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Breaking into M.M.A. Training Log

154K views 2K replies 38 participants last post by  KevinD 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello all, I've been mostly lurking these forums for awhile now. A little introduction: I'm 20 years old, just wrapping up doing a little world travel. While I was in Thailand I got involved with a Muay Thai training camp called Tiger Muay Thai, and trained pretty hard for a month and loved it. I decided to see where this passion can take me, and have decided to aim to fight in my first M.M.A. fight at a local amateur venue in my town called Valley Fight this coming December. This means I have a lot of work to do.

I will be training at a local M.M.A. gym called Revolution Chilliwack, as well as training with my friend who also wants to fight within the year.

I'm 20 years old, Southpaw, 6'4 about 195lbs, muscular build from years of weightlifting (I've got an enormous journal on a bodybuilding website but alas, there's no point talking M.M.A. on a bodybuilding forum, so here I am) but relatively weak cardio, other weaknesses include an occassional occurence of shin splints and contact lenses. I've only trained Muay Thai for a month and that's basically all my training besides a bit of self taught boxing.

I'm wrapping up my travels now, sitting in Bangkok for a few more days. I checked out a nearby Muay Thai gym but it was a hole in the ground with some mats and wasn't cheap, so **** it. I'm doing bodyweight exercises and shadowboxing in my room to help maintain what I can.

I go home soon so training resumes on August 1st as I enroll in the MMA gym back home and in addition begin my own training with a partner to keep the total training time to about 3.5 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Training is 4 weeks on followed by 1 week rest, each week is 5 days training, alternating between 2 days set out like this:

Day 1 - Technique
Stretch
Shadowboxing
Hit Pads
Standup Sparring
Rolling
Stretch
Go to class

Day 2 - Conditioning
Stretch
Skipping
Weight Training (Divided into Push/Pull/Leg days focusing on functional strength, explosive power, and endurance.)
Heavy Bag
Speed Bag
Stretch
Go to class

Classes are as follows:
Mon - Beginner Jiu-Jitsu
Tue - M.M.A.
Wed - Beginner Jiu-Jitsu
Thur - Boxing + Muay Thai
Fri - Boxing + Muay Thai + M.M.A
Sat - Rest
Sun - Rest

Going to ease myself into it and build momentum; first week just go to the classes, second week go to the classes and do training every second day, then by the third I'm doing the full routine. Also going to start light on my weights and build momentum over the weeks as powerlifters do.

I've also wrote up a flexible diet that I believe I can maintain pretty easily. I'll add the details once I've gone through with it for awhile in case any changes need to be made. What's important is the 6000 mostly healthy calories to exceed my maintenance level for a gradual weight gain.

Supplements are Protein/Creatine Monohydrate/Multivitamin/Fish Oil, considering a pre-workout supp like N.O. Xplode but don't really need the extra hit to the wallet or a caffeine dependency, so we'll see on that one.

I picked up all my gear to train out here in Thailand for nice and cheap. Got 16oz gloves, shin guards, wraps, mouth guard, and headgear. My friend has bought all of these things as well as some Thai kicking pads and a round timer, so we're all equipped and ready to go.

I'm aiming for December for my premier amateur M.M.A. bout. Wish me luck and feel free to pass on advice. I'm gonna tear a hole into this guy. :thumb02:

Some relevant links
Tiger Muay Thai, Phuket, Thailand:http://www.tigermuaythai.com
Revolution Chilliwack, Chilliwack, Canada:http://www.revolutionfightteam.com
Valley Fight, Chilliwack, Canada:http://www.valleyfight.com
 
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#234 ·
Muay Thai

Skipping, shadowboxing, drilled combos on partners.

MMA
Run, tumbling, technique was lots of work finding GNP positions from half guard and side control. Don't feel like going over them. After we practiced them we drilled starting from half guard.

Today I felt very tired, hurt, and unmotivated. It's just been a few tough classes this wee, monday+wednesday were killers. I'm not training tomorrow, going to get plenty of rest and probably not do any conditioning at all next week. My sleepings been ******* terrible again, once that falls apart everything goes. I'm going back to STRICTLY no caffeine whatsoever. No more using it to catchup on shitty days, I'm going to grin and bear it.

