BritMMA.co.uk Strength and Conditioning columnist Matthew Palfrey investigates Olympic Lifting, explaining techniques along the way and putting forward a suggested workout routine. A sample of what to expect: Check the whole column out here: http://www.britmma.co.uk/#/olympic-lifting-for-mma/4544136087
I have heard some of this from other sources...also heard olypmic lifts suggested even for boxing. Of course it makes more sense for mma with the grappling aspect. Still I have heard others state that the explosive movements don't really transfer, and your better off with slow movents because explosive movements are just to injury prone. A debate I guess...
Never did Olympic weight exercises but I imagine two exercises won't take too long to learn for benefit. I think things like kettlebell and gymnast rings are much more usefull for MMA. Kettle bells will develop explosive power with same full ROM. While rings will just help your overall endurance in static strength. In fact for grappling, just after two weeks training on rings you will feel the difference as night and day in terms of how much stronger your moves are.
Full body o-lifts like cleans and snatches will build far more explosive and "static" strength, as you call it, than either of those.
Olympic Lifting is fantastic but when it comes to building strenght training routines around this discipline for other sports, the results get sketchy at best. It has already been mentioned that the lifts and to an extent many of the assistance lifts are simply to difficult to learn when ones energy is mainly focused on developing a skill set in another sport. You basically become strong over an incorrect/inefficient movement pattern and it opens you up for injuries. In addition places where MMA is big have shitty Olympic Lifting coaches! Stick with what ufcalf said. Use kettlebells instead. They can be specifically applied as safer, simpler and more accessible/applicable alternative to traditional Olympic lifting. I currently train BJJ/grappling and have extensive experience with both forms of training, I know what I am talking about.
Perhaps, but cleans and snatches are restricting/limiting. I think working with kettle bells and rings is kind of a next step of free weights. The strength you get from countless of exercises with those simple accessories will be directly applicable in grappling(or any holds for that manner). I think, at least my experience has been that with rings your "low end torque" (when muscles are fully extended) grows fast. While kettle bells will enforce the explosiveness on top of other benefits.
ok. the clean and jerk and snatch are very useful. if anything the kettle bell is more strain on your elbow. and its funny you recommend a kettle bell and its essentially the same movement as the clean and jerk just with one hand. you are a funny guy
they are restricting because they are hard to do. it is a sport entirely of 2 specific lifts. thats how basic these exercises are. its about control and exploding, two opposing elements.you don't like it cuz you can't do it.
Restricting in terms of overall range of motion. Even though it requires a lot of major muscle groups you're still doing only one type of exercise. I have no doubt it would be very useful for your overall power. But if I had to choose, for mma or grappling, I'd choose exercises that will involve plenty of different motions to strengthen as many "supplement" muscles as possible.
Dude I can power snatch 150 kg and back squat 250 kg,(deep, high bar style). I have done even more in the past when I was soley a weight lifter. I am now a purple belt in BJJ so I have plenty of experience trying to relegate both of these pasttimes and I can assure you kettelbells are easier to learn proper technique with and safer applications for grapplers and athletes in general. They are a safer, high rep alternative to the traditional Olympic lifts. I have worked with/advised several grapplers who have attempted to incorporrate Olympic lifting into their grappling training and it never works out. Once again the Olyjmpic lifts are too hard to learn and take way to much energy away from more generalized sport specific training. Even Russian wrestlers do the bulk of thier resistance training with kettlebells. They are only hard on the elbow if you use sloppy technique with weights that are too heavy.
This is a great thread. And I have learned something new for today. Kettlebells are better than barbells for people whom need sport-specific training in things besides olympic lifting.
