Top 5 benefits of Strength and Conditioning that translate to MMA. Today we review what are the specific factors that will be enhanced because of the addition of strength and conditioning. We start with the obvious: you will get stronger. There is a subtle differentiation we need to make for this podcast. The benefits we are looking for are all “sport-specific” . The weight room is a good place to develop general athletic abilities but that is not the end goal. The end goal is to win fights. The...
Jan 09, 2023•30 min
How to avoid the pitfalls of New Year's Resolutions. We talk in depth about how to set good goals, hold yourself accountable, and balance holistic health. What is holistic health? We view it as a good maintenance of mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health and habits. The habits part is big, replacing bad habits with good, and making small consistent changes is the right way forward. We urge everyone to be more intentional with their time. This way we can accurately value our goals and ...
Jan 02, 2023•42 min
Training Trunk Stability Part. 1 One of Austin’s favorite topics within human movement. Trunk Stability provides a foundation for good movement, and an ability to hold good position. We dive into how the trunk works best, and how we can train to make that our default movement pattern. Trunk Stability is a huge part in training, and also in competition, so why wouldn’t we really emphasize it as the foundation in movement. Treating it as such makes it important enough to train from the ground up. ...
Dec 26, 2022•45 min
The ideal week of training is not a freestyle week. Ironically we are freestyling on this episode but we hit some major points on workload management. Working efficiently has its merits and we typically opt for a 6 day training week, with less work each day. We need to make it clear that we do not advocate for working less hard, we still need to put time in and work hard but we can do so in a strategic manner. This is a training microcycle dream podcast. We truly lay out a high level, performanc...
Dec 19, 2022•40 min
Everyone is looking for a quick fix, a shortcut, a cheat to get the same results with less work. We’re here to tell you that you cannot in fact cheat physiology. Adaptation, recovery, and healing all have aspects of physical health surrounding them. You cannot modify or change those processes to fit your convenience. There are ways to supplement them or optimize them, but we simply cannot make things better right now. Long story short, we must accept the processing time for our body’s physiology...
Dec 13, 2022•44 min
The Ego. Is the ego a benefit or a detriment? We explore the intercourse of the ego and practice in this episode. Spoiler, the ego is not all a bad attribute. You must have some pride and ego in your work which can enhance your overall product. We find that the negotiation and awareness of the ego is the main thing. How are you being affected by your ego and how can you turn that to benefit yourself and your athlete? We go deep in this episode philosophically and motivationally. Please let us kn...
Dec 08, 2022•46 min
How should we modify the weight room for MMA athletes? The weight room is certainly one of the most stigmatized locations in our society. Whether you think of bodybuilding, football Strength and Conditioning, vain fitness, or even as an intimidating setting. For a lot of athletes the weight room equals a place where 1. I’m just not good at that, 2. That place is boring, or 3. That's not going to make me better at my sport. In the recent progression of MMA the weight room has been more readily ac...
Nov 28, 2022•49 min
Huge guest appearance. Richard Ulm, DC is a phenomenal coach, and coach educator. He is a former NCAA track and field athlete and strength coach. He now practices in Columbus, OH, and teaches DNS courses through his website https://www.athlete-enhancement.com/ Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization is a system of movement that facilitates training appropriately and factors in so many topics including biomechanics, functional movement, and movement efficiency. DNS has had a huge impact in how Austin...
Nov 21, 2022•2 hr
Fiery debate time! Austin and I go at it talking about correct biomechanics vs. learned successful movement. This debate is rife with performance vs. health type arguments and we articulate the landscape on this type of topic. As we always qualify our talk the context matters and it depends on the athlete’s lived experiences. Ultimately we do want to clean up athletes’ biomechanics and make them more efficient and effective in their movement. We do however need to take into account the time of t...
Nov 14, 2022•47 min
How do you get better at what you do? Practice right? That's too vague, what are some actionable strategies, goals, and methods to genuinely develop professionally. We break down professional growth in our own experiences, as a field and how to get the most out of it. There are pros and cons of the acute conference, or weekend seminars to learn and grow, similar to the pros and cons of chronic and long term learning. We explore those options in this podcast. We summarize how we can add to this c...
