Everything you need to know about movement training for MMA

MMA-adapted movement training has seen a sharp rise in visibility in recent years, notably thanks to Conor McGregor 's collaboration with his movement coach Ido Portal .

We saw them doing handstands, animal walks, balance exercises, reflexes... in the weeks leading up to Conor McGregor's 13-second knockout of former UFC champion, undefeated for 10 years, Jose Aldo.

Ido Portal, movement coach of UFC world champion Conor McGregor

As with all new trends today, people are very quick to judge their usefulness and effectiveness without really having all the elements in mind.

Here too, we have seen the MMA population split in two, between the absolute fans of Conor McGregor, ready to support their champion in everything he does, and their opponents, more conservative, who reject the very idea of ​​new training methods that would challenge their old models of thinking.

But what's really going on? What's behind all the hype surrounding movement training for MMA?

Is there a real correlation between movement ability and athletic performance in combat ?

Is it worth incorporating this practice into your already busy training week? How do you go about it? Where to start?

We will answer all these questions while trying to be as objective as possible.

Again, I am not presenting myself as a know-it-all, I am simply offering you an opinion based on my years of practicing martial arts, professional fighting,

but also my years of training in dance, gymnastics, and movement, notably in Ido Portal's Movement Culture.

The Origins of Movement Training

The problem that movement training tries to address is simple: it is about working on the adaptability of the individual .

Most of the methods available today, whether it's MovNat, GMB Fitness, Movement Culture, the Nomadslim Movement Academy or others,

all share the same laudable goal, that of helping people move better , move freely , without any restrictions or limitations in their movements.

Movement and Mobility Course in London by Coach Slim

They start from the following observation:

The modern world we live in certainly brings us many good things by making it easier for us to access food, transport, security, etc., but it also prevents us from moving our bodies as we are supposed to.

Modern scientific consensus, as well as more traditional teachings, seem to agree on this point,

the body is designed for movement .

We are supposed to run, swim, crawl, roll, jump, climb, bend down to pick up objects, fight...

Sitting for 10 hours a day on public transport, in the car and then at the office is not good for the body, which is just waiting to explore its possibilities.

This sedentary lifestyle is responsible for the pain, injuries, and general discomfort people feel when it comes to their body and physicality.

This reality also affects athletes .

Even if the impact seems less for those who practice a sport like MMA regularly instead of the "Vida Sofa" and the sinister combination of chips, Coke, television...

Making the human body injury-proof

So the initial idea of ​​this type of movement training is pretty sound.

We want to restore the body's natural functions to allow a person to feel better physically and, at the same time, to live better.

UFC Champion Carlos Condit working with MovNat founder Erwan Le Corre

If you have been practicing a combat sport for several years, and you train regularly, sometimes intensely, such as on sparring or competition days,

You must often be faced with pain, pinching of the joints, injuries, posture problems with the shoulders too far forward for example,

and you certainly have positions that your body cannot reach without the fear of breaking.

For example, it is a lack of mobility in your right shoulder that makes you hit very quickly when you are given an omoplata in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu,

or even an inability to send your middle kick to your opponent's head in Muay Thai, because you feel your hip pulling and it hurts...

The body works extremely intelligently and is constantly trying to optimize your movements .

If you only feed it one sport with its limited number of movements and positions, your body will become extremely efficient at achieving these positions.

You will therefore develop a specialist body , that is to say a body optimized for a single practice.

This is the famous “boxer’s body” with the shoulders always forward because of thousands of hours spent in the guard position, hands in front of the face and shoulders raised.

This is where movement, and specifically mobility training, is most effective.

These forms of training can help you keep your body healthy , avoid injuries , and improve your longevity .

Case Study: Conor McGregor and Ido Portal

Now the question arises: what is the point of athletic performance in combat?

The case of Conor McGregor is particularly interesting, because due to his international fame, he was able to shed light, in a few moments, on movement training for MMA and on his movement coach Ido Portal .

They've both been seen in numerous pre-fight UFC reports working on their balance by walking on poles in a park, or doing animal walks on the beach,

or even work on handstands or ring muscle-ups and immediately after, Conor McGregor knocks out one of the greatest UFC champions in 13 seconds of the first round.

https://youtu.be/VLyN7y1phQE

Movement Training, Conor McGregor, Gunnar Nelson and Ido Portal

It is therefore natural for those who discover movement training here to associate it with improving performance in MMA .

However, the benefits of this practice for an athlete like Conor McGregor are very different from those it might have for someone who started MMA only a month or two ago.

Conor McGregor was already a top athlete before he met Ido Portal.

He is also a very curious person by nature, interested in all martial arts and even in the history and philosophy of the art of combat.

He is often heard to mention Bruce Lee and Muhammad Ali as some of his greatest influences.

Both were masters of movement and combat .

In addition, due to his very light fighting style on his supports, very dynamic, all in counter-attack, with a wide variety of techniques in his arsenal,

Conor McGregor is the perfect athlete to benefit from a practice like movement training, which works on intangible qualities like coordination, timing, distance management, balance, spatial awareness, and more.

Indeed, Conor McGregor has always considered himself an artist of human movement , since his beginnings.

