Far, far, far, but ultimate goal for me: MMA

[venividivici]

I'm new here and come mostly for "Health and Fitness" and "Anything Else." So, :wave:.

I know a lot of you are involved in some type of martial art so I wanted to know something.

I am looking to get a punching bag, but have no idea whether I should get a free-standing punching bag or a traditional type bag. In the case of a traditional type punching bag, I'd also have to get a stand, since I have no place to hang a punching bag. A free-standing bag sounds like the best option, but I've read some negative reviews about them. I'd like to know what people think, who've used one or both types of bags.

Well, the reason I want a punching bag is I'm trying to live a healthier lifestyle. I run once in a while, and only 1-2 miles at that, but want to do a little more. Does running, combined with jumping rope, doing a few rounds on the heavy bag, using free weights at home, doing body weight exercises, and eating junk food less often or not at all sound like a good plan?

My ultimate goal is to get into Muay Thai, BJJ, or something utilized in MMA one day. I want to be able to go at the heavy bag and build up stamina before I ever step into a martial arts class. I admit, I kinda feel weird saying that, because I feel like it'd be too late to get into something like that, and I am not that naturally strong.

I know that in BJJ, technique > strength, but as for Muay Thai or something along those lines, how important is strength, and have any of you seen people succeed who are not naturally gifted in areas such as strength and speed?

Thanks guys.

 

[Skilla_Staz]

Why not just take the approach of busting your ass in the gym to build up your strength instead of worrying whether technique is better? That way, once you start training, you'll have some solid strength, AND good technique. To me the combination is greater than either one by themselves.

 

[hope7]

Develop your stamina through the martial art. Ever since I got into BJJ, my stamina has gone through the roof. Muy thai is more dependent on physique than BJJ, but you can beat someone physically better than you easily if your technique is good. BJJ also has a lot less injuries.

 

[MrS]

Hey man,
Get into a martial art, it's the most rewarding thing you can do with your body.
A contact sport is best.

Try BJJ and Boxing or Muay Thai.
Just get out there and find gyms, it's not that hard.
EVeryone's reluctant to start with, but it's worth it.

 

[Adone]

I'd love to be competitive in Boxing or Muay Thai, but the fear of breaking my beautiful nose sets me back, so I only took some lessons of Muay Thai and now I train at home by shadowboxing.

 

[MrS]

Haha, Adone, that's where plastic surgery comes into it!

Or, " the juice was worth the squeeze"!

Or, adopt a different style!

Get a heavy bag to keep up some kind of training, mate, shadowboxing will just keep the technique in your muscle memory.

Sorry, VVV, I didn't read your thread properly.
I'll reply in a bit with what you need, going to eat.

 

[MrS]

Well, the reason I want a punching bag is I'm trying to live a healthier lifestyle. I run once in a while, and only 1-2 miles at that, but want to do a little more. Does running, combined with jumping rope, doing a few rounds on the heavy bag, using free weights at home, doing body weight exercises, and eating junk food less often or not at all sound like a good plan?

That sounds like a great plan.

Running ("roadwork) is the main stamina work in most sports, and if you mix long distances (5 miles) with some interval training (5 x 400m fast runs, or 100m sprint, 100m walk, 100 sprint, repeat) on various days, should do your anaerobic and aerobic fitness levels a power of good.
Jumping rope really does get your arm/leg coordination, and leg endurance up, as well as being good aerobic exercise too.
The heavy bag, if you know how to throw punches properly, and if it's heavy enough, is a GREAT workout for your back, and arms, and of course punching power. Second to none.
Free weights at home? So you can do your squats, rows, deadlifts, benchpress? And if you have 2 chairs in your house, you can do dips? And if you have a bar outside, pullups? Then that's a complete workout on the weights side of things (the last two aren't weights so to speak, they're bodyweight exercises, but can be done at the same time, so to speak, so I associated them with your weights).
Body weight exercises, calisthenics and plyometrics are the staple of any fighter's training regimen. Situps, crunches, leg raises work your abs, pushups pullups dips will work your upper body fine. For that explosive leg speed everyone is always impressed by (the so-called "footwork", which is incredibly high in importance for any fighter), do some plyometrics. These are basically explosive movements, done for small periods of time at a high intensity. Examples are tuck jumps (jump and "tuck your knees up to your chin), clap pushups, medicine ball exercises.
Medicine ball is a ball a little bigger than a basketball, maybe same size, that weights about 3-5kg. These are used to basically do ANY movement in a fighter's striking arsenal, but with added weight. So after throwing 50 right crosses with the medicine ball, your right cross without that weight will be somewhat more explosive and, in turn, powerful. But I'm getting off the point.
Less junk food is a great start, cut down on that crappy food we've all come to love in our middle teenage years! Eat more vegetables, fruit, lean meat, drink a lot of water, take a good multivitamin (Centrum are great).

