Fighters Just Have To

Greetings Fellahin (that’s a fancy word for, “my buddies”),


I think one of the coolest things about doing what I do for a living is being able to talk training with people who really have the nuts and bolts experience to know what they’re talking about and can really add to your knowledge. Even though the “expert” thing to do is to never admit that you learn from other people the truth is that everybody does, even the gurus.

This is a tip geared basically toward fighters and I picked it up from Mike Bruce. An ex-amateur and pro-NHB fighter, former Marine, nearly 700lb deadlifter at only a 200lb bodyweight who also happens to have insane endurance. If you’ve been paying attention you’ve probably read some of his articles on our site. Later this year you’ll probably see a course and some DVDs that we’ll put out together, because he’s got some phenomenal info.

This isn’t anything specific, it’s just something you ought to be thinking about if you’re fight-conditioning. The last thing a fighter needs is heavy legs or lack of explosive ability at the end of a fight. You gotta have great strength and endurance to be a good fighter, but to get that extra over the top need you’d better be able to hit hard, move fast, and explode at the end even if you are tired. So how do you get that? You build it into your training, because the first rule of training is that if you don’t train for a specific ability you probably won’t get it. So no matter what you’re conditioning program is, when you get to the hard part or the end, you should be including some explosive and some jumping exercises. When you’ve already been fighting for 15 minutes you still need to be able to jump up and defend yourself like it’s only been 15 seconds. One other requirement of adding this to your conditioning, when you do it, make sure it’s just like it would be in a regular fight. That means don’t stagger your way up one leg at a time. Explode up like if you don’t get up fast enough a guy is going to run over there and punch you in the head, because that’s exactly what will happen if you don’t have that endurance in a real fight.

Here’s a quick routine:

Start out with five sets of one of your favorite power exercise (read heavy barbell or dumbbell movement). Then do three sets of barrel carries (you can substitute any odd object there), and three sets of your favorite grip exercise. Finish by running through this circuit as many times as you feel necessary:

10-25 push ups
10-25 ab raises
10-25 bodyweight squats
10-25 kettlebell swings
5 full squat explosive jumps

Repeat as needed for 15 minutes or your projected fight time or whatever fits the bill for you. Always over prepare your endurance if you’re actually training for a fight, because real fight conditions are harder than in-the-gym conditioning.


Now suffer…. Oh I mean… uh….. enjoy.


You wanna get more real, incredible combat power and endurance building routines like this? Look for Super Strength & Endurance for Martial Arts at http://strongerman.com/martial_arts.html