MMA Stuff » Equipment

Slosh Pipe Log Carry

Jimmy — Sat, 28 May 2011 17:46:32 +0000

Guest Post: This is a guest post by Rob also known as Combat Trainer. Rob is a CSCS and specializes in MMA strength and conditioning.

Fighters are always looking for new ways to take their MMA training to new levels. They are always searching for ways to improve their bodies, to be lean, mean fighting machines. In sports it is vital that athletes have a strong and stable core. Fighters are no different than other athletes and need to have a strong core as well.

Many still teach their athletes that doing countless amounts of sit-ups and crunches will improve the strength of the abdominals. I cannot remember the last time I actually had one of my fighters or any of my athletes perform a sit-up or any variation of the sit-up to improve their core strength.

As a fighter you must ask yourself, how often do I flex my abdominals in the same manner I do when doing a sit-up? The answer is obvious, none! That is because in life and in any sport including MMA your abdominals are used as stabilizers, not in a motion of contraction. The core is there to help stabilize and support the spine and help prevent injury. Some other benefits of a strong stabilizing core is that a fighter will have better balance, with this balance comes more efficient movements leading to being a more powerful fighter through your punches and kicks.

One of the best ways to work your core is through the use of what is called a Slosh Pipe. A Slosh Pipe can be constructed very easily. Go to the local hardware store, pick up a nine foot, four inch in diameter PVC pipe. Buy some caps for it and some sealant. The first step is to cap one end of the PVC pipe. Then fill the pipe up with around thirty pounds of water. Cap the other end and boom you have yourself a Slosh Pipe. Why is it called a Slosh Pipe? You will feel why when you pick it up.

When you go to pick up the Slosh Pipe you will see why it will help with stabilizing your core. The water moving throughout the pipe forces you to contract your core and stabilize your body. In the video below you will see as I pick up the Slosh Pipe as if I am carry a log on my shoulder. You will see how the water moving from one end to the other forces me to use my core to stand upright and continue to walk with it. As the pipe tilts towards the back you will feel your abdominals contract and help keep your body upright. This is just one of the many movements you can do with the Slosh Pipe and challenge your core.

For more MMA strength and conditioning training you can also visit my site http://combattrainer.com. There I offer online training programs to help you reach your goals and become the complete combat athlete.

New Throwdown Shirts

Jimmy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:51:07 +0000

“Affliction is proud to present THROWDOWN. With its roots already establish in the Xtreme Sports and Mixed Martial Arts world, once again we prove that craftsmanship and artistic style can blend together and create a identity for all to separate themselves from the masses.”

So Affliction has bought Throwdown. A shirt I personally have is the Throwdown Headstone shirt. Affliction seems to be throwing their style of designs with the Throwdown brand. The shirt is extremely comfortable and fits right. The design on the front is the sign on the

BUY THE SHIRT TODAY & CHECK OUT 3 NEW THROW DOWN SHIRTS

Sprawl Fusion-S Series MMA Shorts Review

Jimmy — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:27:45 +0000

I’ve always been a big fan of sprawl shorts, they are tough, lightweight and provide a lot of room to move. One of the newest shorts that Sprawl has released are the Fusion Stretch Series. I only have about 4 fight shorts and I always thought all shorts are the same. These shorts prove one thing, that all fight shorts are not created equally.

Sprawl Fusion S - Channel Lock

These shorts address many problems with typical fight shorts such as

They Stretch! This is important when throwing kicks or knees and more important when you’re rolling. If you’re like me, you get into some awkward positions.
Light weight – although I don’t know the secret compound of the shorts nor do I care, they are extremely light weight. I almost feel like I have no pants on (I don’t like wearing pants). The light weight design allows better air flow.
The waistband – Sprawl designed a non-slip “Channel Lock” wristband which allows you to adjust your wristband once. The worst thing in the world is having your fight shorts slip off when you’re rolling…
Everything Resistant – Sprawl claims that these shorts are blood resistant, to be honest I haven’t been able to test that out because I don’t try to hurt people at my own gym but I’ll take sprawl’s word on the matter. They are indeed sweat resistant some how, so they are easy to clean.

Bottom Line
Although they don’t have the most badass designs, they are functional which is the most important thing. I definitely recommend picking these up. They stay on and they don’t absorb sweat like a lot of other shorts do.

Sprawl Fusion S

Buy a pair of Sprawl Fusion-S Shorts at Performance MMA

Win $1000 in MMA Gear

Jimmy — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:12:53 +0000

Our good friends at Performance MMA along with MMA Talk are doing a contest giving away $1000 worth of goodies. All you have to do is go to the Performance MMA Contest Page, give your predictions for 4 of the fights and you’ll be entered into the contest.

Participate in the Performance MMA Giveaway

Training Tools

Jimmy — Tue, 26 May 2009 06:11:25 +0000

There has been several tools and resources I’ve been using recently to prepare for my fight. These tools have helped me in many ways and have made things a little bit easier.

Workout Journal: It’s my little notebook that I take to the gym and log down what I do during my workout, my weight, notes and reps. These also serve as a great motivator, a great way to track your progress and gives you the ability to refer to past workouts.

My Excel Spreadsheet: The spreadsheet is very primitive, it has several lists of workouts and circuits. Also there is another page in the spreadsheet that breaks down what I did during the week and allows me to plan my upcoming week. I can plug into each cell what circuit I’m going to do, or the type of workout. For instance, Monday: Circuit A & BJJ. Tuesday: Kettlebells & MMA and so on and so forth.

