Last-Minute MMA Fight Training

Recently in this forum thread, somebody asked a question that I see somewhat regularly from fighters that are getting ready for their next MMA fight. And that question is (more or less):

"I only have 2-4 weeks left before my next fight. What sort of workout should I do to help prepare?"

Oh man.

The answer is one that they usually don't want to hear - by this point, what workout you do isn't going to matter that much.

You see, when you're only 2-4 weeks out from a fight, you pretty much waited until the last-minute to address your strength and conditioning needs, and now it's about too late.

You see, at this stage of the game, if you were doing a full MMA Workout leading into your fight, you really wouldn't be still developing your strength, cardio, endurance, etc.

Rather, you'd be adapting it.

You see, this close to a fight, it's virtually too late to develop more strength or conditioning. (Well, that's not entirely true, but I'll get into that in a minute.) By this point, you want to be taking the S&C you have, and 'molding' it toward the specific needs of MMA.

Instead of just being strong, having good cardio and endurance, etc., you need to be a good fighter. That means doing more and more skills training, sparring, hitting the bag, drilling, etc.

All this skills training does two things:

1 - It makes you a better fighter. Duh.

2 - It gets you in better shape. Sure, you might have good wind, and think you're in shape. But can you throw punches non-stop for minutes on end? Can you keep scrambling on the ground? Can you still shoot in for the takedown when you're tired?

And more importantly, can do any of these things intensely? Or, after your first hard minute or two of activity, are you just flailing around like a big rag doll?

That's what skills training can do - help take you from being in 'good' shape to being in 'fighting' shape.

Remember when I said 2-4 weeks wasn't really enough time to get any stronger, improve your cardio, etc?

Well, that's not completely true.

You can make S&C improvements in 2-4 weeks - people do it all the time. But as a fighter, it's not necessarily a good idea.

To make those kinds of S&C improvements, you're going to have to do some intense S&C training. (Makes sense, right?) Well, that's not what you want to be doing this close to a fight.

First of all, it should go without saying that skills training comes first. That means that everything else comes second or less. That also means that your skills training should be the most important. If it's the most important, then that means that your recovery abilities should be reserved as much as possible for your skills work. Doing intense S&C work will take away from that.

(Again, remember that had you been doing S&C workout for your MMA Training all along, though you'd be doing intense S&C work, you wouldn't really be trying to develop new levels of S&C. You'd be making the S&C capabilities you had developed by this point more MMA-specific.)

Next, because intense S&C work is what would be needed, it can set you up to be overtraining or worse yet, get injured.

Intense S&C training is not only tough on your physically because it breaks your body down, but it can also be very demanding on your CNS, which is already likely getting taxed pretty heavily from all your skills work.

Then there is the idea that while you might build more S&C capabilities, you still won't have time to adapt them to being MMA-specific. Now, that's not to say that being stronger or having better wind won't still be helpful, but you'd have been much better off had you started early on, and been able to prepare properly.

Ultimately, it's the "skills that pay the bills". This close to the fight, you're best off by trying to be the best fighter you can technically, be that being a better striker, improving your ground game and submissions, learning how to stuff takedowns, or whatever. All these will help you win a fight much more than adding 20-30 lbs. to your bench press 1RM.

That isn't to say that a good MMA Workout Program isn't important. It just means that you have to start far enough out from the fight for it to be done right.

In the end, you need to focus on what gives you the best chance of having your hand raised at the end of the fight.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard-
Matt "Wiggy" Wiggins
http://www.workingclassfitness.com

PS - If you haven't waited too long, and still need a good MMA Workout, then, being the self-promoting shill I can't help but recommend the "Working Class MMA Workout Program"...and if you get the "Championship Edition", you even get a month of "Power Trip" workouts and all the extras...FREE!