Nov 07, 2022•44 min
Building a Gym! With an unlimited budget, what would you put in your gym? Garage gym, performance facility, or somewhere in the middle: we nerd out about all things exercise equipment here. Prioritizing space, incorporating MMA practice and movements, some turf and sleds we cover all of this and more in our layout and beyond. Listen to this one as you build out your garage gym and please drop your own experiences to our instagram and we will incorporate all feedback! Message Building a Fighter d...
Oct 31, 2022•38 min
Building a Fighter Ep.128 Building a Brand. Be authentic, be straightforward and business is personal. MMA is an interesting landscape to brand yourself in both the athlete and support service role. It does take some courage, and confidence to put yourself out there in your brand and business but is it worth the effort. We talk about a lot of business lessons we have learned in this podcast and bring it all back to how you yourself are your brand. Personal boundaries, accurately valuing yourself...
Oct 24, 2022•53 min
Building a Fighter Ep.127 Take away the guesswork from your training. Going off feel is not always a bad thing, especially if you are experienced in your training or training athletes, however knowing is always better than guessing. A low cost, and low barrier to entry wearable is a simple Polar H10 Heartrate monitor. This comes with a Polar app that can give you a great read on your Heart rate zones and what intensity we are actually working at. The next most valuable information from this obje...
Oct 17, 2022•36 min
Gaining confidence from your training! This is the secret sauce if there has ever been any. Confidence is the ultimate key in training. A lot of the time it is less about what you are doing and more about how confident you are in it. We talk about confidence from preparation, confidence from previous success, and confidence in your consistency as well. Another point we touch on is the individualism of confidence. Each athlete is different and gains confidence from different sources. As a coach w...
Oct 10, 2022•43 min
5 BJJ tips! Here are 5 ‘not so’ secret ways to improve your BJJ practice. We articulate 5 actions that will add to your performance, longevity, and enjoyment of the sport. We really harp on the basics and articulate a good approach to each of these 5. We venture into technical practice, support services that will uncover some issues, and a mentality that can elevate your game. This episode is full of great additions to your professional or recreational BJJ practice. Check it out, let us know if ...
Oct 03, 2022•53 min
The needs of a BJJ athlete: train technically at your sport, love for the sport, and strength and conditioning. Why strength and conditioning you may ask.. We answer this in the podcast at length. If you want any longevity in the sport of BJJ, and/or to maximize your practice you should definitely add strength and conditioning to your routine. The next key to staying on the mat is to avoid injury. If you are around BJJ for any length of time you know the guy with low back, neck and or knee pain....
Sep 26, 2022•44 min
Caffeine, Addiction, Priorities. That is what we are talking about in this episode. How to actually prioritize your growth, and make a specific skill better. Most of the time it comes down to awareness, accountability, and actualization. We must know what our actual goals are in training, not just talking shit, or wanting to be vaguely ambitious. We have to hold each other, ourselves, and our athletes accountable. Then we must do the work. Put in the hours and dedication to feel bad at this skil...
Sep 19, 2022•44 min
We are making a custom App! Biggest announcement on this freestyle episode! Your BaF remote training programs will be all customized through this training platform. We are super excited to create our own tabs, and fillable content from the app and deliver it straight to you on your terms. We get into some other various topics talking about mentality training, we talk about marrying basic technique and personal style, and we talk about how to identify good coaching. We end up talking about quitti...
Sep 12, 2022•39 min
Welcome Austin Jochum! We have followed Jochum Strength for a longtime through social media and our mutual connection with Tim Murray. Austin Jochum is a wealth of information and innovation in the strength and conditioning space. He is truly a self-starter and loves to dive deep in the philosophical and psychological aspects of coaching. We flow through a conversation and touch on so many topics in this episode including mentality, business ownership, creativity in a dogmatic field, and persona...