This Amazing Blog: My training log on this blog is basically everything I journalize in my notebook, plus all the work I do in my MMA gym. This allows you guys to give me input and feedback. It also helps me feel good when I check the training log on my rest day and re-read what I’ve done during the week.

Gymboss Interval Timer: This timer is great because I use it almost in all aspects of my training. I use it for tabata workouts and timing my rest between workouts at the gym. It’s used during my Kettlebell workouts and sometimes during MMA if we want to do 5 minute rounds.

Lose It! iPhone App: Very useful when trying to cut weight or just be aware of your calorie intake. This application is free and can track calories, fiber, protein, carbs and other important things that will effect your weight.

Hygiene Series

Jimmy — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:12:48 +0000

There have been several posts on MMA Stuff regarding cleanliness and hygiene. Hygiene is as important as the countless hours you spend sparring, the miles you run, and the diet you upkeep. With the constant contact you have with others and the gym equipment you maybe using, you are at risk for staph infections and other bacteria that can cause many problems.

In the next few posts, I’ll do reviews on some products that will help you fight these harmful bacteria that can affect your training. While you’re waiting, check out these previously written articles.

Washing Hand Wraps
Staph Infections
Importance of Cleanliness

Combat Sports Hybrid Fight Gloves

Jimmy — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:26:09 +0000

These gloves have lasted me for two years of throwing combinations against sparring partners, dropping bombs during ground & pound and throwing thousands of punches during drills. These 70$ gloves are obviously from Combat Sports which are great for MMA sparring. There is a great amount of technology below the surface of the gloves that I don’t want to get into and I figure no one cares. The bottom line is, the gloves protect your fists really well.

Pros

Durable
Lightweight
Allows mobility for jiu jitsu

Cons

Expensive compared to other gloves
Not good bag gloves

More About The Cons

I don’t know if it’s just me but after doing bag or pad work my pinky knuckle gets all cut up. It seems to be the gloves irritating my knuckle and causing the skin to get all cut up. It feels like really terrible rug burn that takes a long time to heal. Now, it’s a possibility it maybe the glove size or I don’t know how to punch but I doubt it.

I would buy them if you have the money, if you don’t there are many cheaper solutions. Do you own these gloves? Let me hear your review.

Gym Bag Goodies

Jimmy — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:58:06 +0000

After training a while, I found some good things to throw in my gym bag. Here are a couple of things I found useful to have in my gym bag.

Compressed Ice – Get injuried? Squeeze and freeze.
Athletic Tape – If you don’t need it someone else will. At my gym we have these weird new mats that really scratch you up. Tape your big toe, and you’ll be fine.
A Knee Brace – Fortunately my knees are okay for now, but sometimes they get hurt. I just throw this on when I need it.
Sanitary Whips – I use these all the time. Whenever I get an open cut, I right away whip down the cut with these to reduce my chances of some sort of infection. You can also whip down your equipment with these sanitary whips. Make sure to get the ones that aren’t used for cleaning surfaces. Get the baby wipe type ones.

Anything else useful to throw in your gym bag? Comment!

Note: Sorry for the lack of updates, I just got a new job and a big writers block. You’ll hear from me more! Promise.

Importance of Cleanliness

Jimmy — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:52:58 +0000

Few days ago, I wrote all about Staph Infections and one of the main ways to prevent infection is good hygiene. There are basically two parts of good hygiene. You must keep yourself clean and then keep your equipment clean. Both of these are equally important.

Clean Yourself

I know you’re going to be extremely exhausted after your training but it wouldn’t be wise to go right to sleep. You should right away wash yourself because you smell bad and you could prevent any type of infections. If you have any open cuts, take care of them by using some sort of antiseptic. I find neosporin helps with any sort of open wounds or cuts.

Sharing Is Not Caring

Though it may be tough to saying no if someone asks to borrow your gloves, it’s for the best for both parties. You never know if the borrower has any open cuts or anything of that nature. This goes for shin pads, wraps, and water bottles.

Equipment

Cleaning your equipment may be difficult because gloves and shin pads are leather and can’t be thrown in the wash. The best way to clean anything with leather is using a 1:100 water and bleach solution. Also I find spraying your gym bag down with lysol is a good idea because it’s a the ideal breeding ground for bacteria. If you have fight shows, underarmor, rashguards just throw them in the washer and hang dry them.

So do yourself and others a favor by keeping your stuff clean.

Tip: Pick yourself up antibacterial most wipes. I keep them in my gym back and if I get cut, I immediately clean it with one of these wipes.

Washing Hand Wraps

Jimmy — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:23:40 +0000

The other day while I was knee sparring, I got a complaint that my wraps smelled. I wash them as often as I could but the smell was still there. The obvious problem was I kept my warps rolled up when I washed them, which did no good. A lot of people will throw their wraps right into the wash (unwrapped) but most of the time their wraps will get all caught up in their washing machine.

The Solution

I found these bra mesh bag cleaner things laying around in my laundry room (dont laugh). So I thought to myself, well I can throw my wraps in these mesh bags and and wash them. So of course, I did, and it eliminated the awful sweat smell for the most part. I did some research and you can actually pick up these laundry mesh bags for other things such as socks that you can use to wash your wraps.

I found these meshbags on Walmarts website (New Window)

The MMA Stuff Wrap Washing System
1. MESH BAG

2. GET THE WRAPS

3. COMBINE

4. Throw in the washer.

Update: I also decided to spray the wraps with Lysol after they were washed and then hung them up to air dry. My wraps are now stank free.