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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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#146 ·
Went to trial a new gym that just opened recently. They're 25% cheaper, bigger, and open much more. I'll also be switching my MMA gym's membership from monthly to yearly to save some more cash.

Turns out they didn't have any barbells shipped in yet so I couldn't do my routine. Just did the DB bench instead.

DB Bench 3,3,3,3,3,3 @ 75lbs

Will be back to finish the routine later.
 
#147 ·
BJJ

Decent class, got some practice with the omoplata for the first time. Feels awkward but I'll figure it out. I was mostly dominated in rolling, felt myself being sloppy and using too much force instead of technique. I'll get a grip on it and do better tonight. Going to start watching Saulo's Jiu Jitsu Revolution 2 today. Once I get through that I'll look into something on no-gi.
 
#148 ·
MMA Class

Lots of drills and circuit training followed by another drill working take downs/ground and pound. Practiced few standup combos with punches and kicks on the thai pads, felt good to hit stuff again but I felt myself tiring pretty fast..Then an armbar from side control and a little bit of rolling. Nothing particularly exciting happened during rolling but I felt I used much less energy and faired a bit better than yesterday.

BJJ tomorrow
 
#149 ·
BJJ

Another day, another dollar. Lot's of work in the half guard today which I needed. Nothing spectacular in rolling to report. I've been slacking on watching vid's and my diet so I'll try to make an effort to turn that around some more, I'm tired of being mediocre in rolling.

Muay Thai/MMA tomorrow. I don't know when I'll finish my weights workout...maybe I'll train 7 days this week.
 
#152 ·
Muay Thai

Skipping 20 mins. Haven't skipped in awhile, I'm getting better but I should really order a big rope. I can skip 20 mins without gassing now but I'll whack my feet quite a bit still. It'll come.

I'm not sure what the deal was today but Pele paired up everyone to drill on the sheilds and thai pads except for me. He set me on a heavybag for around 30 mins and would occasionally walk over to watch and comment or hold the bag for me. He also taught me a high spinning back kick...pretty sloppy but I'll work on it. Maybe he wanted to evaluate me a bit or maybe I was just out a partner because I beat those sheilds pretty hard. He let me have a couple 1 minute breaks but it was few and far between.. Felt good to hit shit again and I wasn't horribly sloppy after the break either. I can feel my footwork and balance improving and my striking is pretty crisp. Sparring is definitely the next big step for me. My normal partners been out with a horrible stomach virus so I'll have to make due with what I can for now. After the marathon on the heavy bag we did a few hundred ab exercises in a circuit, then some pushups.

MMA class was just ground and pounding a bag for 40 mins. Ow. Run. More pushups. Stretch. Done.

Today definitely felt like I was back in thailand the brazilians and thais have a very similar old school training mentality.

The diets getting clean again. It's easier to keep it clean when I'm fully into training because you pay for every shitty thing you absorb every night.

Muay Thai/MMA again tomorrow.
 
#153 ·
Muay Thai/MMA

skipping, clinch work, then clinch and knees, then clinch to knee to elbow. Learned an omoplata to triangle combo. Then we rolled, I was mostly dominated by the blue belt guy, had a pretty even roll with the next guy until I popped his elbow when I arm barred him while he was standing. Next 3 guys were all smaller so I dominated pretty easily, was popping armbars today like you wouldn't believe, also got a kimura, rear naked, and triangle. Good ass class.

I didn't get much sleep but I'm thinking I'll nap and then finish my weights routine from the other day. See how I feel when I wake up, tomorrow might be better.
 
#154 ·
Gym

Clean and Press 3,3,3,3,3,3@105lbs
Squat 3,3,3,3,3,3 @ 235lbs
DB Bench Press 3,3,3 @ 80lbs
Deadlift 0 @ 235lbs

Everything was going great, then my left forearm fracture thing started to ache during benching so I immediately ended the workout. I'll monitor it and probably find something that puts less pressure on the forearm for chest/shoulders/tris. Nothing much coming off the top of my head...maybe weighted dips if they don't irritate it.
 
