THE
COMBAT SPORTS STRENGTH
AND CONDITIONING
PROGRAMME
MAKING ELITE LEVEL S&C ACCESSIBLE.
Do you want to improve your STRENGTH, POWER &
CONDITIONING specifically for combat sports?
The aim of this programme is to give you a little insight to how our fighters train.
We know that not everybody can afford 1 on 1 coaching, so this programme will
provide you with a good place to start.
This programme is most effective when you’re not approaching a
fight/competition OR don’t mind about doing a peaking phase.
COMBAT SPORTS S&C
Unfortunately the current state of S&C for combat
sports confuses athletes. Fads consisting of random
core stability exercises with no progressive overload,
make-you-puke circuits, and an ocean of ‘Sport
Specific’ exercises that hold no actual performance
value.
All of these things rob the athlete of proper structured
S&C programming that will consistently improve their
physical attributes and help them perform better in
their sport. The following programme is an example of
a evidence-based programme designed to
complement your sport.
WE HAVE COACHED
ATHLETES FROM
WE ARE THE OFFICIAL
S&C COACHES WE HAVE NOW
FOR COACHED 100+
THE ENGLAND BOXING COMBAT SPORTS
PERFORMANCE ATHLETES
PATHWAY
RANGING FROM
BEGINNERS,
TO HOBBYISTS
TO PROFESSIONALS.
YOU‘RE IN SAFE
HANDS
AND MANY LOCAL
SHOWS
THE
PROGRAMME
FLOW
I know everybody will want to rush straight
to the programme. But please do take 5
minutes to read the following chapters
which give you greater understanding of
how to maximise progress from the
programme.
COMBAT
SPORTS S&C
PHILOSOPHY
One of our philosophies with combat sports S&C is:
“Skills training pays the bills.”
Therefore we don’t want your S&C training to interfere
negatively with your time on the mats (at least not without
a valid reason). S&C should complement your skills training.
This is where most programmes go wrong. They treat you
like a bodybuilder, powerlifter or Hyrox athlete without an
appreciation of the amount of skills training you
accumulate and the fatigue that has on the body.
WARMING UP
GENERAL WARM UP
Do a general warm up to get blood flowing, loosen key joints and prepare you
for the session. This doesn’t need to be super long or drawn out. Something
like the table to the right is enough (followed by your warm up sets for EXERCISE REPS
individual exercises) (Click exercise for demo)
POWER
Spiderman Rotations 6 each side
Do at least 1 warm up set before your intensive power work with the intention
of practicing the technique and preparing your body for the sets to come. Do
Press up to downward dog 6
the same amount of reps but do them at 75% intensity.
T-Spine Rotations 12 each side
STRENGTH EXERCISES
Do 1-2 warm up sets of your strength work before you do your working sets.
e.g If your aim is to Squat 2 sets of 5 reps at 80kg. You could do 20kg x 5 reps Hip Flexor to Hamstring 6 each side
and then 60kg x 5 reps as warm ups.
90-90 Rockovers 12 each side
ACCESSORY EXERCISES
Do 1 warm up set before accessory exercises like a DB Shoulder Press.
E.g If you want to do 20kg x 5 reps for your working sets, you will be fine just
doing 1 set of 5 at 12.5kg as a warm up.
BUILDING
ELITE LEVEL
POWER
We have split your power work into ‘Extensive Power’ and
‘Intensive Power’
Extensive Power:
The aim with this work to get you moving in a variety of ways
and getting you used to being ‘loose and flowy’. These are great
for improving tendon health and getting you moving in a variety
of ways. All of these reps should be done at 60-70% intensity.
Intensive Power:
The aim with intensive power is to be extremely explosive and
VIOLENT. We want 100% intensity in every single rep.
Imagine somebody has a gun held to your head, and if you don’t
hit a personal best, bang.
GETTING STRONG
FOR COMBAT
SPORTS
The strength exercises in this programme are traditional
compound exercises that will get the full body strong so that
you can dominate in any situation. Strength is also an
important part in improving your power.
The working sets should be done at roughly 80%+ of 1RM with
the intention for you to leave roughly 1 rep in reserve (RIR) at
the end of each set (so don’t go to failure). If you dont know
your 1RM, pick a weight you can do 7-8 reps with and that will
equate to roughly 80%. This is your start point.
I dont want to strictly provide % improvements week to
week as there are too many factors that will influence your
progress. The aim should be that you will gradually add weight
to these exercises as you get stronger (without sacrificing
your 1 RIR target).
THE IMPORTANCE
OF ROBUSTNESS
EXERCISES
Injuries are complex. And we can’t neglect training load,
moving well, recovering and all the other aspects of training
like an athlete. However, strengthening key injury sites specific
to your sport is a smart strategy to make sure you dont lose
skill training time.
These exercises should be specific to you (your current/past
injuries and known weaknesses) as well as specific to your
sport (common injury sites for BJJ are different to Boxing).