The total pain is joint soreness in my shoulders and elbows, especially on my left side. My sides aches from taking those body shots for that drill on wednesday, it's not muscle soreness, my actual kidney or liver hurts. Shin splints are lingering, back and neck are sore and stiff. My left thumb hurts because I somehow punched someone with just my thumb connecting. Oh, and my nose is really bruised underneath and just poking it hurts, never mind it getting crushed.
 
#237 ·
Strength Conditioning

Squats 6,6,6 @ 225lbs
DB Bench 6,6 @ 80lbs
Weighted Chin Up 6,6,6 @ B/W +10lbs

First day back after a week or so of rest. The squats weren't feeling strong so I lowered the weight, same weight on db bench, +5s on the chinups. I felt a pain in one my sides while benching but it wasn't too bad. Hopefully that's the most I'll feel during classes, guess we'll find out.

My diets been slacking during the week off, time to tighten up again. I'll probably go in for some burpee rounds tomorrow or hold off until monday morning. Ordered another batch of supplements. Mostly the same old stuff.

84 days to my fight.
 
#240 · (Edited)
High potency multvitamin
Whey blend
Fish oils
Creatine monohydrate


Sometimes when I'm lazy I'll take NO-Xplode before I lift, but I always pay the price in lost sleep.

My diet isn't ideal at all and is really repetitve, but I can maintain it at least.

7am - Protein shake
9am - Cottage cheese + Granola + Fruit
11am - Chicken/Salmon + Brown Rice/Potatoes + Vegetables
3pm - Protein shake
6pm - Oatmeal + Milk + Bananas
8pm - Protein shake
9pm - Random dinner (pasta,chicken burger,whatever)
11pm - Protein shake

It's around 4000 calories.

I also drink V8 randomly throughout the day and at least 6L of water.

I'll be swapping out the 3PM protein shake for something more solid, I drink alot of that shit because I'm too lazy to cook. Thinking tuna sandwiches.
 
#242 ·
BJJ

Was a real small class today and Grimshaw was teaching class today.

5 min warmup drill, did lots of work from the different positions of side control, then drilled trying to escape while the other person tries to hold it down or submit.

Advanced class was lots of fun stuff but it's kind of blurry now... a couple sweeps, a collar choke, I got him to teach us a bit about escaping leg locks.

Got to roll a couple rounds, but I felt a sharp pain in my left knee and had to stop. It still hurts now, don't think its serious but it may be pretty stiff tomorrow. First day back and this shit, wtf.

My sides or ribs or whatever feel much better now. Only hurts when I'm getting thrown, and I rolled with a 300+lb guy today so I think that's an adequate enough test. Hopefully the knee feels good and I can train tomorrow, I really need to get fully into this.
 
#244 ·
Conditioning

Barbell Complex (70lbs, 6 sets, 6 reps, 60 seconds rest)
Good Morning
Overhead Squat
Deadlift
Bent Over Row
Reverse Grip Curl
Military Press
Skullcrusher

Did 6,6,6,6,4. Added 5lbs. Got pretty far in but failed on second last set.

Ab Circuit

Twisting Crunch 20,20,20 @45lbs
Reverse Crunch 15,15,15, @20lbs
Cable Crunch 20,20,20 @65kg
Ab Plank 1:25,1:25,1:25

Numbers up all around on ab circuit. My knee was shitty for 24 hours but feels good now.
 
#248 ·
Conditioning
(1 min rest between rounds)

Burpees
5 rounds of 2:30

Heavybag
3 rounds of 3:00 Boxing only
3 rounds of 0:30 Punch out drill (1-2)
1 round of 3:00 Boxing only

Burpees were fun/torturous as usual. Added :30 seconds from last session and one more round. Keep in mind that although the duration is improving, I'm in no way going at a constant pace the whole time. My goal is to build up the time slowly, and once that's adequate, I'll be counting burpees and looking to improve the pace everytime. Burpees seem to be safe on the knee which is very good news.

