8 Week Fightcamp Training Plan

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.
com
Mittmaster MMA Syllabus
8 Week MMA Fight Camp Training Plan
This is the precise fight camp training plan I used with my fighters for
over 10 years. It’s the result of a lot of personal experimentation. For
example, for my very first fight I trained hard for three months and felt
awful in the cage (because I was definitely overtrained). I quickly learnt
from my mistakes and devised a plan that works well for most regular
people who have jobs and commitments to fit their training around.
This plan works well for both amateur and pro fighters. Just reduce the
times of each round for your amateur fighters and modify the sparring
to suit the rules. I also believe that amateurs will only need a six week
camp rather than eight weeks but that’s up to you.
This plan has worked well for me and the majority of my MMA fighters
but of course feel free to modify it to suit you and your students. For
example, Pro MMA fighters who don’t have another job can train twice
a day which means you can add dedicated S&C sessions to the plan if
you want.
Feel free to edit and change things so that it works for you.
Send me an email if you have any questions about the plan or

terminology.
Thanks
Mittmaster Matt
©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

8 Week Fight Camp Training Plan
WEEK 1
Be within 6-7 kg of fight weight (I’m not a fan of massive weight cuts)
MMA Training 3x per week.
Plus go for a 20–30 minute medium-paced jog twice a week to prepare your
legs/lungs for the hill sprinting later.
Stretch every day.
Class routine:
1. Warm up: 4-minute skip or MMA shadowbox.
2. Stretch
3. Bag work: 3x3 minute rounds, 1 minute rest between rounds.
Rd 1: Standing kickboxing & sprawls
Rd 2: Ground & Pound bag
Rd 3: Swap between both
Or Grappling drills
Rd 1: Takedowns
Rd 2: Takedown defence
Rd 3: Escapes
4. MMA Pad work: 2–3 rounds, 3 minutes, 1-minute rest between

rounds.
Don’t make any mistakes in the first 2 minutes.
Hands up, chin down, hips back, move head.
Keep long and throw straight punches and low lead leg kicks initially.
Be first & be last
Be ready to sprawl at all times.
Head, hips & hands in correct position in clinch at all times.
Low-risk takedowns (trips, snap downs, back takedowns).
Stay on top when it hits the ground (pin or float).
Positional submissions only.
If underneath, chain escapes together, don’t stop till you’re up.
Pace yourself.

5. MMA Spar once a week – Roll once a week
3x3 minute rounds.
Be first, forward pressure, tight defence, end up on top, posture &

pressure
6. Body conditioning: with boxing gloves & shin guards,
3 minutes.
7. Rest & Recovery:
Drink 2–3 litres of water every day.
Get 8 hours sleep at night.
Eat 5–7 portions of fruit & veggies every day.
Take Cherry Active every day.
Avoid alcohol, sugar, and fats.
NOTES:

WEEK 2
Be within 5-6 kg of fight weight.
Plus go on a 20–30 minute medium-paced run twice a week.
Stretch every day.
Class routine:
1. Warm up: 5-minute skip or MMA shadow box.
2. Stretch
3. Bag work: 3x3 minute rounds, 1-minute rest between rounds.
Rd 3: Mix
Or Grappling drills
Rd 1: Takedowns
Rd 2: Takedown defence
Rd 3: Escapes
4. Pad work: 3–4 rounds, 3 minutes, 1-minute rest between rounds.

Keep long and throw straight punches and low lead leg kicks initially. Be
first.
Stay on top (pin or float).
If underneath chain escapes together, don’t stop till you’re up.
Pace yourself.

5. Spar twice a week – Roll twice a week
3x3 minutes.
Be first, forward pressure, tight defence, end up on top, posture &

pressure
6. Body conditioning: with boxing gloves & shin guards, 4 minutes.
7. Rest & Recovery:

NOTES:

WEEK 3
Plus go on a 20–30 minute fast-paced run twice a week.
Stretch every day.
Class routine:
1. Warm up: 6-minute skip or MMA shadow box.
2. Stretch
3. Bag work: 4x4 minutes, 1-minute rest between rounds.
Or Grappling drills
Rd 1: Takedowns
Rd 2. Takedown defence
Rd 3. Escapes
Rd 4: Submissions

Don’t make any mistakes in first 2 minutes.
first.
5. Spar twice this week – Roll twice a week 4x4 minutes.
Be first, forward pressure, tight defence, end up on top, posture

6. Body conditioning: with bag gloves & shin guards, 5 minutes.
7. Fitness: if needed, body weight circuit –
60 seconds on, 30 seconds off, 6 stations.

