Building a Fighter

The Science of Weight Cutting and Nutrition in Combat Sports with Alex Lamond | Building a Fighter S2 E1 In the premiere episode of Building a Fighter Season 2, Dr. Austin Schoen is joined by Alex L...

Inside the Mind of MMA Fighter Henry Corrales | Building a Fighter Podcast Join Dr. Austin Schoen as he sits down with Henry Corrales, Bellator superstar and seasoned MMA fighter. In this in-depth c...

Maintaining Fitness for Masters Combat Athletes: Strength, Endurance, and Longevity Tips Join Dr. Austin Schoen, a sports chiropractor based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Alex Friedman, a strength coa...

Common Ailments in MMA Fighters: Tips & Tricks to Mitigate Pain | Building A Fighter Podcast Join us as we discuss the common ailments faced by fighters, from professional to amateur and recreat...

Mastering MMA Conditioning: Energy Systems, Training Methods, and Fight Camp Programming In this episode of 'Building a Fighter,' Dr. Austin Schoen and strength coach Alex Friedman dive into...

The Coaching Journey: How to Become a Great Strength Coach Join us as we discuss the journey of becoming a great coach. From exploring the start of our careers, navigating through different phases, ...

Unlocking the Strengths of Combat Sports: A Personal Insight Join Dr. Austin Schoen and Alex Friedman as we delve into the transformative power of combat sports in 'Unlocking the Strengths of Co...

In this episode of "Building a Fighter," Dr. Austin Schoen and strength coach Alex Friedman discuss the importance of minimal effective dosing in MMA training. We explore how it's about...

The discussion revolves around the integration of technical and non-technical training in sports, specifically MMA. We look to emphasize the importance of understanding how these two aspects compleme...

Top 5 movements that you are missing in your MMA Strength training. We dive into some of the best specific mma strength and conditioning movements that we have seen. We value these movements for the...

Welcome Mr. Loren Landow! Loren is a legend in the strength game, owns a facility in Denver called Landow Performance, and was recently the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Denver Broncos....

Welcome Mike Pierkarski aka Doctor Kickass. Mike is a Physical Therapist, Black Belt and strength coach. He has a huge insight into Jiu Jitsu, FRC, and Mixed Martial Arts Injuries. His page is a great...

Welcome Dustin Jacoby! DJ is the #15 ranked UFC Light Heavyweight. This interview is a great insight into Dustin’s journey in resilience and ultimate success in MMA. Dustin shares personal stories of ...

Freestylin’  Welcome to the Summer Vibes! We cover a bit in this sporadic episode. Entering into new Freestyle and Greco wrestling seasons, what wrestling can mean to a child’s growth and maturity. We...

Are you truly ready to go? Well Ready or not, here we go! We are talking all types of preparation and your ability to take on the day in this podcast. A slight bit of terminology to start off but we d...

Rotation is a pivotal piece of movement! (See what I did there??) Especially sports that involve max power output, a rotational movement is typically the main movement. We can correlate MMA and baseba...

How should we modify the weight room for MMA athletes?  The weight room is certainly one of the most stigmatized locations in our society. Whether you think of bodybuilding, football Strength and Cond...

Fiery debate time! Austin and I go at it talking about correct biomechanics vs. learned successful movement. This debate is rife with performance vs. health type arguments and we articulate the landsc...

How do you get better at what you do? Practice right? That's too vague, what are some actionable strategies, goals, and methods to genuinely develop professionally. We break down professional growth i...

Building a Fighter Ep.127 Take away the guesswork from your training. Going off feel is not always a bad thing, especially if you are experienced in your training or training athletes, however knowin...

Welcome Paul Robbins! Paul is a world renown sports scientist. Formerly of Athletes Performance (EXOS), Paul now works in data analytics to create conditioning for the athletes in the NBA, NHL, NFL, a...

Growth Mindset and awareness of mental training. We dig into what a strong mental approach means for mixed martial artists. Consistency and accountability make up two of the key performance indicators...

Toe spacers!! Lol this is a trend that has caught on in Crossfit, and should catch on in MMA. Take care of yo’ feet! We are Freestylin’ in this episode and we cover some peripheral exercises and suppl...

Building a Fighter Ep.112    Coaching Philosophy. What is it and is it useful? We brainstorm and talk about our coaching philosophies in this episode. While we do get into the details a bit in this po...

Having trouble transitioning from wrestling to jiu jitsu? Or just starting jiu jitsu? We can empathize. As we continue our journey as sports performance professionals for MMA we detail our own transit...

Jordan Rudolph! Jordan has been a great mentor and friend to Alex since 2016 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Jordan is the owner and operator of Unity Fitness. Unity is a fantastic gym where the commUNITY sh...

We welcome Dr. Brian Gearity of The University of Denver. He is the director of the Masters of the Arts in coaching and sports education. “Dr. G” was Alex’s Graduate advisor and has published multiple...

High School Wrestling. What can the sport do for you and how does it feed into success in mma, school, career, and life. The accountability, work ethic, and narrow focus bred in wrestling helps to ins...

A quick hitter for this episode, we touch on coach-athlete relationships. Most coaches do this well, some do it great, and few are horrific. Specifically we tackle this question, “Should you be friend...

Super Special Guest this episode, we have with us Corey Beasley from Fight Camp Conditioning, what is now GetPhysical.com  Corey is a wealth of knowledge in the MMA strength and conditioning field. He...

We talk about genetic potential and what percentage of success or performance comes from genetics. We play around with the idea of talent vs. hard work vs skill vs innate ability. Genetics predispose ...

This episode covers a ton of various topics! We start by reviewing a BJJ tournament Alex competed in over the weekend. Then we talk about a technical model for aggression. From there we talk about how...

What does professionalism look like for you? As a coach, athlete, manager, administrator, or physician. Austin and Alex debate amongst themselves on what professionalism should look like in the combat...

Mixed Martial Artist. Be an artist in what you do. Learn the techniques, understand the playing field, but then make it your own. Whether it is skill practice, strength and conditioning, or any other ...

Our owner interviews continue with part two of our dynamic duo! Alex Friedman explains his upbringing and his experiences as a wrestler and coach! Alex has wrestled forever, and coached ever since. Al...

ScottyJiuJitsu himself. My Jiu Jitsu professor and the head grappling coach from Factory X Scott Miller. Scott shares a ton of good insights about coaching, Jiu Jitsu, and working as part of a coachin...

Welcome to a more free flowing format of Building a Fighter. We touch on sociology, coaching, Division three wrestling, research methods, trigger points, and go all over the place. We just bounce off ...

Second in our Wrestling with Biomechanics Series is leg riding! Throwing in hooks, attacking from the back, escaping and anything to do with leg riding. We talk about cross-body riding, taking the bac...

We have a guest! Christina Chu is a performance dietitian consultant based out of Chicago, IL. She works with all level athletes and elite corporate members to optimize their nutrition to fuel their l...

The shoulder. Mobility, Stability, Power, Strength, and Range of Motion. Where should we prioritize our training around the shoulder? It depends. One thing is for sure is that we need the shoulder to ...

What goes into your strength and conditioning program? We try to explain as best we can the principles that guide our program writing and other factor that affect your training plan. How do strength a...

Talking transitioning from athlete to coach, but more specifically collegiate wrestling athlete to MMA coach/support staff. We talk about our own struggles in learning the multiple artforms that go in...

Within this episode we talk about planning, adapting, and systemizing our training and programs to train within mma. We address planning and training for skill work and technical tactical models as we...