Mixed-martial arts is not a new sport. Most know that. Most also know that the reason it was special is because in idealogy it pits two contrasting combative sports athletes in a ring (or cage) under a set of guidelines and rules to see who would be victorious. Over the years, it has become less of an "event" and more of a "sport", and from someone who has (at times begrudginly) been involved in it for well over a decade, it has been nice to see. Sometimes.

The "cool" factor of seeing two different styles collide is now gone, and has been for years. That is okay; it is evolutionary and natural. At the same time, the sport has grown into its own style, where most athletes do the same thing, train using the same methods, and has become utterly pretentious. Everyone practices Thai, everyone grapples, and everyone thinks they're good at boxing and have either great takedowns or great takedown defense. So the idea of scinitllating match-ups may still crop up from time to time, but ultimately, especially at the grass-roots level (where this sport still thrives), it has become trendy to be involved and to be a fan. That is dangerous, if only because it leads to debacles like Saturday night.

I was not in Atlantic City for Cage Fury where the 46 going on 75 year old once solid heavyweight Mercer took on the 31 year old Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson. And I am glad I wasn't, despite there were a couple of guys on that card I do like personally and professionally. Instead, like many others, I was clamoring for the BJ Penn/Jens Pulver match-up, waiting on Hatton/Castillo, and secretly wondering in the back of my mind if the world would soon end when Kimbo-Mercer got underway.

This was not an exercise of athletic competition. It was and hyped up to be a spectacle, which in fact came through. Did anyone really expect Mercer to land anything notable, especially when his opponent (never mind being 15 years his junior) came in to the event in admittedly very good shape, not to mention after training with Bas and Josh? The romaticism got the best of me at times, too. I couldn't help but wonder (and almost root for) what would happen if Mercer did actually get off a brisk combination to Kimbo's chin. Only the truly foolhardy like myself could let such thoughts slip by.

This sport is not about taking two guys with completely lacking skills and experiences and making them go at each other. Maybe it once was, but its not anymore. In my mind, this is the very worst in MMA, because it cheapens the athletic standard which the sport has strived so steadily to endure. I don't care if Kimbo, still young at 31, has some potential and ability. I think he does, but that's not the point. The point is that even if he was more skilled than Mercer, this fight had no right coming off. It was a sideshow. A ticket seller. The kind of fight that was promoted pretty well and of course was not close to living up to its hype.

MMA has unfortunately started to become popular for the very reasons it was lambasted for in previous times. People are drawn to it for bloodlust, violence, and sensationalism. You could have at one point in your life thought the same thing about boxing, but you would be wrong. Boxing doesn't often make a true mockery of itself. The promoters might, but the sport itself doesn't. That's why it has managed to survive for 140 years in this country. MMA does not have that luxury, not yet. If people are reaching out to MMA for these reasons, and fighters are fighting for these reasons, then the sport does not have a legitmate chance at sustaining any long-term furture growth. Athletes will always need an avenue for competition, so it may never die, but the average moron will soon be shrewd enough to know when they've been had. And unfortunately, it did not happen this past weekend.

It is no wonder why boxing commentators like Jim Lampley criticize this sport. They see it from the outside looking in and what they see is outrageous stuff like this. I am guilty, but chances are, so are you. MMA can be a pure, fair, and honest platform for passionate athletic exploits. And I certainly will always appreciate it that way because that is what lured me to it years ago. But it should never be the punchline to its own joke. And on Saturday night (aside from the true professionals that filled up the rest of the card) that is exactly what it was.

Running is a big part of training for all types of athletes. Everyone does it seemingly. Men in their 70's run. Women in their 70's run. Boys in their teens. Girls do it too. It is an athletic motion, is an effective form of cardiovascular exercise, burns calories, and speeds up your metabolism. It burns fat. Running is great.

But for combative athletes in particular, running should be moderate. Long-distance running is not what a wrestler or martial artist really needs. If you have gained the endurance to run 5 miles, all you have merely done is to have gained the endurance to run 5 miles. It is not going to make you that much more enhanced, especially if you are training correctly in every other facet of your game.

