Results of an 8 week General Strength program

by Bill Easlick

Hello, I just wanted to share the latest example of how we use Joel Jamieson's strength and conditioning (S&C) programming and his BioForce testing system to measure an MMA athlete's overall performance.

When we last left out hero "Joe", he had just finished up an 8 week block of General Conditioning and was now looking towards making some gains in his overall strength.

Here is how Joe finished up the previous General Conditioning block.

Bro.. why you trying to squat in my curl rack?

Armed with this detail of performance knowledge about Joe, I designed a strength program for him.  Many strength and conditioning coaches are not working with their fighter's skill trainers (and vice versa) and therefore the two don't understand the total scope or impact of their training on the athlete.

I've seen numerous cases of a fighter who is looking to become stronger getting advice from people who tell him "You gotta lift big Bro!" and proceed to give him a 3-4 day/week workout plan that looks like a powerlifting routine full of very high intensity compound lifts 90%+ 1RM.

This is fine, if you want to be a powerlifter and that is your ultimate training goal.  But if you're a fighter training 4, 5, or more sessions of skill training per week, this volume of intense strength training can often over-tax your central nervous system (CNS), cause insufficient recovery (for both), result in poor performance (for both) and probably reduce your cardio in the process.  If you're lifting like this, you're probably eating like it was your last day on earth and gaining weight too.

Or on the opposite end of the spectrum, fighters will often get advice to train Crossfit, which sounds like a good idea (after all they're "Forging Elite Fitness" right?) but the results are often much less than elite.  Low maximal strength, poor aerobic capacity, excessive shoulder training for fighter's, and very narrow window of metabolic work (lactic), and a focus on explosive power vertically (Oly Lifts) instead of forward or rotational which is much more applicable to combat sports.

So you can see, if a fighter swings to either side of S&C training too far, he will make poor adaptations for MMA. It's crucial to keep that in mind - the entire and sole purpose of S&C work is to make you a better fighter. To allow you to apply your skills faster, with more power, for a longer duration than others.

So here's what he needed to do over the block:

• Build strength. Joe was familiar with weight training, but did not have a good understanding of strength training - form, ques, breathing properly, and mindset gained from more serious strength training. Case in point. -Squats. His version of a squat was much different than mine and I got him to set a low back bar, a wider stance, getting his butt down below parallel and timing his breath with the lift.  This took some time, but I think Joe can agree, it was invaluable to his future in strength training. The next time he sees a kid do a deadlift with a rounded back, he'll be the guy who offers good advice that makes a difference in someones performance.
• Benefit from the "Novice Effect" without over taxing the athlete. This was the real challenge and where working with Joe in both skill and S&C is important because I needed to see how he was responding so that he could take advantage of the ability to make big strength gains but wouldn't become overtrained. It's a fine line between wanting wanting to see your stats grow, but still performing well in training.
• Skill training. Joe has been working very hard on the mats and his focus has been improving his skills on his feet both in striking and in his clinch and wrestling as well. He could not afford for his S&C to hamper his skill training, particularly his sparring sessions where he needed to be fresh.
• Cardio maintenance.  As a fighter gearing up for his debut fight, Joe could not afford to slack off here either. We know that we weren't building both up together, but we could not led cardio slide.
• Weight.  Joe will be fighting at 155 so it was important that he ate enough to recover from the training, but didn't consume enough to cause him to gain weight. This isn't as easy as it sounds. There is a reason powerlifters are "big guys" Those extra calories help them recover from the intense lifting and allow them to gain muscle mass which has a relationship with strength. 

These were the results of his 8 week General Strength Block.

Joe raised his Strength profile one entire point. He was able to increase in four out of the five categories of his physical profile, and maintain his level of aerobic fitness. Most importantly, his strength gains were very noticeable in his MMA training. All of his sparring partners commented on how much harder it was to move him in the clinch, and Joe was able to clinch and take down much heavier sparring partners who would formerly escape from his holds with size and strength. On his feet, his increase in anaerobic power and output was also felt.

Joe's final strength statistics for his 8 week strength block.
Increases in calculated 1 rep max:

• Squat - increased 62 lbs.
• Bench - increased 21 lbs.
• Deadlift - increased 114 lbs.
• Press - increased 30 lbs.

Stronger. Without losing his cardio. And improving his MMA skills. Great job!

Did you happen to notice that he LOST weight?

After wrapping up this training block, Joe will move onto a shorter 6 week block of Power/Endurance before beginning his very first fight camp.

Thanks for reading.