Robustness exercises are usually isolation style exercises and
can be done in a circuit format of 8-15 reps). Generally for
combat sports the key injury areas will be neck, shoulder, wrist
and ankle. So if you do decide to run this programme multiple
times, you can change out these robustness exercises to suit
your needs.
MASTERING YOUR
CONDITIONING
This is how we are going to improve your gas tank.
The style of conditioning we’ve given you is High Intensity.
This is to fill the gaps that are often left by skill training (skill
training isn’t usually truly high intensity). This is based off of
the assumption that you will be doing at least 3 skill sessions
per week (which can help take care of your aerobic
capacity).
At ADAPT we prefer our fighters to do our High Intensity
conditioning on a Spin Bike, Wattbike, Rowing Machine or
Assault Bike. We avoid running due to technical demand of
sprinting and if you’re not used to it, it carries some injury risk
that we’d rather not recommend without knowing you.
PS. We have a FREE conditioning guide available that goes
into a lot more detail. Message us and we’ll send you it.
REST TIME
Resting is super important and is one of the most butchered parts of a fighters S&C programme. Resting allows you
to truly attack an exercise to make the adaptations we want in strength and power. It’s not about ‘sweat’ or ‘grind’.
Every time you rush your rest time, you’re leaving progress on the table.
Extensive Power:
Rest 15 seconds between exercises (e.g 15s between 1a and 1b)
Rest 1 minute between sets (e.g after you’ve done all the exercises in ‘1’, rest for 1 min)
Intensive Power:
Rest 30 seconds between exercises
Rest 3 minutes between sets
Strength:
Rest 30 seconds between exercises
Rest 2-3 minutes between sets
Robustness:
Rest 10 seconds between exercises
Rest 60 seconds between sets
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
We’ll be honest here, this is a huge part of the job of an S&C coach. Figuring out an optimal weekly
schedule for a person takes a lot of problem solving and analysis of where to best fit things.
Our preference for this program would be:
Monday: Session 1
Thursday: Session 2
If this doesn’t work for you, here are some loose rules to help you figure it out:
SCHEDULING GUIDELINES
#1 Make sure you’ve got at least 2 rest days between S&C sessions.
#2 Sparring days are important so we generally try to make sure we are fresh and not sore for them
#3 If you can only commit to 1 session per week, do session 1.
#4 You want at least 1 full rest day per week
#5 If you have to train twice a day, try and seperate sessions by 6-8 hours (e.g AM and PM)
THE
SESSIONS
Below are 2 strength and conditioning sessions for
combat sports. All exercises have a video demo attached
as a hyperlink (just click them).
Session Order Circuits/Tri-Sets
Warm Up We use a lot of circuits/tri sets
Extensive Power in this programme.
Intensty Power
Strength e.g Do all exercises in Extensive
Robustness Power as a circuit (with some
rest in-between) and a longer
Conditioning
rest at the end.
SESSION 1
EXERCISE Rest Between Rest Between
SECTION
(Click exercise for demo)
SETS REPS POWER/STRENGTH
% EFFORT/RIR
Exercises Sets
NOTES
Forward Pogos 2 10 60-70% 15 sec Focus on being springy
Extensive Power
(circuit these SL Lateral Jumps 2 6 60-70% 15 sec 2 minutes Use the swing leg to generate momentum
exercises)
Med Ball Side Toss 2 6 60-70% 15 sec Use a 3-5 kg Med Ball
Intensive Power Med Ball Punch 4 3 100% 30 sec Use a 3-5 kg Med Ball
(circuit these 3 minutes
exercises) CMJ 4 3 100% 30 sec Reset inbetween each jump
Squat 2-3 6 1 RIR 30 sec Goblet or Back Squat
Strength
(Circuit these
DB Chest Press 2-3 6 1 RIR 30 sec 3 minutes DB Chest Press or Bench Press
exercises, can do
inividually if needed)
Single Arm DB Row 2-3 6 1 RIR 30 sec Reps are each side
Front Neck Plank 2 30 sec 90% 10 sec Move feet away if easy
Robustness
(circuit these 1 minute
SL Calf Raise 2 12 0 RIR 10 sec Add weight too meet the RIR target
exercises)
Barbell Roller Ext 2 4 0 RIR 10 sec Focus on the wrist doing the work
SESSION 1 CONDITIONING
To be completed after session 1 strength/power session
TO BE DONE ON: ASSAULT BIKE, WATTBIKE OR ROWING MACHINE
30 SECONDS ON/
3 MINUTES OFF
X 2-6 REPS
Ensure that these efforts are at 100% intensity.
Adjust the number of repetitions based on your available time.
A recommended progression is to begin with 2 repetitions and increase
by one reps every 2 weeks.
