My Current Workout

[HereBeADragon]

My goals are mainly epic technique when rolling, explosive lower body for when football season starts, explosive hands for boxing, and INSANE cardio. Oh, and quick but intense ab exercises are needed cause mine suck.

Your mile long training plan gave me a migrain but I think I figured out what your doing and I have a few ideas for you. I also have a few questions that might help figure out where you are going with all this.

For starters "epic" technique or any purmutation of that is not something that happens overnight. One program you should invest in is Grapplers Toolbox. It is a great series of movements that you can drill that will help your game. https://rmaxinternational.3dcartstor...orn_p_179.html

On to the lower body explosiveness for football. You need to train for specific things and its going to make your progress a lot more difficult if you are switching between football and MMA. It can be done just know its going to be harder and your increasing your opportunities for injury. There are a lot of great training programs out there for legs but one of the easiest tools to consider are hill sprints. Other exercises you can make use of would be lunges, jump squats and pistols.

On to explosive hands well again thats a tricky wording for a goal. A lot of what makes for quick and powerful striking is technique. Keep up the pad work (more so than the bag work even if you can). Also in consideration of wanting stronger arms and better abdominal work I know a few programs that you might like http://goldmedalbodies.com/ check out R1 and P1.

Lastly your cardio concerns. If your training this much I doubt you are at all weak in cardiovascular conditioning. Here is a reply I gave on this subject in another thread. This advice applies just as well for striking as it does for grappling.

Very important points here. In my own experience I've seen the single biggest problem with people gassing out when rolling is not their cardio. Its their breathing. I've seen this in beginners and I've seen it in semi-pro cage fighters too. When a person is put under an exertion or stressor they tend to brace. When you brace you hold your breath. This is something pretty much everyone does until they are trained not to do it.

Once you are holding your breath you are in trouble. What happens next is you are gassed and sucking in air. Only problem is you are already done at that point. The other problem is that when you are trying to suck in as much air as possible you are also inhibiting your lungs from releasing the used up air. The result is a breathing pattern like Whiteshark described.

Exhale thru tension while you are rolling and you will not gas out. I've rolled for a half hour non-stop in this way. Conserve your energy and control your breathing. Also a note on strategy; you can actively seek to cause these problems in your opponents. Ride the diaphram and keep them compressed and stressed. Even when they are on top if you can keep pressure on the diaphram you can break down their game.

Well on wednesdays I go spar people at a boxing gym that I don't belong to, but it has alot more people than the one I do belong to.

Why do you go to two boxing gyms? If there is one that has more people for you to work with why are you not just training at that gym? What do the two offer than one cannot give you?

As far as BJJ instruction goes, every Thursday I go to a BJJ/Kickboxing school run by a brown belt for no-gi training. The only reason I feel supplemental training is needed is because really all we do is roll and learn maybe two things every week. We warm-up, stretch, learn a sweep or an escape or trick to a submission, and roll for about 10 minutes with two different people. As I said previously, I want awesome technique (or as some people call it "beautiful" technique), but I just don't feel I'm drilling enough (or working out enough as a whole).

It sounds like you are not happy with the level of instruction or training you are receiving by this instructor. Have you considered looking for a school that has the amount and type of training you are looking for? If you want "epic" technique or whatever you need to find the best instructors you can.

I know that I do a lot, so is there a chance I could run risk of over-training? I take the weekends off and all, but should I tone this down? I added the mma and grappling stuff on tuesdays and thursdays two weeks ago, where originally I would take off on Tuesdays and only go to BJJ on Thursdays. I feel alright so far, but should I just keep doing what I was before or should I not worry?

And more strength training is definitely getting added (strength stuff is probably going to replace some free rolling time, because I feel that I'm focusing too much on that when I already do it at a BJJ school).

Over training is a very real possibility. Consider having an active recovery day in the middle of the week and do your best to monitor yourself during your training. Also switch up your training every month or so. Don't just keep doing the same thing. You want to start with basic gross motor skills and refine them to more sophisticated movements. Wow that was a lot of stuff to get through :new_micro

[the boxing jiu]

I apologize for the migraine and I greatly appreciate the feedback.

