Tip - PERFECT PEAKING PART 2: Tapering and Peaking for MMA and Grappling Competition - Grapplearts

By Stephan Kesting Originally published in Ultimate Athlete, June 2003 Introduction “Proper planning and preparation prevents piss-poor performance” – the 7 “P’s” of the British SAS In this article you will learn how to avoid overtraining and how to taper properly for a competition. As I talked about in a separate article, overtraining is epidemic among MMA practitioners and results in illness, injury and underperformance. Overtraining occurs when the amount and quality of recovery time is insufficient to fully recover from the stresses of training. Supercompensation occurs when a body not only recovers from a workout, but exceeds its previous capacity. Athletic development is a delicate balance between training hard enough, training long enough and getting sufficient rest for supercompensation to occur. Periodization of training, recovery from training, and tapering of training prior to competition are all critical for peak performance. Much of the information in this article is drawn from other sports where there is more scientific research and data than in MMA. Universal physical and physiological principles still apply, whether an athlete is sprinting on the 100m track or entering the Octagon. The research from other sports, conducted on recreational to Olympic-level athletes, is relevant to the world of martial combat. Periodization “Periodization actually allows me to over-train at the peak of a training cycle, but then completely recover from my training before I reach a stage where I am in danger of serious injury or sickness” – Scott Shipley, 3 time World Champion in Whitewater Kayak Racing Periodization is actually a very complicated subject. Detailed discussion of it would take an entire book, leave alone be addressed in a magazine article. Periodization of training involves varying the types of workouts you do in a systematic fashion to maximize performance and to avoid burnout and overtraining To discuss periodization we first need to define two concepts: training VOLUME and training INTENSITY. ‘High volume’ training consists of long training sessions, usually at low to medium intensity. These workouts might include 10 km runs, 20 rounds of easy sparring, or hour-long grappling sessions with multiple partners. ‘High intensity’ workouts tend to be shorter, but involve greater effort and intensity: you go all out. Sprints, hill runs, all-out rounds on the Thai Pads, and anaerobic training are high » Continue Reading.