Long-term jogging or running releases a larger amount of cortisol, which is a hormone the body secreases into your tissue. Too much of it basically makes you lag, and lowers your testosterone level. On top of that, your muscular endurance should be in check already, with plenty of drilling and live wrestling. Running is effective when trying to lose weight-sure. But running for 45 minutes is effective also in making your subsequent workouts less intense and productive.

I suggest breaking it up. You should still run. But run at a comfortable pace for let's say 2 minutes. Then do a set of wind sprints or suicides. Go back to the normal running for 1 minutes. Do some more sprints or suicides(depending on where you are at in your training). Then run for another 30 seconds and do some more sprints. Repeat for 3 sets. It is a great warm-up or post-workout condtioning exercise.

Another way to run is to only run for 15-25 minutes either prior or after lifting weights. It can serve as both a good warm-up session or solid cardio burn.

In the wrestling room, one of my favorites things to do is cicuit the running to simulate competition. At ICWA, we have an awful lot of mat space, but it'll work just about anywhere. Run 5-10 laps around the mat. After the laps, do a set of jumps or jump squats(10), push-ups, crunches, and then practice your shots for about thirty seconds. If you have a partner, pummeling is also good. Go back to your laps, and repeat this for about 10-15 minutes. It won't burn you quite the way suicides or sprints do, but it'll kick your breathing up, and also you are getting the necessary athletic movements conducive to training.

If you have any questions or ideas about this, message back or email me at tim@innercirclewa.com. I have many similar workouts and variations for this kind of training, and I certainly welcome any ideas you might have.

Next time, I am going to go in-depth about sprints, the anaerobic threshhold, and how to harness all of it to the best of your interests.

Take care.

In one of my earlier entries, the discussion was about "breaking", which is the term used to describe when you physically hit your anaerobic limit, your body breaks down, and you hit a new level in your workouts. In this case, we're going to quickly look at "pushing" and how to come through the proverbial wall.

You will always hit a wall in training. You will always and forever get to a stagnant point where you do not feel as energetic or sound physically, and mentally you will be sick of the training itself and the reason why. This is all normal. There is nothing odd about it whatsoever. It is a good thing. You might not think so. You might think "how can it be good if I'm sick of working out, and I don't have the same drive?" The answer is easy. You need a rest.

In order to push through any "wall", you need a break in training. Not a prolonged one. Maybe a day. Maybe two. Maybe three. But if you are having trouble reaching out in practice, it isn't because the body is not willing. Most of the time it is because the brain isn't. And in this instance, you actually have to be mentally strong enough to know that you do in fact, need a rest.

A lot of the more hardcore athletes, myself included, used to feel that taking breaks and giving in to that line of thinking was the mentally weak thing to do. It appears to show a failure of committment to a goal. But it is not the case. The truth is, the human body does need rest. It needs to recover, to refuel. The brain needs rest also. When in training, it is natural to think about almost nothing but the training and the upcoming competition. When there is tough competition ahead, and even tougher training, that can add up, and actually start to tax you physically. Your brain will be unwilling to release the normal amount of endorphins, your blood flow will not be as smooth and languid, and your motivation will plummet.

If you find  yourself on this avenue of training, stop. Walk to the locker room, take off your gear, and hit the showers. You are not weak. You are not tired. You just don't have it. If you stay in it, you will practice like garbage, and that will hinder the next training session, then the next one, thus creating a domino effect of negativity that will be even harder to climb out of. Instead, get out of the gym and go home.

Take a day or two and just do what you enjoy. Relax. Play video games, wiffle ball, whatever it is you do. By the end of the couple of days, you will find yourself itching to get back. Your body will feel a new wind blowing through, your mind clearer than it was before.

Don't go crazy the first workout back. Just stay on pace. Cut it short if you have to. But after another practice or two, pick it back up. You'll not only be ready for it, you'll want to do it. That wall will now come crashing down in your wake.

Positivity is the key to a successful attitude. Some people have a predisposed sense of cynicism, whether it be towards family, society, school, work, etc.  But when it comes to setting goals, there is absolutely no room for being cynical. You must believe. You must believe that no matter what happens around you,  or how badly outside occurrences seem to disrupt your life, if you have a goal, it is your responsibility and duty to yourself to not let anything stop you from achieving it.

Positive things do not happen to positive thinkers merely because they "think good thoughts." Rather, it is because these people understand what it is that they want, and are deeply happy to have something to strive for and look forward to.