Press ups, Shrimps, Jump lunges, Chins, Burpee Sprawls, Walking Plank
8. Rest & Recovery:

Get a massage.
NOTES:

#
WEEK 4
TAKE A 5-DAY REST
The 5-day rest serves several functions:

1. It gives you a physical rest.
2. It gives you a mental rest.
3. It gives any niggling injuries you might have picked up a chance to heal
4. It prevents overtraining.
5. Do no hard exercise during these 5 days.
6. Rest, take a walk, swim or stretch. You will need this rest before the
intensity ramps up in the final two weeks.

WEEK 5
Hill sprint twice a week (sprint up and jog down for 3 minutes, repeat
2–3 times).
Stretch every day
Class Routine
1. Warm up: 7-minute skip or MMA shadowbox.
2. Stretch
3. Bag work with resistance bands: 4x4 minutes, 45 seconds rest

between rounds.

Or Grappling drills
Rd 1: Takedowns
Rd 2. Takedown defence
Rd 3. Escapes
Rd 4: Submissions

Work your game plan on pads.
first, Be ready to sprawl at all times.
If underneath chain escapes together, don’t stop till you’re up.
Pace yourself.
5. Spar twice this week (start in worst position):
5 x 5 minutes
6. Body conditioning: with bag gloves & shin guards, 5 minutes

7. Fitness: circuit training if needed
(45 second rounds, 6 exercises, 2–3 circuits).
Plyometric Press ups, Sit-ups, Jump lunges, Chins, Sprawl Burpees, Walking
Plank
8. Rest & Recovery:

Get a massage.
NOTES:

WEEK 6
Be within 3 kg of fight weight.
Train 5x per week.
Hill sprint twice a week (sprint up, jog down for 4 minutes, repeat 2 times).
Stretch every day.
1. Warm up: 5-minute skip & 5-minute MMA shadow box.
2. Stretch:
3. Bag work:
J-C sprint – 30 seconds, Skip knees – 30 seconds, Sit outs – 30 seconds,
Burpees – 30 seconds, Round kicks – 30 seconds, Sprawls – 30 seconds
Rest 45 seconds then repeat 2–3 times.
4. Pad work: 4–5 rounds, 5 minutes, 45-second rest
Work your game plan on the pads.
first.
If underneath, chain escapes together, don’t stop till you’re up.
Pace yourself.
5. Optional light technical spar (focusing on game plan & escapes):
3x5 minutes.
6. Body conditioning: with MMA gloves only, 3 minutes.
7. Fitness: (if needed)

Fast pummel with partner for 1 minute.
Power kicks on bag for 1 minute.
Repeat for 5 minutes.
Repeat for 2-3 rounds
8. Rest & Recovery:
Get a massage twice per week.
Take an ice bath twice per week.
Take multivitamin supplement.

Get 8 hours sleep at night, plus naps in the day.
Take Cherry Active/Supergreens every day.
NOTES:

WEEK 7
Train HARD for 45 minutes only Monday, Tuesday, (possibly Wednesday.)
Stretch every day.
1. Warm up: Skip
2. Stretch
3. Shadow box with visualisation of fight plan.

4. Pad work: 3 rounds, 5 minutes, 45-second rest.
Work your fight plan A, B & Z.
5. Bag work:
J-C sprint – 30 seconds, Skip knees – 30 seconds, Sit outs – 30 seconds,
Burpees – 30 seconds, Round kicks – 30 seconds, Sprawls – 30 seconds
Rest 30 seconds then repeat 3 times.
6. Fitness: (if needed)
Fast pummel 1 minute.
Power kicks on bag 1 minute.
Alternate pummel & kicks for 5
minutes
7. Body conditioning: with MMA gloves, no shin guards, 2 minutes.
8. Rest & Recovery:

Get a massage once this week.
Take Wednesday till fight day off.
Try to relax, go for a long walk/jog.
Take an ice bath once this week.
Get 8 hours sleep at night, plus naps.
Eat 8 portions of veggies every day.
NOTES:

