How to Structure your MMA Training like a PRO (Even if you're a Beginner)
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Jack Crucial outlines a professional athlete's MMA and gym training structure, emphasizing the importance of balancing strength, speed, power, and endurance with adequate rest and recovery. He introduces the concept of maximum recoverable volume to prevent overtraining and injury, and suggests tracking training volume meticulously. Jack advocates for high-low periodization, alternating intense training days with lighter, skill-focused sessions, and provides examples of weekly training structures for various levels of MMA athletes. He also offers free resources for injury prevention and neck training to help viewers optimize their training.
Takeaways
- 🥋 To excel in MMA, a strong foundation in strength, speed, power, and endurance is crucial.
- 🏋️♂️ Consistent training and adequate rest are vital for longevity and performance in MMA.
- 📉 Monitoring maximum recoverable volume helps prevent overtraining and injury, allowing for continuous improvement.
- 🔍 Signs of exceeding maximum recoverable volume include stalling in gym lifts and a decline in performance.
- 📊 Tracking volume through weight, sets, and reps in the gym and by session type in MMA can guide training adjustments.
- 💪 Strength and conditioning are essential for increasing work capacity and improving overall MMA performance.
- 🔁 High-low periodization balances high-intensity training days with low-intensity skill work for optimal recovery and skill development.
- 🛑 Utilizing low-intensity days for technical drills and shadow boxing can significantly enhance MMA skills.
- 📝 Structuring a training week with high-intensity sessions, adequate rest, and low-intensity skill work is key for professional MMA athletes.
- 🆓 Free resources like injury prevention circuits and neck training programs can support long-term MMA training success.
Q & A
What is the key aspect to structuring MMA and Gym training like a professional athlete?
-The key aspect is structuring your programming intelligently, planning and structuring phases of your training to train harder for longer and recover more effectively.
Why is rest and recovery important in MMA training?
-Rest and recovery are crucial to prevent injuries, decrease the risk of performance decline, and ensure consistent training over time.
What is 'maximum recoverable volume' in the context of MMA training?
-Maximum recoverable volume refers to the amount of training an athlete can complete until they reach their physical limit, beyond which there is an increased risk of injury and reduced performance.
What are some signs that you might be training above your maximum recoverable volume?
-Signs include stalling in gym lifts, performance regression, feeling run down, and increased frequency of sickness.
How can you track your maximum recoverable volume?
-You can track it by meticulously calculating total volumes in the gym or by monitoring your performance and subjective feelings in MMA sessions.
What is the benefit of strength conditioning in MMA training?
-Strength conditioning allows you to improve work capacity over time, enabling you to train harder and develop skill qualities more effectively.
What is high and low periodization and how does it benefit MMA athletes?
-High and low periodization involves splitting high-intensity training loads with low-intensity training loads across the week. It allows athletes to push themselves on high days and recover on low days, minimizing injury risk and improving recovery.
How can low-intensity days be used to an MMA athlete's advantage?
-Low-intensity days can be used to improve technical proficiency through activities like Shadow Boxing, partner drilling, and light work, which are crucial for skill development in MMA.
What are the guidelines for structuring a training week for an MMA athlete?
-The guidelines include categorizing high and low sessions, adding high-intensity sessions first, spreading them out, adding a dedicated rest day, and filling other days with low-intensity exercises.
How can someone who is mainly focused on the gym structure their training to optimize for gym performance?
-They can structure their training by alternating between high-intensity gym days and low-intensity MMA days, ensuring they have adequate recovery and focusing on skill acquisition during low-intensity sessions.
What resources does Jack offer to help prevent injuries and improve MMA performance?
-Jack offers over half a year of injury prevention circuits and eight weeks of neck training, which can be accessed for free through the provided links.
Outlines
🥋 Structuring MMA Training for Elite Performance
The paragraph introduces the importance of structuring mixed martial arts (MMA) and gym training like a professional athlete. Jack Crucial, the speaker, emphasizes the need for a strong foundation in strength, speed, power, and endurance while also highlighting the importance of rest and recovery. He discusses the concept of 'maximum recoverable volume,' which is the optimal amount of training an athlete can handle before reaching physical limits. Overtraining can lead to injury, decreased performance, and poor recovery. Signs of exceeding this volume include stalled gym lifts, regression in performance, and a general feeling of being run down. Jack suggests tracking this volume meticulously by calculating total volumes in gym sessions and differentiating between high-intensity and technical MMA sessions. The goal is to improve week by week without overtraining.
