A Basic Strength Plan for Fighters

Last week I talked about some of the mistakes fighters often make in the gym. Since it’s important to focus on solutions instead of whining about problems, let’s have a look at a very basic strength program that avoids these mistakes and still keeps you strong enough to fight. Be warned, there’s nothing fancy here. No voodoo, no quick fixes, and no ultra-high-tech biohacking Matrix weirdness. What’s below are solid principles and fundamentals that get you where you need to go. Kind of like how in fighting it’s the footwork and technique that carry the day, so it is here. OK, enough rambling, let’s get right to it. Starting with the…

Warm-up, ~5-10 minutes. If you’re an athlete of any kind, you’re probably already familiar with the concept of a warm-up. The purpose is to raise core body temperature, get joints used to the movement patterns about to be used, and get muscles used to contracting more forcefully than they do when you’re sitting on your behind at a computer leaving mean tweets. For this warm-up, you’re going to do three stretches: the hip flexor stretch, the pec stretch, and the hanging lat stretch (you can find out the details of them in here.) After that, you’ll do a short circuit. Each of the following exercises will be done for 10 reps for three rounds, all with just bodyweight: good morning, push-up, hip thrust, inverted row, marching plank. All exercises are to be done with perfect form. No flailing around like you’re having a seizure. Do this at a pace that is fast enough to make you sweat, but not so fast you want to puke. You know you’ve got the right pace if you have just enough breath to be able to say “This pace is just right” through the whole circuit. Remember, this is strength and conditioning, not conditioning and more conditioning.

Explosive work ~5-10 minutes. Just what you’ve wanted, right? Now we’re in the workout proper. We start out with what’s most demanding on your nervous system. Despite what you may think, strength and explosiveness are actually both nervous system things, not muscle things. What we’re working on when we do this work is teaching your nervous system to tell muscles to contract quickly and forcefully. That’s why what we will not be doing is chasing a pump or aiming at failure. Aiming at failure is teaching your nervous system to fail. NOT GOOD! Because of this, we’ll be doing the explosive work differently than you may have done in the past. We’ll be doing standing long jumps. For all jumps, if you stick the landing, you’ve done it right. If you find yourself falling all over or tumbling to save yourself, you’ve done it wrong. Quality is key. For all sets, you’ll do three jumps. Start at 50% power, then 60%, then 75%. Finally, you’ll do three sets at 90-95% power. Rest one to two minutes between those sets. During your rest periods, feel free to do some light shadowboxing, gentle footwork drills, or very light stretching. Notice that the words “gentle” and “light” keep getting used. This is so your rest period stays a rest period.

Heavy lifting, ~20-30 minutes. Here it is, what you’ve probably been waiting for, the big lifts. You’ll start with a squat. It goes without saying that you should learn to squat before you start throwing a truckload of weight on the bar. Just like with your fighting, learn proper technique before you start sparring. People often ask how deep you should squat. Some people say to parallel (top of knee even with hip fold), some say ass to grass, some say just above parallel. I’m going to cheat and say “as deep as you can while keeping excellent form and being pain-free.” If squatting ass to grass leads you to round your back and resemble a dog fertilizing the yard, don’t go that deep. If going to parallel hurts your low back, stop just short of parallel. The only people who truly need to worry about hitting a certain depth are powerlifters, which you are not.

You’ll start with an empty bar and do five reps with amazing form. Then add weight and do another five reps. Every time you do a set, ask yourself “On a scale of one to ten, one being the easiest and ten causing me to nearly soil myself and collapse, how hard was that?” We’re aiming for a seven or eight. And, for the love of God, answer honestly. If you struggle so much you start shaking like you’ve got Parkinson’s disease while you do the last rep and then tell me “That was a 6,” I swear I’ll slap you silly. Once you’ve hit that seven or eight, stop adding weight and do two more sets at that same weight. How much rest should you get between sets? One minute on the sets that feel like they’re a six or below and two to three minutes between the sets that feel like they’re above a six. I will be redundant, do not start sparring, doing heavy bag work, or any other hard, fast, heavy anything. It’s a rest period. Gentle and light things are fine and even encouraged. After the squatting, you move on to the overhead pressing. Repeat the same process that you went through for squatting.

Fixing weak points and rehab work. Everybody’s got weaknesses or things that need to be rehabbed and you’re no different. In my experience, the things a fighter usually needs to work on are ab strength (not endurance, so don’t even think about doing endless sit-ups,) upper back, and glute/hamstring work. There’s a lot of pushing (punches,) so we need to create balance and build the back. Otherwise you’ll end up with boxer’s hunch. That tight, guarded position is great for the ring, but if you’re walking around during the day with it, your upper back is relatively weak. The abs also need to be strong for two reasons: giving punishment and taking it. The stronger your abs are, the more efficiently force gets sent from the feet to the hands or elbows or other foot. If you don’t believe this, try throwing a punch as hard as you can with a relaxed belly. You’ll be slow like molasses and won’t be able to knock a fly out. The same goes for taking hits. If your core is too weak, you’ll end up like Houdini. And I don’t mean doing jaw-dropping escapes. Finally the glutes/hamstrings need to be strong. Anybody with experience fighting knows that power in a strike comes from the hips. Guess what the main muscles that create power in the hips are: glutes and hamstrings.

Alright, enough of the why. You’re probably dying to hear the how. So, here it is. There are three exercises, to be done in this order: pull-ups (five sets of ten,) single-leg hip thrusts (five sets of ten per leg,) and hanging leg raises (five sets of five.) Do all of these under control and, for the pull-ups and hip thrusts, this is where you chase the pump. No flailing, though! This is not a race. We want quality work. Would you sloppily throw punches and kicks just to get them done faster? Finally, you’ll do these in a circuit. Yes, after all my railing against turning everything into a circuit, I’m having you do a circuit. We’re going to make a few tweaks to it, though. Between every set, rest until your breath gets down to the point where you can say “This pace is just right” without running out of breath. Once you can do that, you’re good to do the next set. If you’re not getting a pump on the pull-ups and hip thrusts, then you’re either flailing and not using the muscle or you need to add more weight.

There you have it. This takes all the guess work out of how to get your basic strength level up all while keeping you from becoming an out of shape bag of injuries. Below I’ve attached a quick and dirty guide to the program that just tells you all the sets, reps, rest times, etc. You can download it, print it, or take a screenshot. One thing I’d recommend is that you keep track of what you’ve done in the gym so you know if you’re getting better. A simple notebook or google sheet would work wonders here. In a future article, we’ll talk about basic aerobic work to keep your cardio base strong. In the meantime, if you have any questions, write them in the comments or send an e-mail. Now get in there and squat.