Burpees are one of my favourite conditioning tools. They can challenge anyone, no matter what shape they are in. They are a great bodyweight movement with a relatively low risk of injury even when form breaks down due to fatigue. They can even be loaded using a weight vest, and there are countless variations.
I just want to be clear, when I say burpee, I mean “chest to floor” burpee. No straight arms, no partial push-ups.
This conditioning workout is a great one to challenge your aerobic energy system. Because of the nature of the movements, muscular fatigue should not slow you down.
Row 500 meters, 20 burpees
5 rounds for time
There are no rest breaks in this conditioning session. If you have a fight coming up, consider taking a break after each round to better mimic the time parameters of your competition. This will allow you to go slightly harder each round than completing all rounds with no breaks would.
If you have a 3×5 minute MMA fight coming up, the workout could be amended to look like this.
Once the burpee/row circuit is done, rest as needed and then finish off with 3 rounds of a remedial circuit: 15 rear delt flies, 12 band pull-aparts, 12 lying dumbbell external rotations with 40 degrees abduction
Last night I got together with a few of my teammates and my MMA coach to watch the fights. My coach told me an interesting story. When he was first getting into competition (he has done MMA and kickboxing professionally), he very excitedly told his coach one day that he had completed 500 push-ups. His coach responded “You know what doing push-ups is good for? Getting better at push-ups”. Maybe a bit of an oversimplification, but thought provoking nonetheless.
During the week, I try to get in about 6 lifts (some heavy lifting, some conditioning lifts, the number of each is dependent on what I’m focusing on that training phase), 3-4 BJJ sessions, 1 muay thai session, and a sparring session. Usually I’m pretty much on schedule give or take 1 training session. Ideally I’d like to lift less and do more MMA, but since I work at a gym and can lift whenever I want, I am able to fit more lifting into my schedule.
I had a very interesting end of the week in terms of training. Friday I did nogi rolling in the morning, and gi rolling at night. Saturday, which is generally my off day, I got in the lift which I had missed on Thursday. Squat snatches, back squats, rack rows, and bench press. Sunday morning I did kickboxing sparring.
Friday morning when I went into the gym for nogi, the place was pretty quiet. I noticed a couple of guys doing padwork in the back of the gym. One of them was an amateur boxer. I love sparring with boxers. I started boxing before I started kickboxing, and definitely enjoy the former more. I always say my goal is to learn enough kickboxing to use my boxing effectively in an MMA setting. As someone who does a lot of all around training (boxing, bjj, muay thai), I always find sparring against a specialist like that is a real eye opener. This session was no different.
I did a couple of rounds with him, a few rounds of rolling, and then a couple of rounds of kickboxing sparring. Just as I was about to leave, a giant human walked through the door. I’m 6’2”, 210#. Not huge, but I don’t look up at many people. This guy had to have been at least 6’5”, and told me he weighed 320#. He also told me he could rep out 4 plates on a back squat. I’m not even near that. Very, very nice guy for the record.
He told me he had been rolling for about 4 months. We did 2×5 minute rounds against each other. Being a big Frank Mir fan, I chose to pull guard the first round. Big mistake. Squirm as I did, when he chose to drop his weight on my chest, I was stuck. The second round was much better for me. I secured his back early in the round, and although I was unable to sink in deep hooks, I was able to use wrestling to hold him down and threaten with some chokes.
Being an extremely poor natural athlete (I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this in previous posts), and being relatively weak for my size, I was surprised at what I felt was not a huge strength disadvantage for me. This guy was much larger than me, but when we clinched, I didn’t exactly feel helpless. This got me thinking…
Fast forward to this morning. Sunday morning is competitive sparring at my gym. We do some lighter sparring during the week, but Sunday mornings, you better keep your hands up. This morning there was a guy I didn’t recognize, so I went up and introduced myself. He was in from out of town. 21 pro MMA fights, and he floats between 155 and 170, although he looks like a natural 155er. Again, very nice guy, as are the vast majority of the guys who walk through the doors of my gym. I did some shadow boxing, running, and light bag work to warm up.
After my warm up was done, I did a light sparring round for about 5 minutes with this pro. He was clearly better than me. Caught me with a couple of head kicks, and did a good job of neutralizing my usually fairly effective boxing.
