets of each of these two exercises.
I felt refreshed and recharged after I finished. My shoulders felt worked from every angle, and I experienced what can only be described as a healing circulation of blood flow through the joints. I didn’t need any more endurance work (I’d already done over an hour of live training, including takedowns and throws), so swings, snatches, and so on would have been pointless. I’d been doing sprints and stair sprints in previous weeks, but the sudden increase in BJJ volume and live matches rendered that type of training unnecessary.
This is also how I evaluate each of my personal training clients. In my next blog, I’ll discuss how I analyzed my own son, world-class BJJ fighter Zak Maxwell, and the program he currently trains with.
Yours in health and strength,
Steve, the coach
