powerDOJO

Tag: MMA

  • Shoulder Warmup Routine for FAST Hands

    Whenever I travel, I make sure that I don’t give into the temptation to get fat and lazy and instead, keep working out.

    As well, I do my best to eat well so I don’t feel like an absolute slug when I get back.

    I recently took a short 4 day vacation to the Bahamas…

    Cable Beach in the Bahamas (Location of the Shoulder Warmup Video)

    Definitely a much needed getaway from the Canadian winter and my body thanked me for exposing it to some sun!

    Nutrition-wise, my fiancee and we brought some foods, which included my world-famous Cashew butter muffins as well as 6 cans of tuna…

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  • DRUGS in MMA

    Being a trainer to UFC fighters and other pro mixed martial artists gives me a behind the scenes look at the fight game that a lot of people aren’t privy to.

    Like what it’s like to be inside the octagon looking out.

    Yeah, I know, I’m a lucky dude and I’m grateful for all of the good luck that’s come my way.

    After watching the Strikeforce card, where Fedor fought closer to how he looks, and seeing Josh Barnett and the ever-hypertrophying Alistair Overeem a few times during the night got me thinking about the topic of drugs in MMA.

    Now you may be wondering…

    “Is it common for top MMA fighters to use banned performance enhancing drugs (PEDs)?”

    (more…)

  • The Plague of the Flat Footed Fighter

    I’ve been watching MMA for almost 10 years now…

    And the cool thing is that because it’s such a diverse sport you always see something new and there’s always something to learn and because I love constantly learning and think it’s a key to success in ANYTHING you do, it’s a perfect match for me.

    On the strength and conditioning side of things, there are just as many physical attributes needed as there are different martial arts to learn.

    One of those attributes that is critically important to being able to attack without taking a lot of damage is quickness.

    The thing is, you still see a lot of fighters in the UFC and other top organizations, lumbering around the cage with heavy feet like a Zombie looking for a meal.

    Once they’re in distance, they’ll throw their combos, but after their combo is done, they remain in front of their opponent!

    This gives you a golden opportunity, because if top UFC fighters are a lot slower than they need to be, you can be guys you meet in smaller shows or your training partners will be even slower, allowing you to quickly surpass them, once you discover the right methods.

    But there are also some fighters who are lightning quick.

    Guys like UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar defines quickness.

    He gets in quickly, throws his combos, then quickly gets out of harm’s way, confusing and frustrating his opponents.

    Think of his 2 fights against BJ Penn – he was able to control the fight against BJ Penn, who is thought by many to have some of the best hands in MMA and be one of the most talented mixed martial artists ever, largely because of his quickness, which allowed him to hit BJ then get out of range and avoid serious damage and win the belt.

    How much of a better fighter would you be if you possessed this ability – to move in, hit, then move out before your opponent realizes what happened? (more…)

  • Strength vs. Endurance for MMA

    Like many of you, I’ve had some drunken grappling matches with my buddies.

    They used to happen in University quite a bit but not so much anymore…

    For me, it usually happened after a night that included serious amounts of Vodka.

    I don’t know what it was but maybe the spirit of Fedor got into me that made me feel unstoppable.

    Before I had any skills, I would use my general athleticism and strength to fight.

    But there’s one opponent that you might’ve come across that was difficult to deal with…

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  • UFC 115 Recap – Claude Patrick Victorious

    If you saw UFC 115 this past weekend in Vancouver, BC, Canada, you might’ve caught a glimpse of me behind Chuck Liddell in the warmup area, or if you saw the prelims, you might’ve seen me standing behind Claude Patrick, who I helped train for his fight (and UFC debut) vs. Ricardo Funch.

    It was a great fight by Claude and he won in a dominating fashion and finished with a super-slick guillotine choke in the 2nd round.

     

    What I’d like to share with you is a bit about the experience of being in a big UFC event. This one was sold out in 15 minutes so it can’t get much bigger!

    Check out the recap here: http://www.EricWongMMA.com/claude-patrick-ufc-115

    And don’t forget to share with your friends on facebook using the little icon below!

  • Training in the Morning

    Was up at Xtreme Couture in Toronto working with a fighter named Claude Patrick who is making his UFC debut in June…

    Claude’s got great skills, he’s a sponge and he’s intensely interested in learning everything he can do improve his game, so keep your eyes out for him.hen you see him with his arm raised in the center of the octagon, you can tell your buddies, “Yeah, I heard of him a LONG time ago…” 🙂

    On to today’s article…

    I recently received a question wondering if it was OK to train first thing in the morning.

    There are 2 things to consider: the central nervous system (CNS) and your spine.

    If you’re training for maximal strength or power, you do not want to workout first thing in the AM.

    This is because it takes a while for your CNS to wake up and operate at full capacity (it seems to have learned about the snooze button).

    So your workouts won’t be as productive.

    I suggest waiting at least an hour, or better yet, train when you feel you have the most energy.

    I’m at my peak around Noon and have my best workouts then.

    The second consideration is your back.

    When you sleep, the intervertebral discs in your spine fill up with fluid because gravity isn’t weighing down on them.

