Hey everyone,

 I just was watching the UFC 100 fights the other night and it really sparked my interest to write this post.

I wanna talk MMA style circuit training.  It seems to be the next “big” craze, well I tell you this – we’ve been training this way forever!  Its nothing that was just invented but now its more in the limelight.  Thats good though!

 Now, you see Crossfit gyms going in everywhere and more and more MMA style gyms popping up as well.  That’s good, we need more gyms like these.

The Forged Athlete is similar to some of these gyms but totally different in many ways.  Instead of focusing on just getting “good” at everything across the board like Crossfit does, we take a more specific angle at what we want to do. We actually have structure to our workout programs.  This is another post all together, but I just wanted to hit on the fact that we are in no way Crossfit.    YOU MUST EARN your way into The Forged Athlete, not anyone can walk up off the street and in 3 sessions be apart of our organization – enough said on that.

So, looking more into in the case at hand, if you’re an MMA fighter, you’ll want to focus on strength endurance and work capacity.  Your max strength doesn’t mean sh*t in the ring, so there’s really no reason you need to be focusing as much on your max strength abilities. 

Its sad when I run into athletes that are involved in combat sports and all they want to do in the beginning is put more weight on the bar.   Shit, you need to be able to last at least a couple rounds before anything else!  Get endurance! 

I think since the recent craze over UFC and its growing popularity, the training that these fighters go through has moved into the spotlight.

MMA type of training focuses on work capacity and strength endurance.  Again, if you have been reading along with older post (and I hope you have been) you will know that if you are strong but lack endurance, you will not be in a good position to win.  Its just like if a guy is very strong, but lacks speed and quickness – his strength don’t mean jack crap!

To become a good fighter one must focus on building his endurance through high intense strength based circuits.  That’s exactly what I did today, and it kicked my butt!

In part 1 of my MMA strength circuit I performed this glorious circuit:

A1) Sandbag Shouldering x 70# sandbag

A2) Sandbag Zercher Drop Lunges x 70# sandbag

A3) Explosive Off set push ups

A4)  Reclined Rows  (the chains worked the hell outta my grip!!!  Love it!

A5)  Sandbag Get Ups

I went through one round going 40 sec of work followed by 20 sec rest.    It felt great!  Today was my off day so I kept it to one round.  On an average day, I would’ve had to go through anywhere from 4-5 rounds total.  That gets BRUTAL!

Stay Tuned for part 2 with the other strength circuit I did this day.

That one was an even bigger dousie! 

Stay Forged Strong!

MMA Circuit Round 1