Training During Fight Week: Training Do’s

Stay explosive

According to Mike Perry at Skill of Strength, there are residual training effects for every training modality. Essentially, there is a rate at which an athlete starts to become detrained.

Your alactic system(maximal speed) can start to become untrained in 5 days. Just 5 Days!!! , I can't believe that my ability to generate maximum speed can drop off in under a week.

So how do we approach this in training during fight week to ensure that fighters stay explosive?

I suggest training these qualities, at a very low volume 5 days out. I would keep the reps under 5 ( for plyometric based exercises) and if you are conditioning the alactic system, keep the explosive work around:8 or so. Never work even near fatigue, and I have to mention again, keep the volume low!

Here are some ideas for you:

Plan A.

Squat jumps 3×5

Medball rotational throws 3×5

Plan B.

Split jumps 3×6

Plyo pushup 3×4

Plan C.

3-5 reps of:8 sled sprints with 1:30 recovery

You can finish the session with 20 minutes of light bag work or something aerobic in nature.

Strength training.

I used to lift five days out from the fight when competing in local. It keeps me sharp and also keeps my mind occupied during fight week. Overall training volume, strength and conditioning, and MMA will be decreased in general. I don't lift during fight week anymore. Instead, I focus on my high power capacity 10 days before the fight and deplete glycogen and shift to ketosis for last weight cut

During fight week, I am in full-on weight cut mode. Hopefully my diet is on point and I am not trying to cut 20 lbs in the last 5-7 days before the fight. If others are, either they have it down to a bro science.

Fight week is pretty much a de-load week. There is still work to do, but it’s not the time to hit a new record for the first time. The key is to stay sharp. This means you need to train, but how?

To be honest with you, getting myself peak is not easy at all. After dropping to 125, my routine got completely changed and will update and share how I do for my performance.

Training During Fight Week: Training Don’ts

Stay away from lactic work

If you’ve ever performed lactic power or capacity work, you know it’s exhausting. Any time you are working at 100% max effort, it will gas you out.

Imagine doing this type of work while you are on a very restricted diet and in a caloric deficit. It’s not a good idea. Even worse, if fighters attempt this during fight week, most of them will not be able to recover properly before fight night due to the decreased food intake.

At this point, fighters should have already spent weeks/months on lactic work. It’s not the time to try to make up work that should have been done in the prior months.

Stay away from new exercises

Fight week is not the time to try new exercises. I wouldn’t suggest picking up Olympic lifting, Power lifting or even golf during fight week.

You have no idea how your body will respond to a new exercise and the soreness/residual fatigue that is bound to come along with it. I love new things, but let’s stay away from new exercises during fight week.

Everyone is different and you need to stick with what works for you and your athletes. This is what has worked for me.