Combing Warmups as an alternative to running?
You know those people who do 60-90 minutes of running for their MMA/BJJ? Well, I think aerobic training has its place, but I think if you can do it in a way that benefits your sport then why not? Because I'm not at a 10p school, me and 4 good friends have spent about 3 months learning the warm ups (using MTS to get the technique down properly) and now once a week do the following workout. We removed a couple of the harder movements, because we didn't want to get sloppy with technique, but mostly we just go through all of them. Some we do 1 for 1, others 3 for 3 and others 5 for 5. This is simply to our preference and through trial and error based on what we've found allows us to tax each other the most whilst maintaining form.
So, we set the timer on 3 minute rounds with 30 seconds rest and go through the following:
1. Shrimps
2. Cartwheels
3. Spider Walks
4. Ninja Rolls
5. Knee Walks
6. Granby Roll (Knees to Knees) / A2 - Granby Roll (Inverted) - 1.5 minutes of each or get too dizzy
7. Granby Roll (Side Control) - 5 for 5
8. Rear Granby - 1 for 1
9. Shoot, Sprawl, Peek - 1 for 1
10. Straight ankle lock from open guard 1 for 1
11. Rolling Kimura from open guard 1 for 1
12. Open guard - Marcelotine from the sprawl 1 for 1
12. Kneeling M1 from Z guard to knee on belly to judo side to shrimp 1 for 1
14. Fly over from butterfly to judo side to twister side to the heisman 1 for 1
15. Flip over from butterfly to north south to B smith 1 for 1
16. Knee Slice from full guard to 1/4 guard to capoeira to 3/4 mount to M3 to capoeira pass 3 for 3
17. Combat Stance (bottom man high 1/4) to M1 to 2 belly skips (bottom man granby escape) 1 for 1
18. (Bottom man sitting up) Heel toss to leg drag to knee on belly to 2 belly skips (bottom man to 1/4 guard) 1 for 1
19. (Bottom man sitting up) Heel toss to leg drag to outside knee on belly to toe hold (bottom man toe hold escape) to wheel kick mount (bottom man JJ mount escape) 1 for 1
20. (Bottom man sitting up) Heel toss to standing under pass (bottom man goes to turtle) to leg ride clinch to the truck to calf crank 1 for 1
E21. Knee slice, to 1/4 guard shell to 1/4 whip (top man wizzer) to perfect double unders to boa sweep 1 for 1
22. Knee slice, to 1/4 guard shell to 1/4 whip (top man wizzer) to perfect double unders to dogfight to full guard with double unders 1 for 1
23. Knee slice to 1/4 guard shell to 1/4 whip (top man wizzer) to perfect double unders to whip back to lockdown to whip back to full guard with double unders 3 for 3
24. Cocoon to JJ sweep to 3/4 mount to mount to hip bump mount escape to butterfly guard with double unders to full guard with double unders 3 for 3
25. Cocoon to failed JJ Sweep to JJ 2 to 3/4 mount to mount to JJ mount escape 3 for 3
26. Top man raises knee to 2 on 1 on opposite arm to 2 on 1 sweep to 3/4 mount to mount to hip bump mount escape to butterfly guard with double unders to full guard with double unders 3 for 3
27. 2 on 1 to top guy raising same side knee to clubbing butterfly sweep to 3/4 mount to mount to JJ mount escape 3 for 3
28. No hand pass to regular side control to knee slide mount to Upah escape 5 for 5
29. Dominator pass to judo side to Brennan mount to failed upah to hail mary mount escape to the crippler 5 for 5
30. Z guard to toe hold attempt to top half to twister pass to twister side to tip toe mount to Alcatraz 5 for 5
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It takes about two hours and is a really tough workout. The amount of rest we get done in that time is just ridiculous though. In addition to this I find it important that you continue doing the warmups fresh as well. I think this should be kept as cardio (instead of running), where as you should always drill technique when fresh. Being able to perform these moves when tired though is going to be a real advantage. Additionally, I'd say if you technique really begins to suffer then take a round rest or increase rest times to 1 minute - although this is cardio you don't want to engrain sloppy movement patterns.
What we intend to do closer to competitions is do sets of 5 minutes - 10 minutes. Not quite sure yet whether we will do a minute of each technique or whether we will play about with things. We'll aim to make it more explosive at these times with rest more akin to the specific competition.
Again, I'm not at a 10th planet school. I just thought I'd throw this out there as an idea to people who hate running, but who like doing Jiu Jitsu and can see the benefit of doing something sport specific. I realise some of you may not be keen on doing the movements unless you are fresh and can put 100% into each rep.
