Most people understand that there is a difference between exercise for the sake of health and longevity versus exercise for the specific purpose of increasing sport performance.

Those who are interested in mixed martial arts and already have a dedication to working out should be commended. Your mental grit and willpower will make you a better fighter.

However, despite their good intentions, many would-be fighters are doing various exercises and performing work out routines that will have little or no impact on their performance in the ring. Worse yet, they may be doing things that are decreasing their MMA conditioning.

Ultimately, there are two questions that need to be asked for every exercise, drill and workout.

1. Why am I performing the exercise?
2. How will this exercise help my performance?

Body Building Vs MMA Training

I’ve heard it said that body building is the worst thing to happen to American strength training – and I tend to agree. In body building, your goal is to build a visually pleasing body – a sculpture. In MMA, any statuesque muscles and ripped abs are merely a by-product of training, not our goal. When we start the path of training to compete in fight sports, let us be careful to make sure we keep our goals in mind.

Muscles adapt to stimulus in some fairly predicable ways. It makes sense – do a few weeks at weighted bicep curls and you body will reorganize and change your body to be able to perform that exercise better. Not only do muscles respond to the weight lifted, but also the tempo of how they were lifted, the number of times lifted (sets/reps), the movement angles and the body positioning when lifted.

Now, in general, we don’t want to think about training body parts, but movements.  Kicks, punches, take down defenses – you know, the movements of MMA.

Be Specific

There are two definitive physical exertions in MMA – the burst of movement – like a flurry of punches – and the grind of strength-endurance  – like when a grappler is struggling to sink in a submission.

When you think of training the cardiovascular component of MMA, you need to think in terms of your expected output in the ring. Do you and your opponent have a foot race around the octagon before punching? More likely, there will be a few “feeler” strikes thrown, followed by a fast exchange of blows – possibly an explosive take down.

15-25 seconds of a ballistic fury of punches on your heavy bag, followed by 30 seconds rest models real cage fighting more than doing laps – especially from a energy output perspective. I’ve said it before, triathalon training isn’t proper cardio for MMA.

Also, in terms of the bursts of activity, MMA’ers want to be able to produce maximal power for their strikes. In part, the explosiveness comes from body’s ability to quickly recruit muscle fibers to help out with the action. On the flipside, maximal muscle contraction isn’t about quickly recruiting muscles fibers, but just about recruiting them period. Bench pressing your one rep max takes several seconds – and you know how grueling and slow that can be. However, that kind of exertion doesn’t really take place in MMA.

Now for the strength-endurance part. When you’re not striking, you’re grappling – clinching together, squeezing, pushing. Strength-endurance is the ability to exert your muscles at the higher ranges of tension for a length of time. This can be either one continious, long push, or a series of pushes in a lengthy series.

Two common tests of stregth-endurace are push ups and pull ups. “Drop and give me 20″ is just the start. It’s reported that Ken Shamrock had to perform 500 hindu squats to get into the Lions Den.

How Specific?

Certainly, we could argue that you should only be doing the exact movements present in the sport – sparring, heavy bag punching, weighted grappling.  That would be pretty specific wouldn’t it?

Well, there are problems with the “only do ultra specific exercises” mentality. Two come to mind immediately.

First, overuse injuries. Our bodies just can’t do the same exact thing every day for months on end. Rock climbers and tennis players alike know this. Carpal tunnel syndrome anyone?

Second, muscles and bones don’t grow to reach their max potential without multidimensional strength development. Plus, muscles can also develop synergistically in groups – like the biceps and triceps.  Strength in one body area can be throttled by lack of strength in another.

The truth is that there is a range of specificity – exercises that are close enough to the movement increase your proficiency. Earlier I mentioned about the speed of lifting your one rep max – I didn’t mean to imply that building your 1RM won’t be helpful – because it can – but that it isn’t the topic right now.

Body Positioning

The [study] results stress the importance of selecting exercises in which the posture closely resembles that of the movements they are attempting to facilitate.

- From the article The specificity of strength training: the effect of posture ; European Journal of Applied Physiology; Volume 73, Numbers 3-4 / May, 1996 (link)

For the purpose of skill enhancement, you want to perform exercises in the same body position in which you’d see them in the ring. Again, this makes sense. Even though it works the quadraceps, the seated leg raise doesn’t influence the squat max like a front squat does. You are pushing the weight in an entirely different plane, one against gravity one perpendicular to it. Seated leg presses should be good for your butterfly guard sweeps and up kicks – but not as much so for your standing kicks and knee strikes.

The study cited above did some work along those lines of thinking.

Specific Doesn’t Mean Isolation

Don’t get too hasty now – remember that your body is like a team of muscles. When the muscles are coordinated, they will all help each other out. Take punching, for instance. If you want to puch harder, you’re going to need to specific shoulder, lat, arm and chest muscles to move the fist to another dude’s face. However, if you have a weak base, your punch will lack the back up power to knock out opponents. Pushing from your legs increases the punching movement’s speed and power.