Sep 05, 2022•1 hr 10 min
What is the biggest influence in your training? Is it the training partners you have? Is it the coach? Is it the gym? We take on these questions and more in this podcast. We step back from the X’s and O’s of training to narrow down the specific parameters to effective training. Your training environment dictates so much of your results. It helps if you have confidence in this environment, it's somewhere you want to be and find value and even fun in. Yes, as surprising as it is, training can be f...
Aug 29, 2022•29 min
Welcome Paul Robbins! Paul is a world renown sports scientist. Formerly of Athletes Performance (EXOS), Paul now works in data analytics to create conditioning for the athletes in the NBA, NHL, NFL, and Professional Tennis. Paul is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to conditioning, and analyzing sport movement and data. He supplies his contracted teams with data to optimize their conditioning protocols. He also goes through great conditioning progressions and his experience at Athletes Perform...
Aug 22, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Growth Mindset and awareness of mental training. We dig into what a strong mental approach means for mixed martial artists. Consistency and accountability make up two of the key performance indicators for a growth mindset. Being honest and aware of your own consistency is super necessary when it comes to a smart mental approach. We touch on ensuring the right environment for growth, as a coach and as athletes we must take ownership over the process and truly kill it. The important piece of this ...
Aug 15, 2022•37 min
Workload management. What does that mean? Specifically in this podcast we talk about weekly schedules. Your schedule needs to be balanced enough to ensure recovery from hard training and that you are fresh enough to train hard. When we continually grind we are performing at suboptimal levels constantly. No, you wont feel like rainbows every time you need to train but if we are chronically fatigued we will never feel or perform great. Another motivation behind this conversation is to get into the...
Aug 08, 2022•37 min
Quick take on youth sports development and sports specificity. Should we specify one sport? Is there value to branching out and trying multiple sports? We agree that there is value to trying multiple sports and adding movements to your skill set. Ultimately more diversity in movements allows for more physical and mental robustness. This robustness is what is needed if your kid, or you are to make it in a sport of your choosing. Specifying is necessary at some point on the career journey, just no...
Aug 01, 2022•26 min
Welcome to our live programming session. We talk about building a program for an athlete, and even put on a case study so that you guys can see our process. We go through philosophies, principles of lifting and even get into the weeds of methods for our athletes. We hit on a lot of background questions off the get go, but we bring it completely practical in the end. If you listen intently you can take a free lesson in strength and conditioning and a free workout home! Let us know what you think ...
Jul 26, 2022•56 min
Toe spacers!! Lol this is a trend that has caught on in Crossfit, and should catch on in MMA. Take care of yo’ feet! We are Freestylin’ in this episode and we cover some peripheral exercises and supplements, grading your return to play from low back pain, and opportunity cost in strength and conditioning. We hit a lot on “functional” ...
Jul 18, 2022•27 min
Our Favorite Registered Dietician is back! Christina Chu, Dietician extraordinaire! Follow here @christinaychu on Instagram or reacher her through her website: www.christinaychu.com Nutrition Power Hour! Christina joins us to talk on many nutrition topics for our listeners! We cover a broad range of topics including nutrition for recovery, post workout fueling, quick nutrition tips for fight week, and common myths ...
Jul 11, 2022•55 min
Building a Fighter Ep.112 Coaching Philosophy. What is it and is it useful? We brainstorm and talk about our coaching philosophies in this episode. While we do get into the details a bit in this podcast a solid performance approach with a well organized system will enhance your overall coaching game. A coaching philosophy helps direct your attention and progress ...
Jul 05, 2022•37 min
Training Unilaterally. This training intervention can introduce variability and more athleticism to your workouts! Typically in MMA we are exploding ...
Jun 27, 2022•25 min
Recovery’s 3 R’s - regulate, refuel, and reflect. You are only as good as you can recover. Each training session cost us - energy, fuel, mental exhaustion. We must come back from that cost even stronger. Here we offer various methods to recover in between workouts and on a constant basis. These methods are not one-off sexy theraguns and ice baths, but rather consistent routines that will have a meaningful impact on your training and lifestyle. Let us know what you think! buildingafighter.com Mes...
Jun 20, 2022•34 min