The heavybag session was borrowed from Ross boxing. It was pretty fun and I can feel the difference those punch out drills make. I did boxing only to avoid aggravating the bum knee.

Yesterday I went to our local mma event to watch. Nobody from our gym was fighting but plenty of the guys that train where I do my conditioning were. Was a pretty entertaining show.

There was alot of really shitty sportsmanship from a few fighters. The two big ones being a guy that won via armbar but wouldn't let go when the guy tapped, the ref was reefing on the kids neck to make him let go but damn it must have been overextended for at least 10 seconds extra. Not good at all, the armbar zealot lost via disqualification, which seems fair. He could have just been in the zone and not realized what he was doing, still, it's important to realize you can't do that and discouarge other people from doing it. Another guy won his fight via tko but when the ref pulled him off he tried to get back in there and swing more. Crazy. That fight in particular was the only two fighters there near my weight division, they were 190, so there's a good chance I'll encounter those guys further down the road. Me and my friend are driving out to Vernon next weekend to support two guys from our gym. Watching fights live seems to be good motivation and should help build a bit of familiarity for my own.

Overall I feel pretty good at fighting at this level. I know I can do at least as good, and for the most part better, than any of those guys.

I also found out recently that the event I'm fighting at had a shooting after it's previous one. I knew this already, but what nobody told me was that the guy that got shot is from our gym. He lost his fight and was shot in the leg by some people that got away. What an ugly ******* world this is.

Anyways, knee feels good but I don't trust it. I'm icing when it hurts and stretching twice a day. It seems to be fine and I have a full up and down range of motion, but if I twist it funny it has sharp pains and loses mobility for the rest of the day. I'm confident it's not serious but I'll be staying away from aggressive grappling and striking involving kicks until it gets better. More conditioning can be just as useful anyways.
 
#249 ·
BJJ

Warmup run, drilled a couple guard passes, drilled armbars, drilled kimuras, drilled armbar escapes, drill, drill, drill. The techniques taught today were pretty tricky. I didn't grasp them well enough to explain.

First roll with partner I was dominant in mount but didn't finish. Second roll with a big blue belt I was dominant between back control and mount. He did his stupid triangle on my ankle and made me tap as he has before. When I got his back again and he tried, I wised up and shoved my foot deeper so he was trying to triangle my shin, finally figured that one out. Third roll was back and forth between all positions but I was probably on the losing end. Got tapped by something, kimura maybe? Fourth roll was a chick so I took it easy but got 3 or 4 subs. Class.

Knee feels fine. I'm paying special attention to it, but I think it'll be hold up since I don't have to kick anything until friday's class.
 
#253 ·
MMA

Warmup run, some tumbling. We did some new tumbling with partners...one was where a guy is on his back grabs the partners shins, then the partner grabs his shins, so both of their arms are extended and one is in the air. Then they roll so that the bottom guy rolls into the top position, and so on. In the other on your partner grabs your shins and you grab theirs and you do a front roll together. Weird and hard to explain. Then we did a variety of neck bridges and rolling around on your head. Then alot of handstand exercises where I just worked on maintaining a handstand for more than 3 seconds.

Technique was just shadowing shooting for the double leg and taking down. Then he broke down shooting for the single leg and dragging back to swing them down. Also practiced moving back to their ankle to straighten the leg and then swinging. We drilled this pretty constantly. My knee was starting to hurt from all that twisting so I didn't particpate in the king of the mats for the last 15 mins.

I'm going to a concert tomorrow so no class. I'll try to convince my partner to go do some conditioning with me tomorrow beforehand though.
 
#256 ·
Conditioning

Barbell Complex (70lbs, 6 sets, 6 reps, 60 seconds rest)
Good Morning
Overhead Squat
Deadlift
Bent Over Row
Reverse Grip Curl
Military Press
Skullcrusher

Did 6,6,6,6,6,3. Added 5lbs. Got pretty far in but failed on second last set.