Some Odds and Ends

• Free weights model MMA much better than weight machines. When fighting, you’ll have pressure exerted on you in all different directions – training in one static plane is … let’s leave it at “bad”.
• Multiple joint exercises are a great way to go. Not only are they an efficient use of your time, but activities like punching use muscles from your feet all the way up to your shoulders. Squats, bent presses, side presses, turkish get ups, dead lifts, kettle bell swings, etc.
• Explosive movements should be done with care, under good supervision. I love plyometrics – box jumping, medicine ball throws, snatches, clean and jerks, etc – just make sure you’re trained to do them right or expect injury pains.
• You need some wit to add weight to certain movements. If you wear wrist weights when boxing, in what direction does this add resistance? Hmmm… how would you add non-ballistic resistance to those punches in the opposite direction of the punch?
• If you’re competing in a match with 3 rounds of 5 minutes, train accordingly. Training in a circut that has 5 sets of 3 minutes wouldn’t do the trick, nor would one continuous exertion of 15 minutes.

Of course, this is a throwback to basic goal setting. I am reminded of an exchange between Alice and the Cheshire cat from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …so long as I get somewhere.
The Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.

For further reading, check out the NSCA’s article of specificiity for sport – those guys know their stuff. Another good read is The Physical Needs of MMA part 1 and part 2.

If you can spring for it, below is an excellent book. Dense, serious, and scientific. I got my copy from the University of Utah library.

Pull ups are a measure of your toughness – and lets face it, a barometer of your true manliness – whether you’re a fighter or not. Nearly since the dawn of time, the US military has been using pull ups to de-sissify recruits and weed out wimps. If you are a mixed martial artists, the pull up definitely needs to be in your rotation of exercises.

The Reasons

But why should you do pull ups in favor of other exercises? Glad you asked.

First of all, the pull up is a full body exercise when done right. It works your back, arms, abs, stabilizers … the works. It’s pragmatic, efficient. Second, the pull up has tremendous cross over in terms of sports performance in mma. To name just a few things, the latissimus dorsi are important for:

• Punching power – the lats help “ground” your punches, stabilizing the arm to the torso. Trust me. Boxers have been doing it for ages with this in mind.
• Keeping guard – lats help you pull your opponent down into your the guard so he can’t posture up, ground and pound or execute passes.
• Judo/Greco-Roman throws – While standing and clinching, lats assist you in dominating such positions as the body locks, over/under hooks control, the plumb clinch (Muay Thai clinch), etc.

Third, the pull up has a multitude of variations. On his blog, Mr. Low Body Fat talks about pull ups and explains:

Infinite variability is important, because it allows you to perform an exercise year after year, without burning out your mind or your connective tissue. So variability allows you to safely do what’s important—all the time, not just one week out of four, which means you never make any progress.

Doing it right

There are many ways to perform a pull up, but a few things are important throughout.

• Pull up from a dead hang. Every rep you pull off, go back to the fully extended hang.
• Stay hanging from the bar until the set is over. Don’t let go between reps. If you cant hold your grip, the set has ended.
• Don’t use gear to ease the pull. No arm slings, rubber bands, wristbands that hook up on the bar, etc. Pull ups are hard, they should be that way. Don’t use the assisted pull up machines either, for that matter. They typically don’t help you get to true pull ups any faster than a isometric contraction when hanging from a bar will. Plus, they don’t get your stabilizer muscles working, which means they’ll be a weak link when you do true pull ups.
• No cheating – swinging your legs or “kipping” up is a obvious no-no. Grind out the pull up.
• Keep your torso quiet ie: keep a firm, unshaky body on the way up and down. Don’t let your legs flop about.

The Fighter Pull Up

The ever popular “Evil Russian”, Pavel Tsastoline, talks about the difference of a fighter pull up and a body building pull up, saying

The pullup is the logical choice of an exercise to strengthen your lats. If you ask
an experienced bodybuilder how to work the latissimus most thoroughly he
will tell you to look up, force your chest open, and draw your shoulder blades
together on the top of the pullup. This may be okay for bodybuilders, but what
does this have to do with fighting? You move in the ring in what gymnasts call
“the hollow position” the scapulae flared and the chest caved in. This is the
way you should finish your pullups. Look straight ahead and hunch over the
bar. Touch your neck or upper chest to the bar to make sure there is no
question that you have completed the rep.

Variety, The Spice of Life

As mentioned earlier, the pull up exercise has many variations.

Grip:

You can narrow the grip position from wide to close. Just to get things straight, when you flip the grip, so the palms face toward your face, that’s a chin-up, not a pull up, but an acceptable variant anyway. If you can find the equipment, you can do pull ups on gymnastic rings or on rock-climbing hand holds.

