How Important It Is to Be In Shape
There’s a saying I use a lot to describe people – especially many pro athletes:
It’s that they “succeed in spite of their training, not because of it”.
What this means is that just because someone is performing or competing at a high level, that doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing or are training the way they should be. Sometimes they’re just so good that they can “get away with” what others can’t.
Ever see that guy who can eat junk food all day long and hardly train, yet still has a six-pack and can outlift everyone at the gym?
That’s the kinda thing I’m talking about.
And fighters can be some of the worst offenders – especially with their workouts. Not saying they go out to intentionally train the wrong way. Many just don’t know any better, and unfortunately, neither do a lot of coaches. (You’d be surprised.)
But there’s always that wake-up call that brings them to reality.
Take my friend Spencer Paige, for instance.
Spencer has been a martial artist for as long as he can remember, and actually turned pro in MMA back in 2006. He’d always worked out before that before that, but he, in his own words, “wasted a lot of time doing workouts from magazines and worrying more about gaining size than getting lean”.
Yeah, we’ve all seen and heard that one before, huh?
After turning pro, he knew that he should probably change things up a little bit. The now semi-infamous “Randy Couture circuit” had hit the internet and was popular in a number of circles, so Spencer added that to his routine. It made things a little better, but by no means was his strength & conditioning program anywhere near complete.
Especially for a pro fighter. As he once put it to me:
“Having a lack of overall direction, both short and long term, in my workouts was my biggest problem.”
But that didn’t stop him – he was still succeeding in his MMA career, and soon landed a spot on the Season 12 roster of the UFC’s “Ultimate Fighter” TV show.
This gave Spencer the opportunity to train with UFC Champ (and arguably one of the best fighters in the world today) George St. Pierre and his coaching staff.
Anyone that even remotely knows anything about GSP knows what kind of shape he’s in. He’s probably one of – if not the best conditioned fighter in all of MMA. GSP’s strength, speed, athleticism, cardio, and more allow him to do things that other fighters simply just aren’t capable of.
Sure, GSP is a very naturally gifted athlete. But he’s also a guy that works his ass off to be in better shape than everyone else…which is why he can do the things he does.
It didn’t take Spencer long to realize just how important being in shape was, and that he’d not been taking it as seriously as he should have been:
“I learned a lot from ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, including the fact that strength & conditioning is as important to MMA as BJJ or boxing. Getting into a regular S&C routine became a top priority of mine after the show.”
After his experience on the Ultimate Fighter, Spencer vowed to himself to never be out of shape again, and started scouring the internet for all the information he could find dedicated to helping fighters get in shape. He needed a program that would:
- make him fast for more devestating strikes, takedowns, and sprawls
- give him a never-ending cardio so he’d never gas in the cage
- get him strong so that he could literally dominate opponents on the mat
- not take forever as he had a ton of skills training he was doing
- limit the possibility of injury, as a fighter can’t work if he’s on the shelf hurt
As fate would have it, Spencer had been on my mailing list for quite a while, but just hadn’t paid it a ton of attention as he’d never placed such an emphasis on working out. Now that changed, and he quickly realized that, as he puts it, “what he’d been looking for had been coming to his inbox for years”.
Spencer got started on my programs and things changed for him…and in a hurry.
“Before having a good workout program, two-a-days would kick my butt. I would wake up feeling like I got hit by a train some mornings. Now, my recovery is 100% better. Additionally, of course, I have more strength, energy and endurance on the mat and can train for longer periods of time.”
Spencer still trains full-time and has gone on to embark on a career of promoting MMA events and helping other fighters further their careers. One of the things he’s sure to do is make sure they don’t repeat his mistakes. They taking working out and being in shape just as serious as their MMA skills from Day 1, and that they’re doing the right kind of workouts.
He’s sure to instill upon them that “There is no substitute for a quality strength & conditioning program, regardless of one’s goals”.
“If you can bring the discipline and motivation to the table and follow the routines, it’s impossible to not get results…Wiggy’s programs provide everything you need to be successful, get your workouts in when you prefer, and start getting real results”So you think you can do like Spencer says and bring the discipline and motivation to the table?
If you think you can, then…
What Kind of Workouts Should You Do?
