How To Train Mma When You Don't Have A Lot Of Money
Johnny Greenbacks is called-for.
The almost-life-size portrait of the vocaliser tattooed on Alan Belcher's left arm roasts in the midday heat, only the UFC champ hardly notices equally he leans on the tricolor ropes that surround the ring.
His sparring partner is tardily. And as the temperature rises nether the open-air gym's bamboo-and-aluminum roof, and so too does Belcher's impatience. And then. . .activity.
Belcher straightens as Lamsongkram "Lam" Chuwattana appears at the far cease of the physical floor. At six feet alpine and 158 pounds, Lam is ii inches shorter and 70 pounds lighter than Belcher. But compared with Belcher'due south 17 UFC victories, Lam's 245 wins (51 by knockout) in Thailand's fiercely competitive Muay Thai league brand him the seasoned veteran.
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And from the wait on Belcher's face, he knows he'south almost to get schooled.
"That's why I'm here—to learn from the best," says Belcher as Lam jogs casually toward the ring, his loftier-cut polyester shorts doing little to hibernate the bulging calves and muscled quads sculpted by decades of high kicks, depression sweeps, and crushing holds. The blackness T-shirt tied around Lam's forehead flutters as he ducks under the ropes and hops into the ring.
"Muay Thai is a pissing competition," says Belcher. He pulls on his gloves while Lam warms up. "These trainers are incredible, but they're hateful. Certain, they grin a lot, but behind those optics are stone-cold killers. I like that."
This is Belcher's third trip to Tiger Muay Thai, ane of seven fight houses that line Soi Ta-iad, a bustling thoroughfare on the outskirts of Phuket Urban center known locally as Gym Route.
Long a destination for globetrotting backpackers and European sunbathers, Thailand'due south largest island is now alluring a new type of tourist, one who couldn't care less about the raucous nightclubs and luxury resorts. Professional fighters, martial arts aspirants, and fitness enthusiasts from all over the world—more than twenty,000 a year—converge on this 1 one/ii-kilometer stretch of asphalt to trade punches with Thailand'south top Muay Thai athletes. Belcher might be among the nearly famous of these pugilistic pilgrims, just like the residue of them, he hopes that a few weeks with the likes of Lam will transform him from a talented fighter into an unbeatable warrior.
"Permit's practise it," says Belcher. Lam guides a pair of pads over his artillery and and so smiles and yips, inviting Belcher to boxing. Belcher smacks his gloves, breathes securely, and enters the ring of fire.
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Pound Every Angle
Muay Thai turns your entire body into a weapon. Fights are a blur of fists, elbows, knees, and shins, which is why the sport is also known as "the art of eight limbs." Practiced mobility isn't just an advantage; information technology's the key to survival. "You rotate your hip with each set on and block," says Belcher as he pummels Lam's pads with plenty forcefulness to shatter bone. Lam absorbs each touch and so quickly repositions himself to guide the next strike.
Unlike ubiquitous disciplines like boxing and wrestling, Muay Thai is ethnic to a single country, making the art of pad holding a rare skill outside Thailand. "Nobody at my gym tin practice it like they do here," says Belcher, animate heavily as his kicks go increasingly labored. "Encounter how Lam dances effectually? He'southward forcing me to kick and punch through total ranges of motion. Y'all don't see that kind of technique back home. Hell, you don't run across it anywhere but Thailand."
Lam notices Belcher's fading endeavor and pounces, demanding 20 more kicks. Soaked in sweat, Belcher chuckles, plants his left human foot, and begins swatting at Lam's pads with his right leg; 5, x, 15, 20. . .Belcher bellows in exhaustion as he reaches his goal.
"I was getting cocky and lazy," says Belcher as he limps to the corner of the ring, panting. Lam sheds his pads and follows, pouring water over Belcher'south head and rubbing ice into his ribs. "Neither of those qualities lasts long around hither," says Belcher. "They go browbeaten out of you pretty rapidly."
The education is painful, but the lessons are critical: Fatigue is often in the mind and, more of import, mobility is everything. "Yous can think of your limbs as levers," says Brendan Weafer, P.E.S., C.E.S., director of coaching and nutrition at Ballsy Hybrid Training in New York Urban center. "The more you can extend the lever and the greater the range of move y'all can move it through, the more torque and velocity y'all'll develop." The event: a nastier kick and a faster takedown.
Muay Thai trainers accept always been innovators when information technology comes to the mechanics of strength and power; they empathise innately what science proves empirically. "But range of motion isn't congenital solely through sparring and pad work," says Lam. "Yous as well build it in the gym by incorporating it into your workouts."
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Scientists at the Academy of North Dakota concur. They establish force training to be as effective as stretching for improving flexibility. "But you take to lift with good course, which means—you lot guessed it—lifting through a full range of movement," says Weafer. In practice, that means sitting deeply into a squat, extending your arm fully during a biceps roll, and lowering your breast to within a few inches of the floor during a pushup. It also ways working your muscles in positions where they're weakest. "That not only helps you build them upwardly but likewise teaches your body to recruit them more efficiently," says Weafer. Consequently, you'll exist able to lift heavier weights down the road.
Yous'll also probably spend less fourth dimension on the sidelines. "When you can move a joint through a full range of motion, other joints and muscles no longer have to compensate for it," says Weafer. "Bottom line: Enhancing your range of movement equates to fewer injuries, greater strength, and a lot more power."
Rested but not fully recovered, Belcher reenters the ring and launches a flurry of elbows at Lam. Each strike begins with a consummate plough of his hip and ends with a whap! against Lam's pads. Then he loses momentum, throwing a punch-punch-kick combo that limps into Lam'southward midsection. Lam bops Belcher on the head and yelps at him. Belcher isn't tickled. He slams Lam with a full extension kick that sends him stumbling backward, grin in blessing. That makes Belcher fissure a smile.
"That'southward it," says Belcher, his intensity subsiding equally he yanks off his gloves. "I'm hungry. Let's eat."
Attack Your Dinner
Every repast at Tiger Muay Thai is an do in farthermost gastronomy. Drained from hours of sparring, pad work, strength training, and mobility exercises, the fighters descend on the kitchen with ravenous zeal. Belcher slides 12 eggs from a serving dish onto his plate, grunting appreciatively equally he mixes his soft-boiled protein into a mountain of steaming sweet potatoes.
Such unchained eating is new for Belcher. Until recently, he watched what he ate with an obsessiveness that verged on paranoia. "I used to kill myself trying to make weight," he says. Like many UFC competitors, Belcher would starve himself in the weeks leading upwards to a fight so he could compete in a lighter weight class—and proceeds a size advantage over naturally smaller opponents. "All that cut screwed me up," he says. "The yo-yo dieting fucked up my hormones and made me fat. I wasn't in shape like I knew I could be."
And so earlier this year, Belcher decided to shift his focus from the middleweight to the calorie-free heavyweight class. With an upper weight limit of 205 pounds, information technology's more in line with his stocky body type and allows him more than liberty with his food intake. Belcher now eats v or six meals a mean solar day to pack in calories and feed his muscles a constant supply of nutrients. "The more muscle you accept, the more fat you burn down and the more food y'all must swallow to sustain a high level of free energy and performance," says nutritionist Glen Tobias, M.S., R.D., who works with several top UFC fighters. "But increasing your calorie consumption lonely won't cut it. Yous need to make certain you lot're eating the correct foods at the right times with the right residue of nutrients, and that you're doing it consistently."
A walk downwardly Gym Road later that day reveals what foods are trending among fighters: local sweet potatoes, coconut water, coconut oil, and (of course) Thai chile peppers, as well as black rice from the Philippines. "You can eat v organic meals cooked to society for $15 a twenty-four hour period here," says Belcher as he seeks notwithstanding more high-octane fuel. He ducks into one of Soi Ta-iad's nigh popular eateries, Calorie. "Information technology's the all-time deal on the planet."
Belcher is the first to acknowledge that eating this way isn't realistic for most guys. "It isn't fifty-fifty realistic for me dorsum habitation," he says, adding that he doesn't always have the time, money, or inclination to stock his kitchen with organic groceries. "I take a meta-approach to my diet, focusing on getting enough carbs, protein, and fats. Fighting is hard enough. Eating shouldn't be."
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The results of his approach are axiomatic in his physical power and chiseled appearance. Where earlier he'd fluctuate betwixt baby-cheeked and gaunt, he is now permanently ripped. "Guys are e'er trying to wait lean, and what y'all eat plays a big part in that; but it shouldn't give you lot a headache," says Belcher as he orders a plate of black rice and turmeric craven. "Be smart nigh your diet, only don't overthink it. The right way to swallow helps you perform well and experience good."
Breathe Fire
The side by side morning, Belcher is up early on and darting between tuktuks (noisy, three-wheeled buggies that pass for taxis) on his scooter every bit he races to meet with Brazilian jujitsu legend Olavo Abreu. The third-degree black belt is the caput teacher of Phuket Pinnacle Squad, a high-profile fight gym that plays the eastern bookend to Tiger Muay Thai's western position on Soi Ta-iad.
Abreu greets Belcher with a hug. "I saw you lot knock out Rousimar Palhares in 2012," he says. "Fucking amazing."
Palhares was a jujitsu fighter with a reputation for executing leg locks vicious enough to snap ligaments—and a nasty habit of non letting get fifty-fifty when opponents tap out. Belcher was the 2-to-1 underdog, but when the final bell sounded it was Belcher, non Palhares, who had his mitt raised in victory. "I trained to stay at-home and find a way out of his holds, not avoid them," says Belcher. "Breathing played a big part in that."
We don't normally associate fear and trepidation with professional person MMA fighters, but even the virtually ruthless among them suffer from the chronic effects of panicked (i.e., shallow) animate, says trainer Steve Maxwell, C.S.C.S., a former jujitsu champion. Information technology's a natural upshot of being in an adrenalized state, but it floods the body with stress hormones, reduces oxygen intake, accelerates fourth dimension to fatigue, bottlenecks energy and brainpower, and increases muscle tension. This, in turn, limits strength, ability, mobility, and range of motion. In curt, such breathing sabotages your performance and exponentially increases your hazard of injury, Maxwell says. And its effects aren't limited to fighting.
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"Dysfunctional animate can likewise destroy a workout," says Maxwell. "But learning to stay calm when you lot're training has precisely the opposite effect; it improves motor coordination and focus, optimizes muscle use and lifting technique, and increases power while reducing the risk of injury."
The hush-hush, says Maxwell, is to breathe through your nose, using your diaphragm to draw as much air as you can deep into your lungs. That first function, breathing through your olfactory organ, is fundamental; information technology stimulates the vagus nerve, which calms your nervous system by counteracting the fight-or-flight response. "Your performance might drop initially while you lot get the hang of it," says Maxwell, who ofttimes has clients concur water in their oral cavity to make certain they breathe through the nose. "Merely you'll quickly begin to meet improvements in force, power, and mobility as y'all elevator and breathe in a calmer, clearer, more controlled state."
With the students and trainers at Phuket Elevation Team looking on, Belcher and Abreu put that principle to exercise, flinging each other around the mat equally calmly and effortlessly as if they were pedagogy a tumbling class for toddlers.
"One time yous learn how to breathe and remain at-home, you can brainstorm to master all the other elements of your game," says Abreu. "That's the secret to becoming a champion—staying calm and putting it all together."
Fight On All Fronts
Afterward three days of alternating between jujitsu and Muay Thai workouts, Belcher steps into a black-walled room at Tiger Muay Thai for some technique work with UFC legend Roger Huerta. They make polite conversation for a minute, but it's 4p.grand. and a group of 24fighters is waiting to larn how to optimize footwork while throwing combination attacks.
At first glance, the drills expect like the kind of repetitive exercises you might expect to see in a YMCA karate class. But here they take on a greater significance, demonstrating a seamless integration of MMA's four major fighting styles (wrestling, boxing, Muay Thai, and jujitsu)."We're cross-training," says Belcher.
The various martial arts might await like to the uninitiated, simply their physical demands can exist as different equally weightlifting and bicycling, and practicing several styles meantime delivers both forcefulness and endurance benefits. "When you lot challenge your torso with new movements and exercises, y'all stimulate your muscles besides as your nervous system, helping both become stronger," says Weafer. You besides reduce your run a risk of overuse injuries. But for MMA fighters, the benefits of cross-preparation extend beyond fettle—they're essential for survival. "Mastering jujitsu merely remaining a mediocre wrestler doesn't exactly heave longevity," says Belcher. He adds one more reason to mix things up: "Variety keeps training fun."
Right then, Tiger Muay Thai coach George Hickman wants Belcher to exercise a vicious double-leg takedown. Belcher whiffs at his first endeavor, gets closer on his 2nd, and nails his third, slamming Hickman to the mat.
"Alan'southward one of the most well-rounded fighters in mixed martial arts," says Huerta as he watches Belcher take hold of a protein shake and flop against a wall next to a group of Chinese fighters." And he's that manner because he's always willing to claiming himself and try new techniques."
He's spent from the day's preparation, so it takes Belcher a moment to realize he's the object of hero worship. Unable to communicate in English, the Chinese fighters pantomime what they want: selfies with the American striker. Belcher smiles. "Certain. Gather circular."
One past one, the fighters stand up adjacent to Belcher, taking a pic with one hand while making the other into a fist. "Ain't this fun?" says Belcher. "Train, eat, and fight in paradise. It doesn't get whatever better than this."
Want to become Muay Thai muscle? Weave the following MMA moves in your daily workouts to get stronger, more mobile, and more than athletic.
Dragon Punch
Targets Shoulders, Cadre
Benefits Mitt Speed, Cardio
Grab a pair of light dumbbells and presume a fighter's stance. Alternating left and right forrard punches for 30 seconds. Echo with shoulder presses and hook punches. Residue ane minute. That's 1 round; exercise 3.
Sprawl Burpee
Targets Lats, Quads
Benefits Strength, Explosiveness, Mobility
From a standing position, push button your hips back, squat, and put your hands on the flooring. Boot your legs into a pushup position and bulldoze your hips downward. Return to a squat and jump upwardly. Do three sets of fifteen reps.
Hindu Press-Up And Rolling Plank Complex
Targets Chest, Core, Hips, Shoulders
Benefits Upper-Trunk Strength, Hip Mobility, Total-Torso Stability
From a pushup position, heighten your hips to form an upside-downwards V. Drop your hips and pull your torso frontwards, raising your torso until your arms are straight. Return to the starting position. Do four sets of 10 reps. Between each set, exercise a rolling plank: Assume a pushup position with your weight on your forearms. Concur thirty seconds. Then rotate to your right side, back downwardly, and on your left side, 30 seconds each.
Muay Thai Knee joint Strike
Targets Hips, Core
Benefits Range Of Motion, Balance
Stand with your hands locked around the neck of an imaginary opponent. Simultaneously pull down to your right and thrust your correct knee upwards (equally if you're striking him in the gut). Do 3 sets of 20 reps per leg.
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