SESSION 2:
EXERCISE Rest Between Rest Between
POWER/STRENGTH
SECTION SETS REPS % EFFORT/RIR NOTES
(Click exercise for demo) Exercises Sets
Extensive Power Staggered Pogo 2 5 60-70% 15 sec 2 minutes Focus on being springy
(circuit these
exercises) Med Ball Punch 2 6 60-70% 15 sec Use a 3-5 kg Med Ball
Intensive Power Pogo 4 8 100% 30 sec FAST and HIGH
(circuit these 3 minutes
exercises) Explosive Press Up 4 3 100% 30 sec FAST. Reset inbetween each rep
Strength
RDL 2-3 6 1 RIR 30 sec Barbell or Dumbbell
(Circuit these
exercises, can do Seated Shoulder Press 2-3 6 1 RIR 30 sec 3 minutes Full range
inividually if needed)
Chin Up 2-3 6 1 RIR 30 sec All the way down and up
Back Neck Plank 2 30 sec 90% 10 sec Move feet away if easy
Robustness DB Rear Delt Fly 2 12 0 RIR 10 sec Keep it controlled
(circuit these 1 minute
exercises)
Barbell Roller Flex 2 4 0 RIR 10 sec Focus on the wrist doing the work
Cable Woodchop 2 8 0 RIR 10 sec Get STRONG at these
SESSION 2 CONDITIONING
To be completed after session 2 strength/power session
TO BE DONE ON: ASSAULT BIKE, WATTBIKE OR ROWING MACHINE
15 seconds ON/
90 seconds OFF
X 4-8 REPS
Ensure that these efforts are at 100% intensity.
Adjust the number of repetitions based on your available time.
A recommended progression is to begin with 4 repetitions and increase
by one rep every 2 weeks.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS
CAN I DO CORE TOO? HOW LONG SHOULD I RUN THIS PROGRAMME FOR?
Yes absolutely. Certain sports will do a lot of core as part of their skill As long as you‘re making progress, enjoying it and it suits you
training, so we have left this out of the programme to focus on other goals. You will be suprised at how long you can make progress
areas that need attention. Feel free to include a variety of core running the same exercises. You might want to change up a few
exercises at a mixture of rep ranges. exercises for similar alternatives after 8-12 weeks but the
structure will work for a long time.
IS THIS SPECIFIC TO ANY PARTICULAR COMBAT SPORT?
Not particularly. This is a well rounded programme that ticks a lot of CAN I INDIVIDUALISE THIS MORE?
boxes and will be beneficial for a lot of athletes. If you‘re a pure You can and should change things to be specific to you if you’re
grappler you could change some of the punching exercises/plyos for certain it's the right call. But I’d honestly challenge you to do 8-
something else though. 12 weeks without changing a single thing first and seeing exactly
how it works for you.
WHY ONLY 2 SETS FOR STRENGTH EXERCISES?
Good question. I’ve given you a choice of 2 or 3 sets for main strength CAN I WORK WITH ADAPT INDIVIDUALLY?
exercises. Truth be told, you can get very strong off of 2 sets which We occasionally open slots to motivated fighters that want to
makes it a great choice for somebody who is doing a lot of skill work take their performance to the next level. Whether we have spots
and needs to be careful on the volume. Also with 2 sets you’re less when you enquire with depend on our capacity. See the next
likely to put on muscle mass (not great for weight category sports). If pages and enquire on our website.
you want more muscle and/or don't spend much time at skill training,
you can afford to do 3 sets.
14
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INDIVIDUALISED PROGRAMMING
ONGOING SUPPORT FROM YOUR *
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YOUR OWN NUTRITIONIST, PHYSIOTHERAPIST AND
PSYCHOLOGIST
EDUCATION ON PROPER RECOVERY METHODS, SLEEP HYGIENE
PRACTICES AND PERFORMANCE STRATEGIES
PERFORMANCE REVIEW AT THE END OF EACH PHASE TO *
ASSESS PROGRESS AND GOAL SETTING
VIDEO TECHNIQUE ANALYSIS
100'S OF ATHLETE SUCCESS STORIES
* Some coaching programmes do but from our experience, the level of individualisation is minimal
RECENT FIGHTER RESULTS
Power Lower Strength Upper Strength
Conditioning
30%
“10/10 service. The
“Since joining ADAPT
team cannot do enough
25% I’ve gone 3-0 as an for you.”
amatuer boxer.”
20%
15% “I know my opponent
“I know that I am doing will not have invested in
10% everything possible to be the best coaches like I
successful in my MMA have.“
career.”
5%
0%
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6
“I have increased 12.5kg on
“After using a few online Bench Press, 25kg on Back
This graph shows results from one of our previous Boxers. coaching services, Squat and 8cm on my CMJ.“
They had stopped making progress and were struggling ADAPT is by far the
to find a routine that complimented their fighting. most professional.“
WE HOPE YOU ENJOY THE RESULTS.
CONTACT US IF YOU WANT COACHING FOR NEXT
LEVEL RESULTS.
TAG US ON INSTAGRAM WHEN YOU‘RE TRAINING
AND WE‘LL SHARE IT:
@ADAPT_STRENGTHANDCONDITIONING_