Weights:

Once you can crank off a dozen or more in a row, (no sooner, comrade!) you can add a bit of weight. I’ve seen people strap on a weightlifters belt and hang a plate from it, but that has never suited me, but if does to you, go for it. Also, some people have those nifty adjustable weighted belts or vests, letting them slide in or out an extra couple of pounds. Most gyms I know have those ankle weight straps with the Velcro, but you may have to walk into the girly aerobic step classes to find them. To avoid such dishonor, I prefer the low tech method – a regular back-to-school backpack. If you get serious about stacking on the weight, a sturdy pack can accommodate quite a bit.

Taking a page out of Westside Barbell club manual, wrapping a heavy chain over your shoulders will add a good deal of weight, and if it’s long enough, it will become heavier the higher you are on the pull up.

One other thing – pinch a dumbbell between your feet or better, if you have one, use a kettlebell by slipping your foot through the handle.

Leg Placement:

Try doing a pull up with one knee tucked to your chest. Then two. Then extend both legs so your body makes a perfect 90 degree angle and the hips. Make sure the body is stiff throughout the pull.

Gear

After hearing that the famous “Super Foot” Bill Wallace did pull ups on vacation by opening the bathroom door in his hotel room, placing a towel on the top, and doing pull ups like he was climbing over a wall, I promptly broke my bedroom door in imitation. Here is some gear that I’ve used and liked to get the job done.

Below: The standard door jam pull up bar. Screws out and in to adjust in length, has two cups to position the bar’s ends.

The bottom of the two one is the top of the line model, and the top one is the cheapie. I personally think the pure silver one is better, because I don’t like the gripping situation and pads on the low price one, but to each his own.

This one slips on and off the door jam, needs no installation. Easily moved from door frame to door frame. On these two, I actually prefer the top one because of its multiple angles and grips.

For on the road pull ups, these are neat. The two handles slip over the top of the door with ease. You close the door – making it more stable – and proceed to do some chin ups. If you stay at a budget hotel, you can break the door with the “SuperFoot” method.

The permanent wall mounted version. Pretty decent if you can afford the wall space and know how to properly attach it.

The adjustable, weighted vest system. You can easily add resistance for you pull ups with this thing. Out of the few I know, I like this vest best. You can have it weigh 10- 100+ pounds. Some of the weighted vest are crappy and cheap-feeling, but this one is the real deal. Also good for push ups and resistance running.

It feels like you’re wearing body armor when you put this on. Which reminds me, if you’ve got a spectra or kevlar vest, you’re already got on of these.

Quoted Pages/Resources on Pull ups:

Mr Low Body Fat’s Blog . He can do 12-13 reps weighing in at 215 at age 49, pretty decent.

Begin to Dig blog. Some nice pictures and a video on the pull up, plus a couple of resource links.

Clarence Bass, Ripped. Article on how Clarence Bass interprets Pavel T.’s pull up ladder program. If you don’t know, Clarence can probably beat you up, even though he’s old enough to be your grandpa. Check his photos – he’s ripped.

Pavel Tsatsouline’s Fighter Pull-Up. Pavel’s “Fighters Pull up”. A few details on the pull up procedure itself, and a full workout plan. The schedule is kind of like a reverse pyramid, if that makes sense.

Military men do pull ups.

http://www.military.com/military-fitness/fitness-test-prep/perfecting-pull-up

http://www.military.com/military-fitness/fitness-test-prep/pullup-push-workout

For a long time now, I’ve harbored the belief that spending an hour on the treadmill is retarded. For MMA’ers, I think there are better things to do with your time. Personally, I love to hate fast as possible, puke-your-guts-out, sprinting.

It’s not that this notion is new, or without it’s detractors and misinformed proponents. An article that bring up the basic idea was put up recently at Men’s Journal, titled Cardio is Bunk. Essentially,

As opposed to aerobics, this type of exercise [anaerobic exercise] involves maximum-effort training, such as sprinting and lifting weights, in which the intensity of the exercise exceeds the body’s ability to supply oxygen to muscles. “Shorter, high-intensity workouts burn off glucose much faster than long runs, so you start burning fat at a much higher rate, your heart beats so hard that it becomes stronger, and you’re pushing yourself to such extremes that anything else you do feels easier.”

.. [I]n terms of sports performance, endurance training is no longer seen as the key to being a better athlete.

Now, I don’t agree with everything said there, but it’s a decent introduction to the idea.

For fighters, developing a bigger gas tank (IE having more fight endurance) is crucial. If you are considering fighting competitively, consider this: How long will you be fighting – total rounds, duration, and rest periods. Are your current workouts modeling the body workload and energy expenditure of a real fight?

If you’d like to ponder over endurance a bit more, I’d suggest reading a few articles at Gym Jones including Endurance V.2 Using Short, High Intensity Circuits and Intervals to Sharpen an Endurance Base and Strength for Endurance How Increasing Strength also Improves Endurance.

Interestingly enought, at the University of Utah, a friend of mine is beginning a study involving hypoxic training, ATP production and lactic acid thresholds. Essentially, try doing a round of shadow boxing/heavy bag hitting breathing through a snorkel and see how that effects you. Hopefully, this study will further develop a body of research to help fighters train better.