Now that we've covered the basic types of exercises involved in a beginning lifter's program, the question now comes up, "How do I put this all together to fit in with my skill training and still make progress?" I'll state right now that it is unwise to compromise your skill training by substituting less-specific work.

Now that we’ve covered the basic types of exercises involved in a beginning lifter’s program, the question now comes up, "How do I put this all together to fit in with my skill training and still make progress?" I’ll state right now that it is unwise to compromise your skill training by substituting less-specific work. The occasional "too-tired-to grapple", etc. may happen to anyone, but your weight routine, cardio, etc. should not continually interfere with your skill work. So how do we balance these things?

Of course, there is no single, easy answer. Different individuals respond to workloads in different ways. This is why there isn’t any one BEST routine for everybody! Therefore, you need to carefully monitor your response to the work that you are doing, and adjust things intelligently to optimize your own results.

The factors to consider when analyzing your training program are, in my opinion, as follows:

1. YOUR CURRENT ATTRIBUTES

2. YOUR GOALS

3. YOUR OTHER CURRENT TRAINING LOAD

4. YOUR PERFORMANCE

5. YOUR EXPERIENCE LEVEL

Let’s take a look at each of these factors and give examples of how each relates to our training programs.

1. YOUR CURRENT ATTRIBUTES

Basically, you must objectively look at your current levels of ability in several areas: strength, endurance, skill, available time for training, available funds for training, available equipment for training, available partners for training, etc. There are many other pieces to the puzzle here, but I’m sure you get the idea. You need to assess what portion(s) of your skills and abilities need the most work, and orient your training to get the best "bang for the buck" (and the most for your time and energy). A good majority of the persons interested in supplemental weightlifting, etc. cannot afford to have unlimited mat time and/or instruction. Therefore, increasing their non-specific athletic preparation allows them to perform their technique sessions at a higher level, using more strength and experiencing less fatigue. You can give your abilities a "number" value to help you design the mix of your program: strength = 6, endurance = 3, skill = 7, etc. so that you can give the proper emphasis to that quality which needs the most improvement.

2. YOUR GOALS

Where do you want to take your training? This will determine what type of routine will best serve you, as well as determine how much time, energy, and money reaching your goals will cost you. If you intend to compete, and go as far as possible, then you should form short-range and long-term goals and plan accordingly for the time and budget issues you will face. If you are going to compete, then your training should have a large component of work that affects the similar energy delivery systems that your chosen event calls for. For instance, long distance/moderate pace jogging is not sufficient preparation for the higher anaerobic demands of a 2-3 minute grappling round. Your body must be efficient at the work level it will see in the real event. However, if your goal is self-defense, the typical amount of time involved in a street situation is under one minute, often much less. Organize your training accordingly. If you are competing in a weight-class environment, then building too much muscle mass will have you moving up in class, so decide if that is acceptable. As you can see, this situation gets very complicated if you look beyond tomorrow!! In upcoming columns, we’ll look at many of these issues in depth, and hopefully help you sort out how to set things up to work the best for YOU.

3. YOUR OTHER CURRENT TRAINING LOAD

Here, you will have to "add up" the physical toll all your training takes on your body. If you are grappling five time per week, you’ll have a hard time adding in a large weight training component to your routine without suffering symptoms of burn-out or overtraining. Therefore, the type of weightlifting routine, and the volume, must be carefully planned to allow you to continue your other training without FREQUENT interruption. (There will always be those certain days that your lifting and/or grappling has just fried you, as long as it doesn’t happen too often!)

The beginner’s routine which has been laid out in the previous columns is designed to introduce trainees, with little or no experience with weights, to the structure of a weight routine. Also, many beginners want to improve their overall athletic level, and adding weight training to their program is an excellent choice. For more advanced athletes, much more care has to be taken in adding more work to an already demanding load. That’s why the beginner’s routine will probably contain too much overall work for the advanced practitioner. (That’s why it’s called the BEGINNER’S ROUTINE!)

Of course, if you have tremendous grappling skill, but have poor strength, then you may wish to alter the "balance" of your training time to work more heavily on those areas which can bring you greater improvement. See #1 above about gauging your attributes.

4. YOUR PERFORMANCE

Here, the feedback you receive from knowledgeable others will help you to see "hidden weaknesses" in your athletic arsenal. This may come in the form of a post-competition debriefing, or simply talking over your mat performance with your training partner. Note how this is quite different from self-analysis! Your own personal beliefs and "demons" will not affect how others see your abilities. It’s important to combine as many good sources of information as possible to construct a more "scientific" approach to your training. For instance, you may feel that you lack strength in a certain position, but your coach/partner sees it as you being out of good position instead. Weaknesses can often be masked by multiple underlying causes, so be patient and thoughtful as you sort out your performance. Using your mind to increase the value of your training time will give you the best results possible.

5. YOUR EXPERIENCE LEVEL

This factor is closely inter-related to #3 above. Greater experience may mean that you have progressed quite far in skill, and using a carefully designed weight training program may now elevate your abilities much further than simply putting in more mat time. With a background of solid technique, additional strength can turn you into a different fighter as you learn to effectively use that greater strength. Without skill, the greater strength can become a crutch upon which you depend when your skill is insufficient to perform a move, etc. Greater strength can actually hinder the proper learning of technique. This is why I stated above that skill training must take priority in your schedule. Let the ancillary training "fill in the gaps" rather than pushing aside the most important aspect of your training. If you wanted to be a bodybuilder, you wouldn’t be reading this column!

So, these are a few of the major factors which influence our decisions about putting together a training routine. The limitations are obvious: As long as we want to be martial artists, we MUST be satisfied with a more moderate rate of improvement in weightlifting and other secondary training. This is not to say that we cannot make good progress and see good results! We simply cannot sit back after a lifting session and wait to "grow", using as little energy as possible until the next lifting session. We have to have gas in the tank for our skill session tomorrow night, or tonight!

As you can see by now, this is a complicated issue. Aside from the genetically-gifted minority of MMA stars, the rest of us have to work very hard to have the physique, etc. that we want. We have to budget our energies so we can continue to participate in skill training sessions. We have to plan our finances to allow the best mix of instruction, practice, and supplemental exercise. In future columns, we’ll look at cardio training, other more "exotic" training, and more advanced weight work to complete the picture. We’ll also look at the reality of fitting all this work into our schedules effectively, and how to tell when something is out of balance before things go too far.

In closing, I’d like to thank all of you for reading. I’d like to thank MMA Ring Report for allowing me to share my thoughts with you. This column is a growth experience for me as well, forcing me to rethink many issues before merely putting them on your screen. I truly hope that these thoughts stimulate you to make progress faster than you have before, and motivate you to take your training to the next level!

Happy Holidays!

Lee Aldridge