Nuttybl,

Thank you for joining our forums. I asked you to post your questions here (as opposed to PMing me on Youtube) and you've honored that request. I respect you for that. Seriously.

I want to take a moment and say briefly here that as an overall goal, I want this site to be a source of reason for the MMA and related Martial Arts Communities. I want it to be an example of the positive and uplifting aspects of our Arts rather than focusing on the "I'm a bad@$$ and I can kick your @$$" mentality seen so often in media and the MMA community. It doesn't have to be that way.

As we speak, Catch As Catch Can Instructor Kris Iatskevich is writing up an exclusive article to accompany some videos for this website. I asked him to put some stuff in there about how our internet viewers can "earn" these techniques as opposed to just having them handed to them.

As small as this gesture was, for you to do some small favor for me and post your questions here to contribute to our web community, I feel that you have helped me to put into action, this desire of mine to make DamageControlMMA, more than just another forum/Blog/Video Channel. You have earned this piece of information which has come to me only after years of study, trial and error and conversing with many experts in the field.

This is not the only way to go about things. It may work for you and it may not. It has worked well for us over the years but I suggest you use it as a foundation and allow yourself to make whatever changes are necessary to compensate for injuries, limitations, weaknesses (you might have to do more of certain exercises if you are sub par comparative to the average individual) etc.

We believe in something known as the "Russian Conjugated Periodization". What this means is that we believe that you can't be at a peak physical condition all the time. Therefore, you must time the intensity and severity of your workouts to coincide with the time of your fights and allow yourself to cruise and only maintain a base level of physical fitness during down/recovery (what we use as R&D) time.

If this is your first time fighting, this would be what I would Prescribe.

3 month training schedule.

Week 1 Month 1.

1 mile run 6 days a week in the morning followed immediately by shadow boxing (do as many rounds, and minutes per round as will be in your scheduled fight)

50 push ups, 30 pull ups, 100 sit ups, 50 squats, 25 neck ups, 25 neck twists, 25 neck raises (do this 6 days a week)

2 times a week, weight training (general preventative maintenance/strength conditioning). I believe in whole body, opposing muscle group weight/resistance training but this is my personal method, Coach Kiser sometimes has people do other types of conditioning. He's our authority on the strength/weight training and diet/supplementation.

Week 3 Month 1

1.5 mile run 6 days a week in the morning followed immediately by shadow boxing (do as many rounds, and minutes per round as will be in your scheduled fight)

50 push ups, 40 pull ups, 100 sit ups, 50 squats, 25 neck ups, 25 neck twists, 25 neck raises (do this 6 days a week)

same weight training but with increased weight depending on strength increases

Week 1 Month 2

2.5 mile run 6 days a week in the morning followed immediately by shadow boxing (do as many rounds, and minutes per round as will be in your scheduled fight)

75 push ups, 50 pull ups, 150 sit ups, 75 squats, 35 neck ups, 35 neck twists, 35 neck raises (do this 6 days a week)

same weight training but with increased weight depending on strength increases

2 times a week add Thai Pad rounds (to simulate scheduled number of rounds and round times. Try to blow everything out and be completely wasted at the end of the final round)

Week 3 Month 2

3 mile run 6 days a week in the morning followed immediately by shadow boxing (do as many rounds, and minutes per round as will be in your scheduled fight)

25 clap push ups + 50 regular push ups, 50 pull ups, 200 sit ups, 50 squats, 50 jump squats/high knees, 40 neck ups, 40 neck twists, 40 neck raises (do this 6 days a week)

1 time a week same weight training but with increased weight depending on strength increases

1 time a week plyometric strength training, emphasis is on explosiveness and development of quick twitch muscle fibers.

2 times a week add Thai Pad rounds (to simulate scheduled number of rounds and round times. Try to blow everything out and be completely wasted at the end of the final round)

Week 1 Month 3

3 mile run 3 days a week in the morning followed immediately by shadow boxing (do as many rounds, and minutes per round as will be in your scheduled fight)

2 times a week wind sprints

50 clap push ups + 50 regular push ups, 60 pull ups, 300 sit ups, 60 squats, 65 jump squats/high knees, 50 neck ups, 50 neck twists, 50 neck raises (do this 4 days a week)

2 times a week plyometric strength training, emphasis is on explosiveness and development of quick twitch muscle fibers.

2 times a week add Thai Pad rounds (to simulate scheduled number of rounds and round times. Try to blow everything out and be completely wasted at the end of the final round)

Finish every training session with jump rope rounds (to simulate scheduled number of rounds and round times).

Week 3 Month 3

3 mile run 2 days a week in the morning followed immediately by shadow boxing (do as many rounds, and minutes per round as will be in your scheduled fight)

3 times a week wind sprints

75 clap push ups + 75 regular push ups, 75 pull ups, 350 sit ups, 75 squats, 75 jump squats/high knees, 50 neck ups, 50 neck twists, 50 neck raises (do this 4 days a week)

2 times a week plyometric strength training, emphasis is on explosiveness and development of quick twitch muscle fibers.

2 times a week add Thai Pad rounds (to simulate scheduled number of rounds and round times. Try to blow everything out and be completely wasted at the end of the final round)

Finish every training session with jump rope rounds (to simulate scheduled number of rounds and round times).

Week of the fight, no PT, just rest and recover and rebuild your energy stores.

The above outline is a basic plan for the amateur fighter who works a full time job outside of fighting. It does not take into account time spend for technical training, sparring, neck wrestling/prumb rounds, etc. Which will also contribute to your level of conditioning. Again, you might find that hill sprints are preferable to regular wind sprints. You might find that the number and type of strength training exercises is slowing you down and thus might need to make some adjustments. Or as I just though up, you may perfer to combine the push ups with the jump squats in the form of burpees to save time.

Finally, I think learning proper technique, good form and how to relax can take your ability to fight without tiring just as far as proper conditioning. Both are equally important.

Now, I will ask one more favor of you and anyone else who might benefit from the information found on this site. Please, make sure you put your hands together in the "Wai" before you begin and after you finish your training sessions. This is all I ask. As a favor to me, and as a sign of respect to Ajarn Surachai Sirisute, my instructor, who has asked me to help him teach discipline and respect to all those who would like to learn the art of Muay Thai.

Thank you sir.

You can ask as many questions as you'd like. That's what this forum is for. My web guy tells me that forums are old school and that Facebook and twitter are the communications schemes of the future but I'm old fashioned so here I am on the forums.

Anyway, I think that what you're doing is great. And you definitely don't want to superimpose our outline on what your primary trainers are having you do. It could be taken as a sign of disrespect and get you booted from your true base of operations.

But that being said, I would try to hit the pad drills after the run and then the bag work out. It's not that big a deal and you have to work around what your trainers and pad holders can and want to do, but, pad drills will force you to use your footwork more than the heavy bag and you want to be forced to make your feet move when you legs are taxed from the run. This will help you to do the same in your fight when you get tired there. The heavy bag is more for the development of power. This can be done regardless of whether or not your legs are burnt from running, etc.

I hope that makes sense.

Best of luck and let us know when your fight goes down.