Weight Training: How often is enough for MMA training?

Here's a question we recently received from a reader and author Loren Christensen's reply:

Question: I train in MA 3 days workouts lasting about 1 1/2 hours since I utilize the jump rope as my warmup, these sessions are also my ONLY cardio work. How many days weekly should I weight train for size and strength without worrying about overtraining? Thanks for your input.

Loren's Answer: First, know that it's a little difficult to put on a lot of size when you're doing a lot of cardio. In bodybuilding, it's recommended that the trainee eliminate cardio during the period in which he is specifically trying to pack on size. The thought is that all energy and calories should go into rebuilding the muscles after a strenuous resistance workout.

But I'm assuming you're not trying to be Mr. Olympia; you want to add some strength and size to give extra authority to your punches, kicks and grappling. That you can do, but you must do it wisely.

• Keep your weight training basic: benches, rowing, curls, triceps and squats.
• Go heavy so that you have to really grunt on your last repetitions, make it the 6th, 7th, and 8th ones.
• Do 3 or 4 sets per exercise, just one exercise per body part.
• Do these twice a week so that each body part is hit two times a week. If one week you can work each body part only once, no problem. You won't lose anything and you’re likely to even gain a little. During one six-month period I lifted only once a week and made nice gains. I've even heard of lifters making gains in their squats lifting once every 10 to 14 days.
• If you want to put on some extra weight, increase your calories by 300 to 500 per day. In a week to 10 days you should be packing around an extra pound.

The nice thing about lifting heavy is that not only will it give you some added size, but it will increase your speed, too. Light weights and high reps stimulate your slow-twitch muscles fibers. But heavy weights and low reps stimulate your fast-twitch fibers, the ones that give you power, strength, explosiveness and speed. So stay away from those pink dumbbells and instead pull those heavy ones off the rack. Oh, be sure to eat healthily and get some extra shuteye.

And don't blame me if you have to buy bigger shirts in three months and you start bursting open heavy bags at their seams. At the risk of sounding commercial, all these tips and a lot more can be found in The Fighter's Body by Wim Demeere and me, available right here at Turtle Press.

Train hard!

Loren

www.lwcbooks.com

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Conserve Energy when you Kick

Martina Sprague, author of Fighting Science, offers these tips to conserve energy when kicking:

Kicking takes more energy than striking. This is because the legs are heavier than the arms. Energy, when kicking, is conserved by relying on principles of physics that allow you to use as little effort as possible. Energy is also conserved by kicking when your opponent is moving into the kick’s path of power. This allows you to use less of your own momentum to achieve an overall stronger momentum.

Body mechanics for energy conservation:

1. The side kick takes less effort to land when your opponent is slightly toward your back rather than your front. This is because the kick is usually thrown with your lead leg, with your opponent lined up with your hips.

2. The spinning back kick should be thrown when your opponent is moving into its path of power. Energy is conserved by spinning less than 180 degrees. If you spin more than 180 degrees, you will be chasing your opponent with the kick.

3. If your opponent moves toward your front, it would be economical to throw a round house kick.

4. Energy can be conserved by dropping an axe kick on your opponent’s guard and bringing his upper body forward and into your follow-up strike.