What that basically means is that the goals you set have to be goals you want to achieve, not goals you think  you do or should want. You can't want something half-way and expect to get it. You'll end up doing the work half-way, and come up short, undoubtedly disappointing you and hindering you in other endeavors and opportunities. You must set a goal that you unequivocally want with all of your heart and soul. Only then will you have a chance to reach it, because you'll be willing to put in the work.

"The easiest way to achieve anything in life is to work harder than everybody else."

Once you have established your goal, you must keep a proper attitude. You must know inside yourself that you have the desire necessary to do what it is going to take to reach it. And once you have that going for yourself, the sky is the limit. Without you having to say anything at all, people around you will notice how focused and intent you are in your journey.

Anyone can set a goal for themselves. Only the truly special know what it means to acquire the resolve needed to reach them. These kinds of individuals are "positive" about what they want, and are literally willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Success stories are few and far between for one reason: most people give up on what they're after-they don't really "want" it. Well, if you do want it, you have to be willing to walk through the fire to get it. Because no one is going to be on the other side waiting to hand it to you.

I don't fully believe I have to go into all the benefits of performing push-ups, as they should be self-describing. I'll touch on a few, though. They can be performed just about anywhere at anytime, you can always surpass your goals in doing more, and physically, they hit numerous muscle groups at once, while building both strength and muscular endurance.

Think about this. Just about every kind of athlete around does push-ups. Baseball players, football players, boxers, golfers, hockey players, and especially wrestlers. This is not a mistake. They are not doing them out of "tradition." People do push-ups because they work, and also because there are many ways to do them.

Wide-grip, regular-grip, diamonds, wrestler-push-ups, handstand push-ups, wheel-barrel push-ups, elbow push-ups, chair push-ups, Jane Fonda push-ups-and this is just the beginning. You can go up all the way and lock your elbows, you can go down all the way and come up short and fast ala wrestler-push-ups. You can use push-up bars that sell in stores. You can go fast, you can slow and deliberate. No matter how you do them, they always work.

Push-ups hit at least a percentage of every major upper-body muscle group. Your anterior and rear deltoids get some action, your triceps, your chest, rhomboids, and even your wrists get work when you do push-ups. On top of that, when you are disciplined enough to perform them consistenly, they can help build musclar endurance, taxing these muscles groups in the short term at first, but ultimately building the wall further and further away.

My preference of course, are wrestler-push-ups. I really do not know who is responsible for developing them. I imagine that whomever did, did so one day at the end of a practice just trying to get them over with. After all, to the un-enlightened, they appear to be almost "cheating." They are performed with the chest or nose touching the surface, but you don't come up all the way-your arms never break 90 degrees. However, they come in quick, short bursts(just the kind of action a wrestler needs) and therefore become rather difficult to try if you never did before. The great thing about them though is you can always shoot for more and achieve that number quickly as long as you "push" through, and your muscular endurance has a tendency to skyrocket because of this.

Here are two types of push-ups that I wouldn't dare say I "invented", but rather discovered. The first are "chair push-ups." These are not what you think. I am not talking about taking a chair, draping your feet over the seat, and leaning down to do them, although those are fantastic. My "chair push-ups" work like this: First, you get on the balls of your feet and push off the floor. Your butt should be in the air, but your back should be arched up. When your elbows are locked, it should appear as though that if you were sitting in a chair, you are falling forward with your hands being the only thing keeping you up. Your knees should be bent as if you were sitting down.You then release all the way down slowly, touching your nose to the floor. Come up until your elbows are locked once again. It is not an easy action to perform. This push-up does hit your whole deltoid group, but it especially targets your upper back and triceps. They are an excellent "burner", and a big-time strength building exercise.

The next one you will need a prop-either a medicine ball(preferably 15-20 lbs.) or a heavy bag. Lay the item on the floor and put your legs over it while facing the floor. Try to make sure that your legs are over the ball or bag to where your knees are on the other side. Now, your grip should be so that your hands and shoulders appear to be as though you are holding a barbell prepared to bench-press. When you come down, you should feel the stretch and slight burn in your chest. Touch your chest to the floor, trying to keep your head up a little bit. Always come up in a controlled manner, at a pace that makes sense.  These push-ups are a great way to simulate inclined-chest presses at the gym, only in a push-up, therefore you should be able to do many more than you normally would with say a barbell or dumbells.

