While I'm not the biggest believer in crossfit for MMA, I am a big fan of anaerobic circuits if placed properly in a training cycle. If in a team setting, they are also an easier and effective way of getting everyone training hard, together, and sport specific.
When preparing a circuit, you really want to focus on 3 variables in planning. Will you make it:
1. A circuit based on time.
2. Based on reps, and if it truly is sport specific in nature, planning the movements to make it effective. Giving a tennis player a station of ground and pound may not be the best tool for that specific job, well the same goes for my placement of exercises.
3. We also have to take into account equipment, or lack thereof. Is it a wrestling room where all we have are mats, maybe 1 chinup bar and each other, or is it a full fledged facility with all the trimmings?
There's no secret I'm a huge fan of doing intensity work over LSD. I want bursts of power followed by short recovery then bursts of power again, that is the nature of the sport. But when I'm making anaerobic circuits, beware taking the crossfit approach and placing high power movements over a long duration or high rep scheme. The movement, say an olympic lift, loses form and most importantly lose the benefits of going heavy intense for 1-2-3-4 reps to actually gain power and in the end, turn it into an endurance movement of 15-20-30 reps. Closest thing I would get to an olympic lift in my circuit would be a kettlebell swing.
Now what I will give crossfit is its tough. I respect the mental aspect of pushing your body to limits and surpassing them. Just for me, there is no periodization and phases, so very tough to give athletes. But in my situation, I love acyclical circuits. What that means is intensities vary throughout, just like an MMA round. Here is an example:
30 second airdyne bike
8 burpees
8 med ball slams
4 lines on the agility ladder (active recovery)
20 second gnp
20 second pummeling
8 plyo pushups
30 second airdyne bike
8 sprawls
20 second shadow boxing
6 burpeed
4 20 yard shuttle runs
20 second gnp
Obviously this is an example, and the goal would be completing it in 5 min or less. If not, work to improve on time. Power is either defined by force times speed or in this case distance divided by time. The faster you perform, the more power you'll put in. So work on implementing 1 day of circuits a week in more a conditioning setting rather than strength. It will really improve your power endurance, the most important property in MMA. Check out more MMA circuits on my website www.adrenalineperformancecenter.com
