Intro

My name’s Eric Wong and I’m a MMA Performance Coach based out of Hamilton,
Ontario. I’ve helped Jeff Joslin in his last 2 fights (including his UFC debut), Rory
McDonell, Ray Penny, and other pro fighters.

Because I train at a mixed-martial arts gym - and all of the fighters know that I’m a MMA
Performance Coach - I’m asked questions about training pretty much everyday.

Over the years I’ve noticed that the same questions keep coming up, over and over.

Despite the plethora of information available, confusion still reigns as athletes of all
levels are still chained to old, dogmatic theories of training, or still making crucial
mistakes that basically means they’re wasting their time in the gym.

Well I’ve taken the 5 questions/topics that I’ve been asked about the most, and compiled
them into this report to hopefully shed some light on what MMA specific training is really
all about. No bull, no fluff, just the straight facts, laid out as concisely as possible.

Mistake #1 – Overtraining

If you’ve ever had a professional MMA bout, then I congratulate you. It takes a lot of
courage, training, and determination to deal with the hard training required to adequately
prepare for a match.

But the same ‘tough-it-out’ mentality that makes a fighter able to deal with the long hours
of sparring, conditioning, and technique work, can hurt a fighter if they don’t know when
it’s helpful and when it’s detrimental.

When creating a program for an athlete in preparation for a fight, I look at a fighter’s
strength and conditioning program, as well as MMA classes. Because they’re both
strenuous on the body, you can’t just look at them as separate entities. Both must be
scheduled and taken into account to create a training schedule that brings the athlete to
where they need to be by fight day and avoids injury.

Most fighters simply go hard too often. That’s the bottom line.

The body gets stronger, muscle motor programs improve (thus techniques improve), and
tissues get regenerated during periods of rest and recovery, not training.

So if your body never has rest and recovery, then your body will not adapt.

Now recovery has a lot to do not only with rest and recovery, such as lighter training
days, complete days off, and good quality sleep, but also nutrition. Eating well is a huge
part of the equation when creating a successful fighter, but we’re going to focus on
training in this report.

Let’s say there’s a fight in 8 weeks, an athlete doesn’t have to put on any muscle mass,
and they’re a well-rounded fighter. Here’s what I’d see as a typical training schedule:
Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat
Cardio Weights Cardio Weights MMA
Weights
MMA BJJ No-Gi Kickboxing Boxing

Each of these sessions would normally be performed at maximum intensity. Sometimes

I’ll talk to fighters and they’ll say things like, “I didn’t feel too good today, but I pushed as
hard as I could anyway.” This goes on week after week and gets more intense as the
fight gets closer.

When I hear this, I know they’re probably setting themselves up for symptoms of
overtraining (fatigue, lack of explosiveness), illness, or injury.

Here’s what I would change to maximize performance:

Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat

↓ Weights ↑ Cardio ↑ Weights MMA
REST
↑ MMA BJJ [T] No-Gi Kickboxing [T] Boxing

On Monday, I would have the athlete do fewer sets than normal, but intensity (eg. weight
lifted) is maintained, to maintain/increase strength and explosiveness without fatiguing
the muscles too much.

That would leave more energy for the all-important MMA training, where some sparring
will occur. If the fighter is tired from lifting weights, it’s going to impact their MMA
technique, and they might develop some bad habits and get sloppy.

On Tuesday, I’d have the fighter go hard in their Cardio workout (I hate that term and
use different terminology that I don’t have time to explain here), but focus on technical
skills in BJJ (the T). That way, they can go really hard and not worry about having gas
later, because they know they’re going to just work on drilling moves and techniques and
not rolling too hard.

Thursday I would have them go hard in their weight workout, and focus on technical
skills in Kickboxing. Friday and Saturday they’re free to go hard because they’ll have a
full day off on Sunday.

Can you see how this would minimize injury, as well as improve both skill and
conditioning at the same time?

Trying to improve in everything and go balls-out all the time is a sure-fire path to defeat!
The key is intelligent focus, directing your energy to where it needs to go for peak
performance.

Now this is just an example, and changes with every fighter, depending on their strength
and conditioning needs, technical needs, etc. But the basic concept is all here.
Remember – the goal is to maximize performance and win the fight, not train as hard as
possible all the time.
Mistake #2 – Lifting like a Bodybuilder

Here’s another common scenario that I come across in the gym. A guy will come up to
me and ask me, “Hey, what do you think about this, on Monday I do chest, Tuesday
legs, Wednesday abs, Thursday back, and Friday is for arms. Is that a good split?”

Let me put it bluntly, the traditional bodybuilder split is a

waste of time for a mixed-martial artist.

It could be useful before starting to train MMA but not

during, because during, you’re going to be wasting energy
lifting weights that could go towards learning how to punch,
grapple, and move properly.

