Episode #1: Martin Rooney, Strength Coach and Founder of Training for Warriors

September 08, 2021

In this interview we talk about:

Martin’s experience as a high level athlete
His travels around the world to learn from some of the world’s best martial artists
Different training styles
Mindset of a champion
Overcoming obstacles and dealing with injury
Dealing with various coaches and different styles.
and other tips, tricks and stuff that is happening in 2014!

Download the Podcast here.

Who is Martin Rooney?

Martin Rooney is an internationally recognized pioneer of strength and conditioning for the martial arts. He holds a Master of Health Science and Bachelor of Physical Therapy from the Medical University of South Carolina. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Exercise Science from Furman University.

Martin was a four-time All Conference, and four-time MVP performer in Track and Field at Furman and a member of the United States Bobsled team from 1995-1997, 2000. Following his exposure to MMA in the mid 1990s, Martin began training with Renzo Gracie and started training fighters shortly afterward. Since the foundation of the TFW system, Martin has traveled as far as Brazil, Finland, Mexico, Japan, Russia, England, Holland, Sweden, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Austria and the Middle East to train, compete, and conduct seminars and help prepare world class athletes for competition. Martin has been the martial arts consultant to the NY Giants and the NY Jets for over 5 years and a coach on the 2007 IFL World Team Champion New York Pitbulls. Martin is currently a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under UFC fighter Ricardo Almeida and a black belt in Kodokan Judo under Olympian Teimoc Johnston-Ono.

Martin has lectured for the American College of Sports Medicine, the College Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, the UK Strength and Conditioning Association, the Finnish Coaches Association, American Fitness Professionals and Associates, Perform Better and has been commissioned by Nike to run speed testing camps at a number of major universities. Martin has also presented for numerous companies on leadership and teamwork including Fortune 500 companies such as Marriot International and Hasbro.

Martin and his training have been featured on ESPN, ESPN2, Spike TV, Sports New York, Fox Sports Net, Fox Fight Game, the NFL Network, HDnet, NBC.com, Bodybuilding.com, tmuscle.com and in the New York Times, Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Journal, The Sporting News, Stack Magazine, FIGHT!, Fight Sport, Fighters Only, Grappling and Sports Illustrated for Kids.

He has written five books called “Train to Win”, “Success Patterns”, “Ultimate Warrior Workouts”, “Training for Warriors”, and “Warrior Cardio”, the latter two published by Harper Collins. Martin is also on the editorial council of Brazil’s Gracie Magazine and a regular contributor to Men’s Health and FIGHT!. Martin has also produced a 10-part DVD series on the Parisi Training Method and a 2-part series entitled “The Secrets of GameSpeed”. In all, these products have sold in excess of 100,000 copies to date.

In addition to training many world champion martial artists, Martin has also been a speed and conditioning consultant to the New York Giants, Cincinnati Bengals, Arizona State University, University of Alabama, Oregon State University, Rutgers University, Montana State University as well as other athletes from the NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA and numerous top Division I colleges across the country. He has also trained numerous Olympians including one gold, four silver medalists, and one US Olympic Trials champion.

Over the last 11 years Martin has also developed one of the top NFL Combine training programs in the country producing the fastest athlete at the 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006 NFL Combine and first place finishers at ten different positions, including five all-time records. 130 athletes Martin has trained have been drafted to the NFL including the #2 pick overall Chris Long in 2008.

For more information about Martin, visit http://www.trainingforwarriors.com/

Full Transcription of Our Podcast with Martin Rooney

Interviewer: Corey Beasley

Interviewee/Guest: Martin Rooney

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COREY: Hey guys, this is Corey Beasleyfrom Fight Camp Conditioningand I am on the phone with Martin Rooneyfrom Training for Warriors. How’re you doing, Martin?

MARTIN: I’m great Corey, always a pleasure to talk to you, you know that, and excited because I know what we’ve got coming right now for some of the people listening to this call.

COREY: Heck yeah. So Martin, just to give everybody that’s listening a history on Martin Rooney, give us the two minute shakedown of who you are, where you’re at and where you’re coming from?

MARTIN: Well, hopefully I can do it too but hey guys, for everybody listening. My name is Martin Rooney. I got involved with fighting in a really weird way. I was a member of the US bobsled team and my roommate driver on the team, who eventually became silver medalist at the Olympics was none other than Todd Hays, who was featured in one of the original MMA documentaries “Choke”. When my bobsled career ended, I became one of the original students at Renzo Gracie Academy in Manhattan, New Yorkwhen Renzo just opened up a school in the late 90s, got an opportunity to be around guys like Matt Serra and John Danaher, where I can remember when those guys were wearing blue belts and they were the kings in the mat, back then, when blue belt was a monstrous thing. And I got lucky to get into the inner circle with these guys, I began to train and work with all these fighters, [incomprehensible] them around the world and I created I guess a method called “Training for Warriors” that eventually then became a movement and a series of books and different stuff. And now today, we’ve got locations in a 110 different facilities in 18 countries and constantly evolving between both fighters and regular people to utilize these styles of training. So hopefully, that’s the two minute version.

COREY: Heck yeah, it’s a good two minute version man, you’ve got a lot of good experience. So just to get people an idea, you are an Olympic athlete, you were a college athlete, you’re good at college athlete, you went on to the Olympics and thrived in the Olympics, which that in itself is incredible. Going into MMA and stuff like that, how did you make that transition? I wouldimagine that going from an Olympic athlete level to going into martial arts and being the new guy again, how did you kind of deal with that?

MARTIN: Well hey, I’ll say this, I dealt with it – I was dealing with a lot of pain. Anybody that’s involved in the fight game can attest to that. I remember my first official training session of jiu-jitsu; I couldn’t move my neck for about a week afterwards from just getting [inaudible] and over and over again. I just remember guys, this was a different day and age, we used to call it a shark tankback then, and you were known as fresh meat, you would go in, and hey, if you survived, you stuck around, if you didn’t, you didn’t come back. And hey, I had to deal with being a beginner again. But I will say that my strength and my speed helped me. But for anybody listening, they’ll also understand that I think in some ways, it also hurt me. Because I would begin to rely on that versus being as technical as I could have been in the beginning. But definitely, hey, it was a transition. But I enjoyed that, I like to put myself in a position of not being the best at certain things and now I only enjoy that even more some of those lessons I’ve learned from the martial arts. But I will say that it was a very difficult transition getting used to not just the training aspect, but having to overcome pain and injury that’s associated with martial arts.