I realize that my goals are very broad, but for the grappling I want to be less reliant on strength and more on technique (like almost all BJJ instructors preach). That's pretty broad too, but I think that the Grapplers Toolbox you suggested pretty much covers that concern. As far as football, its secondary and I don't really want to do anything specifically for that, so exercises that help out with my lower body (specifically muscular endurance) are a nice bonus, but not a focus. This may be a stupid question (I'm too stupid to know if it is or not) but what are pistols?

About the two gyms, yeah I know its weird. It began when I went to the same gym my dad went to in order to be trained by the same people. When it came time to spar, everyone was way older and/or heavier than me so I couldn't spar properly. This contributed to my amateur boxing debut turning out as a loss. Since then, my coach sent me to a different gym on sparring days (the owner of that gym was trained by my coach, so its like these two gyms are the same).

You're right I'm not happy with the BJJ instruction, but I live in a small town surrounded by more small towns in the deep south so its difficult to find good gyms. The best gym around is Precision Jiu Jitsu in Baton Rogue, but I live a good ways away from there so it wouldn't be a realistic place for me to train.

Thanks for the links and awesome advice! All this is definitely going into my training.
I'm extremely glad I posted my workout on here.

[HereBeADragon]

I realize that my goals are very broad, but for the grappling I want to be less reliant on strength and more on technique (like almost all BJJ instructors preach). That's pretty broad too, but I think that the Grapplers Toolbox you suggested pretty much covers that concern.

The GTB is very useful but understand its a tool meant to give you a movement library. Its not techniques its attributes. With regular use of these drills you will find yourself moving a lot better on the mat but its still gonna take a lot of hardwork, training and good instruction.

This may be a stupid question (I'm too stupid to know if it is or not) but what are pistols?

No such thing as a stupid question if it gains you a needed answer. A pistol is a one legged squat.
YouTube - Single Leg Squat Tutorial - One Leg Squat - Pistol Squat

You're right I'm not happy with the BJJ instruction, but I live in a small town surrounded by more small towns in the deep south so its difficult to find good gyms. The best gym around is Precision Jiu Jitsu in Baton Rogue, but I live a good ways away from there so it wouldn't be a realistic place for me to train.

It sucks being geographically limited in options. Have you checked to see if there are any other kinds of grappling schools in your area? Catch, Sambo or Judo even? If the place you train is the best you can do than its better then nothing so stick with it until you find something better. I would however consider looking for a better place even if it is a longer trip. Most of my teacher's schools have been a minimum of 45 minutes-2 hours from me and that has at times limited me to a single session a week or a monthly seminar but sometimes you have to make due with what you can get to get what you want. Also keep trying to find some additional training partners. While it is not ideal you can make some progress with instructional videos and partners to drills the moves with, as a supplement to training with a qualified instructor.

[the boxing jiu]

I've never heard someone call a one-legged squat a pistol before. Its a cooler name than "one-legged squat" for sure. Thanks for the video tutorial too. I need to work to that flexibility (I can barely touch my lower shin area and yes I know that's very bad) though.

And yes it sucks very bad living nowhere near quality BJJ instruction. Precision has an open mat every week and I've been trying to make one every couple weeks or so, but when my instructor hears about it he gets a little pissed off, which greatly pisses me off, I mean why the hell wouldn't he want me to get a variety of body types to roll with? So it has been quite a while since I've been to their open mat.

My BJJ school is a Nazi camp. Not only does it take a crazy amount of time to get to Precision, but its also frowned upon. I admire your tenacity at going to classes even though they are far away, and you're absolutely right sometimes you have to make due.

I have looked for Judo and Catch online and asked around, but I can't find any local reputable schools online and the people I've asked haven't heard of any. I'll try for Sambo but I doubt there are any Sambo schools closer to me than BJJ schools.

My town sucks when it comes to fighting outside of boxing. My high school doesn't even have a damn wrestling team, but it has a tennis team, swim team, and quizbowl team? WTF?