First couple fights coming up.

[Herbo]

I have a C-Class Shooto fight that I am highly interested in doing in February and also a boxing match in February. I have had many BJJ fights before but I wanted to get your opinions on a few things.

I have about 10 or so weeks till the fights so its a plenty of time. I have only just started lifting weights (ive never done serious lifting) and im doing the Westside for Skinny Bastards routine as I carry probably 15% body fat so I have room to gain muscle and loose fat without changing weight. Im also doing Guerilla Cardio 3 times per week in addition to my boxing, muay thai and bjj training.

As a rough guide, what would you all suggest I do with the cardio and weight training? I have a lot of strength to gain and I would like to fight at 76kg but I currently weigh 84. The way I figure it is if I lose a lot of the fat (I would have approx 11kg of fat on me so I can gain significant muscle and make weight still if i lose it.)

I train extremely hard leading up to a fight, up to 18 hours a week, in addition to a full time job. I know that I will stick with whatever I do and can take a very high workload (I lost 18kg in less than 2 months earlier this year after an awesome holiday!) and i want to go into these fights in tip top shape.

Heres a summary of what I will do atm.

Weeks now till 1 week out:
Mon AM: Weights
Mon PM: 2 hours BJJ
Tue AM: Guerilla Cardio
Tue PM: 2 hours boxing, Stair Runs
Wed AM: Weights
Wed PM: 2.5 hours MT
Thu AM: Guerilla Cardio
Thu PM: 2 hours boxing, Stair Runs
Fri AM: Weights
Fri PM: 2.5 hours BJJ
Sat AM: Guerilla Cardio
Sat PM: 2.5 hours Standup Sparring
Sun AM: Off
Sun PM: Off

Then 1 week before the fights are on Im going to stop it all except light skill training and a little cardio.

Diet will be high protein, high good fats, low low bad fat, med carb spread over 5-6 meals a day. Creatine im not sure about (advice?) and I think getting some L-Glutimine would be benificial (advice?) because of the high work load.

Having never prepared for a MMA or boxing fight before, how does that look? Anything you would add or change? I might actually post a log on here of my training if that would interest anyone.

[Herbo]

For those who are unfamiliar with Westside for Skinny Bastards here is the link to the program:

http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/archive/articles_westside.htm

[Herbo]

My bad, the weight divisions I would have a chance in fighting in are:

Middleweight (76.0kg or less)
Light-heavyweight (83.0kg or less)

Also my body fat estimation was probably a little high, I would say its closer to 12%. This is a guess though as I dont have any instruments to measure.

[Razor Bump]

Not bad. Do some sh... at home too.

Hope you win.

[TrojanStud]

Step up training intensity from week 10 to 4. 4 weeks before fight you work as hard as you possibly can.

Start every day running about 45 minutes. Run before breakfast and you burn the fat right off. You don't run everyday but I think you should.

Run flat asphalt 2 weeks.
Find a place with hills to run for 2 weeks.
Incorporate intervals and windsprints.
Make 15-second-windsprints to start with. Then increase.
Intervals in less flat places to run is tip top.
All that till 1 week before fight.

I'd do more sparring in standup. I'd do it 3 times/week or at least 2 times/week. Prefer 2 times/week where I work pads on the same session and 1 time/week with sparring only. 2.5 hours say little. How many rounds do you spar, how much rest between rounds? I think 12+ rounds of 3 minutes with whatever 1-2 minute rest needed is good. You prolly need to mix up standup and bjj cuz you'll fight shooto. Do it to get used to fight standing 1 minute, wrestle 1 minute, and stand up another minute. Very important cuz it's so different to do both. I'd also put standup sparring on the same day as bjj sparring at least once a week for same reason. Put standup/bjj sparring on the same days if you can practically. Gotta train for what you're fighting. Train closest possible to the fightform so you're prepared.

Were you going for strength with the weights? You can do enough with 2 days a week - like mon and fri. Lift heavy and eat protein and the body will be back in shape from mon to fri. Wednesday would just be in the way I think. Supplement with protein powder to make sure you get enough protein - maybe 2 grams per kilogram your weight cuz you train hard.

[Cracked_Knuckle]

Sorry for the dumb question (hey, I'm here to learn too :)), but what is Guerilla Cardio?

[Herbo]

Thanks for that guys.

Cracked Knuckle, Gorilla cardio is AKA Tabatas. It is basically a form of interval training that looks like this:

4 Minutes warm up at 50%
8 X 20 seconds sprint at 100% with 10 seconds rest.
4 Minutes cool down at 50%

Apparantly its scientifically the best way to lose fat and retain muscle. All i know is that it really kicks my ass.

I have decided to incoroporate the following:

-Aprrox 1 hour sparring on a Tuesday evening
-1 hour additional standup on a Thursday evening
-I will ATTEMPT to get some BJJ on saturday but failing that I will do some striking with some of my BJJ buddies on fridays. I dont have anyone anywhere near my weight or ability to spar with though.
-If i ever get spare time or are unable to make it to training I will do Bas's MMA Workout (All round fighitng CD, 3 minute rounds)
-I will run every day, even if it is only for 15 minutes, I will incorporate stair runs, wind sprints, more tabatas



Because of my lack of sparring partners im just going to try to make myself into a cardio machine and hope that I can out work the guy. This should also help with the lack of working transitioning from standing up to the ground as that is sure to gas me.



The sparring that I do for standup is as follows:

-1 round stuck in a corner defending only.
-1 round having someone stuck in the corner attacking only.
-1 round stuck in a corner full sparring
-1 round having someone stuck in the corner .
Then up to 15 or so rounds of sparring at 80% - 100%. We go really hard, KO's arnt unusual.

Rounds are 3 minutes with 1 minute rest. Full MT sparring, we dont through many elbows though.



It is important to note that this is not full MMA rules BTW. Shooto C-Class fights are with headgear, shin pads and they dont allow striking on the ground and it is 2 x 3 minutes rounds.

I dont know the details of the boxing fights yet other than the fact that it is a tournament.



My weight program is detailed here:
http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/archive/articles_westside.htm

I dont do any of the lifts that are isolated or machine lifts, I stick with the most compound lifts there.