COREY: So that’s a good point Martin, I think a lot of these guys, guys that I worked with, people that I talked to and stuff like that, MMA and jiu-jitsu and stuff like that, injuries, if they’re going to happen, it’s when can mentally how do you think you’ve dealt with it or your athletes have dealt with it the best way?

MARTIN: Well, hey, you’re absolutely right on that one, that if you’re going to be involved say, some of my background, I’m a black belt in judo, a purple belt in jujitsu, and hey, there’s going to be injuries, whether it’s to the tips of your toes, and tips of your fingers, to your shoulder, to your neck, to your back, tendons and ligaments, there’s been so many things that I’ve experienced. And I will say, one thing is in the beginning, you have to actually learn from them and that how those happen to not only prevent that they’re going to have the chance that they don’t happen again. But also recognize that, it becomes an opportunity to see how you can train around it, like, hey, like you just said, you’ll never be able to avoid all the nicks and cuts that go along with training but there are best ways to design your training and train around certain things that are bothering you.

So I will say this. I’ve had it all from lacerated face to dislocated toes and fingers but I never stopped training. So that might be the best advice I had is, hey, I remember a guy who break a pinky finger and he won’t train for five months, where I always found a way around what I would call an outlet to figure out how to keep training and keep moving, if that makes sense.

COREY: Absolutely. It’s a huge point that consistency will make or break you for sure.

MARTIN: Oh yeah. And you know what it is, it’s a great line for everybody listening there. What I always say is, hey, the best ability is availability. So for instance, working with guys over the years — man and I’ve had so many guys that have come through the ranks and then kind of graduated on or come through and retired from — imagine originally starting with guys like Ricardo Almeidaand Renzoto where now they are essentially retired to like then transitioning to guys like Frankie Edgarand then now say to the Miller Brothers, what I would say that that line was “the best ability is availability”, like Jimand Dan Miller, they both got in to the UFC because when other fighters dropped out, because they were injured, those guys got an opportunity and they got in there and they were already always ready when the time came.

So for everybody listening that is a fighter or is training fighters, guys, if you’re injured, guys are injured, you can’t fight and if you can’t fight you don’t get your shot and if you don’t get your shot when that one opportunity shows itself, man, that could define your whole career.

COREY: Yeah, absolutely. I remember you talking about that last time you were out. So yeah, that’s a huge deal. Because a lot of these guys think they’re going to get in the UFC and make all this money but in the reality a lot of these guys get their one shot, they get a one fight contract and they might make it, they might not.

MARTIN: Oh, yeah, a great line for everybody listening there; you are only as good as your last fight. And that’s easy to understand, you are only as good as your last fight, you could be a star. And man, think about it, in this day and age, when you look at certain guys that are top fighters that go from being a top dog and a headliner to like what happened to that guy where did they go, you can usually trace it back to a fighter to a bad performances where now at the upper echelons like UFC, their biggest challenge right now is there are so many high level fighters but there can only be so many events, and guys, there’s only so many guys that can fight on a card and only so often, so how do you break into that? You got to be available and ready when it comes.

COREY: Absolutely. So Martin, I want to talk a little bit about some of your travels. Because as you started with martial arts and started training a lot of fighters and athletes, you did something pretty incredible that I was inspired by a few years back and continue to be still. But you traveled around the world; you did something that most people won’t. And you traveled literally all over the place and spent some time with some of the best martial artists around the world. Can you talk about that a little bit and then talk about some of the things that you learned?

MARTIN: Yeah, hey I always enjoy talking about that because it was — and it’s led to all the experience I’m having now. But for everybody listening, I’ve traveled to 25 countries in the last three years alone. But what really started that adventure off for me, was a book that I was working on called “Ultimate Warrior Workouts”. And what I did, as Corey just said, I traveled around the world, I went to and I investigated — I had to pick out what were the martial arts that most guys were pulling from that became successful in MMA? That was my first thing that I had to identify. And then what I did is I identified eight arts that most commonly were being used by guys from around the world and then once I had those eight arts, what I wanted to do was go to the places where they originated, and train with the best of the best in that so that I could experience how they ate, how they trained, the art itself, the philosophy, and it led to man, the greatest — it was an incredible three year span of my life. So what I would do is I would spend a number of weeks in each country. So for instance, for jiu-jitsu, I went to Brazil; for Judo, I went to Japan; for Sambo, I went to Russia; for boxing, I went to England and travelled through the United States; for wrestling, I was working with Rutgers University, who was a top 20 team at that time, but also I went out to the University of Iowa, which was man a real dream come true. I went to Holland for kickboxing, we also studied at the Japanese Karate Associationin Japan. And ultimately, it was just this adventure of adventures — oh, and Thai boxingin Thailand. And it was just this incredible experience where I really found that I was examining not just martial arts and not just philosophy, but also mastery and how to become great. But without a doubt, it was an eye opener. It also showed me at what level of aptitude you could reach in each art and that’s why I still believe MMA can still continue to evolve.

A lot of people ask me that, they’ll say, hey, can it get any better than this? Now, these guys are so fit and they’re so strong?And I would say, hell yeah, they could, because when you look at a master of one thing and now imagine the guy that maybe can spend the time to master a handful of those things, you might argue how George St. Pierre evolved as a fighter and really continued to improve, and then essentially went undefeated for the rest of his career. I think that’s going to become eventually the standard of where this goes.

COREY: Yeah, absolutely. There are little kids right now that are 4, 5, 6 years old, that have been training all styles. And I see these little guys hit mitts and roll and do different things and it’s amazing. Like I started out wrestling and then got into jujitsu a little bit. Again, man, when I started to throw my hands and start to learn that it’s like a foreign art form. And these guys [inaudible] stuff without any hesitations, they are not going to think about much, they’re going to be incredible.