🏋️♂️ High and Low Intensity Training for MMA
This section delves into the benefits of periodization in MMA training, which involves alternating between high and low-intensity sessions. High-intensity sessions include max effort strength conditioning, hard sparring, and heavy bag work, while low-intensity sessions focus on technical aspects like shadow boxing and drilling. The speaker provides guidelines for structuring a training week, whether for a casual, amateur, or professional MMA athlete. The key is to add high-intensity sessions first, ensuring they are well spaced out, and then fill the rest of the week with low-intensity exercises. This approach allows for peak performance while minimizing injury risk and improving recovery. The speaker also mentions the value of low-intensity days for improving technical proficiency in MMA.
🛠️ Implementing a Smart MMA Training Structure
The final paragraph wraps up the discussion by providing actionable steps for structuring a smart MMA training program. The speaker outlines the importance of determining one's maximum recoverable volume to ensure consistent training without overfatigue or injury. The concept of high-low periodization is reiterated, with a focus on using low-intensity days for skill acquisition. The speaker encourages viewers to reassess their current training structure and make necessary adjustments based on the principles discussed. He also provides free resources, including injury prevention circuits and neck training, to support viewers in their training journey. The paragraph concludes with a call to action for viewers to implement these strategies and stay tuned for future videos that will cover more detailed programming for gym sessions and a broader range of MMA-related topics.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡MMA
💡Elite Performance
💡Recovery
💡Maximum Recoverable Volume
💡Periodization
💡High-Intensity Training
💡Low-Intensity Training
💡Skill Acquisition
💡Injury Prevention
💡Strength and Conditioning
Highlights
Structuring MMA and Gym training like a professional athlete is crucial for success.
A strong foundation in strength, speed, power, and endurance is necessary for a mixed martial artist.
Rest and recovery are as important as training for maintaining performance and preventing injury.
Intelligent planning and structuring of training phases are key to effective training.
Training too hard five to seven days a week can lead to decreased performance and increased injury risk.
Maximum recoverable volume is the limit of training before reaching physical limits and risking injury.
Signs of training above maximum recoverable volume include stalling gym lifts and declining performance.
Tracking maximum recoverable volume can be done meticulously or through simpler methods.
Strength conditioning allows for increased work capacity over time, which is beneficial for MMA.
High and low periodization involves alternating high and low-intensity training loads throughout the week.
Periodization helps in achieving peak performance while minimizing injury risk.
Low-intensity days are ideal for improving technical proficiency in MMA.
Guidelines for structuring a training week are provided for various levels of MMA involvement.
High-intensity sessions should be spaced apart to allow for adequate recovery.
Dedicated rest days and low-intensity exercises fill the gaps between high-intensity sessions.
For those prioritizing gym performance, a different structure is suggested with a focus on strength and conditioning.
The provided training structure gives MMA athletes the tools used by the world's best fighters.
Free resources for injury prevention and neck training are available to help athletes stay on the mats.
Intelligent and hard training is necessary for MMA athletes to improve performance and minimize injuries.