Ab Circuit

Twisting Crunch 20,20,20 @45lbs
Reverse Crunch 15,15 @20lbs
Cable Crunch 20,20 @65kg
Ab Plank 1:35,1:35

Got one set further on the BB Complex. I hit the what I like to call '**** my life' point around the 3rd set. Pushed through to the last set where unfortunately my forearms seized up and weren't capable of reverse curling the bar. Going to finish the sets next time. The ab circuit has also reached the failure point, added another 10secs to the planks but my abs seized up on my 3rd circuit through and I didn't finish. Good workout. Lower back hurts a bit but should be fine.

MMA gym is closed for easter.

I drove to vernon on the weekend to see some more fights. This time we had a bunch of guys fighting. Grimshaw came out showing great striking skills and once it went to the ground he went straight for an armbar and then transitioned to finish with a triangle. Beautiful. A couple of the guys I've met and had my ass kicked by at the fortress fought. One guy who beats me up but I can be competitive with got an INCREDIBLE knockout. Another guy won the main event with a RNC near the end of the fight. Another guy that I train with the most had a tough fight with a freaky muscle bound beast and put up a war but had a heartbreaking loss. I beleive it was via armbar. 2 other guys fought from our camp but I haven't trained with them.

Things I've noted at this fight
-Bill Mahood puts on a very proffessional show with able fighters, he stacked it with Revolution fighters and seemed to pretty fair matchups
-I feel like a small 205. There was a guy fighting at 195 that must have been heavier than me. I need to get eating so that I'm cutting from 220. Gotta eat,eat, eat these next 2 months.
-Grimshaw is a very skilled and technical BJJ guy but when he went to the ground he was striking like CRAZY between everything he did. I need to put more focus on constant striking.


More conditioning tomorrow and MMA tomorrow evening.
 
#257 ·
Conditioning

Burpees (5x3 minute rounds, 1 min rest)
1 - 26
2 - 20
3 - 20
4 - 18
5 - 19
Total - 103

Still lots of gasping and stalling but gave a good effort. The numbers only go up from here.

Starting to add extra shit to all my protein shakes to boost the daily caloric intake. Yesterday I was fluctuating to a record low at 206lbs. Today I'm 211lbs. Goal is a steady 220.

MMA Tonight.
 
#258 ·
MMA

Warmup run Kajan had lots of new exercises to tire my ass out. Technique was shadowing shooting. Then he broke down single leg take downs, and then switching to double leg take downs. Drilled it for like an hour. Then we all sparred wrestling, I did well but it's pretty much expected, I was bigger and more experienced than everyone. Then king of the mats, same thing. The whole time today I was feeling soooo burnt out, must have been the burpees earlier today. I was still doing alright, however in the last like 2 minutes of king of the mat I hurt my ******* knee again. This is frustrating. I just want to train.
 
#260 ·
Did Muay Thai and MMA classes last night and BJJ this afternoon. The knee has felt fine recently but I'm being careful. I did start using headmkicks last night with no problems. I think its direct impact to the front of my knee that triggers it which means my big threats are falling with my weight onto that knee, kneeing the bag, and get leg kicked. I got my third stripe in BJJ today which means I'm past halfway to a blue. Got a bit of joint soreness going on, should be fine with some ice. UFC tonight and rest tomorrow.
 
#261 ·
Conditioning

Burpees (5x3 minute rounds, 1 min rest)
1 - 28
2 - 22
3 - 21
4 - 19
5 - 19
Total - 109

A burpee or two added to each round. I want to get some sort of wristwatch to use to time rounds and show me my heart rate. I have a feeling these rounds have my heart rate near it's max. Everything feels good. BJJ tonight.
 
#262 ·
BJJ

Warmed up with pummeling. Then drilled a few guard passes, hook and sickles, armbars from guard, and spinning to an armbar from knee on belly. Technique was breaking down someone turtled. Most techniques involved reaching other to feed the lapel to the opposite side, then getting your knee into their midsection and foot behind their ass and rolling forwards into back control, or, foot into their shin and rolling them inwards into back control.