I don't have a name for them really as of yet. I call them "inclined-press-pushes", but whatever works. I suggest giving both a shot next time you can.

All in all, push-ups are a saving grace, a fanstatic exercise that should be a part of everyone's daily life. They do nothing but make you better and more efficient. You can always do them, and they help keep your metablism up on days when you can't get to the gym or practice. They are such a huge part of my life, that I really do not know where I would be without them.

Sometimes athletes who "want" to train or get ready for something, anything, feel the need to procrastinate. It's always "yeah, I'm starting Monday." Well, next season is already here. It never went away. I don't care if you are 15 and a freshman in high school, or 36 and want to compete in a small "open" tournament, as an athlete, you are always "in season." You have to have that mindset if there is any hope of victoy at all, because like a lost love, victory is fleeting.

Start today. Stop making excuses. Time is cyclical, yet ever-fading. Now is never. If you want to train hard, if you want to win, or if you just want to get in shape to be in shape, start NOW. Whomever told you that you have forever is LYING. You don't. You have now, and that's all you have.

Getting better starts with a moment. Here are ten things you can do every day that will help ease the transition from being a talker to walker.

10) Realize that you have a goal. When you realize you have one, you can actually realize the goal itself.

9) Get up before whatever it is you do in the morning, and do lunges or crunches. They get your metabolism going in the morning, and plus its a small piece of proof that you're not lazy.

8)Don't eat crap. You know what that means. The days of indulgence are over. No one ever tasted victory after tasting Twinkies.

7) Be intense. That doesn't mean act like a dope. That means being confident in who you are and what you are after.

6) Push-ups. I'll get to this in another entry, but start doing them if not already. As many as you can. Many times a day. If you have 3 minutes to yourself, push the floor towards hell.

5) Everytime you walk into your bedroom, do something. I find one-legged squats to be a good one. That means everytime you walk into your bedroom you do something physical. Push-ups, sit-ups, lunges, isometrics, shadow-wrestling, shadow-boxing, whatever. Just for a few minutes.

4) Start believing in yourself more than you believed in yourself ever before. Start coming to terms with what you are trying to accomplish. Be in the moment long enough to realize that anything worth striving for comes with a price-and that price you are gladly willing to pay.

3) Know that you have to "up" the tempo. The above ideas are not enough. They are just a start. Yeah, everytime you go into your bedroom you're doing pull-ups off the molding, but know you need more. Its time to put together a plan that will morph you from human to machine.

2) Visualize the competitive environment. Your opponents. Don't stay up nights worrying about what they are going to do to you. That never helped too many people. Picture what you WILL do to them.

1) Be thankful. Thankful for your family, your friends, and your teammates. Be thankful for being able to even think about all this. Bet hankful for being able to DO all of this.

Smith-Machine Lunges 

Smith-Machine exercises have long been popular, and probably for a few reasons. The casual weightlifter can feel like they are doing more weight and trick themselves into thinking it is real since a barbell is involved. You really do not require a spot for most actions performed on a Smith-Machine. And an avid weightlifter can use them to get a little bit more creative.

But Smith-Machines are very useful either way. Although there are a myriad of good exercises that can be performed on a Smith-Machine, the one I would like to focus on is Smith-Machine lunges.  Now, while most of the harder-core bodybuilding types like to use a regular free barbell and do regular lunges in a parking-lot, not all of us have the time, resources, and space to be able to do that. Plus, for any athlete that needs an explosive burst from their quads and trunk, it is not especially sport-specific to do lunges that way.

The Smith-Machine lunges are dynamic and results-oriented when performed the right way and consistently. They are not like regular dumbbell lunges, where you switch legs for every repetition. Instead, go to the Smith station and grab the bar with a "squat-grip." Next, put the desired leg in front far enough to perform a lunge, while minding the back leg's correct position, which should be foot facing forward. Lift up enough on the weight to get it off of the rack, and perform your lunges, same leg, for the desired rep count. Go down with the weight controlled and semi-slow. Come up with a neat burst through the lunge. Unless you are going for mass, you should be performing the movement in a quick, but controlled manner. After the desired rep count, re-rack the weight and switch legs. There's one set.

