Red Schafer

Week 5-Conditioning

Week 5 is over, and only 3 more to go! The week started great, but I had a minor injury and started to feel a bit burnt out at the end of it. I might need a few days off this week to recharge my batteries. This was a busy week, so here we go…

—————————CONDITIONING—————————
One of my biggest goals in the last 3 years has been to improve my endurance. While a lot of my fatigue problems in my losses to Bisping and Bonnar earlier in my UFC career had a lot to do with mental stress, I have made it my goal to never let fatigue be the cause of another loss. I think the most important thing that I did was join my local Crossfit gym. I joined Crossfit right before my Houston Alexander fight and was immediately impressed. Running on the treadmill can get your cardio up and lifting weights can get you stronger, but neither recreate the horrible burn of muscle fatigue that you feel in a MMA fight. While nothing (not even hard sparring rounds in the gym) is the same as a real fight, Crossfit is the closest I can get. As you see in my Crossfit videos over the last few weeks, Crossfit is always a bit different. Every week I push myself to the point I almost collapse. It combines all the elements of fitness into one killer workout. Sometimes you can barely breathe, because your cardio system is pushed to the limit. Other times your shoulders are so filled with lactic acid, that you can’t hold the bar up anymore. I love it…

Red Schafer • MMA Fighter • UFC