by Phil Daru
No fight scheduled…no problem! Working hard and staying consistent is essential for mma fighters. If you want to succeed in MMA, then developing consistent habits is not an option. Being a fighter is not just about striking, and grappling it’s about having the mental fortitude to prepare day in and day out all year round. The problem is most fighters and coaches really do not know how to go about formulating a plan when they aren’t in camp.
So How Do You Train Out of Camp?
Pillar 1: BUILD A BASE
How tall is a pyramid? Simply put you must structure a program when you are not getting ready for a particular fight to lay the foundation. A pyramid is only as wide as it’s base, so we must set the groundwork first in order to achieve high amounts of stimulus to carry over into fight camp. This is the time where training should be overly hard creating what we call functional overreaching, and maximum recoverable volume. Training to maximize our fitness, and general overall work capacity. When the body is set to a higher volume, frequency, and intensity structurally they will began to have physiological, and biological adaptations. This is good, we want this to happen, you want to be physically capable of going through in entire camp seemingly unphased by the stresses that are put upon yourself. Once camp has begun we want to already be set to hit the ground running, take aim at the overall goal and not have to get in shape in the beginning of camp. This will allow you to fully dial in on tactical skill work and fine tune your biomechanics, energy expenditure, and strength quality needed in a fight.
Pillar 2: PERIODIZATION
The structured approach…I usually like to formulate a 6-12 week out of camp program for all of my fighters especially if they are coming off a hard training camp. I want to make sure we are fully taking advantage of the time off with good build to achieving our desired adaptations when going into another camp. This is especially true for my fighters that leave to go back home and are not under my watchful eye every day. This allows me to fully keep a close look at their training and how they are progressing even when I’m not around. In the beginning of the program after they have taken a week or two off after a fight (depending on injury or not) I start with an accumulator phase this may last for 1-2 two weeks depending on how out of shape they are. Each day is focused on full body movements, squat, hinge, push, pull, carry, and core work. This will be for 3-4 days a week primarily with aerobic work on the days off of weight training or on drilling days. I’m looking to build up work capacity so yes soreness is normal just make sure to adequately recover by means of active release treatment (Massage, Graston, ART, Sauna, Cold Bath, etc.) to keep you training hard and with good quality frequency.
The first microcycle may look like this..
- Monday: Full body: hypertrophy |strength endurance | core stability
- Tuesday: Aerobic training | motor control | drilling | pad work
- Wednesday: Full body: hypertrophy | strength endurance | core stability
- Thursday: Aerobic training | anti rotational stability | light sparring (before)
- Friday: Full body: hypertrophy | strength endurance | core stability
- Saturday: live drilling | pad work
- Sunday: OFF
This will lead into the following week of intensification, then into realization subsequently going into a slight deload. With every microcycle keeping it frequency fairly high volume moderately high and intensity some what low we are able to push the overall work capacity to a all time high. A full out of camp program should always end with a deload week leading into camp to better facilitate metabolic pathways and overall super compensation.
Pillar 3: THE EXERCISES:
It’s all about the intent…I’m not too big on varying exercises too frequently for mma athletes because most of the time they are novices when it comes to wait training. So In order for us to get a stimulus adaptation exercise must be performed with good intent for at least 3 weeks long. Now with that being said variation is important, but it doesn’t always have to be about just the exercise. Changing tempo, rest periods, adding bands/chains are all good ways to vary your exercises but still keep it to where they are producing adaptive qualities. Another go to of mine is sled pulls, prowler pushes for distance, farmers carry, sandbag carry, and up hill running and jumping. These are very low risk high reward exercises and drills that can build up a foundation of not only strength but aerobic capacity as well.
Pillar 4: BUILDING CARDIO
Start slow… Now I know I’m gonna get some slack for this from my earlier articles on how I’m against long distance conditioning for building up Aerobic capacity. But let me reiterate I do believe in working on volume of aerobic work were building up Vo2 is the main focus. In the case of out of camp training this is perfect. Because we want to initiate work capacity keeping lower intensity higher volume style of aerobic training would give us stimulus we are looking for from an energy source perspective. Let’s face it boxers and wrestlers have been doing road work for years, and as long as it’s put in at the right times I see no problem with it especially out of fight camp.
Pillar 5: THE PRIMARY FOCUS
It’s not rocket science… The main focus of an out of camp program is to develop some fitness. General physical preparedness training with a sole focus to get your body and mind ready to go 8 full weeks while reducing the risk of injury and maximizing our overall performance potential! Keep it safe and simple, work efficiently and effectively. Have a structured plan that works towards phase potentiation and stimulus adaptability. Lastly have fun with it do some new exercises that are going to be effective but interesting keeping you from developing staleness in your program.
Training consistently outside of your training camps is essential for every fighter. Using these pillars correctly will give you a massive advantage over the competition..and, as stated earlier, these habits will build a foundation for the more intense work that needs to be done during a fight camp.
Want More Details?
Download a Sample Workout from my Fight Strong 2.0 Training Plan
Long time UFC Veteran and Coach Cub Swanson was speaking to a room of younger athletes, and probably told them one of the most valuable things they will hear throughout their careers – be smart. In a relatively new sport, I feel like this is where the biggest changes have occurred and are occurring; having a smart, scientific plan behind training in MMA. Along with effective programming here is a list of 7 habits that will not only take your game to the next level but keep you there:
“Without consistency there are no champions.” A quote I picked up along the way. Basically the foundation of any successful sporting career. You’d be hard pressed to find a champion in any sport that isn’t consistent.
