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If you look at some of my older posts there are references to doing isolated muscle group workouts. If you haven’t been following the blog for that long, I used to lift the only way I knew how to lift. Tri/Chest, Shoulders/Back, Legs/Biceps, some sort of 3 or 4 day split.  I was taught this way of lifting from my roommate where we trained for hypertrophy. When I started training MMA I continued to hit the gym to supplement my training but I never changed my outlook on weight lifting.

The Problem

• Doing certain specific groups gave me nothing for MMA that night. For example, if I did shoulders, you can imagine I had a tough time keeping my hands up.
• I did a lot of dumb isolated exercises that had no functional carry over to MMA. For example, leg curls, isolated bicep curls,  and so on and so forth.
• For some reason I spent too long in the gym doing a bunch of exercises for one muscle.

Strength Training

Recently I’ve totally thrown out and written off my old ways of lifting weights. It wasn’t about lifting weights, strength training comes in many other forms. I’ve incorporated a lot of body weight exercises, kettlebell training, and plyometrics. I still do lift weights, I try to do at least one barbell complex a week.

Some other things I’ve been doing differently is the trying to do full body exercises and more circuit training to really tax my muscle endurance. I’ve also been cutting my time at the gym, spending no more than 30-40 minutes at the gym. This helps me from being too burnt out for  nightly training.

I’ll be venturing into sandbag training and sled pulling also, so I’ll be blogging about that in the near future.

Past MMA Training Mistakes Round-up:
MMA Training Mistake #1 – Balance
MMA Training Mistake #2 – Feedback
MMA Training Mistake #3 – Mouthpiece

Related posts:

1. Journalizing Your Workout
2. Great Body Weight Partner Workouts
3. Caveman Training for MMA

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There has been a lot of hype about Kettlebells within the past few years. I’ve read about them on fitness blogs and seen a lot of pro MMA fighters use them. Few months ago, I was tired of reading about it and I just wanted to get into it. I decided to sign up for a body weight and kettlebell workshop with The Training Room, in New Jersey run by Mike Stehle and James Milkowski, both RKC certified. It was an 8 hour workshop where I learned all the kettlebell movements, a bunch of their exercises they use using minimal equipment. I also had the pleasure of doing some of their conditioning programs using a mixture of bodyweight and kettlebell movements. After the workshop I instantly was in love with kettlebell training and soon after found out there were different styles of kettlebell training.

Russian Kettlebell Club (Hard Style)
Sandy Sommer explained what RKC is about to me in this way:

RKC is “hard style.” What we mean is that we do our quick lifts as fast as
possible with good form. The clean, the snatch and the Russian swing would
be examples. On the “Grinds” like Turkish get up, front squats and presses
we use maximal tension and a very slow speed. We teach building strength
through the practice and application of maximal muscular contraction.

We do all ballistics as fast as possible for two reasons; to develop as much
power and force as possible as well as to get the training effect with as
little volume as possible.

American Kettlebell Club (Girevoy Sport)
This is also known as the “fluid style” which is geared for the sport part of Kettlebells. In my training we focus on the Jerk, Snatch and Long Cycle Jerk under timed sets. The swings are not ballistic like in the RKC style.

Bob Garon explains

A lot of folks look at Girevoy Sport style Kettlebell training and think that because the “fluid style” (AKC, IKFF & true Eastern European styles) appears smooth and slower that it cannot be explosive. What is actually happening is that every rep is as explosive as it needs to be. You see our sets usually begin where other styles of training end. Every rep throughout out 10 minute plus sets need to be as explosive from the first to the very last. One time of being lazy and not performing it right could count as a missed rep. The bells cannot be set down during the set or that results in a loss. Because of this we need to learn how to survive under the stress of the set. The focus is strength endurance.

My training with kettlebells has indeed helped me rest under duress.

Great for MMA!

Kettlebells are an amazing full body workout that helps every part for fitness. It helps breathing while under stress. For example taking a second rest in the lock out position would translate well into resting in someone’s mount. Bob Garon explains why kettlebells are so great for MMA.

In MMA that means an injury or loss. MMA fighters need to learn how to survive from the first minute to the last as well as be as explosive as they can every minute in the middle. If they just went all out in the first minute or two they’d never make it to the end. This is how we live life as well. We don’t walk around rigid and tight. We stay as loose as we can and only use the necessary muscles to get the job done. That’s called efficiency. In MMA if the fighter doesn’t move and think efficiently then they will most likely not come out on top. GS style Kettlebell training directly applies to MMA practitioners for this very reason.

Sandy Sommer adds:

You forge an iron grip using just a kettlebell. Crazy strong grip:)

Flexibility is a by product of RKC.

Stamina goes without saying.

Resilience and the ability to withstand brutal punishment come from the
kinetic linking we teach. Your body works in concert and never in isolation.

Teaching Olympic style explosive strength without the learning curve.

RKC strength engages the core in every breath you take. I do NO other core
work other than my kettlebell practice and I’ve got an iron core.

I want to thank my contributors:

Bob Garon who runs Synergy Kettlebell Kamp, cerified IKFF and AKC instructor. Follow @bobgaron on Twitter.

Sandy Sommer who runs Charm City Kettlebells, certified RKC. Follow @sandysommer on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Link Round-up: Core Workouts
2. MMA Training for Balance and Coordination
3. Yoga and MMA