#155 ·
Yesterday - BJJ

Warmup then mostly working on guard passes. I wasn't really into it so I left after the first class. No good excuse, just being a *****.

Today - Gym

Barbell Complex (60lbs X 6 Sets X 6 Reps X 60 Seconds Rest)
Good Morning
Overhead Squat
Stiff Legged Deadlift
Bent Over Row
Reverse Grip Curl
Military Press
Skullcrusher

6,6,6,6,5,5 Increased weight but failed to finish 2 of the sets. Same weight next week but we go all the way.

Ab Circuit (2 Sets X 120 Second rest)
Weighted Twisting Crunch 20,20 @ 50lbs
Reverse Crunch 15,15 @ bodyweight + 5lbs
Cable Crunch 20,20 @ 150lbs
Ab Plank 1:05, 1:05

Slight improvements on weights, this day's workout is still a blast and a real good challenge. Love my new gym's weightroom.

MMA tonight.
 
#156 ·
MMA

Brutal plyometric warmup. More much needed practice with shooting for takedowns. Then some work from a new position, I forget what he called...half back control maybe? Don't remember but it's basically breaking down a turtled opponent from his side. Then some rolling. I had some good rolls with one guy who went pretty crazy on me and armbarred twice. Caught another guy in a triangle. Final guy kimurad me. Good class. Saulo Dvds tonight, BJJ tomorrow!
 
#161 ·
Muay Thai/MMA

Got my sleep so I felt better today.

Muay Thai

Skipping 20 mins, some technique shadowboxed while advancing/retreating, drilled combos with a partner.

MMA

Warm up run, neck excercises, takedown technique, drilling takedowns, takedown defense technique, drilling takedown defense, then sparring takedowns. Wrestlings ******* gay but I'm slowly getting better. It's definitely physical battle to keep pressing the pace as oppossed to BJJ where you can almost always find a point to lock down on. Or maybe that's just me being a noob.

I'm ******* sore as shit in my whole body and especially in my elbows. I won't be seeing the gym tomorrow. I've earned a couple beers over UFC.
 
#163 ·
BJJ

Beginners...warm up drill with partner....leapfrog, suspended pushups, piggy back squats, leg raises, handstands. Drilled some guard passes. Practice with the kimura from guard and kimura sweep. Then did guard passes.

Advanced
More work with the kimura from guard including countering it by taking the back, we sharktanked our instructor and another guy for awhile then it was open mats. I was happy with how I did in rolling. The guy that beat me in the tournament and generally dominates me was mostly dominated by me today. I locked in an armbar but was stacked up, I switched to attack the other arm and almost pulled it off. Ended up taking his back by the end but no sub. Rolled a blue belt who's smaller than me, I kept him in side control for quite awhile then we struggled in guard for awhile before he eventually made it on top of me. He kept trying to put a choke on me from mount, not sure what it's called, but he needed to pivot around me to finish it and I kept trapping his forearm and moving with him. We must have rolled for awhile but I couldn't find an escape and eventually I tapped to it.

Feels like I sprained my right big toe, should be okay for MMA tomorrow. I'm taking a few more days off from the gym.
 
#165 ·
That's not a dumb question at all, it was a pretty vague reference on my part.

Sharktanking someone in our gym is a term for having everyone line up while the guy in the 'sharktank' must roll every guy starting from a set position for a set amount of time, when the time elapses the next guy immediately steps in and goes, and so on until one guy has faced everyone. The instructor seems to like doing it to teach a guy to stay relaxed through an onslaught before promoting him.
 
#166 · (Edited)
MMA

Warm up run, plyo wheelbarrow stuff...I think I'm getting better with blasting through these, the butterfly ones are still my nemesis though.

