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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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#935 ·
Started with doing 200 kicks on the bag in sets of 10

Upper Body Pull Cycle:
Repeat cycle 3 times, rest 90 seconds

High Pull: 6,6,6@135lbs
Pull-ups (Underhand Grip): 6,6,4@b/w
Sledgehammer Slams: 15,15,15@16lb hammer
TRX Inverted Rows 4,3,1
Single Arm Dumbbell Rows 6,6,6@90lbs

Abs Cycle:
Repeat cycle 3 times, rest 90 seconds


Stir the Pot 15,15,15
Hanging Knee Raise 15,15,10
Cable Crunch 20,20,20@max

Rope Climb 1x
 
#936 ·
Squats 6,6,6@245lbs
DB Bench 6,6,6@80lbs
Deadlifts 6,6,6@245lbs
Chinups 6,6,6@b/w+15lbs

Making lots of gains in strength. Wanted to do BJJ so badly while watching class today. Soon I hope.

Bruno my BJJ coach is going to try to get on the Ultimate Fighter for 145lbers, that'd be sweet!

212lbs with 12.3% b/f
 
#937 ·
Leg Day Barbell Complex @70lbs
Deadlifts 5,5,5
Stiff Leg Deadlifts: 5,5,5
Cleans 5,5,5
Front Squats 5,5,5
Squats: 5,5,5
Good Mornings 5,5,5
Single Leg Bodyweight Squats 1 set to failure on each leg 25,15,15
Jumping Lunges: 1 set to failure 5,3,3@b/w
Jump Squats: 1 set to failure 5,3,2@b/w

Sled Push 1,1,1,1 turf lengths@large sled+145lbs.

Weight upped again, killer workout.
 
#939 ·
100 kicks on bag.


Upper Body Push Cycle:
Repeat cycle 3 times, rest 90 seconds
Warmup Military Press 12@bar

Military Press 6,5,3@115lbs
DB Bench W/ Dropset 6,5,4@70lbs 8@40lbs 20@20lbs single hand
Lateral Flys 12,12,12@15lbs
Skullcrushers 8,8,8@55lbs
Pushups 12,8,8
Rear Dips 8,8,8
Dips 3,2,3
Pushups 4,3,4
Front Dips 8,8,8
Rear Dips 2,1,1

Towel Bite Cable Neck Pull 15,15@60lbs
Side Towel Bite Cable Neck Pull 15,15@14 resistance each side


A couple numbers slightly down, maybe from the pushup burpees? Decent workout anyhow.

Fighting July 16th in Vancouver for Battlefield.
 
#940 ·
Back in BJJ! It's been a long time coming. This ringworm is dead, it's just scarred up a bit.

So after 3 months out of a gi I jumped into a beginners class. The warmups tired me out nicely. We did some side control escapes for technique. One was moving your arm nearest their hips under their stomach onto their far hip, then moving your far foot into this spot on the hip to give you something to brace against as you hip escape out. Other one had a similar concept but it was controlling their outside arm at the sleeve, putting your knee into their far arm, then wrapping that leg around their arm, replacing your knee with the foot...another brace to hip out against.

Had lots of good rolls today. Rolled a really strong white belt but finally managed to get the pendulum sweep and ride mount for awhile, finished with an armbar.

Rolled a big white belt and rocked him. Pendulum sweep, arm triangled him. Scissor sweep and found the kimura from north south. Ended the round before I could get the armbar from mounted triangle.

Rolled a skilled brown belt, he pulled guard and that's where we spent the round. I made it to half guard but no further. He threatened a kimura and a triangle but I stayed out of trouble for the stalemate.

Rolled a blue, pendulum sweep -> arm triangle and otherwise controlled him.

Good first class back. Glad to have a good showing after a layoff, but I feel my rolling endurance lacking what it used to be. I think I muscled alot of the moves and even now my body aches. Will keep up with the jits this week.
 
#941 ·
It's good to hear you're back into the jitsu training man.

I am going in for training tomorrow, hopefully we will roll for a bit tommorrow night.

If I can, I'm going to ask the instructor to help me prevent being submitted via the guillotine choke.

That was the one thing I hated during the 1st-night...after going 12-rolls with the two amatuer fighters in the gym 12 times after my 1st roll.

I wish you the best for that july fight you have lined up mate!
 
