Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Is 500 Squats Too Many?

It isn't according to my MMA coach. Last night, Mark had me do an intensive leg workout including: 500 squats, 5 minutes of stepping up and down from the ring, 5 minutes of shrimp walking (aka- shrimping), 5 minutes of pummeling drills, 3 minutes of leg lunges, 3 minutes of calf raises, and 2 3-minute rounds of kicks on the heavy bags.

Last fall, when I first started doing MMA training, half this amount would have had a similar effect on my body. It seems my body is capable of handling quite a bit more than it used to. I won't lie to you though. My legs are pretty wobbly and sore today, but I do like knowing that I'm capable of this amount of conditioning.

In theory, this will help keep me from tiring in the octagon when I do finally enter it. My coach says late August early September, but you never know with these things. He's trying to get me a good match-up for my first fight.

7 comments:

Noontidal said...

I remember similar things with push-ups. Though I only do 250 in a set. I don't know what the real limit is.

Anonymous said...

I used to do 500 bodyweight squats. I got the idea from a book of Ken Shamrock's. It makes you sweat, gives a great burn to the legs, but about a year ago i stopped doing 500 reps of the same excerise and decided its probably best to do 500 reps of different excerises. (sqauts, duck walks, lunges etc). This way you are working more muscles. I find it a tougher workout myself.

Anonymous said...

whats a shrimp walk?

Lori O'Connell said...

Mark, it's funny you should mention that. My coach got the idea from Ken Shamrock too. Good suggestions too.

Bulk, since you asked, I'll do my next posting about the shrimp walk (aka- shrimping).

Anonymous said...

thanks i was clearly having a senior moment ;-) it was the walking aspect that threw me but a good video clip thanks ihave heard of and seen and been asked to do these but now i understand the movement better now. do you ever use duck walks like mark refers to?

Lori O'Connell said...

Yes, I've done duck walks. If you're doing them on those foam puzzle mats though, you run the risk of catching your big toe and injuring it while doing them, if you're staying low like you're supposed to. It's a great exercise for the legs though.

Anonymous said...

Best of luck for your first fight.You are really working hard for it.