Technique was 1-2-3 combo to a high crotch for the single leg, then trap the single before taking the other leg with your hand and flaring with the take down. Hopefully all that jargon makes sense, still learning it myself. Also did more work from that position last tuesday, which Kajan calls "Half-Back". We learned from a sprawl to drag them down, reach over to their ass and then come around to half back. Also learned to reverse it on the guy if he doesn't do it right. Also learned how to get your head out of a bad position when you shoot for a takedown and a guy traps it like Alan Belcher did to Denis Kang this past UFC. The technique is basically pop your head out to the other side, prop up with your outside leg, sweep your other leg through while popping your arm out, then pivoting over to the half back position. Sorry if this doesn't make sense, most of the time this is just for my own reference and if it reminds myself of that technique, then this journal's role is filled.

They went to spar this stuff but since my stupid toe appears to still be sprained I sat out. It's no big deal most of the time but I know if I put the wrong weight on it I'll be limping around for a week. I'll take the route of longevity instead. Other than that I've got a bit of shin splints going on, and some elbow soreness, but everything else feels fresh. BJJ tomorrow.
 
#167 ·
BJJ

Bunch of half guard work, lots of rolling. I've got a party to go to so I'm not going through it all... I took my fair share of beatings but gave out a few too. Blood all over my gi and bruises on my face..

My body's feeling a bit banged up so I'm taking thursday off to finish off strong on friday. I'll probably hold off on the weights until next monday or tuesday
 
#168 ·
Weights

Clean and Press 3,3,3,3,3,3 @ 115lbs
Deadlift 3,3,3,3,3,3 @ 245lbs
Chin up 11, 6


Took a few days off, I was starting to feel burnt out. My training partner comes back today which will bring some new energy to my week. He's my good friend and exactly my size and we're on the same level, so I learn alot faster when I can work with him. We also keep eachother accountable, etc.

I'm going to look into decreasing the volume on this weights day. We're also going to look into adding a strongman type conditioning day on saturday. We also figure that muay thai every thursday/friday isn't enough to keep us improving fast enough, so we'll probably be going in early or meeting up somewhere to hit the thai pads, kick sheild, and spar pretty soon like we did a couple months ago.

My weights quite a bit down at 205lbs, likely because I haven't been taking creatine this past week. I've also picked up a cold on my days of rest, but it shouldn't interfere too much. I've elminated a few things that have been distracting me this past month so I expect my performance will go up a bit and I'll be better able to rest and feed myself.

I've got 2 days off with nothing to do so I'll be training twice a day and watching Saulo DVDs inbetween. I've got a muay thai DVD set on the way as well.
 
#169 ·
Watched about an hour and a half of Saulo Ribeiros Freestyle Revolution today. The full takedown segment, and the guard minus the stuff from the butterfly guard because I don't want to tackle different guards yet.

BJJ

Beginners

Warm up run + bodyweight exercises. Drilled 3 different guard passes, drilled a collar choke combo, drilled posting to sink kimura from guard. Guard passes.

Advanced

Pummelling. Technique was partner shoots for a single leg, you wizzer and put a key lock on their wrist, fall back with your leg lifting them to roll them over you, land in mount facing reverse, finish kimura. Was really awkward, I feel retarded sometimes trying to learn this stuff, but I semi got it by the end of it.

We shark tanked our instructor, I got swept. Shark tanked one of our blues that's leaving for a year, he got a kimura on me but I managed to take side control, and then mount. They were telling me to go left, but I didn't know what they were talking about so I got subbed there. lol. Turns out you can just spin into a pretty little armbar from where I was. Oops.

Then a few rounds of rolling. I did pretty well here with most of my opponents. At first I didn't get subbed and had some good position changes going and landed on an armbar on a standing opponent. Then I rolled on of our best blues and but up a valiant struggle but got mostly rocked. Got caught in a triangle, rnc, and probably at least one more that's not coming to me.