Transcripts
hey everyone you're about to learn how
to structure MMA and Gym training like a
professional athlete my name is Jack
crucial I help athletes get out of pain
and injury and return to Elite
Performance be a successful mixed
martial artist you need to have a strong
Foundation of both strength speed power
and endurance production not only this
but you need to stay on the mats for as
long as possible and train as
consistently as possible so rest and
Recovery between sessions and across
weeks are just as vital as well and it
all comes down to one specific aspect
and that is structuring your programming
intelligently planning and structuring
phases of your training allows you to
train harder for longer as well as
recover more effectively so that you're
staying on the mat for as long as
possible why not use the same systems
that the best fighting athletes in the
world are using and I'm going to give
you this exact framework I see far too
often extremely stupid training
structures where people are trying to
train hard five to seven days a week
this is not going to allow you to have
the longevity that you need to perform
at your best for long periods of time
the first concept that we are going to
cover is maximum recoverable volume this
is the amount of training an athlete can
complete until they reach their physical
limit going Beyond this limit can lead
to increase of injury risk decrease in
performance and reduce recoverability
session to session we should be
improving week on week in an ideal
setting and if you're constantly
training above your maximum recoverable
volume it's going to be really difficult
to continue to improve your performance
what are some of the signs that you are
training above at your maximum
recoverable volume one of those signs is
that your gym lifts are stalling so
across two or three weeks you're either
stalling within your gym lifts or
they're starting to regress when you're
completing whether that's grappling
striking sessions whatever the case is
also subjectively feels like you're
performing worse and worse week after
week you also might feel run down you
might be getting sick all the time these
are really common signs that we're
training above our capacity so how to
track your maximum recoverable volume
two ways of doing this there's a more
meticulous way that you can integrate
and there's also an easier simple way if
you're not wanting to spend a ton of
time dialing this in so the meticulous
way first and foremost really breaking
down session by session exactly what
you're doing in a gym context you can
calculate total volumes by utilizing the
weight that you're lifting Times by the
sets that you're doing Times by the Reps
that you're doing so you can have a
total volume calculated and the beauty
of Gym training it is very very easy to
track the way that we're doing things in
terms of MMA sessions it's a little bit
more difficult however we can split it
up into two particular domains the first
domain would be hard sparring hard
rolling and things like that and the
second domain would be more so technical
work whether that's grappling drills
whether that's pad work whether that's
Shadow Boxing so you can really split
these apart and you can also factor in
the amount of rounds you're doing per
week or the total duration of each of
these modalities now you don't need to
dial things in this much it could simply
be a matter of tracking the way that
your lifts are progressing and it's very
easy to do this as well as just seeing
subjectively how you feel about your
performance week on week within an MMA
context if you feel like you're either
stalling or getting worse and worse from
a performance standpoint your roles are
getting worse your sparring is getting
worse it may be wise to look at the
amount of sessions you're doing and
potentially start looking at removing or
restructuring the way that you're
training one of the biggest benefits of
strength conditioning is you can improve
your work capacity over time somebody
who's a very experienced trainer within
the domains of MMA and the gym is going
to be able to do a lot more work than a
beginner in these domains and this is
the whole reason why strength
conditioning is so important regardless
of your sport especially if you're a
fighter the more work that you can do
the harder that you can train the more
that you can develop these skill
qualities over time that is the number
one benefit of doing strength and
conditioning on top of the MMA training
that you're doing high and low
periodization Charlie Francis is a
legendary Sprint coach and here's
somebody that used this exact training
principle a ton so it's splitting high
intensity training loads with low
intensity training loads and staggering
those across the week accordingly going
to show you specific examples if you're
both a casual MMA athlete as well as
somebody who's prioritizing MMA
completely but the purpose of
periodizing things in a high and low
fashion is it allows athletes to push
themselves on these high training days
such as sparring hard rolling these
sorts of rounds but also allows the
athlete to build technical proficiency
on the lower days and allows adequate
rest between high intensity efforts
essentially this principle allows you to
train up towards Peak Performance but
also improve your recovery between
sessions as well as minimize your injury
risk so you're getting all the benefits
of hard training whilst minimizing the
risk of injury so that you can continue
to train consistently this is the number
one cornerstone to getting better at
anything not just mixed martial arts no
not just strong in the gym it's staying
consistent and not missing time on the
mats because you're constantly injured
the biggest advantage that you have as a
mixed martial artist is you can make
really good use of these low intensity
days that you have as an example you can
improve your technical proficiency when
it comes to Shadow Boxing partner
drilling within a BJJ context and really
work and drill certain areas that you
have weakness points it's very rare to
have a sport where you can train at
really low intensities and get really
tangible benefit just because of how
technical the sport of mixed martial
