While I was working on Mike Medrano’s interview for Dragon Door last week, the idea of creating a conditioning workout based on the timing of an MMA fight was just too intriguing not to try.
So, on Black Friday in total rebellion of the usual activities most folks were doing, we headed out to the park with a workout I jokingly named “the Doorbuster.” Get Ups feature prominently in this workout also because of Mike’s interview — he mentioned that they were especially useful for the MMA fighter as he’d used them to get up from the ground during a fight. Thinking about what I know about the get up, it made sense — even to someone who isn’t directly involved with MMA.
This also made me think about the cool Ultimate Sandbag get up variation that Josh Henkin had shown me at our recent photoshoot for his upcoming book. The shifting/moving weight of the sandbag seemed especially relevant in this type of get up situation. Mike had mentioned that he timed his kettlebell conditioning workouts in the same way as a fight… 5 minutes on, 1 minute off, changing up the exercise on the minute. In a regular fight, they’d go for 3 rounds, with a title fight going up to 5 rounds. Depending on your endurance, exercise implements available, and exercises chosen, you can really have fun tailoring this extreme pattern to a variety of situations and intermediate to advanced fitness levels. So with the drama and violence of Black Friday dominating the headlines, it made sense to write up “The Doorbuster” and try it out. For the test, we used RKC Snatch Test weight kettlebells, but be smart about it.
We warmed up with Primal Move and the “Trifecta” from Convict Conditioning Volume 2.
Round 1!
- 1 Minute Kettlebell Snatches (alternate at will — I went 5/5)
- 1 Minute Get Ups (Or partial get ups) with choice of kettlebell or Ultimate Sandbag
- 1 Minute Kettlebell swings
- 1 Minute Get Ups with choice of kettlebell or Ultimate Sandbag
- 1 Minute Kettlebell Snatches
- 1 Minute Rest (whew)
Round 2!
- 1 Minute kettlebell swings
- 1 Minute alternating kettlebell cleans and presses (or Ultimate Sandbag cleans and presses)
- 1 Minute kettlebell snatches
- 1 Minute alternating kettlebell cleans and presses (or Ultimate Sandbag cleans and presses)
- 1 Minute kettlebell swings
- 1 Minute rest
Round 3! (Choose to repeat the pattern in Round 1 or 2)
Concluding Round 3 you have the option of finishing up there with the reverse Primal Move sequence then the Trifecta, OR if you have the energy for it, going for another 1 to 2 rounds. In the interest of “science” we decided to “go for the title” and went for an additional 2 rounds, however I made sure to state that at that point, get ups can always be done with bodyweight, and all the exercises can be swapped with bodyweight work like sprawls (instead of swings/snatches). We tapered off the 5th round this way, and it was a lot of fun. So much fun that Small Group did a version of the workout this past week. Definitely a fun and effective pattern for a quick but challenging workout.
Leave a Reply