Xtreme Training: The Fighter's Ultimate Fitness Manual [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

RANDY COUTURE XTREME TRAINING
The Fighter's Ultimate Fitness Manual
with Lance Freimuth and Erich Krauss
(Victory Belt)
© Marc Wickert October 23, 2010
[...]

This 320-page manual has been a long time coming, but well worth every minute of the wait. If you were to only have one piece of equipment in your gym, this book would have to be it.

What I really love about "Randy Couture Xtreme Training - the Fighter's Ultimate Fitness Manual" is that the book contains a lot of training advice and instruction that could have been passed down from the days of Randy Couture's great, great grandfather when fighters and wrestlers trained in old wooden sheds or rolled in the dirt in their backyards. Some of these moves could even be attributed to Cain and Abel's sparring days.

There's no ultra-modern equipment employed or any state-of-the-art wizardry - it's all "Natural", as you'd expect. And there are plenty of routines you can utilize when you're traveling where no gym is handy.

Another aspect of the manual I enjoy is the wide use of medicine balls in Randy's training: medicine ball slams for improving endurance and stamina as well as developing overall body conditioning; medicine ball jumping squats for explosive power and stamina; medicine ball punches to improve punching power; plyometric push-ups with medicine ball which also boosts stability and coordination; sit-ups and Russian twists with medicine ball for the abs; medicine ball cage walks; use of medicine ball for focus shield...

Then there are the sledgehammer strikes on tractor tires, tractor tire flips, rope climbs, flex bands, and much, much more. This book is chockers! But it's not just a selection of calisthenics thrown together. Randy systematically works on eight categories: strength, speed, power, size, endurance, coordination, balance and agility.

And as Randy states in "Randy Couture Xtreme Training - the Fighter's Ultimate Fitness Manual", "It is important to mention that this book is designed sequentially. The beginning of each chapter explains specific details necessary for understanding the pages that follow, and each section builds upon the previous section. As you read the book, you will discover not only what exercises I utilize in my fight preparation, but also why I utilize each individual exercise at various stages in my training regime."

The manual concludes with day-by-day and week-by-week programs that specify the number of sets and reps for each exercise. Randy Couture is with you every step of the way.

Contents
PART ONE: GENERAL PHYSICAL PREPARATION
Includes: strength, speed, power, size, endurance, coordination, balance and agility.

SECTION ONE: METABOLIC CONDITIONING
Dynamic Warm-Up
Includes: dynamic warm-up, agility ladder, hurdles, backward hop...
Full-Body Metabolic Conditioning
Includes: ropes, tire flip, sledgehammer on tractor tire, bent-over rows, squats, snatches, medicine balls...

SECTION ONE: POSTERIOR CHAIN
Double Extension
Includes: squats, hip thrust on stability ball, deadlifts, lunges, step-ups...

Triple Extension
Includes: jumping squat, plyometric routines, long jumps, sprints, power cleans, push press, snatch...

SECTION THREE: UPPER BODY PUSH
Horizontal Plane
Includes: bench presses, dumbbell presses, press on Swiss ball, presses with flex bands, push-ups, plyometric push-up with medicine ball...

Frontal Plane
Includes: triceps extensions, dips, handstand push-ups, overhead dumbbell press series...

Overhead substitutes
Includes: alternating dumbbell front presses and dumbbell lateral raises.

SECTION FOUR: UPPER BODY PULL
Horizontal Plane
Includes: various bent-over rows incorporating bench and Swiss-ball support, partner rows, standing rows with flex bands...

Frontal Plane
Includes: various pull-ups, laying dumbbell pull-over, rope climb, biceps curls...

SECTION FIVE: CORE
Abdominal Flexion
Includes: crunch, leg scissor crunch, sit-ups, flex band-resisted crunch on Swiss ball, V-up, pike, leg lifts...

Rotational
Includes: various Russian twists, scorpions, windshield wipers with dumbbell, suitcase deadlift...

Isometric Support
Includes: alternating two-point plank, plank on Swiss ball, various ab-wheel rollouts, side bridge...

Neck Support
Includes: various neck bridges, neck harness, lateral neck raises...

PART TWO: SPORT-SPECIFIC TRAINING
Includes: strength, speed, power, size, endurance, coordination, balance and agility.

SECTION ONE: SPORT-SPECIFIC STANDING
Solo Power Drills
Includes: medicine-ball punches, band-resisted punches, band-resisted knees strikes, band resisted double-leg, cage walk-ups, flex band shoulder throw...

Partner takedown Drills
Includes: bear crawl and frog hop drill, arm drag drill, headlock throw drill, running the pipe single-leg drill, throwing dummy suplex...

Partner Striking Drills
Includes: counter low kick on shield drill, alternating knees on kick shield drill, heavy bag combination drill, countering strikes to takedown drill...

SECTION TWO: SPORT-SPECIFIC GROUND
Solo Power Drills
Includes: physio ball squeeze, heavy bag ground'n'pound, guard striking to sweep to mount...

Partner Grappling Drills
Includes: turtle flips, guard passes, head control get-up, hip bump to bridge and roll drill...

PART THREE: TRAINING ROUTINE
Week One - Week Ten

ALTERNATE WORKOUTS
Novice Strength and Conditioning Workout
Beginner Strength and Size
Intermediate Strength and Size
Advanced Strength Building

"Randy Couture Xtreme Training - the Fighter's Ultimate Fitness Manual" is the ultimate companion to Randy Couture's "Wrestling for Fighting" book, where he covers his preferred fighting techniques that have made him one of the most successful athletes in MMA history.

Amazing book. Very detailed, informative, and well laid out. If I ever wondered why Randy Couture was still able to be a world class athlete at the age of 47, this book answers that question. To anyone who's interested in mixed martial arts, or just to get into better shape for any sport, this book is worth every penny.

This book was just OK. I don't know who wrote the rest of these reviews but I would bet most are either hired reviewers or Couture fight campers/fanboys. It gets three stars for having basically good advice and a fair number of different exercises, including fundamental lifts as well as more exotic bosu/ball/band/plyobox work. The reviewers who talk up the "fight camp" section are clearly full of it--unless you have a sparring partner willing to go at it with you and a working knowledge of basic grappling and standing work, you're not going to be able to do this on your own. The lateral movement section is also pretty lacking, consisting of almost exclusively rowing variations. The "sport specific" training section is mildly interesting, and there are likely a handful of exercises throughout the book that you have never seen before, but you could ultimately figure it all out on your own. That's why there's no preview--if you could preview the sections you'd realize he just shows you a basic movement and then how to do that movement using variations with a bosu/ball/band. One clever thing he shows is strapping a resistance band to a bench press so that you keep the press difficult throughout the range of motion (whereas normally a bench press is hardest only at the beginning). A few interesting partner exercises but again nothing revolutionary. The photos are glossy but they're also lazy. Lots of eyes closed shots suggesting they did the whole book in a few short photoshoots and had no retakes. I think this book is worth $10... maybe.