MMA- strongman training or circuit training??

[Patryk Deptula]

i train MMA a couple hours after my gym session everyday and before them i do either strongman training or circuit training.

My questions is what is the better way to increase my endurance and gain size for MMA. I know strongman training adds a good amount of mass and so does normal gym strenght and size training, but will circuit training add great mass? or should i do 3 strongman days and 3 circuit trianing days??

What would let me gain great big muscle and great endurance so i can be fast in MMA?????


(I am thinking on doing 2-3 days of circuit training, 1 day of heavy olympic lifting, and 3 days of heavy strongman training every week after my gym sessions, and before my MMA practice) (ive been doing 3 strongman days, 4 days of circuit trianing, and i feel i needed to change up my endurance work up a tiny bit))

Ans also what would be a better overhead press to add mass to the shoulders and a lot of strenght to the shoulders??

Behind the Neck push press, military shoulder press, military push press, or Behind the Neck press (not push), or jerks???


I currently so Behind the Neck push presses for my overhead pressing movement for my gym session..

[brendan_moehn]

well, i think you have a great idea using a variety. How big do you want to get? a specific weight class you're going for? If you are wanting to get big i think some strongman would def help, while the circuit training will help with the endurance and conditioning. The oly lifting def will help with your explosiveness, while it generally doesn't help as much with gaining size.

So I think you have the right idea, I just think you might be doing a bit too much volume if you are planning on lifting 6-7 days a week and then doing your mma training. I personally don't think you would be able to recover well enough to be able to gain much strength or size.

[AaRoNSnider]

Im not an mma training expert,but have thought a little about how I would alter my training if I were to start fighting.I currently use Westside methods along with events on sundays.I really dont think that I could ever break myself of this,so I would keep my m.e and d.e movements,but all of the assistance movements done after that would be done in a circuit fashion,and for higher reps than usual.I would still do events on sundays,but it would be alot of medleys and variations.Along with this I would do regular cardio and obviously mma training.

Like I said,Im not an expert,but these are the ideas that Ive had for myself.

[Patryk Deptula]

i am looking to pack on as much muscle and size as possible (i no too much size isnt too good in mma, but i really need to pack on about 25 lbs of muscle or so because of my wider shoulder build, and bigger structure, i am currently 5ft 10 in 160lbs, so i would like to get to around 185-200 lbs of lean about 6-9% bf. So i think i might slpit up my training of having

2-3 circuits, 1 olympic day, and 2-3 strongman day,

so i can pack on big muscle!!!

[Tom Mutaffis]

Posted my ideas below in blue...

i train MMA a couple hours after my gym session everyday and before them i do either strongman training or circuit training.

My questions is what is the better way to increase my endurance and gain size for MMA. I know strongman training adds a good amount of mass and so does normal gym strenght and size training, but will circuit training add great mass? or should i do 3 strongman days and 3 circuit trianing days??

I would do "strongman" training with a limited scope of events if you are doing it for fight specific training / overall GPP and endurance. This would include light tire flip, sled drags, sandbag carries, farmers figure 8's, keg carry & load, possibly light yoke walk, anything where your total body is under tension for an extended period of time. There is no reason to go over maybe 450 lbs in any of these events though since you are looking for speed and carrying 700 lbs on your back will have little carryover to grappling.

Doing 3 circuit days and 3 strongman days would absolutely lead to overtraining, unless you were doing very low volume and intensity which I would not think to be the case. Your best bet would be to circuit train 3-4 times per week, and work with your implements 1-2 times per week along with some standard gym training (high rep squats, etc.).



What would let me gain great big muscle and great endurance so i can be fast in MMA?????

High protein diet, intense weight training, including cardio sessions in order to maintain conditioning. Maximum amount of muscle that you can expect to gain is 1 lbs per week and that is going to take a lot of dicispline to even put on that kind of lean body mass with the frequency of training for a fighter.

You might be better off gaining the weight more quickly and putting on some fat then increasing conditioning in phases. Basically cycling between "bulking" and "conditioning" in order to achieve optimal results in both respects. Trying to focus on two goals at once might get you nowhere.


(I am thinking on doing 2-3 days of circuit training, 1 day of heavy olympic lifting, and 3 days of heavy strongman training every week after my gym sessions, and before my MMA practice) (ive been doing 3 strongman days, 4 days of circuit trianing, and i feel i needed to change up my endurance work up a tiny bit))

I don't know your skill level with MMA but chances are that you will want to do MMA work 4-7 times per week, standard weight training 1-3 times per week, and then strongman or conditioning workouts 3-4 times per week. This will have you training in some capacity twice per day basically everyday.

Ans also what would be a better overhead press to add mass to the shoulders and a lot of strenght to the shoulders??