Do all this for some time, build up to good levels, and then you'll be pretty much in good shape to compete in your martial art of choice. Note: in ANY martial art, you need a lot more technique work and practise than you would need to do your benchpressing or squatting! You can be a complete fighter without ever having touched weights in your life, so don't think a couple of months and sixpack abs will make you Bruce Lee.

You mentioned you're not naturally strong. Well, get to strengthening yourself! Exercise as I suggested, dig in the garden, chop wood, whatever. I wasn't a natural beast, either, but you really do change when you've started training in a martial art, so don't worry about that. Speed AND strength will come in large quantities if you train right. And don't worry about starting late, it's never too late to start, it just makes things easier if you've started at an earlier age. ANYTHING is possible, if the will is strong enough.

My suggestion is, start a martial art AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Your questions are normal before-you-start "but I, what if" questions. When you get to training, go 2-3 times, your questions will be answered better than on any forum. Except when there's people like me :box: So get out there. BJJ, boxing, muay thai, any of these are good martial arts. Don't do generic **** like "karate" or "kickboxing", they're a bit too commercial, so to speak for my liking. Sure, someone who has been doing karate for 10 years is going to be a phenomenal martial artist, but I don't think it's suited for your MMA cravings.

Anything else, don't hesitate to reply here or pm me if the thread dies.

 

[CCKazi007]

Ok since your goal is to become a MIX-MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTER!

- You need to learn how to strike, grapple and submit. So you need to know at least 2 or 3 different kinds of martial arts. Every martial art is unique like Judo has no strikes but is focused on throwing and submitting. Karate is more striking with minimal grappling stuff. Make sure you find a GOOD GYM with a GOOD TEACHER there's a lot of fake "martial art schools."
- Increase stamina! three 5 min rounds are hell if your not in shape. Fedor the PRIDE heavy weight champ runs 10 miles DAILY and then does high altitude training.
- Get physically and mentally stronger. You have to learn to take few punches, kicks and knees in the jaw and still keep on fighting.

So if you really want to commit and become a MMA fighter, you have to first learn all the basics of training. So your better off hiring a trainer who knows all the stuff.

 

[venividivici]

Wow, thanks for all of your help.

Thinking more about it, I'd probably be happy with just Muay Thai to start.

I'll start looking for some schools and asking around.

And no, I won't join one of those "fake schools" you see in the newspaper that offer family kickboxing classes .

 

[Unregistered]

Great post MrS. Very informative.

How do you balance your weight training with power, explosiveness, and stamina? Most of the workouts on this forum deal with developing power and bulk. Do you stick with a 3-day split?

 

[MrS]

With help from various people, I got the following routine down and it works a treat:

Week 1:
Day 1 - Jog/Sprint (more sprinting as your stamina gets up)
Day 2 - Speed Olympic lift day - Clean/snatch variation and jerk variation, done with 60% of my 1RM, for 2 reps, 5 sets. This is to do is as EXPLOSIVELY as possible but with good form. 1 pressing auxiliary, 1 posterior chain auxiliary, one torso auxiliary.
Day 3 - Stamina day. This is basically rounds (30sec-2min) of various floor exercises, like clap pushups, jacknife situps, burpees, lunges, fast skipping rope, etc.
Day 4 - Bench variation (work up to 5 rep max), one tricep auxiliary, one back auxiliary, and one chest auxiliary.
Day 5 - Stamina day

Week 2

Day 1: Jog/Sprint (alternate between jogging and sprinting....doing more sprinting and less jogging as your stamina improves. This should last an hour or less)

Day 2: Speed squat (same procedure as speed Olympic lift); one posterior chain auxiliary, one torso auxiliary, and one quadricep auxiliary.

Day 3: Stamina day

Day 4: Max effort Olympic lifts—snatch/clean variation and jerk variation (warm up to the heaviest weight that you can do two reps with USING GOOD FORM). One pressing auxiliary, one posterior chain auxiliary, one back auxiliary and one torso auxiliary.

Day 5 : Stamina day

Week 3

Day 1: Jog/Sprint (alternate between jogging and sprinting....doing more sprinting and less jogging as your stamina improves. This should last an hour or less)

Day 2: Speed bench (same procedure as speed Olympic lift). Also, one tricep auxiliary, one back auxiliary, and one chest auxiliary

Day 3: Stamina day

Day 4: Max effort squat (work up to 5 rep max). Also, one posterior chain auxiliary, one torso auxiliary, and one quadricep auxiliary.

Day 5 : Stamina day

And then back to week 1.

Goals are stamina, functional strength and power. If you want, I can send you the exercise pool I get the exercises from. It's not complicated, I could list them if you want.

The auxiliarys are 3-5 sets of 6-12 reps.

This is without any boxing training on the schedule. Like I am now, for the next 2 months.

Hope this helped.