Workouts While Injured

Discussion in 'MMA Training: technique, diet and fitness' started by Showdown, Oct 17, 2008.

  1. Anyone got any good workouts I can do while being unable to use my left foot?
    Obviously Im going to be hitting the weights like crazy(Bench,curls,etc.) but I really need some other types of workouts. Not sure what type of cardio I can do without a leg, but Im down for anything. I assume alot of swimming?
  2. Try doing your cardio in a wheel chair. It will challenge your body in ways you never expected, and you can rest your precious foot (as long as you don't run over a pebble or anything like that).
  3. That is both the craziest and greatest idea ever. My brother actually has one that he bought off ebay(Dont ask me why, hes never needed it. Just saw one for $15 and bought it) I have a 1 mile track that has hills around the apartment I live in. Im going to be pushing that wheel chair to its limits! :lol:
  4. No problem. I am a personal trainer, and I like to think outside the box sometimes. But yeah swimming is a good idea too. Underwater striking, etc...
  5. If you have someone to workout with you can do wheel barrows to work out your arms, and theres variations like plyometric hops while your partner holds your legs, you just hop with your hands for a distance. It will make you question your arm strength LOL
  6. osubuckeye4 Sports Idol Champion - Movie Idol Runner Up

    That's an awesome idea, I wish I would have thought of that when I messed my ankle up.

    Cardio is really tough to keep up when you can't use your lower body... one other thing that I would recomend is circuit training with weights (just make sure the stations are close enough together obviously).

    Instead of doing your three sets of bench then moving onto curls... do a set of bench, then a set of curls, then lat pulldown without any rest, then repeat the process until you get all your sets in... it's a pretty good cardio workout.
  7. I did an intense circuit round at the gym today and got a nice cardio burn out of it. Even broke a bit of a sweat. I dont do that often in lifting weights :)
  8. ArcArsenal OG Featherweight

    I don't know what you did to your foot so i don't know if this will help a lot, but when I had a sprained ankle I did a LOT of bag work, and It actually improved my mma cardio and my striking. I did a lot of grappling too, starting from the knees with a ban on ankle locks obviously, though that had to wait until I was a little bit better.
  9. osubuckeye4 Sports Idol Champion - Movie Idol Runner Up

    That's perfect.

    Yea, you shouldn't be like out of breath, huffing and puffing because then you put yourself at risk to injure yourself (either catastrophic because a plate falls on you, or a nagging injury because your form is all loose and improper), just a decent sweat and accelerated heartrate, try to keep up the heartrate and make sure you have excellent form when lifting for about 15 minutes and you'll be golden. I generally hit between 4-5 stations in each circuit, and jog up and down a flight of stairs after reach loop is complete just to make sure my heartrate is up (obviously stairs are not recommended if your ankle is messed up).

    You'll obviously need to retrain your cardio a bit when your ankle is injured, but the regression won't be nearly as bad as it would be if you just continued to lift normally.

    Circuit training is great if you want to get lean, or if you want to keep healthy and hate running. I recommend one or two cirucit days a week to anyone who is doing MMA because it's the primary kind of strength that you utilize in a fight. Rarely are you going to ever have to hit someone with one punch or one strong series of combos and knock them out... generally you're going to be firing off jabs, then clinching, then firing off some more strikes, then you'll use your lower body for a takedown, then shift right back to upper body when you fight for position... you're going to be tired when you're fighting, just like when you're lifting in a circuit, your muscles aren't taking long rests inbetween short bursts, because they don't do that in a fight.

    Too many fighters just sit at a machine and get their 2-3 sets in and basically just lift till exhaustion and move onto the next machine. That's great if you want to get huge... but then your muscles don't learn how to recover efficently.

    Anyways, I've completely digressed, I'm glad you had a positive experience with the circuit. :) Just be careful not to overdo it because you don't want to re-screw that ankle up.

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