I recently got the following question in my Q&A and thought that it might be beneficial to put it in an article in order to answer it in proper detail. Hopefully it presents some good ideas and principles for Mixed Martial Arts or combat athletes to apply to their training.
Q: My name is Aram, I have been training Muay Thai and boxing on a amateur level. I was reading an article "The Significance of Specific Strength Development in MMA," which is very interesting and much more clear then the majority of articles I have read on periodization , which has left me confused (even though I still am some what). I understand that a blend of Concurrent and Conjugate methods work best for combatants, but I wanted to ask...
- For someone who works a 9 to 5 Mon - Fri, would I have to separate skills, strength, cardio, or can I do it all in one work out?
- What if the fight comes up short notice (Example: 4 weeks)? How do we adjust?
- Do I have back-off periods in the periodization program, not including tapering?
- I know most periodizations have preparatory periods, but what if my aerobic level is on an ok level? Would I skip this part and focus more on anaerobic workouts?
- Would you happen to have a sample program for a fighter that has 6-8 weeks to train for a fight, so I can have a better understanding of this concurrent and conjugate method?
If you can answer these questions, I would really appreciate it
Thanks, Aram
A: Well, one of many...
Aram,
You are not alone, I think that many people share your confusion on the different types of periodization. There are all kinds of books out there and more articles than you could sift through regarding the differing theories and methodologies. Some of the major types of training periodization that are regularly put into practice by many are the Concurrent, Conjugate, Linear and Undulating training periodization.
Like I said, there are a bazillion articles out there covering periodization. Most people would need a dictionary and some exercise physiology text books to understand them. Since you and so many others are already confused, I am going to avoid writing one of those articles about training periodization.
I will say that there is one major reason for the confusion. There is a lot of conflicting information about periodization. I think the ideas make sense, just not the wording. For instance, it seems to me that when many people refer to a “conjugate” training period, they are actually describing a workout scheme that, to me, seems concurrent. For instance, even the renown “Westside Conjugate System” looks concurrent to me.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word “conjugate” as “joined together especially in pairs,” or “acting or operating as if joined.” It defines the word concurrent as “operating or occurring at the same time,” or “acting in conjunction.” So, a conjugate program would be somewhat concurrent as well.
So, let's get to the meat and potatoes of periodization. To understand it, we should start by saying that periodization is really just a time frame of training that is put together with a purpose and meaning that will be monitored and guided with the end goal being improvement. Even if you invent your own cool name of your well brainstormed form of periodization, I think that a focus in training is always needed for athletes. Measure something and force its improvement at all times of training. Even a rest phase has a purpose.
Through periodization, major areas of muscular development that strength athletes are looking to increase are focused on through means of different rep and set schemes. These may be put into phases and worked individually, coupled, tripled, or even worked altogether throughout the entire period. The different phases or areas of emphasis are hypertrophy, strength, power, max strength and rest.
Phases or areas of concern for other sports can and should be very different. We’re talking about MMA and combat sport training here, so let's discuss the proper areas for concern.
A Fighter Should Possess:
Skill - The fighter will have to spend the majority of their training time working on their combat skills. This is true, whether it be a single discipline such as a boxer, or having to split time between training wrestling, jiu jitsu and muay thai, like a mixed martial artist will have to accomplish. The most important aspect of fighting is the technical, so don’t skimp on here. Priority numero uno!
Strength - With two equally talented fighters, the stronger one wins. A stronger fighter can even give the more technical fighter fits. Not all trainers are into weights for fighters, but either way you hack it, some 
type of resistance workload is great for a fighter. If the old school trainer wants to say weights are bad, but has you doing partner squats with a guy on your back, so be it. The resistance is there.
Speed - The ability to move your body, or its parts quickly defines speed.
Power - Strength and speed get together and have a baby. Its POWER! Power describes the rate, force or velocity that you can do work or perform a movement.
Agility and Coordination - How well the body can move and change positions. This will be important to have for all movements with the implementation of speed, strength, power and so on.
