How to avoid overtraining in mma – Part 2: Recognizing the signs & symptoms
By Dr Jason Gillis.
Competing at a high level in mixed martial arts (MMA) is the end result of a successful long-term training plan administered over many years. Successful training plans strike a balance between training and recovery. However, this is particularly difficult in MMA because the sport requires technical proficiency in grappling and striking, not to mention a high degree of strength, power, agility, flexibility, and an/aerobic endurance. With so many performance factors to consider, fighters and coach often dedicate too much time to training at the expense of recover. This can lead to underrecovery and increase a fighter’s potential for overtraining. In a worst-case scenario, this can end a fighter’s career before it starts.
How to avoid overtraining in mma – Part 1: How your body responds to training
Dr. Jason Gillis.
Overtraining is one of the toughest opponents a fighter will ever face; its onset is insidious and it plays upon your fear of under-preparation. Add this to the long list of performance factors that a successful fighter must training; like strength, power, agility, an/aerobic endurance, not to mention your technical development, and you see why so many fighters burn-out before reaching their full potential.
Imagination rules the world – Napoleon Bonaparte
Goal Setting Strategies for Fighters & Coaches in Mixed Martial Arts
By Dr. Jason Gillis
Training and fighting in mixed martial arts (MMA) requires extraordinary levels of motivation and drive because it’s such a physically and mentally demanding sport. Successful coaches know this and train their fighters to focus on specific outcomes in all areas of their training. This level of planning can improve a fighter’s daily motivation and drive. This is goal setting in a nutshell; but sadly, most fighters and coaches don’t take a formal approach to exploring and setting compelling goals.
The Metabolic Demands of MMA – Part 5: Aerobic Oxidation
By Dr Jason Gillis.
This five-part article series has explored the metabolic demands of mixed martial arts (MMA). When you understand this, not only will you appreciate why you fatigue or gas-out in the cage, but you will know how to bring about specific physiological and biochemical adaptations that will optimize your performance on fight day.
The Metabolic Demands of MMA – Part 4: Aerobic Glycolysis
By Dr Jason Gillis.
Not all cardio workouts are created equal. Subtle changes in the work-to-rest ratio or work interval length of a training session can bring about very different adaptations that may or may not be useful to you on fight day. The purpose of this five-part article series is to examine the metabolic demands of mixed martial arts (MMA) and teach you how to bring about specific physiological and biochemical training adaptations that will improve your performance in the cage. Continue reading
The Metabolic Demands of MMA – Part 3: Anaerobic Glycolysis
By Dr Jason Gillis.
In this series of articles, The MMA Training Bible examines the metabolic demands of mixed martial arts (MMA). Understanding this is critical because it influences how you design and carry out your training plan. Get it right and you’ll optimize your endurance, strength and power on fight day. Get it wrong and you risk gassing-out in front of your opponent.
The Metabolic Demands of MMA: Part 2 – The ATP-PCr System
By Dr Jason Gillis.
Understanding the metabolic demands of mixed martial arts (MMA) is the first step in designing a scientific training plan. If you don’t know which energy systems support your activity in the cage, or why you fatigue and gas-out, you may be targeting the wrong energy systems in training. This could lead to overtraining or undertraining, inappropriate development of the aerobic or anaerobic energy systems, or poor development of muscular strength and power. With an understanding of the metabolic demands of MMA, you will be able to stimulate specific physiological and biochemical adaptations that will optimize your performance on fight day. What better motivation do you need to read this series of articles than this?
The Metabolic Demands of Mixed Martial Arts: Part 1 – Energy Transfer
By Dr Jason Gillis
Myths and misconceptions about the science of training can end a fighter’s career before it starts. The main objective of this series of articles is to set the record straight in one area in particular: the metabolic demands of mixed martial arts (MMA). This series of articles will explore how your body powers the repeated high intensity efforts that characterize the sport. When you understand this, not only will you appreciate why you fatigue or gas-out in the cage, but you will know how to bring about specific physiological and biochemical adaptations that will optimize your performance on fight day. Continue reading
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Why some fighters fail to to reach their full potential
So many fighters give up before they reach their full potential, but why is this and what reasons do they give? Check out the pic for a few examples.
Why do you fight?
By Dr. Jason Gillis
It doesn’t matter if you’re a coach or a fighter, or just thinking about getting into mixed martial arts (MMA), you are on a very unique path. It’s unique because fighters are not normal people; they may have normal jobs, like accounting, engineering, or plumbing, but what sets them apart is that they are willing to risk their body, pride and image to compete in a cage; that is unique. But have you ever thought about why you do it?
If you can get associated with this reason, your mental strength will grow immeasurably, as will your performance in the cage.