    Then, if you go and do a heavy exercise with a weight on your shoulders (Squats) or heavy weights in your hands (Deadlifts, Overhead presses), higher than normal stresses are be placed on the outer ring of the discs called the annulus.

    Over time, this could lead to injury, ESPECIALLY if you have poor exercise technique and/or poor core stability.

    So wait at least an hour before training to save your back, maybe a bit longer if you’ve got back pain.

    Then when you do go for your workout, it’s a good idea to hit the treadmill for a brisk walk for 5 minutes (or just go outside) to normalize the pressure in the discs and gently mobilize your spine.

    This will ensure you don’t have one of those embarrassing moments in the gym where you can’t walk around because you just threw your back out!

    If you do have back pain, learn more about how I eliminated my pain here:

    — http://www.BulletproofBack.com

     

  • Embarassing Incident You Can Learn From

    I’ve got an embarrassing story to share, but it’s something we can all learn from to prevent one of the most dreaded type of injuries for mixed-martial artists: concussions.

    Concussions in MMA

    If you’ve ever had a concussion, then you know the problems that can come along with it:

    • Dizziness
    • Headaches
    • Mental fogginess
    • Sensitivity to light

    Not to mention the fact that you won’t be able to train when you’re experiencing these symptoms.

    Well I’ve put together a little report that you can check out to help you prevent concussions. Now with MMA, the only way you’ll ever truly be able to fully prevent a concussion is not getting hit in the head, but because that’s impossible, you’ve got to do what you can to prevent them, which is what you’ll learn in this report.

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  • Balance Exercises for MMA

    I was out for a long walk the other day and where I was by Lake Ontario, which is really close to where I live. It’s one of the 5 Great Lakes as they’re called in North America.

    Unfortunately it’s polluted as hell from all the steel companies and other industries that dump their toxic waste into them, but it still looks nice on a sunny day.

    Anyway I was walking on the shore and came to a spot where there were those big rocks that they sometimes have near water. As I was jumping from rock to rock, I, for some reason, thought about the fact that barely any fighters (or anyone in the gym) trains their single-leg balance.

    Training your single-leg balance will not only improve your performance in the cage, it’ll also help to keep your ankles and knees healthy.

    One thing you don’t want to do (unless you’re rehabbing an injury) is focus on standing on unstable things like BOSU balls, discs, or foam rollers. These tools don’t do anything for performance and limit the strength you can build.

    You might think they’re great for balance, but the truth is, the ground doesn’t move under you, you move over theground, so it’s a different neuromuscular pattern that doesn’t transfer over to a real life situation.

    So what kind of exercises do you want to do?

    Check out videos of 3 of them here:

    => Balance Exercises for MMA Training

    As I mention in the videos – these are not meant to replace your traditional strength exercises, they’re supplementary.

    Train smart,

    Eric

  • UFC 97 – Uh Oh!

    You’ve probably heard the news about the UFC in Montreal possibly being cancelled. As an MMA starved resident of Ontario, this is a sad thing.

    Basically, the Quebec Athletic Commission is considering changing the rules by eliminating elbows and knees, as well as making the octagon smaller.

    As we all know with the UFC, there’s no way Dana White is going to sacrifice his brand to get the UFC in Montreal, which is a good thing.

    So that would mean if the QAC goes ahead with the proposed changes, there would be no UFC in La Belle Province.

    I don’t know what the QAC is thinking, but to read more about the story, follow the link below:

    http://www.sportsnet.ca/mma/2009/02/12/ufc_qac/

    To read the whole story, check

  • IQMMA Review

    I was at the Iroquois MMA Championships this past weekend and I must say that I probably won’t be going back unless there is a very, very good card lined up.

    I’m all for MMA in Ontario, but I don’t want to be a part of something that gives MMA a bad name, as I feel it’s already fighting an uphill battle in this province to get regulated.

    Now they are doing some things very well. I mean the big screens and sounds system is pretty impressive for an event of this size.

    But that’s about all I’m impressed with.

    First of all, this was the second time I’ve been to one of these shows, and both started late (1 hour +). This just stinks of a lack of professionalism and respect for people’s time.

    Unfortunately during the first fight, one fighters was badly hurt by an illegal elbow to the back of the head. Making things worse, the ref didn’t stop the fight and allowed the attacker to continue to drop bombs on his hapless opponent. The result – 45 minutes waiting for the ambulance to arrive and a mixed-martial artist who could’ve possibly been permanently injured.

    Because of the lack of good refereeing, an athlete might be suffering for the rest of his life and the anti-MMA bandwagon may have just gotten some good ammo to keep MMA out of Ontario.

    The rest of my problems are going into bullet points because I don’t feel like writing a 20 page essay:

    • They have a very long intermission. What MMA show has an intermission?
    • 2 Muay Thai fights instead of getting more of what we want, this is IQMMA not IQMMA+MT
    • Most fights ended quickly in the first round, showing poor match-making
    • They brought in two comedians who did 2 little performances that had me want to put myself into a rear naked choke and not let go

    That’s all I have to say. I could say more but I’m getting depressed.

    But at least the ring girls were pretty hot.