Local Muscular Endurance …Legs

As part of our on-going series on building local muscular endurance for combat sports conditioning we bring back Jen Sinkler, senior editor at Experience Life Magazine and professional Rugby player. Jen insists that Rugby is a combat sport so I agreed to highlighting some of her workouts here.

This workout can be brutal and make you quite sore for some time after your training session.

This workouts usually consists of 4 rounds :

• 24 Squats
• 24 Jump Squats
• 24 Lunges( we mix up the variations…forward,reverse,lateral)
• 24 Jumping Lunges

I recommend starting with 12 reps of every exercises performed for 1-2 rounds. As your conditioning and tolerance improves work towards the full workout.

Building Local Muscular Endurance

Building local muscular endurance is a very important element for complete combat sports conditioning.
Depending on where our fighters and combat athletes are within their training schedule we like to spend several weeks developing local muscular endurance.

We run through several circuits that consist of several exercises for each muscle group. Below is a quick sample of our push circuit.

Please note: Every exercise within the circuit does not need to be a true pushing exercise. We look more at the muscle group involved…the pecs for example in the following video.

Sandbag Conditioning for Combat Sports

The simple sandbag is one of my favorite conditioning tools for combat sports conditioning.

Simple. Effective and easy to understand. Fill up a canvas seabag or duffle bag with sand and lift, carry, throw and slam that thing in just about any direction.

Here’s a short clip of one of my favorite sandbag exercises for combat sports:

Be Physical

Be Physical! A few weeks back I listed some tips that BJJ specialist Mario Roberto suggests for all combat athletes and submission fighters. You can see it here: Mario Roberto

Mario’s 1st tip is “Be Physical!”

Hearing his 1st tip was music to my ears…being a strength and conditioning coach for MMA fighters, BJJ and Judo players I’m always concerned with the physical conditioning of my athletes. I leave the technical development up to their BJJ and mma coaches.

As you’ll see in the video below, being in top condition for your BJJ or MMA matches is under your direct control and is one of the easiest elements to improve.

Under a well designed strength and conditioning program for combat sports you’ll be able to see improvement and progress in your conditioning within a few weeks, where as technical development may be a much slower process.

Also, at the highest levels of combat sports competition,technical skill is mostly equal and the element that determines the winner is usually the conditioning levels of that combat athlete.

Kettlebell Exercises..Breathing Ladders

I picked up this kettlebell training technique from friend Rob Lawrence, it’s called a Breathing Ladder. Basically you match the numbers of breaths you take with the number of reps you’ve performed.

I believe Rob actually placed the kettlebell down while taking his breaths but I’ve found this variation on Rob’s principle great for combat sport athletes and martial artists that need to keep a clear head while in a fatigued state.

Play around with different kettlebel exercises such as the Clean and Jerk/Press or Jerk alone. Let me know how it goes in the comments section below.

Turkish Get-up Warm-up

The Kettlebell Turkish Get-up has become a favorite exercise in combat sport and martial arts conditioning circles. I have always been a fan, however, some morning I need a little movement prep before I begin my Turkish Get-up practice.

This is my favorite bodyweight warm-up prior to performing Get-ups. This warm-up covers everything!

Here’s a cool instructional video of the Kettlebell Turkish Get-up in case you’re having any issues with mastering the Get-up.

A Combat Sports Success Story

I enjoy working with combat athletes of all skill and fitness levels. However, geography and time constraints simply do not allow me to work with everyone that I would like to. And to be honest that’s one reason why we created Combat Sports Conditioning.

Micah Atkinson is a BJJ Brown Belt from Novagen BJJ in South Africa and was our first official member. Now, I know Micah’s schedule and it is nothing short of hectic but somehow Micah always finds the time for conditioning and skill development.

Successful combat athletes do not wait around for the perfect schedule. They make time for training. They squeeze it in whenever possible…in between teaching sessions, before work or on their lunch hour.

I’m psyched that Micah is part of growing community and would like to share a little something that  Micah had to say after a recent BJJ competition.

“Hey Coach,

Just a quick one to say thanks again so much for the advice. I won both the gi and no-gi divisions for my weight at The Cape Of Storms Grappling Nationals this weekend in Cape Town, S.A.
I had 3 matches in each division (gi won with submission and 2 on points, no gi won all 3 by submission)and conditioning felt 100%!”

 

Thank You Micah!

Building you Gameplan!

I’d like to share the cold hard truth with you for a moment…

 Success is more than possessing a good plan.

 Success is possessing and executing a good plan.

 I can teach you everything you would need to know, and I plan to,

But I can’t make you do it. If I could, I would.

But for that you’re gonna have to fend for yourself.

What I can do though is this: I can try to motivate you!

 I can help you stay on track with the plan that you’ve developed.

 But… I’m getting ahead of myself.

I want you to download Part-1 of a 4-Part mini-course that we’ve developed specifically for our combat athletes…called ” The Ultimate Conditioning Blueprint for Combat Sports Performance.”

Now, no big deal if you’re not interested in combat sports. Simply insert you own sport or activity where ever I mention combat sports and just as easily start to develop you very own gameplan.

You can download your first lesson if you haven’t done so at: Combat Sports Conditioning Blueprint