Mixed Martial Art Fight Preparation & The Gym Movement Protocol. Guest Post by Casey Campbell

Anyone who has competed in a combative martial art knows first hand the high level of fitness required for success.

I define combative martial arts as those whose competition and practice in the gym involve actual fighting. So many dojos are littered with martial artists who spend all their time training theoretically rather than pragmatically. I can train a fancy kicking combination or butterfly guard sweep all I like but until I test those movements in combat I have no idea if they are going to work for me or not.

Boxing, BJJ, Muay Thai and Judo are all excellent examples, as the way you prove your prowess is by getting in the ring or on the mat and testing your skills against a live, resisting opponent. You train your techniques, and then put them to the test in sparring. Sparring shows you not only what will or will not work for you in a fight but it also shows you just how physically ready you are for fighting itself.

With that I cannot stress enough the importance of strength and conditioning with competing in the martial arts. Yes, technique can beat strength. I’ve seen 150lb fighters make men who looked like silverback gorillas fight like kittens. But I have also seen and used strength and conditioning to trump fighters far more skilled. This month I did just that in a Judo tournament and I owe my superior physicality to using Grip and Rip 2.1 to program my training.

I first met Adam via the Dragon Door forums and became an online student of his because he was one of the only people who said they would do something and then actually DO IT. His no bullshit attitude and commitment to excellence was something I knew I needed to align myself with. He helped me break barriers in my training that I never thought I would and showed me that even a lanky chap such as myself can still get damned strong. When he started showing me his new direction with the Gym Movement Protocol (GM) I knew he was on to something.

With GM came the ability to take complete ownership of ones physical training.

Gone were the days of listening to outside influences, it was now time to listen to the body that I was trying to make invincible. I have to admit it took me a VERY long time to “get out of my own way”. I kept wanting to train with the uber hardcore mentality and the thought of making my training “easy” still struck me as odd. Once I finally did let go and let my body make the decisions as opposed to my ego, drastic changes ensued.

Workouts didn’t take nearly as long to recover from, which meant I could put more into each Judo or BJJ session. Furthermore I was and still am seeing more progress by doing less “work”. I still push hard for my conditioning sessions but I’m quick to terminate sets or the workout entirely if the elements of effort are telling me it’s time to call it. When you are so used to training like a bonehead, GM can almost seem like cheating, when in reality its what you should have been doing the entire time.

To help prepare for the tournament season this year I picked up a Plateau Buster Handle from Strongergrip.com and began putting that bad boy to work using GM as my guide. I knew how great swings were for conditioning and I also knew that when I was swinging over 200lbs for high reps my opponents would know the score once I got a hold of them.

My most recent tournament was at the beginning of June and I was coming off of some success from two tournaments back in April and May (3rd and 2nd places respectively). It was a Judo tournament where I had nine total matches, six of those were against black belts and the other three were against guys who were also higher belts than I. I’m still a white belt in Judo, but I do have a BJJ background (5 years) so I prefer to fight in the upper divisions along with the lower as you can pin or submit an opponent on the ground in Judo.

Every match I was noticeably stronger than my opponents…

…even guys who outweighed me by a good 40lbs and had years of Judo training on me. I used my strength to steal the heart from the other fighters. As the matches went on and they got tired I kept attacking with the same ferocity. On paper I should have gotten worked at that tournament but when the dust cleared I was the winner of both the novice (non brown-black belt division) and the black belt division for my weight.

There is no doubt in my mind that GM helped to get me in shape to put on a dominating performance. A fellow Judoka at the tournament told me “I’m glad I didn’t have to fight you, you are SCARY!” Keep in mind I’m the last guy to try and come off as intimidating, I’m much more like Sal from Pineapple Express but my work on the mat made it so. If you compete in ANY kind of athletics it behooves you to use GM to program your training. If you are simply interested in making yourself better than you owe yourself to do the same. For me, this is only the beginning. I plan on continuing my training and fighting and am looking forward to see just how far The Movement takes me. I hope to see you along the path one day.

Casey Campbell is a martial arts coach, fighter, strength coach and philosopher out of Portland Oregon.

Thanks Casey!

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