His work with Ido Portal, creator of Movement Culture, one of the best movers on the planet, with over 30 years of experience exploring Capoeira, dance, circus arts, parkour, bodybuilding, gymnastics...

could only bear excellent fruit.

How to properly approach movement training for MMA?

As you can see, McGregor's example is quite unusual and does not reflect the fact that movement would necessarily help performance in MMA.

Since his collaboration, we see more and more people training handstands or animal walks in their MMA gyms...

Again, people are not trying to understand what these exercises are actually for and seem to just be riding the wave of the trend.

The reality is that you first need to understand why you are doing these exercises before adding them to your training week.

Indeed, the MMA fighter, due to the multitude of disciplines he has to work on in his classic training week, has a time constraint.

He must maximize the training volume to be able to learn the motor controls necessary to perform the techniques.

Conor McGregor performing a lizard walk on the beach

My recommendation is that before implementing movement into your MMA training, you should be able to answer the following questions:

• Is the MMA athlete's body ready to be able to learn these movements?
  
  
• When to use these exercises?
  
  
• What are the different progressions or levels to learn these techniques correctly?
  
  
• What results will be obtained following these techniques?
  
  
• How many times a week, for how long should we train these movements?
  
  
• How much will these exercises tire the body?

Once you have answers to these questions, you will be able to get the most benefits from this type of movement training in MMA.

The Key to a Good Movement Program to Improve MMA Performance

Before having a whole bunch of exercises with their different progressions to be able to work on your mobility, your ease of moving in the octagon, your reactivity, your adaptability and become a better MMA fighter,

You must approach movement training systematically .

This will allow you to measure your progress over the long term and avoid injuries.

1. Assessment.
   
   This is the step most often neglected by athletes but also by coaches.
   
   You must self-assess : am I able to do this movement with fluidity and ease?
   
   
2. Joint mobility and function.
   
   Are your ankles, hips and shoulders working properly?
   Can you raise your arms above your head without arching your back?
   Are you able to achieve a deep squat (butt on heels) without pain?
   
   If the answer is no, you must first work on your joint mobility with a mobility program adapted to your needs to allow you to regain your full range of motion and move your joints without discomfort or pain.
   
   Mobility is your longevity.
   
   
3. Use exercises with progressions to learn complex movements.
   
   I often see people in gyms trying to force their bodies into different movements like the lizard walk, muscle-up on the rings, handstands, somersaults, etc. without ever going through basic exercises and gradually increasing the difficulty.
   
   Before you can run, you must learn to walk.
   
   If you want to be able to do a snatch, a kipping pull-up, cossacks, a handstand, you must first be able to squat correctly, protract and retract your scapula easily, improve your vertical jump…
   
   Athletes from other disciplines from which these different movements are taken all used progressions before mastering these movements .
   
   It's like seeing a CrossFitter walk into an MMA gym for the first time and try to do a Conor McGregor spin kick straight away...
   
   That would be ridiculous.
   
   
4. Gradually overload the system.
   
   Once you have mastered the movements, you can start playing with the speed of execution, the rest time, adding weights, playing with the body position, modifying the surface of the supports, adding random variables...
   
   The idea is to maximize your adaptability .
   
   We want to make you physically smarter and we talk about movement intelligence quotient .
   

Start with the foundations of the movement

Movement training for MMA is the perfect complement to traditional training because it allows you to work on the intangible qualities necessary to develop your skills as a martial artist.

These qualities are rarely addressed in traditional training.

We rarely see in MMA gym schedules an hour dedicated to distance management, breathing, timing or movement....

Yet, these are the attributes that are necessary to develop better athletes: more efficient, more expressive, more creative and above all with fewer injuries.

The Basics of Athletic Performance in MMA

Not everyone has access to backflips and muscle ups today.

While movement training is helpful, it can quickly become counterproductive and add to the risk of injury if people lack technical knowledge.

Finally, the basis of performance in MMA remains the practice of MMA .

World champion Georges St-Pierre and his coach Firas Zahabi at Tristar Gym

It's kind of common sense, but it's the answer I give when people ask me how to get better at MMA: just do more MMA.

Movement is useful as a complement to your training .

It's like a dietary supplement: you have to eat your meal first and then drink a protein shake to assimilate the protein you don't have in your meal, you understand?

If you're a white belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, you already have a lot of movements and motor controls to learn before adding more complex ones.

Start by mastering the sports that make up MMA, then add movement later.

When it comes to joint mobility , however, it is important to implement it from the beginning .

This is fundamental to keeping your body healthy and preparing your joints for the stress they will be subjected to by practicing MMA.

The final word from your movement coach

Here is my detailed opinion on movement training adapted to MMA.

If you're interested in trying it out, don't hesitate to join my upcoming MMA movement and mobility workshops.

This is the perfect opportunity to try a form of bodyweight training based on quality of movement and ease of movement.

If you already know your body well and want to improve your joint mobility to gain range of motion, feel better, prevent injuries and improve your athletic performance,

Check out the movement training specially designed for martial arts practitioners.

You will have access to training for Muay Thai, English Boxing, MMA (Conor McGrgor style), Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Grappling...

And even a Martial Bundle for overall preparation for MMA.

On that note, move my move!

Nomad Slim
Founder of MOUVERS