#942 ·
Upper Body Pull Cycle:
Repeat cycle 3 times, rest 90 seconds
High Pull: 6,6,6@135lbs
Pull-ups (Underhand Grip): 7,7,6@b/w
Sledgehammer Slams: 15,15,15@16lb hammer
TRX Inverted Rows 4,3,2
Single Arm Dumbbell Rows 6,6,6@90lbs

Abs Cycle:
Repeat cycle 3 times, rest 90 seconds

Stir the Pot 15,15,15
Hanging Knee Raise 15,10,10
Cable Crunch 20,20,20@max

Back for no gi jits in an hour.
 
#944 ·
No Gi w/ Bruno

Technique was a simple guard break and pass. Control the wrist with same side hand as you stand with good posture. Other hand pushes on the knee to break guard, your same side knee staples the opened leg to the mat, step back with other leg and establish side control.

Another mostly successful day of rolling. Had a dominant roll with a guy that put up a valiant fight, flowed through mount, back control, turtle really well but couldn't finish. Rolled a small new kid and just practiced transitions and stuff. I was getting bored of letting go of subs early and tapped him with an Americana using the legs for practice. Rolled a heavyweight fighter but we were both dog tired. He sat in my guard most of the round, I'd almost hip bump sweep him but he'd be ready and nearly take my back everytime. We'd scramble and it would go back go guard. I'm going to armbar him next time.
 
#945 ·
"Technique was a simple guard break and pass. Control the wrist with same side hand as you stand with good posture. Other hand pushes on the knee to break guard, your same side knee staples the opened leg to the mat, step back with other leg and establish side control."

We did something similar, I cannot remember if this is where we shot our hands up palm to palm then around the back to a gable lock around his hips....?

I know we did something were we worked with the gable then drove our shoulder into the chest or throat, then while he was annoyed with the knee you let go with your left hand and force his knee down, so you can obtain half-guard then side-control. Once you're in side-control the goal was to re-attain the gable lock and stay tight for a moment or two.
 
#948 ·
No Gi

Technique was a form of back control that I like. When you have someone's back you pick a side to fall to, if you have the over under grip then fall to the over side. Before you do this, the leg opposite of the side you're falling to moves behind their knee and lifts it up, essentially trapping them into that position for an easier RNC. If they try to turn in you can replace your raised leg with the nearest arm, then sprawl back for an easy transition to side control.

4 Rounds with lots of tough back and forth rolls. One with a commonly tough training partner, glad to see I could keep up. No subs either way today though I totally had a fully extended kneebar on a purple belt girl that I let go of. Going to try to get those kneebars popping again.
 
#949 ·
Squats 6,6,6@265lbs
Deadlifts 6,6,6@265lbs
DB Bench 6,5,4@85lbs
Chinups 6,6,6@b/w+20lbs

Weights up significantly again.So much strength! The strength gaining phase is sadly coming to an end. Striking/Grappling endurance is the focus now.

I also weigh 214lbs 12.5% bodyfat so it's leaning out time. I'm going to increase water intake this next 10 days in anticipation of a practice weight cut. I want to experiment cutting weight while still on creatine, and see how far I can comfortably lose in water wieght. Then I'll be able to figure out how much dieting I need to do.
 
#950 ·
BJJ

Did beginner and advanced classes today. Pulled something in my groin in the warmup, made things interesting for the rest of the evening. I was a fool not to do some specific exercises for my hips/groin while I was hitting weights nearly everyday.

Not going to go through everything because I have to be up for work in 8 hours. I won all my rolls except for the black belt instructor - did well against him escaping positions, passing guard, but when I bridged out of half guard to reverse, he landed a collar choke - pretty much how all my rolls go with him. Did pretty good though, we were only doing 3 minute rounds so we must have had 10-12 rounds in all.
 
#955 ·
Yo!

Loved the GSP workout - ridiculous amounts of soreness when I started. The workouts are based on you going to failure so every workout is as difficult as you can mentally push yourself.

It's not the full rushfit, just something off bodybuilding.com
Linky

It's all typical gym equipment compatible. For bonus points I like to do a strongman type thing at the end of them though.

Let me know how Toronto is, eh? I'll be heading out that way to see my dad sometime this year.
 
#954 ·
So I've been sick the past few days, really annoying because my days off are obviously the ideal time to get the most sessions in. Not sure what it was, I had 1 day of relentless sneezing and mucus production, followed by a day of relentless hacking and coughing. Cold medicine seemed to have no effect. Today things are less severe and my coughs are actually productive so it has blown over now. Went in today just to getting the juices flowing a bit.

Shadowboxing
Skipping
Boxing on bag
Sets of 10 kicks on bag
Stretch

My water intake and shit got screwed up for the practice weight cut, so I'll worry about it when I'm 100% again.

Back to class tomorrow.
 