Cardio - This type of conditioning should be done at aerobic and anaerobic capacities, mostly anaerobic conditioning for fighters. Your technique and strength are both only as good as your cardio. When a fighter gasses, big trouble is on the way. Without good cardio, you won't have the endurance to allow any skill, strength, speed, power, or agility to be optimally performed for the duration of a fight.
These should all be areas of concern for the combat athlete. The question is, what is the most effective way to train all of these parameters? What is the most optimal form of periodization for the combat athlete?
The Grandfather of periodization for powerlifters is probably linear, also known as the western form of periodization. This has been used by weightlifters and strength athletes for years. I’m not going to give another history lesson, that is a simple Google search away. Linear periodization involves using different phases, or blocks of training, for a specific strength related attribute. This attribute is then trained alone for a period of three to six weeks before ending it and starting a new phase. Repetition and set schemes, as well as exercises, can change to meet the desired goals of the program. So the lifter would do a period of time in each desired phase:
- Hypertrophy Phase - for muscle growth and conditioning
- Strength Phase - well...strength
- Power Phase - increase power
- Max Phase - see how the periodization worked, feel the heavy weight
- Rest or Transition phase - rest your body for a bit before doing it over again
So basically the reps start higher because they're at a lower percent of your one rep max, and as the phases go on, the reps decrease as the weight moves closer to your one rep max.
For a strength athlete, you could argue that each phase is preparing you for the next one. By this I mean that improving the weight that you use in your strength phase will probably help give your power phase a boost. This is great for the weightlifter. However, with all of the varying components of combat training, this is not the same. Having a strength phase would not have a link to your technique phase, or improving your cardio wouldn’t do much for your power. To train any one thing alone, and avoid the others, would surely lead to an improvement in the given area of training. However, neglecting the other areas would leave an athlete at a loss in those respects.
The conjugate and concurrent methods of periodization will involve training in at least two or more areas together in the same training period. For weight lifters, this is like using pyramid workouts. For a fighter, it means training multiple variables simultaneously rather than one at a time.
Fighting, in any form, is a concurrent activity. Many things are happening at once. The fighter uses everything, technique, strength, power, speed, cardio and whatever else he has in his guts. For instance, a fighter throws a combination and misses, turns his forward motion into an outside single leg takedown, running his opponent into the fence. Instantly he transitions into a high crotch, lifting the opponent over his head for a big slam. This will take about five seconds in the fight, but will involve a good use of skill, strength, speed, power, coordination, and conditioning. Not only that, but the execution of the series need to be automatic. Transitioning from one to the next needs to be like a reflex, with no hesitations.
I believe that a combat athlete should train the full spectrum of skills at all times. Think of training over a week like a pie chart...
This is purely an example. The areas of emphasis and the percentage of necessary training time put into each one will vary from one individual to the next. However, spending at least 60 percent of the time on technique or skill training is inevitable, probably with any sport. The other pieces of your pie need to fit in a way that you can still have optimal technique workouts.
For instance, I’ve had a few months off with an injury. I'm getting back into training so my cardio piece of the pie is larger right now. I’m emphasizing that because until my cardio is back to an optimal level, I can not get what I need out of my technical training. When you lose cardio, you lose focus. Once my cardio is back, I will increase my technical training and the intensity of it, like adding in more sparring and harder pad rounds, etc.
Here's another example on the other side of the spectrum. I have a fighter who has great cardio. You just can’t tire the guy out, but he needs to be stronger and more explosive to match his opponents at his weight and skill level. We have decreased the other pieces of the pie for him so that he can focus more time on strength and explosiveness.
For every individual, strengths and weaknesses should be addressed. As an athlete progresses through training, the pieces of the pie will change in importance or the amount of time and energy necessary to devote to that skill. That is inevitable and is up to a good coach to monitor, or yourself if you are lacking that coach, as many fighters today in this new sport are. Changing the pie is fine, but you should keep at least a slice of everything in there at all times, at least to maintain.