MARTIN: Absolutely. And that’s what we’re going to see as the next generation. Like you said Corey, is it’s going to be hey, most of the guys that I worked with, in the beginning it was they were essentially jiu-jitsu guys that put on some gloves about a week before their fight. Then it became guys that were cross training in a lot of things but still only had a certain number of years with each art. Now, if you’re noticing the trend, now academies or martial arts schools are now almost calling themselves mixed martial arts schools versus calling themselves a Karate school or Judo school and as a result kids are getting exposed. Now imagine the guy that comes up and has been exposed a decade from now that has done it in his whole life. So man, and as we know and what we both work on, the training end and the physical conditioning end is still continuing to evolve and that’s only going to improve as well.

COREY: Absolutely. So let’s talk about that a little bit. Because just like going around the world and seeing all those different martial art, there’s an equal amount of different approaches when it comes to strength and conditioning. So a lot of guys, you’ll hear on the internet oh man, if you don’t do Olympic lifts, you got the wrong coach, or power lifting is the only way to go or bodybuilding techniques or calisthenics or strongman stuff or whatever it may be. That’s just the internet and stuff I would imagine, even above and beyond that, when you’re in your travels, you probably saw some stuff that you’ve never seen before.

MARTIN: Oh, absolutely. One message to everybody, it’s hey guys, there’s a million ways to skin the cat, which everybody knows about me. I will never say hey there is one way and there’s only one way. If that were true, everybody would be doing it. So there is no best but what you want to do is you want to search for the optimal things to utilize at the person you’re working with because everybody has different strengths and weaknesses, different genetic abilities, different abilities to recover, they’ve different weights, there are so many things, and their training schedules and what they have available. So there’s so many ways to produce results. The key though first, is to make sure that everybody remembers that.

Unfortunately, what I see today Corey is when anybody ever associates MMA and training, it seems like all they’re doing is wearing people out and make them tired. And you know me like, hey, if everybody’s listening, hey guys, making yourself tired is not the goal of training, anybody can make yourself tired, are you getting better on a consistent basis that you’re adding muscle, you’re improving your nutrition, you’re injury free, and you can go in and set yourself up to fight on that day confident and healthy. And that’s what I think is still missing from training where hey, if we look at it, I forget what it was, I think it was in 13 or 12, there was like 15 or 16 UFC main events that got cancelled as a result of people being injured. And those injuries happened in training not in actual matches. And if that’s true, that’s costing some people some money and what I would say is, I know some of those had to be able to have been prevented.

COREY: Yeah, and a lot of those injuries they might be happening in their MMA practice, but could be caused by overtraining in the weight room or conditioning or whatever it may be where they tighten up certain joints, and then they give in practice, right?

MARTIN: Yeah, absolutely well, but also true, just going too hard, not modern recovery. And unfortunately, what I see today too for everybody listenening, if anybody’s a fighter or whatever else, the practices now are, man, it’s essentially a lot of sparring. But I’ll tell you what, from my wrestling background and jiu-jitsu background, everything was about drilling, Judo, it was all about drilling, whereas unfortunately in MMA, sometimes there’s a lot less drilling and a lot more it’s just live a lot more of what I call, I guessrandori. And that’s where the risk really takes place. So what I would caution everybody to listen to is, are you still improving your skills and getting better every practice versus okay, you tired yourself out, you either got knocked out or got a black guy or gave somebody one, but is that making you better?

COREY: Yeah, right. So give me an idea Martin, when a new fighter comes in and sees you, you just throw him to the wolves or are you kind of assessing and kind of walking them through some steps to kind of figure out where they’re at? And how do you kind of get guys started when they come and see you?

MARTIN: Yeah well, hey, remember, and Corey, everybody knows he’s been through the “Training for Warriors”course and you know everything starts with evaluation. Other background on myself, guys, I’m an orthopedic physical therapist, that would be like saying, hey, somebody came in with a hurt ankle so let’s throw him to the wolves and start running him around. So everything starts with eval to see what people can do from range of motion to their past history to like, what they can do in terms of performance. And only then can you start to define a training program for that person. So everybody listening, if you’re just showing up to get your butt kicked, you’re not getting better.

COREY: Right.

MARTIN: And just so everybody knows, I take a very logical approach to training that, I think everybody if you heard it, you would say, hey that makes total sense but a lot of times, that might not be what everybody’s doing. So it would be — so nobody gets aka thrown to the wolves. If you feel you’re getting thrown to the wolves, or you’re just doing a bunch of stuff, you’re probably not getting as good as you could. But what I will say too is hey, for everybody listening too because I’m sure there’s people listening that are not fighters and what I’m saying is everything that I’m saying still holds true if you’re not a fighter. So you don’t have to be a fighter to train like one and get great training in. So I want to make sure that everybody understands that as well. Because I think sometimes it’s almost like no brainers to that. And I’ll say this too, right now, I trained a whole lot more regular people than I do fighters because everybody listening, there’s a whole lot less fighters out there than there are regular people but you still want to apply the same information to those people, if that makes sense.

COREY: Yeah, absolutely. In the same way we have a heck of a lot more regular people coming to the gym than we do competitive athletes. So yeah, it makes sense. That’s great info Martin. I want to kind of shift gears a little bit and I think one of the most talented or things that you bring to our industry that kind of sets you apart is your attitude and your mindset. And we could talk about power lifting and strongman stuff and different training techniques all day long. But in reality, you could take an average program and put an exceptional effort behind it and make incredible things happen. So if you could, just talking about attitude and mindset, man, when you go and speak in front of people, you are on fire, you ignite, you inspire people. And as you and I both know, you’re walking onto the mat or into the cage, your mindset is a gigantic, probably number one factor when you’re coming in.

MARTIN: Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah and it’s interesting, hey, we just did a course here in North Carolina and it’s funny to bring this up, there was a fighter that was in the course that went through really squats and ballatores, his name is JJ Ambrosefrom out there in California, really great guy. And you know what’s interesting is, after you get through all the training and after you get through all the stuff we’re talking about, we’re talking about recovery, we’re talking about all the nutrition, but really what it came down to is when the questions when the rubber really hits the road, it always goes back to hey, man, how do I stay more confident? How do I control my anxiety? How am I just not nervous when I get out there? What can I do?And like you just hit the nail on the head that goes back to attitude, that goes back to confidence.

