Combat Athlete Fight Camp

Program Overview: The program is for a high level combat athlete getting ready for a 5
round championship fight. For this aim, a fight-specific block consisting of an 8-week Macro
block made up of 3 overlapping Micro blocks is used. Both phase 1 and phase 2 use
conjugate loading and phase 3 gradually lowers the volume while increasing the intensity
as close to fight night as possible.

Weeks 1-2: Build a foundation of strength, conditioning and work capacity. Don’t let fatigue
start accumulating

Mon/Thurs/Fri: Stimulation days. 40-60 min of swimming, circuit training in the morning;
2-3 hours of technical training in the evening

Tues/Sat: Developmental days. 30-45 min of general strength work on Tues morning; 5×15
min pad/bag intervals and moderate sparring in the evening

Notes: Keep the work low impact and increase the volume from week 1 to week 2. Begin
training specific skills to implement the fight game plan. Technical development is low-
intensity.
Weeks 3-4: Progression in volume and intensity from weeks 1-2. Gradual increase in
specificity across both training weeks

Mon/Thurs: Stimulation days using 30-40 min of tempo intervals or circuit threshold
training in the morning; 2-3 hours of technical training in the evening. Conditioning
exercises are low impact.

Tues/Sat: Developmental days. 30-40 min of specific strength training in the morning; fight
pace sparring at a moderate volume in the evening

Friday: Developmental day: 60 min bag/pad/wrestling drills, HRI/Intensive intervals. Use

dynamic energy control throughout the intervals and in between bouts to recover

Notes: It’s important to closely monitor HRV to avoid a high weekly load. In this Micro
block, the fighter performs specific skills for the game plan at fight speed. Target HR
recovery should be 140-150bpm between rounds. This is also the time to monitor body
weight and make sure it’s on target
Weeks 5-6: Reduce strength and conditioning training stress to lower volumes and focus
on fight-specific work.

Mon/Wed: Stimulatory days. 30-40 min swimming or tempo intervals in the morning; 2-3
hours of technical training in the evening

Tues/Thurs: Developmental days: 30-40 min specific strength training for maintenance in
the morning; fight pace sparring in the evening

Saturday: Developmental day. 1-2 sets of fight specific sparring with 5 x 5 min rounds and
60 sec rest in between round fighter does. If doing more than the fight specific number of
founds, rest 8-10 minutes between to prepare the brain for the specific environment,
pacing, and energetic demands of fight night

Notes: Always structure the training to mimic the competitive environment. Closely
monitor HRV and use active recovery/regeneration strategies as necessary to avoid
overtraining and injury. Dedicate at least one day/week to active recovery and/or
regeneration.

Between rounds, aim for HR recovery of 130-140bpm between rounds. Continue to

monitor body weight and make sure that it’s on target to avoid drastic cuts in fluid and
caloric intake at the last minute. This is the time to reevaluate various tests and
assessments used at the beginning of camp and closely monitor fatigue.
Week 7—Fight Camp: use linear periodization to increase the intensity of fight-specific
training and reduce the volume to decrease stress as much as possible.

Mon/Wed: Stimulatory days. 10-30 min of swimming or tempo intervals in the morning; 1-
2 hours of technical training in the evening

Tues/Thurs: Developmental days. 20-30 min of specific strength training for maintenance
in the morning; fight pace sparring in the evening

Saturday: Developmental day. 5 x 5 min rounds of fight-specific sparring with 60 sec rest in
between rounds. Limit the number of rounds and fight as close to fight intensity as
possible

Notes: It’s important for fighters to carefully select training partners to avoid getting hurt.
Mimic the fight environment as much as possible, such as by training during the same time
of day as the fight.

During this week, target HR recovery should be 130bpm between rounds. This is the time
to use active recovery and regeneration methods and to adjust diet as needed.

Begin water loading 1.5-2 gallons/day.

Fight Week Overview

If a fighter has to travel for a fight, make sure he/she gets to the travel location as early in
the week as possible to begin establishing a routine. This routine should remain constant
for nutrition, training, sleeping, etc. up until fight night. It’s important to maintain some
level of high-intensity training during fight week or fitness levels will suffer.

Monday and Tuesday:

• Travel to the fight location

• Establish nutrition
• Run through a light, 20-30 min training session (both days)
• Get HR up to threshold
• Establish sleep pattern based on fight time

Wednesday:

• Begin training at the same time as the fight

• Train 30-40 minutes at a higher intensity and shorter duration
• Monitor HR throughout training
• Manage additional fight stress—media appearances, family, friends. Do something
fun that helps take the fighter’s mind off of the fight
• Gradually increase water loading

Thursday:

• Check bodyweight and make any changes if necessary

• Train in the morning, depending on bodyweight
• Watch film, do visualization work
• Eliminate water/food intake in the evening
• Pay close attention to sleep/rest

Friday:

• Check weight upon waking

• Lose last few pounds with the least amount of exertion possible—salt bath, sauna,
hot tub, etc.
• Bus leaves for weigh-ins around 1-1:30PM
• Make weight around 4PM
• After weigh-in dinner around 6:30-7:00PM
• Rehydrate first, then eat 3-4 total meals on Friday evening with light training
sessions in between
Saturday:

• Wake up, do some light morning training. Break a sweat, hit some pads, do some
technical rolling and drilling
• Eat 2-3 light meals in the morning/afternoon prior to leaving for the fight. Stick to
the same foods as throughout the week
• Leave for fight anywhere from 5-8PM, depending on the fight schedule
• Arrive at the arena/fight location
• Run through the fight-specific warm-up
• Monitor HR throughout the warm-up
• Time the routine based on the projected fight time
• Go fight!
• Post-fight press conference
• Return to hotel/after party

Fight Camp Notes: Each camp and each athlete are different. You need to account for
these differences with individualized training plans, eating plans, recovery/regeneration
strategies, monitoring and management, and fight game plans.

Keep a detailed training log and monitor extensively to create benchmarks for future
training camps. This will enable you to build habits and routines that will carry over to
other fight camps and promote consistent performance.