Behind the Neck push press, military shoulder press, military push press, or Behind the Neck press (not push), or jerks??? I currently so Behind the Neck push presses for my overhead pressing movement for my gym session..

Unfortunately BTN push jerks are probably the worst exercise out of those listed above for building shoulder mass and strength. Reason for this is that out of all of those listed above this is the most explosive movement where leg drive is more heavily utilized than actual shoulder power. Standing strict presses and standing push presses will work well for building shoulder size / strength along with working your core at the same time.


I would also do all of your training beltless as you will not have a belt on during your fights. Only for heavy maximal effort sets would I wear any support equipment simply for safety reasons.

Hope this helps.

[Scott Markowitz]

Try getting in touch with Brad Morris on here. I'm sure he has more insight than most, and certainly more than I have.

[Patryk Deptula]

what about Behind the Neck push press, not push jerks?? like push press except behind the neck?? also i do DB military presses as a accessory lift afterwards, so are the Behind the Neck push press with the DB military press as an accesoory a good shoulder building workout? im just wondering!

[Anthony Esquerdo]

iF YOU WANT BIG SHOULDERS THEN YOU MUST DO BIG DUMBBELL PRESSES sorry caps was on rofl

[John Sullivan]

Hey, Connecticut isn't too far from Waltham.... :mag:

If you're around this coming weekend, I think all your questions and more will be answered here:
http://excelstrength.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/2009-combat-sports-performance-summit/

[Dave Bernreuther]

A lot of MMA guys do Crossfit. I always thought a strongman-centric Crossfit style routine might be really good for fighting.

If you're 5'10" you'll probably not want to fight over 170, which means getting up to 185 or so. 25lbs of muscle is going to be really hard to add if you're fighting plus doing heavy conditioning style workouts a bunch of times per week though. The biggest key for you gaining size is going to be eating like a horse.

Otherwise, what Tom says about events is right on. I'd disagree that it should always be light - heavy yoke will build your core up, which is useful, for instane (plus I recall seeing Brad Morris doing a heavy chain yoke for a long distance on youtube once and that works for him) but I definitely think using things like tire flips for explosiveness will help. You can go heavy on lifts but still limit your rest periods, or do burpees in between or something, and get a hell of a cardio workout while still getting much stronger too. Lots of different things you can try.

[Patryk Deptula]

ohh yea i am going to be eating my butt of to gain lean muscle with the amount of work i do, and yea i was thinking on staying as heavy as i can for the strongman training, btw for the strongman, what rep range should i use? 3-10, 5-20, failure, 10,12,8,30, etc? what would the best rep range be for strongman training, i was thinking around failure from 5-20 or 30, but 5-15 maybe??? What rep range would be best for strongman training??

[Brian Carley]

I would also see if you can get in touch with Ashley Christopher Moore, he's a MMA fighter on here. You can also go check out his website www.moorebarbell.com. Just some thoughts, good luck with your training!

[ColtonRahav]

I play rugby and the amount of running I have to do is ridiculous for any strongman, but all you have to do is eat a lot and continue training the same. Thats what I do and I have kept on growing!

[Kevin Klavetter]

Check out an old post on Rich Franklin's workout.

http://www.marunde-muscle.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4914&highlight=Franklin

[Patryk Deptula]

thanks you guys arehelping a lot, but what is the best rep range when doing strongman event training?? would it be 5-20 or so??

[ColtonRahav]

Are you trying to get stronger or more cardiovacular?

[Patryk Deptula]

stronger and bigger

[Patryk Deptula]

uhmm, guys i have a questions. How many work sets are there in pyramid sets when doing pyramid sets???? 3,4,5,6???

[ColtonRahav]

stronger and bigger

Well, bigger is different training, that more bodybuilding oriented, strength will be more of your lower rep strongman training. What do you want more?

[Patryk Deptula]

strenght, and are Behind the Neck push presses a good shoulder building exercize for strenght and size, like the way mariusz pudzianowski does them behind the neck???? and thanks for the help.

[ColtonRahav]

strenght, and are Behind the Neck push presses a good shoulder building exercize for strenght and size, like the way mariusz pudzianowski does them behind the neck???? and thanks for the help.

Strength will be more low rep high weight stuff. Like 5 reps, triples, doubles, singles. Size will be higher rep stuff like 10-15 reps. I don't like behind the neck stuff... but I also am not as strong as Mariusz.

[Patryk Deptula]

haha, but when doing strongman event training like axle clean and press, viking press, and one arm clean and press, what would be the best rep range for the strongman event training??? would it be more low rep or higher rep since most strongman events aren't near max, but high rep like 10,15,20,30????? what would be the best rep range for event training??

[ColtonRahav]

Lower reps to get stronger but do several sets