And I’ll tell you what, I have seen it so many times where a fighter will be in shape, they’ll be ready to go, they are just — everything is sharp and then they get out there and they fall apart. And like that has to do also with the mental aspect. There’s no doubt. Now I wish I had a solution that I could say, hey, Corey, yeah, here’s exactly you’re doing and this is how it works. But what I will say to everybody is if you’re experiencing those things, that will be the ultimate ease that eventually decides success.

So for instance, I talked about things like some guys, they fight better than they’re expected to fight the fight and some guys fight worse. And that all has to do with mental preparation, confidenceand a lot of that comes from your training, the coaches you’re around, the people you’re around, and then ultimately developing your confidence in we’re not remembering why you want to fight.

So I think it’s the biggest nail on the head where hey, as the coach, I’m trying to motivate guys, I’m trying to build confidence in guys, I’m trying to keep them injury free so that they go into the fight feeling great, so that they’re not nervous, but at the same time too, in the end that last little piece comes down to the guy. And when you look at the greats, throughout the history of MMA, they were so loose and so relaxed and like so there in the fight and I’ll tell you what, that skill set is a really really critical piece to making sure you’re going to find your best.

COREY: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, cool. Next thing I wanted to ask you about, I get a lot of questions about food and I know recently, you posted some stuff about some recent trends versus just understanding the basics about food. I mean, these days there are so many diets and fads and ways to cut weight and all this kind of nonsense is out there. What are just some basics that you teach people about food because you and I both know that you get some food things right, your energy is better your recover is better, your mindset is better, you’re clear, you’re more energetic, all those things come into play. So what do you teach people about food, just real quick?

MARTIN: Yeah, well hey, absolutely I think that’s a great one that you’re talking about there where some of the mistakes that I see with a lot of fighters is hey, they’re training a ton and because they’re training so much, they think they can eat whatever they want. So one thing I’ll caution everybody listening right now is, hey, guys, treat your body like an incredible machine, like a rocket ship or a race car. You want the proper fuel in there and you have to know that if you don’t have the right fuel in there, it’s not going to work right. And so, it’s classic where I would always see all of these people that are — these guys training, but then instantly, right after training, they’re eating the worst food and just thinking that I guess that that’s okay, and it’s not, especially if you want to be serious. If you’re going to call yourself a fighter, you got to have all the pieces of the puzzle going.

And hey, some of the simplest stuff or advice that I can give, guys drink water, don’t get your calories from energy drinks and thousand calorie coffees and all this other stuff. I would definitely say, when you’re looking at your plate, if there’s not fruit and vegetables on it and some good source of lean protein, then you’re not eating right. If you’re eating a bunch of processed, packaged stuff that is not real then don’t be shocked to not get the results you want. Because as you said — and hey John Berardidid a bunch of work with us and I consider him one of the top, if not the top nutrition guy for some of this stuff. He worked with GSPand many other guys hey, he’s like, you hit the nail on the head. It’s not just performance, it’s also getting to the right body fat, it’s also about preventing inflammation and potential injury. All of these things can be controlled with your diet like medicine. And most people don’t treat it like that.

But what I will say is, I’m not going to get detailed on it for everybody listening, hey, gluten free, what amino acids do you need, all this stuff. Guys, if you can’t eat right and you can’t eat fruits and vegetables and drink water then you don’t get to ask about that stuff. And that’s how we warn you on it and when guys start doing things right, man, you see a difference in performance, a difference in recovery and guys are winning.

COREY: Yeah, I see that stick to the basics across all fronts, you’re not going to take a white belt and teach them a flying arm bars, second practice. He needs to learn the basics, positioning, control, all that type of stuff, same with understanding their body and body awareness, learn thebasics first, and then you can do all the crazy stuff. And food seems to be the same way and I think if we keep it that way, it maybe becomes much more simple.

MARTIN: Absolutely. And hey, so for everybody listening, Corey and I’ve known each other a long time and guys we’re on the same page with this. There’s nothing — that’s the saddest part guys is I think everybody’s always searching for the magic bullet or they’re searching for the secret. But you know what the secrets are man? It’s doing what you already know, it’s staying super consistent, it’s making sure if you’re hurt, recover, if you need more sleep, get sleep, make sure you’re putting the right fuel in the tank. And hey, don’t surround yourself with the wrong people. And if you pull that stuff off in this fight game and you really have heart and you got drive and you really want it as bad as you say you want it, stuff’s going to happen. Because I’ve worked with too many guys and watch this be true. And then I’ve worked with a ton of guys that maybe they didn’t really want it what like they said they did and it didn’t work out. So it comes down to these big picture items that we’re talking about. But you got to dig deep, soul search a little bit and see what you really want.

COREY: Yeah, absolutely. So Martin, up to this point, we’ve talked a lot about food and recovery and mindset and different training styles and all these different things. That’s a lot of the stuff that the athlete can control. One thing that I wanted to talk about is the next and this will probably be one of the last things we talk about is, just dealing with coaches, because as a strength and conditioning coach, obviously that athlete, that fighter, that person has a lot of other people that are having input in their life. So they might go to jiu-jitsu practice, boxing, wrestling, MMA, sparring, they might be going to 2, 3, 4 different gyms every week. And you as a coach, have to kind of navigate that, both by assessing the athlete but then also communicating with those different coaches and dealing with their personalities and expectations and all those different things. Can you kind of elaborate about some of the ways you’ve navigated that successfully?

MARTIN: Yeah, and hey, you can talk about how it’s not like hey, you hit another big piece on the head. For everybody listening you know, one of the challenges that you’re going to have today in MMA is there’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen, if that makes sense, and a lot of people saying things and unfortunately, I’ve seen that, I think what people forget, sometimes the most important person here is the fighter. What I learned coming up and I learned this from the greats fromRenzo andRicardoand a lot of the guys that we came up with, when you’re there helping somebody, you’re there to help them, when you’re there to corner somebody, you’re there for them, you’re not there to be in the show, go have fun or worry about yourself. And I think sometimes a lot of people do that and/or undermine each other to try to somehow get credit but it can only hurt the fighter and that’s unfortunate when it happens where, hey, you want to try to be complimentary and get along but I think the most successful guys are going to be guys that there’s a hierarchy of how the training works.