The sparring portion of the class was 3×3 minute rounds with 1 minute breaks. At the end of the three rounds, my coach told me I could do another round with this pro if I liked. I was tired, but didn’t want to give up the opportunity. I gassed. Badly. And he knew it. He was a nice guy and didn’t punish me for it, but at the end of the round I could barely string two punches together. I know I work hard in the weight room. Whenever I do conditioning, I push, and I push hard. So why was I so tired and this guy was so fresh?
Interesting side note, remember that I mentioned that I usually only get in 1 muay thai training session a week and 3-4 bjj sessions. To sum up the stories I just told, I was happy with how strong I felt against that my giant grappling partner Friday, and disappointed with how tired I got on Sunday. Especially since I’ve always thought my conditioning to be a larger asset than my strength. Then I remembered my coach’s story…
Yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of conditioning this month, but I haven’t been doing a lot of muay thai. That’s why I got tired. Strength and conditioning is great, but it’s not going to get you in better shape for muay thai than muay thai will. The bottom line is, nothing will mimic the physical demands of your sport better than your sport. Yes, strength and conditioning is very important for a lot of reasons, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that high rep front squats will put the same demand on your legs that muay thai will. Front squats are great, and will definitely help, but should be used to SUPPLEMENT your muay thai technique work. Want a fast shot? Yeah, you should be doing heavy cleans and hitting the prowler, but you should also be spending a lot more time practicing your shot.
Specificity is key. Absolutely do strength and conditioning, but also just do your sport. As much as you can. In the end, that is the best way to develop the physical capacities which you need to succeed at it. #allgo
Check out UFC fighter Alistair Overeem. What a physical specimen.
Yes and no. Steroid allegations aside, the guy is an absolute monster. This is an older picture of him. He has only gotten bigger. Overeem is a great athlete and kickboxer, but he has a postural issue which is very common in MMA. Look at the position of Overeem’s hands. Notice how you can see the backs of them? That’s not how your hands should fall. Alistair Overeem’s shoulders are internally rotated.
What exactly is shoulder internal rotation you ask. Basically, it is when your shoulders are pulled forward and out of their proper positioning. When your shoulders internally rotate, this causes rotation of the humeris, which causes a chain reaction down the entire arm. Hence why you can see the back of Overeem’s hands. Being internally rotated is very dangerous for your shoulders, especially if you are an athlete. If you are confused about proper shoulder positioning, I took some pictures of yours truly to demonstrate the difference between proper shoulder positioning and internal rotation.
Here are a couple of shots of me pretending to be internally rotated:
Sorry for the big pics. I am lousy with technology. Notice in the profile view how my shoulder slumps forward. In the front view, notice how similar my hand positioning is to the picture of Overeem.
Here are some shots of me standing normally (yes, I have pretty awesome posture):
You can see in the profile view how much further pulled back my shoulder is. You can see this from the view in the front as well. Also, look at the positioning of my hand in this front view as compared to the internally rotated picture. You cannot see the back of my hand. Quick test: go stand normally in front of a mirror. Can you see the back of your hands? If so, you are internally rotated and have some work to do.
Causes
Internal rotation can be caused by a number of things. Generally, like all postural issues, it is some combination of tightness and (relative) weakness. Tight upper traps, tight pec minor, tight thoracic, and tight lats are all potentially big contributors when it comes to shoulder internal rotation.
Weakness of certain muscles can also pose a problem. Most notably the upper back. If you sit slumped over a computer all day, chances are your upper back muscles are stretched out from your normal seated posture, and weak, since you likely aren’t doing anything on a daily basis to strengthen them.
Think Overeem has a weak back? I doubt it. BUT, his upper back may be weak relative to his chest. If you have a strong upper back but a REALLY strong and tight chest, the chest will win the tug-o-war over the shoulders.