That's class. I got some encouraging words and a few tips from the blue that's leaving today, which is always nice to hear. It was nice to have my training partner back, though he left after the beginners. We're going to have to get his endurance back.

Class felt really good after the 4 day break. Some good things I noticed today is that my endurance is really improving and I'm staying more relaxed in rolling. I rarely ended a roll as the more tired person and didn't have to sit out any rounds to catch my breath. Another thing I noticed is today nobody at my level could break my guard. Between 3 little techniques from Saulo's dvd session today I can usually keep them occupied. Good stuff.
 
#170 ·
Gym - Ab Circuit

Twisting Crunch 20,20,20 @ 45lbs
Reverse Crunch 15,15,15 @ 10lbs
Cable Crunch 20,20,20 @ 150lbs
Ab Plank 1:10,1:10,1:10

Didn't want to do the barbell complex, I'll save it for the next gym day, probably saturday if I'm feeling alright. Slight improvements all around and I added an extra set for extra fun. My rotator cuff hurts from that kimura I was fighting against last night. Weigh 210lbs today. MMA class tonight.
 
#171 ·
MMA

Warm up run, wheelbarrow plyos. Technique was single leg takedowns against a person of opposite stance, it was real nice to have a class of takedowns geared towards me. The first single leg was pretty simple, trap the leg with your head on their chest, and back up in a circular motion. The second was a bit trickier, stepping out and pulling them towards you, reach across the front for the double, step inbetween their legs and bring your back arm high on their back to tip them.

Technique on the ground was more stuff from "half-back". A basic move to grab the wrist and ground and pound. Then another to trap their closest heel by stapling it between your closest knee and foot, then grab their other ankle so they're basically stuck and then get swinging. Finally from half back we learned to roll them in while the hand thats on their hip comes up into an arm triangle. I think I've got a firmer grasp on arm triangles and might start sinking them more often.

We rolled from a stand in the clinch. First guy I went for a single leg but he sprawled. I eventually recovered and took mount, and eventually his back where I stayed most of the round and gnped. Tried to rnc but couldnt get to his throat. Second guy was in my side control and half guard most of the round. I kept trying to reguard while trapping his arms so he couldn't punch, but I couldn't improve my position. I finally snuck out and took his back just as the round ended. Third guy was a younger kid so I took hi down lightly, mounted, then starting helping him get out of mount, take me down, etc. I still armbarred and triangled him though.

Class over. Fun stuff. My shin splints won't **** off.
 
#172 ·
BJJ

Our instructor left to go compete somewhere for the next week. So the purples/blues took over. Started with a 5 minute warm up drill with partner, then some pumelling. Too lazy to go through the technique. They covered alot of tricky stuff today and I doubt much stuck. In guard pass drills and rolling I did pretty well. Notable moments include a couple armbars, and rolling with a purple and for the most part staying compettive and avoiding harm, though I did get submitted once or twice. I found myself in a position to use some techniques from my Dvd sets but I couldn't pull it together. I lack the mental fortitude to absorb all this information and put it into use right away, so I'll be watching lots of reruns.
 
#173 ·
Muay Thai

Warm up run, combos on pads and kick sheilds...some more random shit. I hurt myself in a few places today and have now had 2 shitty thursday classes. I might be ditching this class to do my own training. I'm going to see if I can use the bags at my workout gym when they're not running their class. Also gotta get my partner working with me, but he's still settling back into training under our MMA gyms full schedule before he starts more work outside of it. I'll probably be training tomorrow, only thing really holding me back is a toe I re-sprained today. Almost there.
 
#174 ·
Muay Thai

Practicing a few moves while moving forwards/backwards. Drilled a couple combos. Finally got some sparring in, just two 3 minute rounds. I did alright, looking forward to getting some more in. Definitely need to and want to pay more attention to my stand up, the focus has been grappling for these past few months. I'm limping from shin splints :(. Rest tomorrow, then I'll probably do my barbell complex on monday. UFC!!!
 
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