So I think each guy, if you’re a fighter listening right now, you should have either a manager or some go-to guy that you trust more than anybody that that is the person that ultimately makes the decisions and then all of your coaches, whether they be physical coaches, technical coaches, somehow they all report and they come together. And this was something I was talking about with the fighters this weekend that I was working with, in that a lot of times it’s you don’t have any of these guys, you just show up and one coach is telling you one thing and other guy is saying that guy is dumb, and other guy is saying don’t listen to them, listen to me. And in the end, unfortunately, the fighter is more confused than anyone. And that’s the last thing you want going into the going into the big stuff.

So ultimately getting the team you trust and a team that all works together. And I’ve been lucky to be a part of teams like that and you see everything just work and it’s awesome.

COREY: Yeah.

MIKE: And hey, it’s setting up that scenario but unfortunately today, as you’ll also see, MMA is not set up for the individuals, it’s kind of set up for the group. So there’s a big room of guys, everybody shows up, they all spar, and then they leave. And if you have a fight coming up, you just kind of keep doing that. But if you can figure out how to get it [inaudible] behind you and things be organized for you, I’ll definitely say you have a better chance for success. It’s just unfortunate that that scenario doesn’t always exist.

COREY: Right, right. Well, Martin, your knowledge and your expertise has got to be helping these guys out there listening and I really hope that they take it to heart. The last thing I want to do is just kind of go over some of the things that you got going on. I know you are a busy man to say the least and you’re traveling and developing books and products and services and things like that, that are changing the world and creating quite a wave. Can you talk about some of the stuff you got going?

MARTIN: Yeah, absolutely. And hey, everybody listening if you enjoyed this call, what’s interesting is I had gotten so many questions from around the world for so long that, what I did is I created something called the Dojo. And obviously, if you’ve heard of the Dojo before, Dojo meaning not a place of combat but a place to develop yourself. And I created something that’s on trainingforwarriors.com, and it’s a site that people pay a small fee for per month but you get your questions answered, you see the other questions people asked. There are motivational videos, training videos; I do a monthly webinar on how to develop your skills and your training.

So man, if you’re a fighter and some of this message resonated with you, this is your opportunity to get your questions answered. Find out more and better yourself so that is called the “Training for Warriors Dojo”. I also teach certification events around the world. Hey, I’m coming to Costa Mesa, Corey and I are going to be doing another one. We held up a fantastic event last year, we’re going to do another one because it was so well received. I run them all over the world. I’m in Belgium next week running one so all over the world. But we’re coming to the west coast, you can check online at trainingforwarriors.com and see if there’s one nearby you.

And hey, check me out on Facebook, check me out on Twitter, you can go to the Training for Warriors Facebook page or Martin Rooney1 on Twitter and I’m always putting out content that’s just trying to make people better. So hey, again, where I’m at right now is I went from just training a handful of individual fighters so long ago to now really training the trainers of the trainers and having so many fighters everyday come up to me and say my books or my work has inspired them or helped them get better. And hey, for anybody listening, I’m looking forward to doing that for them too.

COREY: Cool. Well Martin, thank you so much for your time bud, I appreciate it and hopefully everybody loves it. Guys, I’ll be posting this stuff up and there will be links and stuff to all of Martin’s resources. So stay tuned and thanks so much for listening guys.

Episode Transcript

Full Transcription of Our Podcast with Martin Rooney

Interviewer: Corey Beasley

Interviewee/Guest: Martin Rooney

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COREY: Hey guys, this is Corey Beasleyfrom Fight Camp Conditioningand I am on the phone with Martin Rooneyfrom Training for Warriors. How’re you doing, Martin?

MARTIN: I’m great Corey, always a pleasure to talk to you, you know that, and excited because I know what we’ve got coming right now for some of the people listening to this call.

COREY: Heck yeah. So Martin, just to give everybody that’s listening a history on Martin Rooney, give us the two minute shakedown of who you are, where you’re at and where you’re coming from?

MARTIN: Well, hopefully I can do it too but hey guys, for everybody listening. My name is Martin Rooney. I got involved with fighting in a really weird way. I was a member of the US bobsled team and my roommate driver on the team, who eventually became silver medalist at the Olympics was none other than Todd Hays, who was featured in one of the original MMA documentaries “Choke”. When my bobsled career ended, I became one of the original students at Renzo Gracie Academy in Manhattan, New Yorkwhen Renzo just opened up a school in the late 90s, got an opportunity to be around guys like Matt Serra and John Danaher, where I can remember when those guys were wearing blue belts and they were the kings in the mat, back then, when blue belt was a monstrous thing. And I got lucky to get into the inner circle with these guys, I began to train and work with all these fighters, [incomprehensible] them around the world and I created I guess a method called “Training for Warriors” that eventually then became a movement and a series of books and different stuff. And now today, we’ve got locations in a 110 different facilities in 18 countries and constantly evolving between both fighters and regular people to utilize these styles of training. So hopefully, that’s the two minute version.

COREY: Heck yeah, it’s a good two minute version man, you’ve got a lot of good experience. So just to get people an idea, you are an Olympic athlete, you were a college athlete, you’re good at college athlete, you went on to the Olympics and thrived in the Olympics, which that in itself is incredible. Going into MMA and stuff like that, how did you make that transition? I wouldimagine that going from an Olympic athlete level to going into martial arts and being the new guy again, how did you kind of deal with that?

MARTIN: Well hey, I’ll say this, I dealt with it – I was dealing with a lot of pain. Anybody that’s involved in the fight game can attest to that. I remember my first official training session of jiu-jitsu; I couldn’t move my neck for about a week afterwards from just getting [inaudible] and over and over again. I just remember guys, this was a different day and age, we used to call it a shark tankback then, and you were known as fresh meat, you would go in, and hey, if you survived, you stuck around, if you didn’t, you didn’t come back. And hey, I had to deal with being a beginner again. But I will say that my strength and my speed helped me. But for anybody listening, they’ll also understand that I think in some ways, it also hurt me. Because I would begin to rely on that versus being as technical as I could have been in the beginning. But definitely, hey, it was a transition. But I enjoyed that, I like to put myself in a position of not being the best at certain things and now I only enjoy that even more some of those lessons I’ve learned from the martial arts. But I will say that it was a very difficult transition getting used to not just the training aspect, but having to overcome pain and injury that’s associated with martial arts.

