K, What About a Hard Bodyweight Conditioning Workout?

Someone asked me recently "if the bodyweight conditioning routine shown at this MMA workout page is an easy workout, then what does your BJJ coach, Marcus Soares, consider a hard workout?"

With Marcus every warmup workout is different, although generally the sequence he uses has this sequence: 1) arm and chest exercises, 2) leg exercises, 3) neck strengthening, and 4) abdominal conditioning.

Every workout he does is tough (and they get even worse before a competition). Also for a while we were training at a place that had a lot of small dumbells (2 to 10 lbs) available, and the exercises that he made us do were just brutal.

To give you an idea of what a typical tough workout is I've written down a routine that he made us do a few days ago. I'd be lying if I said I did every repetition - I've only seen one or two people do an entire Marcus workout perfectly, and they were all 160 lbs or less.

A) Jumping Jacks - 3 minutes

B) 5 sets of 20 pushups and 20 "jumps", for 100 pushups and jumps in total. Jumps are basically partial squat thrusts: keep your hands on the floor and hop your feet from being close to your hands to a pushup position (i.e. photos 2, 3, and 4 of this exercise without standing up www.trainforstrength.com/ex-12.shtml).

D) 50 Chinese pushups

A - Start in a piked position	B - Bring your body close to the mat, leading with your head	C - Finish in an upward facing arch. Return to the initial position and do 20 repetitions

E) 100 Mountain Climbers - start in a low sprinter's starting position, both hands on the ground, one leg bent and forward, the other straight and backwards. One count involves jumping and switching legs (forward leg goes back back leg goes forward) and then jumping and switching legs again.

F) Standing stretching forward and back

G) Bodyweight Squats for 3 minutes (I did c. 130) - these look like exercise 5 at just without the partner.

H) 15 sets of a compound exercise where you do 3 partial squats and one jump up into the air, feet clearing the ground, starting from a low squatted position. For the partial squats go to a low squat position and bob your but up and down by c. 6 inches, but never straighten your legs.

I) Hold low squat position 1 minute

J) Stretching: stand and place your legs apart, bend at the waist to touch the left leg, and then the right leg

K) Neck Bridging, 30 front, 30 back

L) Seated butterfly stretch

M) 50 x straight situps, feet on ground

N) 30 x modified V ups: lie on back and lift legs to 45 degrees off the ground. Now lift your torso towards your legs and simultaneously open your legs to form 'V' - at the top of this movement only your buttocks are on the ground.

O) 30 x modified V ups. Similar to above: start lying on your back and start flutter kicking your legs up and down. Maintaining the fluttering motion bring your torso off the ground towards your legs and return it to the floor 30 times.

P) 50 x modified leg lifts. Start in a V-up position with your hands on ground and your back and legs off the floor. Your legs move in a "V" (i.e. up to the left, down to the middle, up to the right), remaining straight for all 50 reps.

Q) 50 x modified leg lifts: sit as above (hands and butt on ground, legs and back off the ground). Now pump your legs in (bring feet towards butt) and then out (legs straight and in the air) 50 times.

R) 15 x Teeter totter stretch

This entire routine is done at a fast pace with no rest between exercises other than the designated stretches. Good luck getting through it!

A - Sit with your legs flat on the floor	B - Roll backwards…
C - …until your feet touch the floor	D - Now roll forward and touch your feet with your hands.

Stephan Kesting
www.grapplearts.com