SUMMARY
This is a basic fight camp plan, feel free to edit it suit your needs.
Remember you may need to add supplemental training to this plan, so adapt
it as necessary. Nothing is set in stone here. Some fighters will need more
training, and some will need less. The only way to check if the plan is
working, is to note how they feel and how they perform during training. If they
look or feel exhausted before training ease off and let them recover.
Depending on which gym you train at, fight camp might consist of training
once a day or twice a day. If you’re going to be training twice a day, make
sure your training plan is structured, so that you don’t become overwhelmed
and become ill or injured. A well-structured plan makes sure you get to rest
different systems during the break between your two daily sessions.
If, for example, you do a hard weights session in the morning, then a heavy
sparring session in the evening would not be advised, because your nervous
system will be tired from lifting earlier. In this case, light technical drilling
might be a better choice, as it allows your nervous system to rest, but you still
get to train. Hard sessions should never be scheduled back to back. You
should always leave at least 24 hours of rest to facilitate recovery and
adaptation. If you keep doing hard sessions back to back, you will fatigue
your central nervous/hormonal systems, which will inevitably lead to
overtraining.

Overtraining
Overtraining is precisely that: over – training. Training too much with
insufficient rest. When this happens, your performance will start to suffer. You
will feel slow, sluggish, and weak. Training, which previously seemed easy
becomes a real drag, and you start to think and feel negatively. The only cure
for overtraining is rest and recovery. Getting back to normal may take a few
days or a few weeks, depending on how depleted you are.
Overtraining is, therefore, to be avoided at all costs. Once you have gone too
far over the edge, it’s almost impossible to recover in time to fight to the best
of your ability. For this reason, we always tell our fighters:
“It is always better to be 10 percent undertrained than 10 percent

overtrained. You can rely on heart and toughness to keep you go-ing
if you are undertrained, but once you are overtrained, you’re done».
The second effect of overtraining is that it increases your risk of picking up

injuries. Silly injuries to fingers, toes, ankles, and knees frequently occur
during training, as the body is tired and uncoordinated. If serious enough,
these injuries can prevent a fighter from being able to compete.
Finally, overtraining leaves you vulnerable to all sorts of respiratory and skin
infections. Hard training negatively impacts the immune system, es-pecially
when insufficient rest and poor nutrition are thrown into the mix. This usually
manifests as either a head cold or chest infection. This obvi-ously plays
havoc with any type of intense training, as you can’t breathe through your
nose, and your lungs are full of mucus. It is not a great combination, and if
you don’t succumb to a cold, you’re likely to get a nice skin infection instead.
The close proximity of bodies and the sweaty nature of MMA mean that fungi
and parasites can thrive in MMA gyms. Usually your body can fight these off,
but when you’re overtrained your immune system can’t cope, and you
develop an interesting rash. Don’t ignore this and hope it will go away—it
won’t. Common skin infections such as impetigo are unpleasant to look at,
but are relatively harmless; others, like staph, can kill you. You should always
get any unusual skin conditions checked out by a doctor. Early treatment is
vital, if you are going to get back to training at the earliest opportunity.

Hopefully, I’ve highlighted how overtraining is a nightmare of mammoth
proportions. Thankfully, it can be avoided by careful planning and by
monitoring the fighter. A well-structured plan, which gradually increases
intensity and avoids hard back-to-back sessions will help avoid overtrain-ing.
Occasional planned breaks during the camp are recommended. We advise
our fighters to take 5 days off, two weeks before their fight. By the time they
are back in the gym, they are rested, injury free, and itching to get at it.
Your coach will need to keep an eye on you to make sure you’re not
overdoing it. You also need to communicate with your trainers, so they can
make informed decisions. Don’t feel that you have to keep on slogging on
during training if you’re feeling awful. Speak up and find a solution.
The only way to accurately diagnose overtraining is via a blood test, which is
obviously not feasible for the recreational athlete. You should expect to feel
some discomfort from training, but if you have one or more of the following
symptoms, you need to speak to your coach and get their advice:
• An increased heart rate first thing in the morning.
Apart from getting a blood test, an elevated resting heart rate, first thing in the
morning, is the next most accurate physiological sign of overtraining. When
you wake every morning, before you even sit up, take your heart rate for 60
seconds. If your heart is beating faster by ten beats or more than normal, it
may be an indication that you’re overtrained.
It would be wise to only do a light technical session that day, or possibly take
the day off if needed.
Other signs of overtraining include the following:
• Soreness which lasts more than 24 hours.
• Lack of motivation to train.
• Moodiness and irritability.
• Injuries that are not responding to treatment.
Depending on how clued up your coach is, you will either hear: “Get back to
training and stop moaning” or “Ok, let’s look at your training and see what we
can do”. Hopefully, you’ll receive the second response, but a lot of coaches
are still in the dark ages when it comes to a modern, scientific approach to
training. In a lot of MMA schools, more training is always better and
sometimes that approach is right. But sometimes it’s very wrong, and ends up
with a fighter “leaving it in the gym".