Now to specifically answer your questions:
1. For someone who works a 9 to 5 Mon to Fri, would I have to separate skills, strength and cardio, or can I do all in one work out?
Your time is limited, so you have to make the most of it. You only have time to train once a day, but you still have many options. Much of it depends on the training schedule at your gym.
If you do everything in one workout, it can be hard to improve. You need to have a focus that you work to accomplish with each workout. I would go with a schedule that pairs up skills in this case. Your technique training will take up the bulk of your time, so you shouldn’t put more than 30-60 minutes of additional training with it. Working your boxing and Thai boxing will use a blend of strength, power, speed, cardio, etc. Most people can’t get through an hour of it.
Grouping your strength/ speed/ power work in one quick workout will be beneficial to somebody in your position as well as save you time. They go hand-in-hand and are great to work together. This can be done in a few ways, such as use of contrast training or olympic lifts. Olympic lifts can take time to master, and you don’t have much time. For that reason, we’ll use the ideals from contrast training to get you started. Maybe after a while, you can change from that method to the olympic lifts, but only choose one or two to work on for your workout so that you can focus on the technique.
On opposite days, you can focus on your cardio and recovery training.
Your workout schedule should really depend on your weaknesses and strengths as to where your pieces of the pie are, but here’s an example option:
Monday: Skill Training (boxing/Thai boxing)
- High intensity cardio - interval sprints will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Even just 15 minutes worth at the end of training will be great.
Tuesday: Skill Training (boxing/Thai boxing)
- Strength Work - Squats (4 sets, 5-10 reps) paired with Squat jumps (same sets and reps)
*Do one right after the other. Explode with your jumps as fast and high as possible. Complete both exercises for one set, repeat after a minute rest for the 4 sets.
- Bench press (4 sets, 5-10 reps) paired with Explosive Push-ups (same sets and reps)
*Again, do one right after the other. Think of each explosive push up as a max speed and power rep. Come to a complete rest at the bottom, for like a second, then explode right back up as hard as possible. Complete both exercises for one set, repeat after a minute rest for the 4 sets.
Wednesday: Skill Training/ Sparring
- Use this day purely for skill training. This is a good day to do hard sparring rounds. You shouldn’t spar every day, put your all into it once a week, and use the rest of the week's technical training to work on your weaknesses that are displayed in your sparring sessions. Each week, your sparring should improve. Try to be in and out of the gym quick on this day, sparring is very intense work.
Thursday: Skill Training (boxing/Thai boxing)
- This can be a great day to work on the techniques, or areas where you feel that you were lacking in your sparring workout from the day before. Do it today while its fresh in your mind. Drill, drill, drill. Put in good technical work on this day. However, it can also be a slower-paced, recovery-type workout as well. You have a tough Friday and Saturday, so train your mind mostly today.
Friday: Skill Training (boxing/Thai boxing)
- High intensity cardio - up and down cardio might be an option here. Save the sprints so that you aren't sore tomorrow for your final strength workout. I like to do hard mitt or pad rounds with ample sprawls, up-downs, burpees, whatever you want to call them. For instance, I might call a combination, then a sprawl, then an immediate combo, then 5 push-ups, then another few combos, then down on your butt and back up quick for more combos, etc. for the full round. There should be a lot of movement in these rounds and non-stop action until the break. Five straight rounds of this should suffice.
Saturday: Strength Work
- Deadlifts (4 sets, 5-10 reps) paired with Forward Jumps (long jumps, same sets and reps)
*Jump forward in an explosive manner off both feet for as long a distance as possible. Again back and forth for the 4 sets, with a minute rest.
- Pull Ups (4 sets, 5-10 reps) paired with Med ball slams (same sets and reps)
Thats it for Saturday. You will want the energy to focus on these important strength movements, and your central nervous system will be taxed after the week of training. Begin your rest from now through Sunday to be fresh for Monday’s workout.
