Mistakes Fighters Make in the Gym
In the seven years I lived in Thailand, I had the good fortune to do the strength and conditioning for some muay thai and MMA fighters. I love working with these people. They’re tough, hard-working, and love what they do. Unfortunately, I noticed a lot of the coaches, while experts at teaching how to fight, are not the best when it comes to strength and conditioning. Think of it this way. If a fighter is the driver of a racecar, their muay thai coach is like the master who teaches how to drive the car. That’s great, but what you also need on the team is an expert mechanic. Somebody who knows how to give your car more horsepower. That was my job. Based on my experience, here are some common mistakes fighters make.
Not training strength. Don’t. Don’t even start to say “That’s not true! I lift weights!” Just because you’re lifting weights doesn’t mean you’re training strength. That’s like saying just because you’re throwing punches means you’re boxing. When I say “training strength” I mean “training the body to produce as much force as possible within a given movement pattern.” An example would be training you to be able to squat more.* “But Eric, you insightful yet also wildly entertaining coach,” I hear you say, “when I get into the ring or cage there won’t be a barbell and squat rack waiting for me.” And you’d be right, fictitious person that I made up so I could make my points better. However, there’s an important thing to remember: general strength is one of the pillars that all other athletic qualities are based on. What good is your technically perfect punch if you’ve got no power (which is based on strength) behind it?
Turning everything into a circuit. Since we’re talking about rest between sets/exercises, it’s worth pointing out that it’s something most martial artists don’t do. Look I get it. If you rest for more than 5 seconds in your martial arts training, it means you’re a sissy. I’m not going to fight you on that one because a) it’s a losing battle and b) that’s not where I’m an expert. However, I am an expert in strength and conditioning. Strength and conditioning, not conditioning and more conditioning. The things you do for strength aren’t the same as the things you do for conditioning. Each one has their own rules. Kind of like the way you train for jiu jitsu and the way you train for muay thai aren’t the same. We need to use the right tool for the job and sometimes that tool seems wrong which brings us to…
If it’s good enough for Buakaw, it’s good enough for you.
Not doing slow cardio. This is a pretty recent thing. Cardio’s gotten a bad rap because the logic goes “I’m not jogging around in a fight. Fights are hard and fast paced. I shouldn’t waste my time doing all that slow work.” Technically, yes, that’s true. However, remember the point above about general strength being a foundational quality? So is your aerobic system, which is something cardio helps develop (that goes for you powerlifters too.) You need your aerobic system for recovery in between flurries, rounds, and fights (assuming you have more than one per day/week.) If your aerobic system isn’t up to the task, you’ll end up gassing out and getting beaten. What’s more embarrassing, jogging at a moderate pace a few times a week** or losing a fight because you were aerobically out of shape?
Going super hard every time. Fighters are wonderful in that they love intensity and love to push themselves. However, you can’t go full blast every single session on every single drill/exercise. It doesn’t work long-term. And that’s the thing to remember: you’ve got a fight coming up. Everything we’re doing is to prepare you for the fight. This means that some days we take it “easy” and lift light or don’t turn you into a puddle of sweat and vomit to be mopped up by the cleaning crew. I know what you’re thinking, “But I have to give my all. I have to work insanely hard every day because if I don’t then what if I left something on the table? What if I lose and it’s because I didn’t work as hard as possible on some of those training days?” You’ve got a great point there. It’s that kind of attitude that makes champions. However, it’s important to remember the big picture. You need to put all that hard work into things that will actually develop you as a fighter. If you’re pouring energy into something that’s not actually helping you get better, you’re not working hard. You’re actually taking away energy that you need to devote to things that really matter. And that’s just stupid.
Avoiding certain kinds of equipment/ways of training. Some fighters seem to think that barbells and dumbbells are for meatheads and will make them slow and muscle-bound. This is like avoiding the internet because it’ll turn you into a dweeb who lives in his mother’s basement. It could do such a thing, but your use of it is what determines the outcome. Using all that equipment that fighters avoid, I’ve put a full three feet on an MMA fighter’s triple standing long jump. Sound slow and muscle-bound to you? How’d that happen? A combination of heavy barbell work and explosive exercises, some of them also with weights. It’s not the tool that’s good or bad, but how you use it.
Hopefully this will help break down some myths and get people started in the right direction when doing strength work for their art. If you’ve got burning questions about how to do some of these things right, just hang in there. They’ll be answered in future articles this month. If you can’t wait that long, don’t be afraid to leave a comment or send an e-mail. I love fighters and their coaches. They’re easily some of the hardest-working and capable people I’ve ever met. It’s just that when it comes to things like training for strength, they sometimes need a bit of help.
* The next article will give a detailed explanation of how you can set up a basic general strength program.
** How to program the cardio will be covered in a future article. For now, think of it as the roadwork old school boxers used to do and you’ll get the idea. We’ll get more scientific about it, though.