In guard passes I did pretty well. When I was going for a kimura sweep my partner was wise to it and based down, so I hipped out and went to finish the kimura. He was gripping pretty tight on his gi to protect himself but he eventually tapped because he wasn't getting out. In rolling I also did well and got lots of good rolls in. Almost snuck in an omoplata on a guy. Ended up in mount and finished with an americana using the technique I found today hereto make it harder to escape. Was also mostly dominant with a bigger blue belt and stayed on his mount and back for most of a couple rounds.

I knew today was going to be good shit. There's days where you don't want to go but you make yourself go anyways or just go out of habit. Today was one of those days where I couldn't wait to get out on the mats and roll. This attitude is ******* sweet to train with because it's tough to have a bad day. I found myself relaxing in the bad positions and refusing to give up, then exploding into safety at the right time. I was full of energy and instead of going through the motions of what I normally do, I started baiting then going for something else, and trying things that I either forgot about or am not confident about. Good shit.

Knee was giving me a bit of warning soreness today but I managed to avoid hitting it on anything and it's fine now.

Don't know what I'm doing tomorrow morning, maybe something light but important like rounds of skipping and shadowboxing.
 
#264 ·
MMA

Thiago Gonclaves is back in Canada. He trained us before, he's a Brazilian Noguiera black belt that left to help Anderson Silva prepare for his fight. He's much more relaxed and easier to understand than Pele.

Warmup run, pummelling, technique was a pretty simple twist from the tie up that Thiago said is good when they're pushing you towards the cage. Basically from the over under your under is pushing on their hip while your over is pulling their torso, then you just sweep out the foot as it steps towards you. Took awhile to get that one down. Then we did some work from side control...transitioning to mount, also trapping their arm with your legs to work ground and pound ala Hughes on Penn. Then worked on americanas and kimuras form side control.

Lots of good rolls again. Once again I was mostly dominant and ended up in mount by the end of my rolls.
 
#265 · (Edited)
I've been out a couple days. I caught some sort of cold or flu. Not too sure what but aside from harsh cold symptoms I've been really light headed and getting chills. Feeling mostly better now, just congested. **** these little obstacles are getting tiring. You never get so many illnesses and injuries until you're booked to fight. Go figure.

In the meantime I've been sitting around at home studying up on BJJ material. Watched Demian Maia on back control, Ryan Hall on triangles, and have been flipping through my Fedor book for ideas. As I'm getting better I'm slowly finding it easier to transition something I'm watching into live rolling. Still takes alot of memory games and feeling it out. Also just ordered two books Saulo's BJJ University and Anderson Silva's MMA Striking. I've heard that Saulo's book is a real unique take on BJJ books and Anderson's is supposed to be better geared towards MMA striking as opposed to my traditional muay thai book.

BJJ

Warmed up with some ball hockey, followed by some pummelling. Jumped into drilling a basic guard break. After drilling that for awhile we start increasing the effort. Eventually we did straight up guard passes, except the guy holding guard can't use his hands. I like doing this, it gets you thinking about how much you've been how much extra possiblities you've been missing out on by focusing on what your hands are doing. Then we did guard passes with hands. I landed a kimura from guard, woot.

In advanced we didn't do any technique, just started drilling escapes at full strength. Starting in mount, starting in side control, starting in back control with a choke on. I did real well getting out of mount and side control but I forgot how to escape the choke. Dave said that once it's on, it's a pretty low % escape so I guess that's alright. I did really well keeping my partner in side control and mount, I'm really getting a feel for how to hold a position for as long as I'd like.

Lots of good rolls again. Lots were back and forth positionally but I didn't get submitted and managed to land an americana and a triangle from mount. Endurance is still strong and getting stronger. I felt a bit faintish today but that's just the last legs of my illness.

Going to do morning condition tomorrow morning, then mma class in the eve. Hopefully I can get back to full power sparring this wednesday, and start doing 5 30 am morning workouts on top of my usual routine for thursday and friday. I'm about 7 weeks out from my fight so we're in full gear now.
 
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