Again, this is just an example of how to hit the full pie in a week for your needs and time restrictions. You may also make the strength workouts a bit more enduring by super-setting the two pairs of exercises.
2. What if the fight comes up short notice (Example: 4 weeks) How do we adjust?
Again, there are many ways to adjust and it will depend on where you are with your strengths and weaknesses. It will also depend on what your coach is going to make you do, whether it's right or wrong unfortunately.
Typically, a month before the fight, your skill training will increase in intensity. Your coach should be putting together more taxing workouts, more sparring, etc. At this point, hopefully your body is pretty well prepared, and it's time to train the mind through your training so that you are ready to step in the ring or cage with clarity.
Heavy strength training should be tapered off to eliminate soreness and risk of overtraining. You could increase the intensity of it by combining both strength workouts (Tuesday and Saturday) into one workout. I would hit that on the Saturday, and super-set it. You might put the deadlift series with the pressing series, and then the squatting series with the pullup series.
For instance, deadlifts/bounding, rest 30 seconds, bench press/plyo push-ups for one set. Decrease your workload to about three sets of each. Then, go into your squat/squat jumps, followed by your pullups/med ball slams, again fewer sets. Right now, you're looking to maintain strength and focus on the power endurance and conditioning. At least the week or two before a fight, I don’t think fighters need to do much at all with weights, we’re not going to build anything, or really lose anything at this point. What you have for strength now is what you have, and it's best to cut down on the muscle soreness and begin to rest the body.
On the other days, Monday to Friday, there will be a lot of technique work and conditioning. This means more sprints and plyometric work, maybe twice a week. The hard mitt and pad rounds should increase as well. Depending on what you have been doing in training and exactly how far your fight date is, you might need to take a few days off to rest right away while you can. If you’ve put in a hard six weeks and find out you’re fighting in a month, I would take a few days off. You won’t lose anything, but your body will thank you before the final few weeks of destruction.
As a fight nears, we can often overwork ourselves. It's hard to take it easy when all you can think about is your opponent. There is a fine line here. Sometimes you don’t feel like training, but you HAVE to anyway. On the other hand, when you get that deep achy-bones feeling or your CNS is fried, you may need a day off or an active rest day, maybe with a bit of low-impact cardio for recovery. The next day, you can put more into your workout instead of being further beaten down. At the same time, don’t be a wuss about it. A good coach should be able to monitor this. You'll have good days and bad, but mind-over-matter is the spirit of a fighter. We over-train on purpose to be mentally prepared for war.
3. Do I have back-off periods in the periodization program, not including tapering?
If you’re an active fighter, therein lies your periodization. Every fight prep is a period. Say you fight three times in a year, as most amateurs do. They may not be perfectly spaced out, but if they are, then there is a fight to prepare for every four months. That’s actually not much time, which is one of the main reasons that MMA fighters should often follow a concurrent approach to their training.
After a fight, you must rest. You can take a week or two and do almost nothing, or active rest. This is when I like to do things that I enjoy, like go for hikes, bike rides, go fishing, go to Cancun...whatever. Hardcore athletes have to alienate themselves most of the time, and post fight time-off is good therapy. Get it in while it lasts though, because you have work to do and things to improve on back at the gym. It won’t be long before you’re starting to “feel fat” or find yourself shadowboxing at the grocery store in the cereal aisle. At that point, it’s good to go back. Nobody likes the shadowboxing guy.
If you don’t have a fight scheduled, and you’re training, but have nothing planned or maybe you’re taking some time to get better, then you have to decide when you should back off. There are a few ways to look at that.
I don’t like the periodization approach of set time limits for this case. All fighters and athletes are so unique. Maybe one guy will make good gains or improvements from training for four weeks before hitting a plateau or needing rest, while another athlete might make good gains for 9 weeks, 3 days and 22 hours. So why stop the latter at 4 weeks?