Cautions
When you are internally rotated, your shoulders are in a weak, vulnerable position. Because they are not sitting the way they were designed to anatomically, you end up being at a higher risk for injury. Try this. Those of you who read my very first blog post will remember this experiment. Sit straight up in your chair. With your palms facing each other, raise your arms up in front of you, and then straight up over your head. Now, try the same thing with your arms, but with your shoulders rounded far forward. Notice a bit of a difference in your shoulder mobility? You should. You should also notice with the rounded shoulders that pushing the range of motion can be quite uncomfortable. Overeem is a strong dude. How do you think his shoulders feel when he does heavy push-press with his internally rotated positioning? Bottom line, if your shoulders are internally rotated, you are at risk for a shoulder injury. If you have this problem, stop overhead pressing, pulling, and snatching NOW. You have a lot of mobility and remedial work ahead of you to fix your body.
Solutions
I mentioned earlier 4 key problem areas where tightness can cause shoulder internal rotation: thoracic, lats, pec minor, and upper traps. If you are internally rotated, don’t worry about which of these four areas is the problem. Chances are you are tighter than you ought to be in all of them. Use a foam roller or PVC pipe on your lats. Try a lacrosse ball on your pecs, a double lacrosse ball for your thoracic, and check out this little number for your upper traps courtesy of Mobility WOD.
In addition to the self massage work, do some static and dynamic stretching for that area. For example, try doing behind the neck overhead pressing with a broomstick. Start with your hands wide, and then move them closer together as your shoulder mobility increases.
Another important solution to this problem is strengthening your upper back. Facepull variations, TYI’s, and even heavier horizontal pulling/rowing movements can do this. As I mentioned earlier, if your upper back is relatively weak compared to your chest, your shoulders will be pulled forward. If you are a boxer or a kickboxer, think about how much time you spend pushing (punching) compared to pulling. Of course there is a discrepancy! If you are internally rotated and trying to fix the problem, not only should you ditch all overhead pushing and pulling, but you should also ditch horizontal pushing for the time being. Yes guys, this means no bench! Stretch and strengthen, and then you can get back to these movements.
However, once your shoulders are in a healthy position, maintain a ratio of at least 2 pulls for every 1 push in the weight room. That means if you are doing 5 sets of heavy bench, you better be doing 5 sets of heavy rows, as well as some remedial work such as facefulls for the upper back.
How do you know if you have fixed the problem? Besides the hand/mirror test, try this. Lie on the ground on your back. With your palms facing each other, raise your arms overhead. If you can touch your index fingers to the ground without overextending your lumber, bending your elbows, or having shoulder pain, you have likely fixed your shoulder positioning and are PROBABLY good to go with overhead movements.
Shoulder internal rotation isn’t just a problem for the elderly. As evidenced by the pic of Overeem, lots of high level athletes have this problem as well. Take it from a guy who separated his shoulder during a split jerk in the last training session before my first Olympic lifting comp: shoulder injuries suck. If you are internally rotated, swallow your pride, pull back your training in certain areas, and fix the problem once and for all. #allgo
Programmed this conditioning workout yesterday. Got some ideas from a couple of other workouts I found on line and adapted them. I call this one “The Muay Thai Shredder” because, well, I think it’s great conditioning for muay thai. It demands a lot of your legs, core, shoulders, chest, and triceps: all muscles that are important in muay thai or kickboxing. The focus of the workout is two-fold.
The first focus is to train your body to bring your resting heart-rate down quickly. Whenever I do solo boxing or muay thai work, I always set the clock for 45 second breaks rather than 1 minute. Shorter rest breaks mean your body is trained to recover in a time shorter than that which you are actually allotted in a match.
The second focus is to increase the muscular endurance of the muscles I listed earlier which are key in a muay thai or kickboxing match. The better your muscular endurance is in your shoulders, the more snap your punches will have in the last round, and the higher your hands will stay. The better conditioned your legs, the faster your kicks will be deep into the match, and the more active you will be in regards to footwork.
20 front squats with 75# barbell, 10 hand-release push-ups, 30 seconds rest
Complete 10 rounds for time.
A few pointers…
1) Feel free to scale the front squat weight. If you are light and more of an endurance athlete, you might want to use something a little lighter. If you are a heavyweight who has a max front squat of 315#, maybe up it a bit. For reference purposes, I am about 210# with a max front squat of about 250#.
