Case Study: Mixed Martial Arts

Hey y’all, I hope you’re doing well! This case study includes training approaches for a group of mixed martial artists. Let’s dive in.

I currently have the privilege of working with a group of amateur and early-pro mixed martial artists at Kearney Combat Sports. While the sport requires athletes to have optimal body compositions, adequate mobility, and a wide range of physiological qualities (e.g. endurance, strength, power, speed), my overarching goal is to “keep the main thing the main thing”.

What is the main thing? Well, that these athletes can participate in all training sessions, improve sport-specific qualities, and experience success during competition.

How do we accomplish this? By taking a coherent and organized approach to developing them over the long-term. Some use the term “microdosing” for providing optimal stimuli to produce optimal adaptation.

Why is this approach important? Well…athletes are not weightlifters and strength and conditioning sessions should not take away from their ability to perform well within sport.

Below, I will detail my training approaches that have yielded improved fitness, form, and function. But, before we dive into programming there are a few key elements that have helped me successfully implement the program.

1. Provide value: As strength and conditioning professionals we must find ways to advocate how we can provide value. Maybe your strengths are mobility and functional movement, or maybe they lean towards the strength and power development aspect. Whatever your “thing” is, you have to show how it has provided value in the past and how it can provide value in the present and/or future.
2. Relationships: I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, we’re in the people business. We have to find ways to develop meaningful relationships with coaches, athletes, and other support staff. Most MMA gyms are very close knit (like a family), so it is best that you focus your efforts towards building relationships even before reps and sets are discussed in detail.
3. Do your homework: Do your best to understand everything about the gym, the athletes, the training approaches, and their goals. This is going to help with building relationships and designing effective strength and conditioning programs. Further, we should have a solid understanding of the sporting demands, common injuries, and athlete’s past medical history.
4. Have a plan: Your plan does not have to be concrete. In fact it probably shouldn’t be anyways. Having a plan requires that you understand where each athlete is in their development process, how many days/hours they train, what their goals are, and generally structuring macro-, meso-, and microcycles.
5. Keep track of everything and be flexible: Once you have developed a plan, do your best to keep track of everything from reps, sets, and loads to how athletes are adapting to those variables. Managing multiple fighters at differing stages can be a challenge, so be organized and be willing to make alterations to training approaches that give the athletes what they need to accomplish their goals.

The annual training plan included below has been adapted for the MMA athlete. General training plans often are not flexible enough to produce the desired results under time constraints specific to this athlete. Thus, the plan was revised to accommodate training and competition schedules.

Annual Training Plan: The goal for our group was to develop their physiological capacity to perform within training and competition.

General Training Structure:

Off-Camp Training Structure:

Pre-Fight Camp Training Structure:

Fight Camp Training Structure: