Question: Starting MMA..

[Snowblind3]

I will start MMA soon,will train 3 times a week and I have a few questions

1: How bad will it affect my gains if I switch to a twice a week routine?

2. If I start MMA I guess I can say goodbye to getting bigger correct?

3. How much more will I have to eat to compensate?

4. If I stop weight lifting all together and say do MMA for 3 months, 3 times a week and try to go back to the gym..will I really lose THAT much strength? Doesn't the punching and just doing the techniques work you body into getting stronger?

Thank you

[Swellin]

The most important factor is which one of these you plan to place as your number 1 priority. You can do both of them, but you won't be your best at either of them if you do both with any serious commitment.

How old are you and what are your stats (height/weight)?

You can lift weights in such a way that it will help your mma. You can do a small amount of mma and it can help your weight lifting (by learning more about muscle focus and improved core strength). Unless you are in the .001% of the people out there who could freakishly gain size while training to fight competitively, you can forget that ever happening.

Unfortunately, you can't just do the math on the calories and make it work out. You are beating the living hell out of your body with either one...doing both is murder on the body. If you are a pro and have the time to rest 8-10 hours at night with a nap during the day...it will also help. If not, you hit the wall pretty quickly.

Also, if you look at the guys in the UFC...you will see that people are realizing it is extremely difficult to fight with tons of bulk. Brock Lesnar is about the only guy I've seen who has been able to do it effectively, and we haven't seen him go 3 rounds either. I'm sure he has the cardio to do it, but he's one of those .001% people. Look at Bob Sapp. that guy is an athlete. He's also a friggin monster. But he fights like crap. If you can weather the initial 45 second storm.....you can pick him apart.
I started training to fight while I was training to take on a power lifting meet. It took about a month of trying to do both for me to hit the wall and take a week off from everything just to get my joints in agreement with me to move. I set fighting as a priority, and started dropping weight. It was hard for me to make the mental switch to not eating 7000 calories a day. I had worked so hard to force my body to gain size, that I hated to see it go. Now I am much healthier as a result of doing so. But to each his own.

Punching and kicking will not keep your strength gains unless your strength level is pretty low. On a positive note, I weigh much less than before...haven't lifted weights in two years, and I am stronger than anybody I've ever trained with or faced at my body weight. In fact, the super heavyweight I train with says he doesn't face people with my strength or power in that weight class. So the powerlifting paid off...even though I don't carry that weight any more.

I did not answer your questions the way they were laid out, but gave you a general over all view of what I see. If you still want specific things answered beyond that, I'll try to help.

[KratosX91]

Newbies don't give advice.

[Shane_]

Swelling, if one was to practice MMA as a hobby, where would the point be in number of sessions a week before the extra work becomes detrimental? I train 3x per week lowish volume and I am thinking of taking a muay thai/ BJJ class one each a week.

[Swellin]

Originally Posted by shaneharon88

Swelling, if one was to practice MMA as a hobby, where would the point be in number of sessions a week before the extra work becomes detrimental? I train 3x per week lowish volume and I am thinking of taking a muay thai/ BJJ class one each a week.

Unfortunately, this can't be answered with a one size fits all response. It is VERY much dependent on the individual. Again, it depends on your goals as far as your weight training is concerned. You stated that you train low volume at low-moderate frequency. I would assume that you are using a high level of intensity because of the lower volume and reasonable (read-smart) frequency. I don't know what amount of cardio you are doing or your goals. Both of those play a very large part in this, as well as how your body responds to increased frequency or your ability to recover, so just listen to what I am saying and don't take it as an absolute.

If you are not doing cardio, and you decide to hit MT and BJJ once each per week, you have to monitor the way you train in both. BJJ is one hell of a workout for the beginner. Everybody tries to use strength in BJJ, until they learn technique. Most folks work their tails off in BJJ until they get close to blue belt. Somewhere around the turn for blue, the light switch flips and you start to understand how to play the game. So when you start, you are going to be beating the living hell out of your body. Muay Thai is 180* from BJJ. Where BJJ is a thinking, planning, reacting art....MT is a testosterone laden art. Don't get me wrong, it requires patience and playing the chess game, but that takes years to be able to truly do. Until that day, it is all about power and resilience (that's not the best way to do it, but that seems to be what 99% of us do regrettably). So MT will wear you down if you train hard (even that one day a week).

Both of these should have you soaked with sweat by the end of the session. Heck, I can look at a darn BJJ gi and start sweating. The other thing you have to realize is that even at one day a week, you are going to end up getting minor injuries that will get in the way of lifting and other trivial daily things. Broken toes are the norm in MT. Fingers and ankles are the norm in BJJ. When you first start BJJ, you don't understand that you need to tap if you think you are in trouble. We all try to power through and show how tough we are.....then we are out of the gym for two months with a bum elbow from an armbar.

Okay, the point of all this extra stuff I'm telling you........when you overtrain, your chances of getting injured increase dramatically. You are going to have minor things from the training, but overtraining will cause ligament and tendon stresses to become a real problem.

I think most folks could tune their weight lifting a bit and still do BJJ and MT once a week at the right level of intensity. If you go all out in your hobby training, it will negatively affect your lifting. I think you can do what you have planned just fine. But be aware of the increased chance of injury. You need more rest and more food. More rest...more rest. lol
Listen to what your body tells you. Expect to be sore as hell the first couple of times you do either of them. You will be working muscles in a different way than you have in the past. Just pay attention to your body and tweak your intensity in either gym based on what your body tells you.

[Shane_]

Thanks for the lengthy response. My goals are to be as big and as strong my genetics will allow and the mma type training is just something I'd enjoy alongside it. Dont do any cardio as I was hoping to use the MT etc as a good enough cardio session!

[Snowblind3]

Can I still get big if I just do MMA and eat a lot more calories?