arts is so use this to your advantage
this is something that most athletes
commonly avoid they don't do enough
Shadow Boxing they don't do enough
drilling use these opportunities to
become a better mixed martial artist
here are the guidelines that you can
utilize to structure your training week
whether you're just dabbling in MMA or
you're training as an amateur or even
professional fighter you can use these
same guidelines I've also included over
half a year of injury prevention
circuits that you can do immediately
after MMA sessions and it's in the link
in the description below I've also added
eight weeks of neck training which are
one of the most common injury areas as a
mixed martial artist that you can also
access for free I want to keep as many
of you in the ring and on the mats as
possible so these resources will really
help you to do that so now I'm going to
give you two examples of how to
structure your entire week whether
you're an amateur professional MMA
fighter I'll also give an example if
you're mainly just doubling an MMA and
want to structure your programming so
that you're optimizing for your gym
performance so so let's start by
categorizing our training sessions the
high sessions would be Max effort
strength conditioning tends to be lower
body in nature hard sparring Sprints and
explosive jumps and aerobic conditioning
and heavy backgrounds our low sessions
would be technical sparring Shadow
Boxing Zone to aerobic conditioning and
drilling
so here are the four steps to
programming your specific MMA training
for the week we're going to start by
adding the high intensity sessions first
the MMA based high intensity sessions
most gyms have fixed timetables so we
need to work around this we can add Gym
training days any day that we need to so
this allows us let's start with the
fixed variables as you can see let's use
an example we've got hard sparring we've
got heavy backgrounds and we have hard
wrestling rounds once we have these in
place try and select classes that are as
far apart from each other as possible so
in this example we've done a Monday
Wednesday Friday where we've got high
intensity sessions
now something that tends to confuse
people at the start is that I've added
hard shrink conditioning on those same
days the reason that I've done this is
so that we can dedicate a full day to
high intensity activity so as a result
on the Wednesday we've added our first
strength and conditioning session so
that that entire day is a full high
intensity day this gives us much bigger
breaks instead of us as an example
putting that string conditioning session
on the Thursday where we don't have
adequate recovery between hard sessions
we're treating an entire day as a high
intensity day instead it's a much
smarter way for us to better recover
session to session what we do from there
is add one dedicated day of rest and
then fill every other spot up with lower
intensity exercise you'll see as an
example on the Tuesday we've got Shadow
Boxing rounds and light pad rounds on
the Thursday we have grappling 60
intensity rolling light positional
specific train you can do some injury
prevention stuff with the combat
circuits and then Saturday we have
either off some additional MMA
conditioning things of that nature so
that's exactly how to structure things
now if we cover
somebody who's dabbling in MMA and their
main focus is the gym this is how I
would go about programming this
structure so on the Monday if we cover
the gym stuff first Monday's our lower
body Session One Tuesday is our upper
body session one this is overall less
taxing so I've classified it as a low
intensity day Wednesday rest Thursday
lower body number two Friday upper body
number two
as I mentioned we're adding high
intensity days as a whole so on the low
body days we're also doing a high a Muay
Thai BJJ wrestling at a high intensity
as well as the same concept on the
Thursday the Friday will be upper body
session two and some light MMA stuff
because Saturday and Sunday are lighter
sessions we can get away with what I
would classify like a low medium
intensity day and that's signified by
being colored yellow so this is a
general training structure that you can
utilize today and you can make changes
to the way that you're training
based on these principles alone you can
make these changes instantaneously so if
you want to continue to improve your
performance whilst minimizing your
chance of getting injured these are the
following steps that you need to follow
step one is working out what your rough
maximum recoverable volume is this
allows you to train below this limit and
ensure that you can consistently stay
less fatigued minimize injury risk
continue to increase performance week
after week second would be utilizing
high low periodization so splitting your
sessions up into high intensity sessions
as well as low intensity sessions
according to the table that we discussed
previously and finally using those low
intensity days to improve your skill
acquisition Shadow Boxing partner
drilling really light work to improve
your skills and techniques these are
arguably just as important those as
those hard sparring and rolling rounds
that we do throughout the week which we
love and enjoy guaranteed there's at
least one thing that you learn today
that you can Implement into your
training as of tomorrow so really look
at your weekly structure really look at
the way that you're training and
programming things make sure that you're
training intelligently as an MMA athlete
you need to train both smart and hard
and this allows you to do that the way
that we structured this today gives you
the same tools that some of the best
mixed martial artists in the world use
as I mentioned also use the free
resources that I provided for you I've
given you over half a year of injury
reduction circuits you can integrate for
the rest of the year thanks for watching
and stay tuned for future videos where I
cover the exact ways to actually program
gym sessions so that it benefits your
MMA performance also be covering a ton
of topics across a broad spectrum all
the way from injury to Elite Performance
so stay tuned and I'll see you in the
next one cheers
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