I think in this case you should take it by feel. When your improvement slows down, you start feeling overtrained, you get bored, or your coach just plain tells you to do something else, then that's when the period should change.
So, for instance, say you’re doing the workout above outlined in question one for weeks and making great gains. You feel awesome, you’re kicking ass in the gym, getting ripped, "honeys be grabbin' your gunz" and all that! Life is good! Then all of a sudden you get to week 6 and you’re aching. You feel sore, you're losing some snap and starting to feel overtrained. You know what overtraining leads to? Well, I’ll tell ya! It leads to no gains, injuries, anger, frustration, and unfortunately sometimes in MMA, a royal ass beating that will break your heart. Yes, it's time to back off.
I might do this in a number of ways. I might just cut out the strength workouts for a couple weeks, and continue on with the other forms of training, or I might back everything down slightly for a bit. If I feel really thrashed, maybe I took a while to hear the overtraining call, then I will take the time off completely or just train whatever I want every three days or so.
After a period of 2-4 weeks, training can resume. I usually go right into a full schedule, but ease into training for the first couple of weeks. No need to do max efforts the first week. Get your body back into it and work out some imbalances and work yourself up. At this point, I'll change my strength and conditioning workouts. Maybe instead of sprints, I’ll do hill work or tire stuff...maybe get after the prowler! As far as the weight training and contrast workout, maybe I'll jump into a phase of olympic lifts on those days. Olympic lifting is a great way to strength train for combatants as well.
In other words, try to periodize in relation to your fight schedule, and other than that, listen to your body and coaches. There’s no real need to say, “well its the 28th day, I better find something else to do.” Unless you’re specific fight preparation schedule tells you to do so.
4. I know most periodizations have preparatory periods, but what if your aerobic level is on a ok level? would we skip this part and focus more on anaerobic workouts?
Like I said above, ease your body into any new style of workout. Measure your progress to make gains. If your cardio far exceeds your strength, then yeah, focus on it for a while. But never leave cardio training out. You don’t need strength without cardio, in a fight, that strength is useless unless you win everything within the first 30 seconds, like me. Just kidding. Not about the cardio though, I’m serious about that. You might need to work on strength, but a fighter can never have enough cardio.
The preparatory period given for a specific workout that follows a periodized format can be different, depending on what it is the workout is focusing on. If you’re training, you should always be in a good healthy shape to begin a new workout regimen. Just don’t bite off more than you can chew in the beginning.
5. Would you happen to have a sample program for a fighter that has like 6-8 weeks to train for a fight so I can have a better understanding of this concurrent and conjugate method?
The schedule that I gave above in the first answer is a good example. Combine it with the answer from question two about adjusting for the fight, and you’re all set with your fight prep. As with anything, you have to see how it works for you, nothing is cookie cutter for any athlete. It is a good place to start and see how you respond and what you might need additionally or minimally depending on your current skills, strengths and weaknesses.
Nutrition
I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but I can’t over emphasize proper nutrition. You need to eat properly in order to ensure proper recovery and meet the energy demands of your training. I find that there is a huge lack of proper nutritional knowledge among fighters and trainers in general for some reason. You may need to lose weight, build muscle,etc. for an upcoming bout. Either way, proper fuel is a must. You will be doing yourself a huge favor by hitting this nail on the head. Otherwise you may just spin your wheels. I work with a lot of fighters and athletes through Troponin nutrition, many of which just don’t have the time to put it together on their own. If that is you, seek the proper help. Otherwise, study up and feed the performance!
In conclusion, all workouts should be tailored in a way that addresses the specific fighter and their needs. Strengths, weaknesses and imbalances should always be monitored. Constantly strive for improvement, train smart and most importantly, have fun. That's why we do this stuff. For the love of it and to win. I have a good friend who is a super intense dude. Once when we were training he told me, “We’re all birds of the same feather... the MAD feather!” I laughed, but he’s right. We do this for love and we love pain and suffering. Have pride in your workouts, only you can get it done!