2) Even though the workout is for time, don’t skimp on the rest periods. Take the full 30 seconds. For this workout, it is better to go hard every round and take the rest break than to have no designated rest periods and take smaller, more frequent rests.
3) When you are squatting, your hamstrings need to cover your calves. Ass to grass squat. If you don’t have the mobility to do this, try sliding some 5# plates under your heals for the time being. If you still don’t have the mobility, you aren’t ready for this workout.
4) K1 matches are either 3×3 min rounds or 5×3 minute rounds. This conditioning session may last longer than 11 or 19 minutes depending on the kind of shape you’re in. Think of the first 5 rounds as a warm up. Yes, they will be challenging, and no, I’m not telling you to slack during them. What I mean is that part of the point of the first 5 rounds is to fatigue you for the last 5. Vince Lombardi once said “Fatigue makes cowards of us all”. You will be tired going into the last 5 rounds. Provided you really work hard, conditioning workouts such as this one will teach you how to push yourself even under extreme fatigue. I can honestly say I can’t remember the last time I finished a sparring session as tired as I was at the end of this workout. Enjoy! #allgo
In the last post, I detailed the schedule of my high volume experiment. While some of you might agree that the schedule was indeed very high volume, others may feel that the schedule was nothing out of the ordinary. I wanted to remind the reader that I am a recreational athlete, not a professional. Full time grad school and a personal training coordinator job keep me busy. In comparison to the rest of my life, the volume was pretty heavy.
And now for the results.
1) I felt pretty fatigued for the month. It was obvious that my CNS was perma-fried, and never got a chance to recover. This was, however, part of the point of the experiment. In the Contreras article I linked in the last post, he mentions that Olympic lifters who train using a very high volume schedule get used to getting PRs while fatigued, resulting in higher numbers when they actually compete well rested.
2) I got bronchitis. No way to know whether or not it was a result of the stress I was putting on my body, but that stress certainly didn’t help matters. As a result, in the middle of the experiment, I had to take a week completely off from the gym, and transition back with slightly lower volume the next week. My numbers dropped a bit, but I was PRing again in no time.
3) My joints, specifically my knees, felt pretty good. And that’s without taking fish oil. I did have a bit of knee pain for about a week, but it disappeared completely with no rest.
4) My weight stayed about the name, but my body comp changed. I definitely put on some lean mass, and dropped some fat. I would have likely dropped a little more fat, but I decided before starting the experiment that I would allow myself to be a little more lax with my dietary habits so long as I remained super disciplined about my workouts.
5) By the end of the month and a half, the effects of over-training became extremely pronounced. Appetite decreased substantially, I had trouble sleeping (and I usually sleep like the dead), and my T levels plummeted.
6) After a deload week, I did some testing. I PR’d on front squat, back squat, pull-ups, bench, and power snatch. Pretty much all my big compounds. I didn’t test push press, and I missed my PR on my power clean. I also PRd my turkish-get up.
7) This month made me realize I have not done a good enough job of tracking my conditioning progress, so I cannot tell you whether my conditioning improved over the month or not. If I had to guess, I would say it probably did a little bit.
8) I had very little muscle soreness over the month, but then again I don’t tend to get sore much anyways. Aside from one high rep squat conditioning workout, DOMS was minimal.
So, would I recommend this type of program to another athlete?
If you’re a pro, sure! If you are a recreational athlete like myself, hard to say. Did I improve? Yes. But, there are still lots of unanswered questions. What would have happened if I had just focused on the weight training while completely dropping conditioning and reducing MMA training? Chances are I would have gotten a lot stronger and maybe not been as fatigued. But then again, my conditioning would surely have suffered.
It is also important to note that I am currently suffering though either a second bought of bronchitis or a bad flu, which is keeping me out of the gym and off of the mats. Like the earlier bronchitis bout, there is no way to tell whether or not the high volume caused it, but for whatever reason or another, my plans to begin this month focusing on improving conditioning and maintaining strength and power are, thus far, shot.
All in all, I would say proceed with high volume training at your own risk. Get plenty of sleep (8 hours a night, plus a daily nap if you can swing it). Lastly, be prepared that in addition to the fact that your body may be too fatigued to peak after a month of training like this, you may need more than a week to recover. #allgo
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