Mir's Lifting Regimen

**Dochter** · Posted On: 7/16/2003 10:44am

Pretty much since I've been on this forum and other's I've been trying to find out about different weight lifting options for martial artists. As many of you know one of my priorities had been to maintain the strength I gained prior to joining MA's. One avenue I've tried to follow was to determine what pro-mma fighters do; unfortunately there has been a serious lack of this sort of information.

In the September 2003 issue of Muscle and Fitness the cover story concerns the UFC and also details some of Frank Mir's fitness routine. I'll try and post a review of the article as a whole later but here is his fitness regime (minus ma work):

Cardio (not including sparring):

Run 2-4 miles, 2-3 times a week followed by 5-10 40 yard dashes (sounds like an american football regime)

Lifting: 4 Days a week, divided into Push, pull, legs and isolate groups.

Day 1 Push
Exercise_______________Sets__________Reps
Pushups as a warm up
Incline Bench press 3 5-6
Arnold Press 3 5-6
One-Arm Dumbell Chest press 3 5-6
Close-Grip Bench Press 3 12-15
Lying French Press 3 12-15

Day 2 Pull
Exercise_______________Sets__________Reps
Pull-Up* 4 10
Lat Pulldown 3 15
Standard Deadlift** 4 5-6
Bent-Over Row 3-5 5-6
Barbell Shrug 3 5-6
Barbell Curl 3 12-15

*2 sets hands facing forward, 2 sets reverse, basically pull and chinups
**1st set warm-up with light weight

Day 3 Legs
Exercise_______________Sets__________Reps
Barbell Squat* 3 5-6
Walking Lunge** 3 5-6
One-Leg Stiff_Legged 3 5-6
Dumbell Deadlift

*Jumps up and down off a bench
**Varies direction of lunges, sideways, forward and back

Day 4 Isolation
Works particular muscle groups based on their soreness (and hence lack of comparable strength) in his gross-action lifts. Does hip-flexor, bi and tri work etc.

I actually really like this work out. I think it shows a good combination of high rep type work and low rep strength building. While I don't typically like these sorts of split (bis&back, tris&chest&shoulders) this one seems well put together. One other aspect of the workout I also like a lot is the modification of exercises for a martial artist: ex. One-Arm Dumbell Chest press, variable direction lunges.

Like I said I'll try and post a review of the article as a whole in the GD section but felt this was a great addition to this forum.

***EDIT***The jumping up and down mentioned in the leg workout is between sets (I'm guessing its just plyometrics)****

Edited by - Dochter on July 16 2003 18:32:23

**CrimsonTiger** · Posted On: 7/16/2003 3:03pm

One-leg stiff-legged dead lift?
And jumping off a bench for your barbell squats?!

I'm not familiar with those...sounds dangerous actually.

Although I appreciate the application aspect of the training, my symmetrical-training aesthetic is highly offended by any single-side activity.

I have to say, Doch, the limiting factor I've found in my training is that I simply don't have the energy to give to 4 hours of training several days a week. Especially not now with work and travelling. I get my 2 hours a night in and I'm fairly happy, maybe 3 some nights. I think you could maintain your strength AND gain MA skill/power, but it takes more time than each individual activity if you're going to do them concurrently because the body doesn't have the same resources to build all the new muscle, etc.

There are limits to the human body. Unless you're on a special diet, special supplements, or outright on drugs, I suspect you're simply topping out.

Regards,
CrimsonTiger

"Good is the enemy of Great" - T-shirt seen on Queen Street, Toronto

**Dochter** · Posted On: 7/16/2003 6:30pm

Actually I think the limiting is time (for me). Otherwise I know and agree with what you're saying. I'm pretty happy when I get 3-4 days (~1hr) in lifting 2-3 days cardio work in (~1hr) and 3-4 days MA (~2hr) a week, unfortunately that doesn't happen much anymore. I actually haven't been able to run that schedule for a couple of months but plan to get back to it.

I mainly posted the info because it gives a good idea of what a pro-Ma'ist does for strength training, information that is sparse elsewhere (there is another REALLY good article on the Ultimate Athlete website).

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My single chopstick is bad at serving soup, cutting steaks and basting roasts and chickens. Besides that it owns.

**FingerorMoon?** · Posted On: 7/16/2003 8:53pm

Cool, thanks Doch.

Mir is by far my favourite UFC fighter.
If you could give a review of the rest of the article, that would be cool (it takes a while for the US mags to get here)

CT:
One-leg stiff-legged dead lift?
And jumping off a bench for your barbell squats?!
I'm not familiar with those...sounds dangerous actually

Yeah, these are extremely advanced.
Not recommended at all for the average person as chance of injury is way to high.

Mir is (I think) a 6'4" and 250 lbs athlete. Not the average person at all...

**Dochter** · Posted On: 7/17/2003 9:42am

Note the edit, Mir jumps up and down onto the bench *between* sets. Plyometric addition to the work out (that is plyometrics right ForM).

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My single chopstick is bad at serving soup, cutting steaks and basting roasts and chickens. Besides that it owns.

**CrimsonTiger** · Posted On: 7/17/2003 11:53am

OOHH! Ok, that makes more sense, to circulate the quads.

I realize that those techniques are for advanced trainers. But I also would be surprised someone who relies on their muscles and health for their career would really risk that. I don't think most of us are "average" physically either (depending on the individual I suppose). I know I'm probably more advanced than about 80%-90% of people out there in my training. (or at least I WAS...LOL!)

Still, thanks for the post, definitely a good one. I'll have to do some searching for other relevant info. Great thread, Doch!

Regards,
CrimsonTiger

"Good is the enemy of Great" - T-shirt seen on Queen Street, Toronto

**FingerorMoon?** · Posted On: 7/17/2003 7:36pm

Dochter - yup.
Although personally I feel silly using scientific sounding terms like plyometrics to describe box jumping. Technically you could call skipping rope 'an advanced plyometric cable exercise' if you wanted to :)

**Dochter** · Posted On: 7/24/2003 3:10am

Ha, I always tell people that I'm going to lift heavy things and then put them back down when I'm on my way to the gym.

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My single chopstick is bad at serving soup, cutting steaks and basting roasts and chickens. Besides that it owns.