Anyway, I usually respond with, “For my athletes, I setup

full-body programs, 2 days/week, mixed in with other
conditioning work, which changes depending on how far
away from a fight they are. If you need more info, check my
website. If you want a program, get my book.”

It’s not that I don’t want to help, but to try and explain
everything at once would be too overwhelming to most
guys I meet in the gym.

But for you, I’m going to break it down as simply as I can.

Not too useful for MMA

My programs are based on movement patterns. There are six major movement patterns
a mixed-martial artist should be concerned with: lunge, squat, bend, twist, push, and
pull.

Two additional patterns are necessary: accessory movements, which are generally
single-joint movements such as bicep curls and tricep extensions, and core stability,
which includes exercises like bridges, supermans, etc.

If you make sure that within a week every movement pattern is worked, then you will
undoubtedly be working every muscle in your body, in the way that it was meant to be
worked.

Now depending on the athlete, they may have lagging muscles that need extra attention,
but even if this is true, focusing on proper movement patterns will bring them back into
balance eventually. So unless they’re my personal client, I recommend the training
program found in my book, which actually has info on customizing your program based
on your muscle imbalances.

Getting back to the problems of bodybuilding programs for mixed-martial artists, there
are actually 3 main problems which really make these programs a horrible choice for a
MMA fighter.

The first is that most programs require too many training days a week, usually consisting
of around 5 days a week at least. If you want to follow this program, but then have to
grapple, box, do MMA, and more, then you’re going to be wasting energy lifting weights
as opposed to learning what’s actually going to win you a fight. I’m not downplaying
conditioning, but I do recognize that your time is precious and where you spend it must
be thought about and prioritized – getting buff is NOT a priority for a mixed-martial artist.

The second issue is that they prescribe too much volume per muscle group. For
example, a typical chest day would be a bench press of 5 sets, followed by incline
dumbbell presses for 4 sets, and flys for another 4 sets, and maybe some cable
crossovers for 4 sets, which is basically 17 sets of chest exercises.

This is great if you want to totally rip your muscles apart and grow, but useless for a
mixed-martial artist since your goal is to be as strong as possible, and keep a certain
weight. Also, whatever muscle group you annihilated will be useless to you in training, so
if it’s shoulder day, and you expect to train boxing later, you’ll have a difficult time
maintaining proper technique through your combos since you won’t be able to lift your
arms!

The last thing is that many traditional bodybuilding exercises are just not useful for a
mixed-martial artist. Doing exercises like hack squats, machine presses, lying leg curls,
and donkey calf raises are a poor use of your training efforts compared to front squats,
dumbbell presses on a ball, and deadlifts.

Following my scheme of 2-3 days/week of strength training requires that each exercise
have a purpose and that no time is wasted in the gym. You’ve gotta get the most bang
for your buck out of every second you spend lifting weights, otherwise you might as well
be doing your MMA training.

Mistake #3 – Long, Slow Distance Running

OK – seriously, if you’re still going for 4 km or longer runs to

improve your cardio, then you’ve gotta stop that right now and get
with the times.

Pop Quiz: What weight class would this guy fight in? 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you must have heard of
Interval training, HIIT, or Tabata’s. These are all forms of intense
work followed by easy work.

When you run at a slow pace for a long-time, your muscles lose
their explosiveness and ability to recover from intense work.
Interval training improves your power output and recovery from
high intensity muscular work.

If you’re new to interval work, follow this schedule to get your body used to the high
output. The key is HIGH OUTPUT, so it’s better to
have shorter intervals (30 sec) where you’re moving fast as opposed to longer intervals
(1 min) where you’re really dragging your ass. You can do intervals running, on a bike,
treadmill, doing stairs, or basically anything. I do avoid the elliptical however, as I just
feel it’s very unnatural. My favourite is to do them running or on a Schwinn AirDyne bike.
Make sure to do a progressive warm-up before doing the first hard interval, otherwise
you might pull a hammie!

Week # # of Sessions Hard time (sec) Easy time (sec) Reps

1 2 30 60 6
2 2 30 60 9
3 2 30 60 12
4 2 30 45 8
5 2 30 45 10
6 2 45 60 6
7 2 45 60 8
8 2 45 60 10

Now doing intervals will definitely aid your conditioning. But I’ve developed further
methods of MMA specific conditioning, which fall into two different categories: Lactic
Acid Training and NRG Complexes.

Lactic Acid Training is all about getting the most lactic acid produced in your body as
possible, which forces not only your muscles to work overtime to process it, but also
your liver. Continually forcing adaptation to high levels of lactic acid is a bulletproof way
of training your body to endure those matches when you need to exert consistent
strength against an opponent, such as escaping a mount or side-mount. You may be
able to surprise him with power if he’s not well-trained, but it will likely take consistent
working towards the move that will get you out.

There are 2 different methods of training your ability to tolerate lactic acid: locally and
systemically.