COREY: So that’s a good point Martin, I think a lot of these guys, guys that I worked with, people that I talked to and stuff like that, MMA and jiu-jitsu and stuff like that, injuries, if they’re going to happen, it’s when can mentally how do you think you’ve dealt with it or your athletes have dealt with it the best way?

MARTIN: Well, hey, you’re absolutely right on that one, that if you’re going to be involved say, some of my background, I’m a black belt in judo, a purple belt in jujitsu, and hey, there’s going to be injuries, whether it’s to the tips of your toes, and tips of your fingers, to your shoulder, to your neck, to your back, tendons and ligaments, there’s been so many things that I’ve experienced. And I will say, one thing is in the beginning, you have to actually learn from them and that how those happen to not only prevent that they’re going to have the chance that they don’t happen again. But also recognize that, it becomes an opportunity to see how you can train around it, like, hey, like you just said, you’ll never be able to avoid all the nicks and cuts that go along with training but there are best ways to design your training and train around certain things that are bothering you.

COREY: Absolutely. It’s a huge point that consistency will make or break you for sure.

MARTIN: Oh yeah. And you know what it is, it’s a great line for everybody listening there. What I always say is, hey, the best ability is availability. So for instance, working with guys over the years — man and I’ve had so many guys that have come through the ranks and then kind of graduated on or come through and retired from — imagine originally starting with guys like Ricardo Almeidaand Renzoto where now they are essentially retired to like then transitioning to guys like Frankie Edgarand then now say to the Miller Brothers, what I would say that that line was “the best ability is availability”, like Jimand Dan Miller, they both got in to the UFC because when other fighters dropped out, because they were injured, those guys got an opportunity and they got in there and they were already always ready when the time came.

COREY: Yeah, absolutely. I remember you talking about that last time you were out. So yeah, that’s a huge deal. Because a lot of these guys think they’re going to get in the UFC and make all this money but in the reality a lot of these guys get their one shot, they get a one fight contract and they might make it, they might not.

MARTIN: Oh, yeah, a great line for everybody listening there; you are only as good as your last fight. And that’s easy to understand, you are only as good as your last fight, you could be a star. And man, think about it, in this day and age, when you look at certain guys that are top fighters that go from being a top dog and a headliner to like what happened to that guy where did they go, you can usually trace it back to a fighter to a bad performances where now at the upper echelons like UFC, their biggest challenge right now is there are so many high level fighters but there can only be so many events, and guys, there’s only so many guys that can fight on a card and only so often, so how do you break into that? You got to be available and ready when it comes.

COREY: Absolutely. So Martin, I want to talk a little bit about some of your travels. Because as you started with martial arts and started training a lot of fighters and athletes, you did something pretty incredible that I was inspired by a few years back and continue to be still. But you traveled around the world; you did something that most people won’t. And you traveled literally all over the place and spent some time with some of the best martial artists around the world. Can you talk about that a little bit and then talk about some of the things that you learned?

MARTIN: Yeah, hey I always enjoy talking about that because it was — and it’s led to all the experience I’m having now. But for everybody listening, I’ve traveled to 25 countries in the last three years alone. But what really started that adventure off for me, was a book that I was working on called “Ultimate Warrior Workouts”. And what I did, as Corey just said, I traveled around the world, I went to and I investigated — I had to pick out what were the martial arts that most guys were pulling from that became successful in MMA? That was my first thing that I had to identify. And then what I did is I identified eight arts that most commonly were being used by guys from around the world and then once I had those eight arts, what I wanted to do was go to the places where they originated, and train with the best of the best in that so that I could experience how they ate, how they trained, the art itself, the philosophy, and it led to man, the greatest — it was an incredible three year span of my life. So what I would do is I would spend a number of weeks in each country. So for instance, for jiu-jitsu, I went to Brazil; for Judo, I went to Japan; for Sambo, I went to Russia; for boxing, I went to England and travelled through the United States; for wrestling, I was working with Rutgers University, who was a top 20 team at that time, but also I went out to the University of Iowa, which was man a real dream come true. I went to Holland for kickboxing, we also studied at the Japanese Karate Associationin Japan. And ultimately, it was just this adventure of adventures — oh, and Thai boxingin Thailand. And it was just this incredible experience where I really found that I was examining not just martial arts and not just philosophy, but also mastery and how to become great. But without a doubt, it was an eye opener. It also showed me at what level of aptitude you could reach in each art and that’s why I still believe MMA can still continue to evolve.

A lot of people ask me that, they’ll say, hey, can it get any better than this? Now, these guys are so fit and they’re so strong?And I would say, hell yeah, they could, because when you look at a master of one thing and now imagine the guy that maybe can spend the time to master a handful of those things, you might argue how George St. Pierre evolved as a fighter and really continued to improve, and then essentially went undefeated for the rest of his career. I think that’s going to become eventually the standard of where this goes.

COREY: Yeah, absolutely. There are little kids right now that are 4, 5, 6 years old, that have been training all styles. And I see these little guys hit mitts and roll and do different things and it’s amazing. Like I started out wrestling and then got into jujitsu a little bit. Again, man, when I started to throw my hands and start to learn that it’s like a foreign art form. And these guys [inaudible] stuff without any hesitations, they are not going to think about much, they’re going to be incredible.

MARTIN: Absolutely. And that’s what we’re going to see as the next generation. Like you said Corey, is it’s going to be hey, most of the guys that I worked with, in the beginning it was they were essentially jiu-jitsu guys that put on some gloves about a week before their fight. Then it became guys that were cross training in a lot of things but still only had a certain number of years with each art. Now, if you’re noticing the trend, now academies or martial arts schools are now almost calling themselves mixed martial arts schools versus calling themselves a Karate school or Judo school and as a result kids are getting exposed. Now imagine the guy that comes up and has been exposed a decade from now that has done it in his whole life. So man, and as we know and what we both work on, the training end and the physical conditioning end is still continuing to evolve and that’s only going to improve as well.

