The premise of the book is simple - Martin set out out on a world-wide trek to investigate and document the strength and conditioning practices of the most influential martial arts that are used in MMA. He travelled to the birthplaces of these martial arts and trained his ass off with their elite practitioners. Great idea, huh?
The fight-styles that Martin focuses on in the book are BJJ, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Boxing, Kickboxing, Judo, Sambo and Karate. It's easy to see the logic behind these choices - the first four are obvious--techniques from these disciplines make up the majority of the MMA technical syllabus. And the later four have been used successfully by a number of MMA champions.
With this book Martin set himself a number of goals ...
- To record and preserve the physical training techniques of MMA's component martial arts for future fighters.
- To briefly outline the history and philosophies associated with each martial art.
- To demonstrate specific training exercises that are used by their top practitioners.
- To provide strength and conditioning benchmarks specifically tailored to the needs of fighters.
- To outline a comprehensive training program to help fighters achieve (and surpass) these benchmarks.
Did he achieve all of these goals? Yes :)
Now rather than go into a detailed account of the structure and content of Ultimate Warrior Workouts, I'll take a look at my four favorite features of the book - the Warrior Challenges, style-specific exercises, exercise variations and partner drills.
Warrior Challenges
An underlying premise of Ultimate Warrior Workouts is that there are certain levels of fitness and specific physical requirements for each martial art. With that in mind, Martin provides a set of exercise tests, that he calls 'Warrior Challenges'. Along with these challenges, he outlines a set of benchmarks that can be used to rate your strength and fitness progress. Each challenge has ten levels (starting at minimal physical requirements up to elite level status). The challenges themselves revolve around various bodyweight exercises done for time along with three max strength exercises (deadlift, bench press and weighted pull-up). So the goal is to achieve 10th level status on all the challenges, and consequently develop a 'well rounded' strength and conditioning base to power your specific fighting skill-set.Each challenge 'favors' a particular martial art. Taken as a whole, the full set of Warrior Challenges provide a simple and effective way to pinpoint the 'gaps' in a MMA fighter's strength and conditioning. For example, I'm into Muay Thai, so it's no surprise that I scored very highly on one of the challenges geared towards muay thai conditioning (a speed kicking drill). However, when it came to a more BJJ-oriented challenge, I scored MUCH lower. No prizes for guessing what I'll be emphasizing in my training over the next few months, eh?
I actually think portraying strength and fitness benchmarks as 'Warrior Challenges' was a stroke of genius. A fighter is a highly competitive animal. By issuing a 'Warriors Challenge', Martin Rooney is basically waving a red flag at a bull. Challenges motivate fighters! So bringing measurable and graduated strength and fitness challenges into the gym is a great strategy to keep fighters motivated and hungry for training :)
Style-based Exercises
Another great feature of the book is the insiders-look at how other martial art styles' train! As mentioned, I come from a Muay Thai background, so I was familiar with most of the exercises Martin outlined in the Muay Thai section. However, I've had very little exposure to wrestling or Sambo, so I was fascinated to read about the exercises and strategies utilized by them.Indeed, a key lesson we can learn from this book - and Martin's whole approach to training - is to be willing and open to learn from others. Fighters must be willing to learn from other fighters, other styles, and other training methods. Does that mean boxers should implement every exercise a kickboxer uses? Or a BJJ fighter should utilize every training tool a muay thai fighter uses? No. But we should be open to learn from others, and be prepared to adopt and adapt any relevant concepts, strategies, tools or exercises that can potentially enhance our own training.