Check this page out to see what I mean:

=> http://www.ultimatemmastrength.com/mma-workouts-anaerobic-lactic.html

Now NRG Complexes are something I’ve developed that are my bread and butter.
These routines involve at least 10 exercises, performed in rapid fashion, working the
following qualities:

 Power/Explosiveness, Power endurance, Strength endurance, Core stability,

Agility, Balance, Co-ordination, Speed, and Mental toughness!

I’ve created many different NRG Complexes all designed for one thing – keeping you
explosive and active in the last 30 seconds of round 3.

I have different examples of NRG Complexes in my Ultimate MMA Strength and

Conditioning Program that will have you feeling in better shape than you’ve ever felt
before in your life.

There’s also a nice side benefit: the fat melts away from your body faster than you’ve
ever imagined!
Mistake #4 – Not Following a Program

Another big mistake that many fighters make is that they workout instead of train.

Working out is going to the gym trying to get a sweat. No attention is paid to what was
done before and what is to come.

Training is going to the gym with a specific goal in mind, which leads you to another
longer term goal down the road. Each session builds on the previous session and will
result in a stronger, more powerful athlete.

So when I ask people, “What’s your program?” I’ll get vague answers like, “Oh, I’ll go in
and do some bench, then curls, then maybe hit the shoulders pretty hard, yeaaaah.”

Working out like this is a recipe for poor results.

For my fighters, I have every workout we’ve ever done together logged, with little notes
at the bottom if anything was going on, like decreased performance due to an injury, etc.
This way, I can look back on my training logs and see what worked and what didn’t,
which allows me to refine my programs.

That’s how I’ve come up with my strength and conditioning program for fighters.

My goal was to do the least amount of volume possible, while creating explosive, all-
around athletes with great endurance.

Keeping this goal in mind has allowed me to create a program

that is only 3 days/week, avoids injury and overtraining, and
most importantly gets results in the only place it counts - in a
fight.

If you want results, instead of simply working out, get a program

that you know gets results, then you can follow it too, it’s like
having me as your personal strength and conditioning coach.

=> http://www.UltimateMMAStrength.com

Mistake #5 – Not Tracking Training Sessions

For people who aren’t following a program, they’re definitely not tracking their training
sessions. But some people who do follow a program still don’t track their sessions.

Here’s an easy example describing the importance of tracking your training sessions.

It’s Tuesday, and you lift 200 lbs for 5, 5, 4, 3 in the bench press. Your rest time is 2 min
between sets.

Now it’s next Tuesday, and you know you lifted 200 lbs, but you’re not sure how many
reps you did in the last 2 sets.
So now, you do sets of 5, 5, 4, and 3 again.

The thing is, if you had this written down, before you started your workout, you could’ve
looked at it and said, “This time, I’m doing 5, 5, 4, 4.”

Having that goal in mind helps you focus your strength and achieve that extra rep.

Sure, 1 rep isn’t a big deal, but repeat this process over 12 weeks, for all of your
exercises, and you’ve got yourself some new strength.

You don’t need an extremely complicated training log. You can just write in a notebook
what you lift each session. The key is to consistently track your sessions, then every
session, improve, even if it’s only by a rep.

Here’s an example of the training and tracking log that I use for my athletes and in my
book:

Training Log

Exercise Reps Tempo Intensity Rest Sets

1) Bench Press 8 – 12 202 -1 RM 60 s 2-3

2) Prone Cobra 3-9 20 – 60 s 3 min total ½ of hold 1

Tracking Log

Exercise Date: Aug 10/07 Aug 13/07 Aug 16/07 Aug 20/07
1) Reps 12 10 12 12 10 12 12 12 10 8 8
Intensity 135 lbs 135 lbs 135 lbs 145 lbs
2) Reps 9 6 4 2 2
Intensity 20 s holds 30 s holds 45 s holds 60 s 30 s

Pretty simple stuff - and once you put it into practice, it’s very powerful.
Conclusion

If you’re making one or more of these mistakes, then you’re wasting time and/or energy
that could be spent in a more beneficial way. Eliminating these mistakes will get you
ahead of 80% of the other mixed-martial artists out there and drastically improve your
chances of being the one with his hand raised in victory.

Make SURE you’re following a proper strength and conditioning program that’s designed
specifically for mixed-martial artists. It has to take into account the fact that you’re
training often everyday, so you can’t be sore or too tired from your workouts.

Plus, MMA requires specific physical qualities, which most general strength or
conditioning programs lack.

Check out what UFC vet Jeff Joslin says about this program:

"Eric Wong is my secret weapon... "

"Eric Wong is my secret weapon. The peak

conditioning level he pushes me to reach
before each fight gives me extreme
confidence in the cage."

Jeff Joslin, UFC Fighter

Click Here to Get Started on the Ultimate MMA

Strength and Conditioning Program Today