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Learn how to get and keep your head in the fight all year round with the MMA Training Bible’s Free Goal Setting Workshop
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A person with a clear purpose…
The important thing in life…
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Maximize your flexibility with minimal stretching
By Dr. Jason Gillis
MMA is a sport that demands a high degree of flexibility. Flexible fighters can perform a wider range of techniques, both offensive and defensive, than less flexible fighters. These fighters will have a clear advantage on fight day. We all know this, but there is only so much training time available during the week, and although flexibility is important, it often takes a back seat to other types of training.We here at The MMA Training Bible feel that flexibility is important, but we also appreciate that fighters and coaches have time constraints, so we’ve set our sights on identifying the minimum amount of stretching that is required to improve flexibility
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The truth about gas mask training
Gas mask training has been falsely marketed to athletes as a ‘hypoxic training aid’, even though the composition of air filtered through the mask and into the lungs is the same as outside air.
Performance limiters in the mixed martial artist
By Dr. Jason Gillis
The sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) combines the techniques of boxing, Muay Thai Kickboxing, and various grappling disciplines such as Greco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, judo, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It incorporates level changes, pushing, pulling, and rotation in the sagittal, frontal and transverse planes of movement. Although a typical match is characterised by bursts of high intensity activity followed by low intensity efforts and pauses1, it is difficult to predict the exact work to rest ratio of a match as it can be influenced by numerous factors, from the style of a fighter (striker versus grappler) and their skill level (amateur, semi-professional, professional), to the duration of a match, and a fighters’ ability to control the pace of a match.
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Spotlight On Research: The addition of sprint interval training to your training plan
Farzad et al., (2011), J Strength Cond Res, 25, 9, 2392-2399,
Intermediate and advanced fighters need to peak for several competitions over an annual training cycle, but the scheduling and spacing of these competitions, coupled with the occurrence of illness or injury, does not always match an ideal periodization plan, and may require a modified training program in order to maximise performance in the shortest time possible. To this end, high intensity sprint interval training has been shown to induce rapid improvement in performance; Frazad et al., tested whether its inclusion into a pre-season wrestling program could improve fitness.
Spotlight On Research: A review of time-motion analysis and combat development in mixed martial arts matches at regional level tournaments.
By: del Vecchio FB, Hirata SM, Franchini E. (2011). Perceptual and Motor Skills, 112(2), 639-48.
Understanding the effort-pause ratio in a mixed martial arts can help coaches structure more specific strength and conditioning training programs for fighters, and aid in the technical and tactical preparation for a fight.
Improve your punching power
There is little research available on the factors that influence punching performance in the mixed martial arts (MMA), but because punching is comparable to throwing, particularly in sports like shot-put, javelin, or baseball, it is not unreasonable to relate some of the factors that have been shown to influence throwing performance to MMA and punching performance.
Instability training
The purpose of this article is to inform fighters and coaches in the mixed martial arts about the nature of instability training, and to provide guidance for those who wish to engage in it.The term ‘instability training’ was chosen over other commonly used terms, like ‘core stability training’, because it emphasises the training goal, which is to create instability in each exercise, not stability. In this article, the term ‘core’ refers to the musculature that supports the trunk (i.e. rib cage and spine), upper extremity (shoulder girdle) and lower extremity (pelvic girdle). All of these muscles work together as an integrated whole to maintain balance, rather than in isolation4 and core stability (or balance) is controlled through complex neuronal communication between peripheral sensors within the core musculature and central brain structures.6
Resistance training basics
Before you design a resistance training program, you’ll need a basic understanding of a few key principles; we’ve listed them below in a series of sequential steps.
Step 1: Needs analysis
The fist step in designing any training program is performing a needs analysis to identify the requirements and characteristics of the sport. This usually involves a movement analysis of body and limb patterns and muscular involvement; physiological analysis of strength, power, hypertrophy and muscular endurance components; injury analysis of common joint and muscle injury sites, including causative factors.
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What role does Science play in the field of Strength and Conditioning?
The term ‘science’ is derived from the Latin scientia, or scire, for ‘know’, so by practicing science, one should gain knowledge of the natural world; but this notion is not entirely correct. Defining the term ‘science’ does not easily reconcile the issue, for most definitions fail to exclude clear examples of non-scientific activities, like Astrology; or worse, fail to include clear cases of good science.
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A case study in pseudoscience: The Power Balance Bracelet
Most would agree that the field of strength and conditioning (S&C) is perhaps more accessible to the layperson than physics, biology or chemistry. This is not to imply the field is any less scientific, but it probably means that the field of S&C must work harder than other disciplines to differentiate itself from pseudoscience. So, a role of science in the field of S&C, and on this website, is to separate the good from the bad. The case of the Power Balance Bracelet is an example of this.
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Science marches on, the difficulty is in keeping up
The fundamental principles of science appear to have been adopted in the domain of strength and conditioning (S&C). For example, when you put the following search terms in PubMed and search by decade, (strength OR resistance OR weight) AND (training OR exercise), it becomes apparent that an overwhelming amount of scientific progress has been made in the last 10 years.
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