COREY: Absolutely. So let’s talk about that a little bit. Because just like going around the world and seeing all those different martial art, there’s an equal amount of different approaches when it comes to strength and conditioning. So a lot of guys, you’ll hear on the internet oh man, if you don’t do Olympic lifts, you got the wrong coach, or power lifting is the only way to go or bodybuilding techniques or calisthenics or strongman stuff or whatever it may be. That’s just the internet and stuff I would imagine, even above and beyond that, when you’re in your travels, you probably saw some stuff that you’ve never seen before.

MARTIN: Oh, absolutely. One message to everybody, it’s hey guys, there’s a million ways to skin the cat, which everybody knows about me. I will never say hey there is one way and there’s only one way. If that were true, everybody would be doing it. So there is no best but what you want to do is you want to search for the optimal things to utilize at the person you’re working with because everybody has different strengths and weaknesses, different genetic abilities, different abilities to recover, they’ve different weights, there are so many things, and their training schedules and what they have available. So there’s so many ways to produce results. The key though first, is to make sure that everybody remembers that.

COREY: Yeah, and a lot of those injuries they might be happening in their MMA practice, but could be caused by overtraining in the weight room or conditioning or whatever it may be where they tighten up certain joints, and then they give in practice, right?

MARTIN: Yeah, absolutely well, but also true, just going too hard, not modern recovery. And unfortunately, what I see today too for everybody listenening, if anybody’s a fighter or whatever else, the practices now are, man, it’s essentially a lot of sparring. But I’ll tell you what, from my wrestling background and jiu-jitsu background, everything was about drilling, Judo, it was all about drilling, whereas unfortunately in MMA, sometimes there’s a lot less drilling and a lot more it’s just live a lot more of what I call, I guessrandori. And that’s where the risk really takes place. So what I would caution everybody to listen to is, are you still improving your skills and getting better every practice versus okay, you tired yourself out, you either got knocked out or got a black guy or gave somebody one, but is that making you better?

COREY: Yeah, right. So give me an idea Martin, when a new fighter comes in and sees you, you just throw him to the wolves or are you kind of assessing and kind of walking them through some steps to kind of figure out where they’re at? And how do you kind of get guys started when they come and see you?

MARTIN: Yeah well, hey, remember, and Corey, everybody knows he’s been through the “Training for Warriors”course and you know everything starts with evaluation. Other background on myself, guys, I’m an orthopedic physical therapist, that would be like saying, hey, somebody came in with a hurt ankle so let’s throw him to the wolves and start running him around. So everything starts with eval to see what people can do from range of motion to their past history to like, what they can do in terms of performance. And only then can you start to define a training program for that person. So everybody listening, if you’re just showing up to get your butt kicked, you’re not getting better.

COREY: Right.

MARTIN: And just so everybody knows, I take a very logical approach to training that, I think everybody if you heard it, you would say, hey that makes total sense but a lot of times, that might not be what everybody’s doing. So it would be — so nobody gets aka thrown to the wolves. If you feel you’re getting thrown to the wolves, or you’re just doing a bunch of stuff, you’re probably not getting as good as you could. But what I will say too is hey, for everybody listening too because I’m sure there’s people listening that are not fighters and what I’m saying is everything that I’m saying still holds true if you’re not a fighter. So you don’t have to be a fighter to train like one and get great training in. So I want to make sure that everybody understands that as well. Because I think sometimes it’s almost like no brainers to that. And I’ll say this too, right now, I trained a whole lot more regular people than I do fighters because everybody listening, there’s a whole lot less fighters out there than there are regular people but you still want to apply the same information to those people, if that makes sense.

COREY: Yeah, absolutely. In the same way we have a heck of a lot more regular people coming to the gym than we do competitive athletes. So yeah, it makes sense. That’s great info Martin. I want to kind of shift gears a little bit and I think one of the most talented or things that you bring to our industry that kind of sets you apart is your attitude and your mindset. And we could talk about power lifting and strongman stuff and different training techniques all day long. But in reality, you could take an average program and put an exceptional effort behind it and make incredible things happen. So if you could, just talking about attitude and mindset, man, when you go and speak in front of people, you are on fire, you ignite, you inspire people. And as you and I both know, you’re walking onto the mat or into the cage, your mindset is a gigantic, probably number one factor when you’re coming in.

MARTIN: Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah and it’s interesting, hey, we just did a course here in North Carolina and it’s funny to bring this up, there was a fighter that was in the course that went through really squats and ballatores, his name is JJ Ambrosefrom out there in California, really great guy. And you know what’s interesting is, after you get through all the training and after you get through all the stuff we’re talking about, we’re talking about recovery, we’re talking about all the nutrition, but really what it came down to is when the questions when the rubber really hits the road, it always goes back to hey, man, how do I stay more confident? How do I control my anxiety? How am I just not nervous when I get out there? What can I do?And like you just hit the nail on the head that goes back to attitude, that goes back to confidence.

So for instance, I talked about things like some guys, they fight better than they’re expected to fight the fight and some guys fight worse. And that all has to do with mental preparation, confidenceand a lot of that comes from your training, the coaches you’re around, the people you’re around, and then ultimately developing your confidence in we’re not remembering why you want to fight.

COREY: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, cool. Next thing I wanted to ask you about, I get a lot of questions about food and I know recently, you posted some stuff about some recent trends versus just understanding the basics about food. I mean, these days there are so many diets and fads and ways to cut weight and all this kind of nonsense is out there. What are just some basics that you teach people about food because you and I both know that you get some food things right, your energy is better your recover is better, your mindset is better, you’re clear, you’re more energetic, all those things come into play. So what do you teach people about food, just real quick?

MARTIN: Yeah, well hey, absolutely I think that’s a great one that you’re talking about there where some of the mistakes that I see with a lot of fighters is hey, they’re training a ton and because they’re training so much, they think they can eat whatever they want. So one thing I’ll caution everybody listening right now is, hey, guys, treat your body like an incredible machine, like a rocket ship or a race car. You want the proper fuel in there and you have to know that if you don’t have the right fuel in there, it’s not going to work right. And so, it’s classic where I would always see all of these people that are — these guys training, but then instantly, right after training, they’re eating the worst food and just thinking that I guess that that’s okay, and it’s not, especially if you want to be serious. If you’re going to call yourself a fighter, you got to have all the pieces of the puzzle going.