#956 ·
Leg Day Barbell Complex @75lbs
Deadlifts 5,5,5
Stiff Leg Deadlifts: 5,5,5
Cleans 5,5,5
Front Squats 5,5,5
Squats: 5,5,5
Good Mornings 5,5,5
Single Leg Bodyweight Squats 1 set to failure on each leg 26,16,16
Jumping Lunges: 1 set to failure 4,5,5@b/w
Jump Squats: 1 set to failure 4,5,5@b/w

Towel Bite Cable Neck Pull 15,15@90lbs
Side Towel Bite Cable Neck Pull 15,15@14 resistance each side

Sled Push 1,1,1,1 turf lengths@large sled+140lbs.

Good to be back! Weight up again. Jits in a couple hours.
 
#957 ·
Jits - Beginner + Advanced Classes

Not going too indepth, but GREAT classes today with lots of rolling. Getting lots of time with guys around my level, finding my flow again and persevering through all the rounds. Won most of my rounds today, just a couple finishes on lower level guys - arm triangle, triangle, armbar from mounted triangle, armbar from guard. Higher level guys I won a few rolls and a few were pretty back and forth. Had two back to back rounds with a purple that were gruelling, no idea what points were like but it was all over, got a sexy armbar sweep when I was about to get passed, and got out of bad positions promptly.

My legs started to spasm and cramp between classes but I stretched them up and things got working again. Leg day is the worst workout when you have BJJ a couple hours later.

Watching the UFC this weekend, something caught my attention when Rogan was talking during Urijah Faber's walkout. It was basically just how planned out his life is, how he has goals down to the very day. I'm going to try to start implement this in here to try to push myself into the next level. I'll list the weekly goals on monday and then recap on sunday. Goals will be anything I can think of, but largely training related goals. This weeks goals coming up in next post.
 
#958 · (Edited)
Medium Term Goal : Win my next fight - July 16th.

Goals this week:

-6 Grappling Classes
-2 Striking Classes
-3 GSP Workout days, including extra Strongman and Neck work
-1 Burpee Session, beat last weeks numbers
-2 Sessions standup with training partner, Sparring or Pads
-1000 kicks on the bag
-Watch "Roy Dean's Blue Belt Requirements" all the way through
-Find a torrent for "Ryan Hall's Back Attacks"
 
#961 ·
I guess you can say I do neither aha. I would be training right now but due to finiancial reason that isn't possible right now so I am actually doing GSP Rush Fit for the next 8 weeks.

Hopefully after that I should be in good shape, I just want some noticeable differences physically. I can't wait to start training.
 
#962 ·
Upper Body Push Cycle:
Repeat cycle 3 times, rest 90 seconds
Warmup Military Press 12@bar

Military Press 6,6,6@115lbs
DB Bench W/ Dropset 6,4,4@70lbs 8@40lbs 20@20lbs single hand
Lateral Flys 12,12,12@15lbs
Skullcrushers 8,8,8@55lbs
Pushups 12,10,10
Rear Dips 12,8,8
Dips 3,3,3
Pushups 5,3,3
Rear Dips 8,8,8
Dips 2,2,1

Towel Bite Cable Neck Pull 20,15@90lbs
Side Towel Bite Cable Neck Pull 15,15@60lbs each side

Good workout. Body feels beat up. Knee is stiff but surprisingly better now. BJJ tonight.
 
#963 ·
No Gi BJJ + Wrestling Class

Tough classes today - nothing seemed to come easily to me today. Technique was guillotines and guillotines defense, the defense was the stack and shoulder pressure in their throat. Rolled.

I was kind of bummed that I couldn't meet my 6 grappling classes goal because I missed yesterday's. But when BJJ ended I heard there was a kid running a wrestling class afterwards so I jumped in on that. You know what's worse than doing something you suck at? Learning with people that suck more than you. Tried to learn a hip throw and a fireman's throw with limited success. Some wrestling rounds. Body hurts.
 
#964 ·
Upper Body Pull Cycle:
Repeat cycle 3 times, rest 90 seconds
High Pull: 6,6,6@135lbs
Pull-ups (Underhand Grip): 7,7,7@b/w
Sledgehammer Slams: 20,20,20@16lb hammer
TRX Inverted Rows 4,3,3
Single Arm Dumbbell Rows 6,6,6@90lbs

Abs Cycle:
Repeat cycle 3 times, rest 90 seconds

Stir the Pot 15,15,15
Hanging Knee Raise 15,15,15
Cable Crunch 20,20,20@max

Sled Pull 2x Gym length @Large sled +140lbs


Knee is stiff, elbows sore, groin hurts. Back in the game.
 
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