I have had a request to post up some of the conditioning circuits I
follow so thought I would oblige. First I will give you a little
insight into how I have arrived at where I am today in regards to
my strength and conditioning programs I now follow and a couple of tips
on how to train and what should be in your training program.
Over the years I have tried out and followed many programs with
mixed results, most of the time I had no clue as to why I was doing
what I was doing other than it was what every one else seemed to be
following!! The training for my first fight consisted of me going for 3
long runs a week and lifting weights twice a week. Now a lot of guys
that I speak to in the gym still do this sort of training for fights
and dont see any problems with this, I ask them this question though
“Is this training specific to your needs??” . I asked myself this very
same question after my first fight and realised there was a lot for me
to learn.
I have spent the last 7 years educating myself on this subject. I
have read countless books and articles on the subject and still do. I
have talked to experts and I have gone out and taken qualifications in
order to improve my knowledge. Olympic athletes don’t leave their
training to chance so why should you. In order for you to achieve the
gains you want and require you have to:
- Specific – Your training has to be specific to the sport. You need
to break down and understand the demands of your sport and what
training is needed in order for you to improve. For example the
training I did for my first fight was in no way sport specific, long
slow distance does not emulate what I needed in a fight, there was no
speed, power or strength training.
- Overload – You must train to overload in order to gain any
increases. If you don’t train to overload your body will not adapt and
their will be no gains. By overload I mean train to failure, the final
reps of your final set you should be failing on. This then encourages
your body to adapt (Super compensation) during the recovery phase and
you will see gains within your training.
- Adapt/Change – Constantly change and adapt your training plan. It
doesn’t take long for your body to adapt and get used to what you are
doing therefore you need to change things up on a regular basis. This
can just be little tweeks but you need your body to be constantly
guessing if it gets used to your training you will plateau!
- Rest and Recovery – You have to have rest and recovery periods
built into your training plan. Without time to recover and repair your
body will fail you and no adaption will occur, you will over train!!
- Education – This is probably the most important point. You have to
educate yourself, if you don’t take charge of your own training no one
else will. There are thousands of books, articles, DVDs out there you
can even hire a decent Personal Trainer in order to educate yourself! A
couple of great places to start your education: http://www.rosstraining.com/ and http://www.crossfit.com/
Hopefully this will give you somewhere to start and ideas on how to
train. Now down to the request of some examples of my conditioning
workouts :
I like to split my training circuits into the rounds I will be
fighting (Sport Specific) so for example the circuit I did the other
day consisted of:
3×5 mins each round is broken down into minutes and you perform a different exercise for each minute.
ROUND 1 UPPER BODY
1min – Fast 6-10 punch combo bag work allowing yourself to re-set after each combo this should be high intensity.
1min – Pull ups
1min – Medicine ball or a weight press above head and out infront of you 10 reps of each then repeat.
1min – Hold a weight out infront of you then perform steering wheels.
1min – Same as first minute.
Rest 30-60 seconds
ROUND 2 LOWER BODY
1min – Shoots on a bungee or have some one hold you on a harness.
1min – Deep Squats with a medicine ball.
1min – step ups
1min – 30 seconds bunny hoping over a thai pad side to side then 30 seconds forward and backward.
1min – same as first minute.
Rest 30-60 seconds.
ROUND 3 ALL OVER
1min – Carry the bag for 20 seconds then slam and ground and pound for 40 seconds.
1min – Clean and press a sand bag.
1min – Burpee.
1min – Kettlebell/Dumbell swing or medicine ball slam.
1min – Same as first minute.
The great thing about this circuit is its easy to adapt to whatever
your needs are. You can replace exercises as and when you need to and
you can increase the intensity by adding more rounds and decreasing
your rest time.
Here is an example of a hill sprint session I follow:
Find a steep hill with lamp posts on it. Your rounds will consist of
sprint to the first lamp post jog back down, sprint to the second lamp
post jog back down, sprint to the third lamp post jog back down and
rest. I have a Heart rate monitor on and my rest period is dictated by
this. I allow my HR to drop then repeat as above for 10 rounds. I usual
finish this with 5×50m flat sprints with little rest in between.
Hopefully this is usefull to you guys.
Enjoy 12 Gauge signing off!