And hey, some of the simplest stuff or advice that I can give, guys drink water, don’t get your calories from energy drinks and thousand calorie coffees and all this other stuff. I would definitely say, when you’re looking at your plate, if there’s not fruit and vegetables on it and some good source of lean protein, then you’re not eating right. If you’re eating a bunch of processed, packaged stuff that is not real then don’t be shocked to not get the results you want. Because as you said — and hey John Berardidid a bunch of work with us and I consider him one of the top, if not the top nutrition guy for some of this stuff. He worked with GSPand many other guys hey, he’s like, you hit the nail on the head. It’s not just performance, it’s also getting to the right body fat, it’s also about preventing inflammation and potential injury. All of these things can be controlled with your diet like medicine. And most people don’t treat it like that.

COREY: Yeah, I see that stick to the basics across all fronts, you’re not going to take a white belt and teach them a flying arm bars, second practice. He needs to learn the basics, positioning, control, all that type of stuff, same with understanding their body and body awareness, learn thebasics first, and then you can do all the crazy stuff. And food seems to be the same way and I think if we keep it that way, it maybe becomes much more simple.

MARTIN: Absolutely. And hey, so for everybody listening, Corey and I’ve known each other a long time and guys we’re on the same page with this. There’s nothing — that’s the saddest part guys is I think everybody’s always searching for the magic bullet or they’re searching for the secret. But you know what the secrets are man? It’s doing what you already know, it’s staying super consistent, it’s making sure if you’re hurt, recover, if you need more sleep, get sleep, make sure you’re putting the right fuel in the tank. And hey, don’t surround yourself with the wrong people. And if you pull that stuff off in this fight game and you really have heart and you got drive and you really want it as bad as you say you want it, stuff’s going to happen. Because I’ve worked with too many guys and watch this be true. And then I’ve worked with a ton of guys that maybe they didn’t really want it what like they said they did and it didn’t work out. So it comes down to these big picture items that we’re talking about. But you got to dig deep, soul search a little bit and see what you really want.

COREY: Yeah, absolutely. So Martin, up to this point, we’ve talked a lot about food and recovery and mindset and different training styles and all these different things. That’s a lot of the stuff that the athlete can control. One thing that I wanted to talk about is the next and this will probably be one of the last things we talk about is, just dealing with coaches, because as a strength and conditioning coach, obviously that athlete, that fighter, that person has a lot of other people that are having input in their life. So they might go to jiu-jitsu practice, boxing, wrestling, MMA, sparring, they might be going to 2, 3, 4 different gyms every week. And you as a coach, have to kind of navigate that, both by assessing the athlete but then also communicating with those different coaches and dealing with their personalities and expectations and all those different things. Can you kind of elaborate about some of the ways you’ve navigated that successfully?

MARTIN: Yeah, and hey, you can talk about how it’s not like hey, you hit another big piece on the head. For everybody listening you know, one of the challenges that you’re going to have today in MMA is there’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen, if that makes sense, and a lot of people saying things and unfortunately, I’ve seen that, I think what people forget, sometimes the most important person here is the fighter. What I learned coming up and I learned this from the greats fromRenzo andRicardoand a lot of the guys that we came up with, when you’re there helping somebody, you’re there to help them, when you’re there to corner somebody, you’re there for them, you’re not there to be in the show, go have fun or worry about yourself. And I think sometimes a lot of people do that and/or undermine each other to try to somehow get credit but it can only hurt the fighter and that’s unfortunate when it happens where, hey, you want to try to be complimentary and get along but I think the most successful guys are going to be guys that there’s a hierarchy of how the training works.

So ultimately getting the team you trust and a team that all works together. And I’ve been lucky to be a part of teams like that and you see everything just work and it’s awesome.

COREY: Yeah.

MIKE: And hey, it’s setting up that scenario but unfortunately today, as you’ll also see, MMA is not set up for the individuals, it’s kind of set up for the group. So there’s a big room of guys, everybody shows up, they all spar, and then they leave. And if you have a fight coming up, you just kind of keep doing that. But if you can figure out how to get it [inaudible] behind you and things be organized for you, I’ll definitely say you have a better chance for success. It’s just unfortunate that that scenario doesn’t always exist.

COREY: Right, right. Well, Martin, your knowledge and your expertise has got to be helping these guys out there listening and I really hope that they take it to heart. The last thing I want to do is just kind of go over some of the things that you got going on. I know you are a busy man to say the least and you’re traveling and developing books and products and services and things like that, that are changing the world and creating quite a wave. Can you talk about some of the stuff you got going?

MARTIN: Yeah, absolutely. And hey, everybody listening if you enjoyed this call, what’s interesting is I had gotten so many questions from around the world for so long that, what I did is I created something called the Dojo. And obviously, if you’ve heard of the Dojo before, Dojo meaning not a place of combat but a place to develop yourself. And I created something that’s on trainingforwarriors.com, and it’s a site that people pay a small fee for per month but you get your questions answered, you see the other questions people asked. There are motivational videos, training videos; I do a monthly webinar on how to develop your skills and your training.

So man, if you’re a fighter and some of this message resonated with you, this is your opportunity to get your questions answered. Find out more and better yourself so that is called the “Training for Warriors Dojo”. I also teach certification events around the world. Hey, I’m coming to Costa Mesa, Corey and I are going to be doing another one. We held up a fantastic event last year, we’re going to do another one because it was so well received. I run them all over the world. I’m in Belgium next week running one so all over the world. But we’re coming to the west coast, you can check online at trainingforwarriors.com and see if there’s one nearby you.

And hey, check me out on Facebook, check me out on Twitter, you can go to the Training for Warriors Facebook page or Martin Rooney1 on Twitter and I’m always putting out content that’s just trying to make people better. So hey, again, where I’m at right now is I went from just training a handful of individual fighters so long ago to now really training the trainers of the trainers and having so many fighters everyday come up to me and say my books or my work has inspired them or helped them get better. And hey, for anybody listening, I’m looking forward to doing that for them too.

COREY: Cool. Well Martin, thank you so much for your time bud, I appreciate it and hopefully everybody loves it. Guys, I’ll be posting this stuff up and there will be links and stuff to all of Martin’s resources. So stay tuned and thanks so much for listening guys.

Episode #1: Martin Rooney, Strength Coach and Founder of Training for Warriors

5 Physical Challenges to Test Your Limits