This is an old boxing expression meaning the fighter has overdone it and left
their fitness back in the gym a few weeks ago, when they peaked too early.
To avoid overtraining, follow these guidelines:
1. You need to get a lot of rest. The intensity of fight camp takes it out of
your body and mind. You need to get at least 8–10 hours of unbroken
sleep a night to allow your body to adapt to the training and recover.
Naps in the day are optional.
2. Get a sports massage at least once a week. Fight training is hard on

the muscles and connective tissues. A massage will help you work out
any knots, avoid injuries, and feel better momentarily.
3. Eat to fuel your training. Lean protein, low glycaemic complex carbo-
hydrates and a lot of veggies are essential. A good book on sports
nutrition is The Grappler’s Guide to Sports Nutrition by Michael Fry &
John Berardi. It covers all the information you will need regarding
nutrition for MMA.
4. Drink a lot of water; 2–3 litres per day is good. Your urine should be
clear at all times. If it’s dark, cloudy, and smells strongly, you are
dehydrated. Dehydration makes you weaker and decreases your
athletic performance, so get drinking.
5. Take supplements if you feel like you need them.
My fighters take the following supplements:
• Whey Protein: for muscle repair and growth.

• Cherry Active: for recovery and antioxidants.
• Multi-Vitamins: to help avoid illnesses and infections.
• Supergreens: organic green superfood powder for alkalising the
body.
• Creatine: to increase strength & explosiveness.
• You may also wish to research the advantages of using glutamine
and branch chain amino acids.
6. Get to the physiotherapist if you get injured. Unfortunately, injuries
occur during hard training. It’s essential that you ice any soft tissue
injuries immediately and get to a physiotherapist within 24 hours.
Believe me this is important. Seeing a physiotherapist will help you heal
5–10 times faster. If you don’t respect your injuries, they will get worse
and may jeopardise your fight, or at least hamper your performance.

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©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.

Send me an email if you have any questions about the plan or

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

1. Warm up: 4-minute skip or MMA shadowbox.

4. MMA Pad work: 2–3 rounds, 3 minutes, 1-minute rest between

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

Be first, forward pressure, tight defence, end up on top, posture &

6. Body conditioning: with boxing gloves & shin guards,

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

1. Warm up: 5-minute skip or MMA shadow box.

4. Pad work: 3–4 rounds, 3 minutes, 1-minute rest between rounds.

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

Be first, forward pressure, tight defence, end up on top, posture &

6. Body conditioning: with boxing gloves & shin guards, 4 minutes.

7. Rest & Recovery:

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

4. Pad work: 3–4 rounds, 4 minutes, 1-minute rest between rounds.

5. Spar twice this week – Roll twice a week 4x4 minutes.

Be first, forward pressure, tight defence, end up on top, posture

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

7. Fitness: if needed, body weight circuit –

60 seconds on, 30 seconds off, 6 stations.

8. Rest & Recovery:

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

TAKE A 5-DAY REST

The 5-day rest serves several functions:

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

1. Warm up: 7-minute skip or MMA shadowbox.

3. Bag work with resistance bands: 4x4 minutes, 45 seconds rest

Rd 1: Standing kickboxing & sprawls

4. Pad work: 3–4 rounds, 5 minutes, 1-minute rest between rounds.

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

8. Rest & Recovery:

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

Stretch every day.

1. Warm up: 5-minute skip & 5-minute MMA shadow box.

7. Fitness: (if needed)

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

3. Shadow box with visualisation of fight plan.

7. Body conditioning: with MMA gloves, no shin guards, 2 minutes.

8. Rest & Recovery:

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

“It is always better to be 10 percent undertrained than 10 percent

The second effect of overtraining is that it increases your risk of picking up

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

• An increased heart rate first thing in the morning.

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

2. Get a sports massage at least once a week. Fight training is hard on

5. Take supplements if you feel like you need them.

My fighters take the following supplements:

• Whey Protein: for muscle repair and growth.

©Mittmaster 2018 www.mittmaster.com

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