Work backwards. Figure what you want and when you want it by then plan backwards. When you plan backwards and reverse engineer, you put yourself in a proactive mindset, which is the key to preparation. “Give me six hours to cut down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.” (*having a plan is not against being adaptable! See Habit #6).
Matthew Bousson (aka Coach Boss) has spent time with some of the world’s most elite athletes in a variety of different sports; including College Football, NFL, UFC and Rugby (both League and Union). Matthew extensive academic and research qualifications combined with a decade of coaching experience in the fields of Strength & Conditioning, Injury Prevention & Rehabilitation, Exercise Biomechanics and Sports Psychology. Matthew first got involved in Mixed Martial Arts in 2005 and is now working alongside Sam “Coach Cal” Calavitta at The Treigning Lab in Anaheim, Ca.
In the fitness world many individuals are under the false assumption that designing a program for an athlete is as simple as choosing different exercises and writing them down on paper. However, when designing a program the 
1. Needs Analysis (NAS): This is where the strength and conditioning professional must determine the specific physiological requirements of the athlete’s sport (specific muscle groups, muscle actions, athlete’s strength & weaknesses). As well as perform an assessment of the athlete. This provides baseline information like family health history, personal health/injuries history, and baseline fitness scores (muscular endurance, strength, power, aerobic/anaerobic fitness).
Traditionally the workout will include:
3. Training Frequency: The number of training sessions an athlete will complete in a week and is dependent on training status of the athlete, training goals, recoverability, training schedule, and training loads: volume, repetitions/sets, and intensity.
5. Training Loads: Is a mixture of repetitions and weight lifted. There is an inverse relationship between the load and max number of repetitions executed. This is usually prescribed as a percentage % of 1-rep max.
Rest Period Duration based on Training Goals
Unlike most other sports that play by the season, jiu-jitsu has over 50 different competitions throughout the year. This means a bjj athlete is competing all year around. In this type of environment, it’s impossible to peak at every single competition, due to the amount of time needed to be dedicated to each phase of training. We usually aim to peak at 3-5 of the many competitions our athletes compete at a year. In this article, we’ll take you through the phases of a bjj macrocycle and examples of 
This phase introduces athletes to the most basic movements at a high volume and low intensity. The athlete builds up muscle mass and the cross-sectional area to provide the body with as many muscle fibers as possible for the next coming phases. Here, we are looking at growing the muscle, versus strengthening the muscle, we’ll save that for the next phase.
This is where we’re increasing the intensity of every exercise. Making sure that the musculature that was grown in the last phase is being contracted in the 85-95% 1RM range. In this phase, we decrease the volume significantly, just around the 1-6 rep range and increase the rest in order to produce the best results.
After the athlete builds up their strength & become adapted to the progressions used in the strength cycle, they move on into the power phase. This is usually the final phase of the athlete’s program where they should see their peak performance.
After the plyos, we’ll have an athlete perform an Olympic weightlifting exercise. These exercises involve a full body range of motion where the goal is to move max weight at max speed. The most common and safe exercise we use is a hang clean. This exercise allows the athlete to train their triple extension under load at a high speed. Why is this important? The extension is being trained at the hip, knee, and ankle joint which are the joints most commonly used in every sport. If we’re thinking bjj, the athlete is consistently flexing or extending at those specific joints throughout the whole completion. This makes them stronger, and faster at those positions because they’ve trained under load to produce that force they need in competition.
We are fortunate that some of the top professionals in combat sports are willing to share their expertise. We’ve talked with strength coaches, physical therapists, nutritionists and more. Below we’ve organized podcasts from 2018. There is incredible information about short notice preparation, injury management, weight cuts and more.
One more year has passed…
Every fighter wants to be faster, but what they are really seeking is quickness. Fighters want the ability to change directions, find angles, hit takedowns, strike or find dominant positions QUICKLY and efficiently. In today’s video, coach Brett Bartholomew explains how we develop quicker, more explosive mma fighters.
Many of you have probably done some sort of landmine exercise before. Traditionally people will press, row, lunge and do a few anti-rotation drills. In today’s video Jorge Bonnet shares how he uses the landmine to challenge the whole body in new ways. Using the Omega attachment from PurMotion, Jorge is able to challenge the bottom half of the circle, which is often neglected. This landmine exercise forces you to dynamically stabilize through the hips, trunk and shoulders unlike any other exercise you’ve tried.
Jorge is the founder of PurMotion. His experience as a 5-time Olympic athlete fueled his passion to change the way the world thinks about fitness and has led to the creation of a new training modality complete with new movements, products and programming. In today’s podcast, we discuss Jorge’s athletic past and how he transitioned into fitness, manufacturing and education.
Many coaches will argue that punching power is genetic. That may be partially true, but we can increase our ability to produce and transfer force…and this does increase fighters’ punching power. It takes a lot more than curls and bench press tho… there are lots of factors that come into play. In today’s video, Coach Brett Bartholomew breaks down his thoughts on improving punching power.