Be sure to keep your back arched to the point where your head is involuntarily up-right, but not bending backwards. Your butt should not be out, and your lower back should not be hunched.

Suggested use: If you are an athlete, like a wrestler or instance, the weight should not be very heavy. 25lbs. plates on each side are what I, at 128 lbs. or so, like to start out with. I will add weight by 5 lbs. or so every other set until I complete 4 sets. The fifth and final set for me I put two 45 lbs. plates on each side and go to max reps.

If you can do 20 reps, that is cutting it a bit short weight-wise if you feel like you can do 10-15 more. It should be enough to do 12-15 reps for the first 3 sets. The 4^th and 5^th sets should be heavy enough to be able to do 10-12.

These are an extremely beneficial exercise that provide a good balance of action on the legs. The quads become semi-isolated, but your gluts as well your hamstrings and calves get a lot of work in the movement as well. You will notice your shots and your lifts have a little more juice to them, and your stance will start to feel more controlled and confident. I just about swear by them.  Good luck and give them a try next "leg-day."

Everyone has their own deep rooted reasons for competing in any sport. It can be because you were prodded by family when you were younger, as many wrestlers are. It can be because you discovered you were good at something, and wanted to just keep doing it. Or it can be because no matter the stakes, the essence of victory is always something that calls you to keep trying.

The best athletes in any sport are always the ones who want to win more than anything they can think of, and are willing to work harder than everyone else to achieve their goals. That is a fact of life that remains true, for the most part. You'll always have the wickedly talented folk out there who get by on their skill-set, but don't care as much as the next guy. But by and large, the ones who get the medals are the ones who can't sleep at night because they feel like they are wasting time.

Wrestlers are a different breed than most athletes. With the exception of Real Pro Wrestling, Olympic medals, and college, there are not a ton of avenues for wrestlers to strive towards while training during their formative years. MMA has done a good job of providing another platform of competition for wrestlers to showcase their abilities, but it is in a different sport altogether, and on top of that, MMA promoters and even some athletes are just whoring the wrestler's own ability for the sake of making matches.

Most wrestlers who compete in MMA do not do so because they love it. They might think they do, believe they do, train like they do, but ultimately, it is because that is what is available, and they figure if they can take a guy down and scramble enough, they'll find a way to pound them out or grind a decision. That is fine. But it is not pure. It is not a spirited and fair value for their respective personal growth as an athlete, and sadly, MMA is now popular enough to perpetuate this problem.

A true wrestler, wrestles mostly only for the satisfaction of competition and the drive to succeed. That's it. Yeah sure, there are camps and clinics to be invited to once their reputation is big enough. And they might get some job somewhere because of their respective accomplishments. But ask any wrestler why he or she competes, especially after college, and I highly doubt the answer you will get back will have anything to do with financial concerns.

Therefore, a wrestler's motivation for competition stays simple: Pride. Pride in what they do, in who they are, and what they believe in. Not the sinful kind of pride necessarily, but the kind of pride that can only come from trying your absolute best for something that will otherwise go unnoticed by the masses. Pride in having your hand raised. Sure, any top wrestler has a little bit of that swagger, that arrogance almost, that belief that they are the best and no one can touch them. But at the same time, most actually believe that in their hearts, and if that's true, how can anyone fault them for that?

Humility is something that gets lost here. There is a sense of humility in losing yourself in the moment. The phrase "act like you've been there before" is all fine and good, but should not overshadow the fact that if someone is celebrating a moment, it means that they realize the moment is bigger than them. They've lost themselves there, any kind of control over their space, all in the effort of achievement. And there is nothing inherently wrong with that.

In other words, no one might be able to pin-point any clear reason why any athlete, but especially a wrestler, might keep trucking along. It might not always be victory. There is almost a Holy value in trying and never giving up. But whatever the reasons are, one factor will always come to the surface. Motivation is everything, and if you don't have it as an athlete, you're not an athlete at all.

In folkstyle or scholastic wrestling especially, the nearside or farside cradle is a staple move for any aggressive wrestler's arsenal. Cradles are good for points, even better for pinning. In all of the matches that I have won by pin, I would estimate that over 75% of them were via one cradle or another. This is against type for someone my size. I am not especially long-limbed, in fast, I am shorter or was shorter than most of my opponents. However, I always had a strong core, strong rear-delts, and I paid attention to my chest expansion, even at a younger age.

As an athlete who now competes sparingly currently, I have had to learn to typify my workouts in the weight-room to be more sports-specific. I am no longer privy to the same kind of coaching and drilling that you get when you are younger. That being said, something I emphasize to kids, high school, and college wrestlers is that if you are going to spend time in the weight room, make it quality time. Doing bench presse for chest won't necessarily hurt your game as a wrestler, but think of this: Do you really plan on being on your back in a position to push someone off of you?

No. You want to be aggressive and into it, ready to be able to deck your adversary. For toady, we'll stick with the cradle and its weightlifting counterpart, chest flies. For flies, I suggest two: Flat-bench and cable-crossover flies.

For flat-bench, you want to do 5 sets, increasing the weight by 5 or so pounds every set. I suggest 10-15 reps for the first 3 sets for this reason: The first three should be at a weight you are comfortably moving quickly. Not too quickly as in to sacrifice your form, but quick enough to move the weight efficiently. Breathing out every rep is a must. The last two sets, go a little higher in weight, and this should be at weight you can move 8-10 times. Once again, breathe out every rep. Also, make sure on all reps in each set you let your arms hang just a little-you need the stretch more than anything. This is not about mass, its about stretching with strength, and being able to pull force together.

Cable-crossover flies, long a bodybuilding favorite, are actually quite useful in this regard. However, I make minor adjustments. First off, do them FROM YOUR KNEES. I don't care how short you are, the extra gravitational nuisance is worth it, as it allows the stretch part of the movement to be accentuated. Second, the weight should be pretty light. It should be light enough that for the first 3 sets you can do 12-15 reps, and the last 2-10-12 reps. Make sure you get the full movement. As for pace, you should once again be moving the weight quickly, but not fast and sloppy. In a bodybuilding context, the weight is okay if you are moving it slowly. In that case, you would want the extra crunch for size. Here, we aren't worried about that so much. Instead, you want the stretch, finish the movement, control it, and come back in a timely fashion. And like the bench flies, 5 sets should do it.

I do not suggest doing both exercises as part of your routine on the same workout day. And if you must, split them apart and don't do them back-to-back. But they will make a huge difference eventually, and throwing in wide-grip push-ups at the end of the session or in the wrestling room itself adds a nice compliment to this cause.

Body Quick (Body Quicken, Brain Quicken) is a very dynamic product. It has been marketed to college students as well as athletes, due to its design for "cognitive performance enhancement", which basically means it is supposed to help you think clearer and act more alertly.

Whatever, it works. It is NOT a stimulant and has basically no side effects (just make sure you follow directions). It promises to kick your stamina up by about 30%, and I must admit that I believe it delivers. I have been using it since 2003, and I have to say that while I wouldn't call myself "dependent" on it, I don't like working out without it.

The ingredients are based on a synthetic and herbal mixture called "Cognamine." There's really nothing of note in there otherwise (see www.bodyquick.com for more info). But for something that professes to expand stamina and reflex, it hits the mark. A MUST for any wrestler, boxer, fighter, or runner. It is that good. I suggest taking only 2 capsules when you use it. Grapefruit juice is supposed to bring out more its benefits, but I rarely use it that way. Make sure you don't take it on an empty stomach (your stomach will BURN), don't take it within like 90 minutes of eating anything dairy, and only use it on days you work out, or 5 days on, 2 off.

Endurox XL is the most reliable endurance supplement on the market, and also the most cost-effective (averages like $17 per 30 day supply). Nothing special here. Cwjia Root and Vitamin E, two utterly harmless ingredients. But Endurox acts as a lactic acid blocker, which stems muscle fatigue. It also switches your enery source from carbs to fat. On top of that, your metabolism speeds up a tad, and your workouts are just more consistent. I notice it more when I am not taking it, which in a way, is the best compliment you can give a supplement.

Dose: Take it everyday for a motnh, whether you are working out or not, just to get in your system. After that, if you need to space it here and there and use it only on days you work out, that may be okay, as long as you are working out fairly often.