Cris Cyborg Santos

Cris Cyborg Santos, Women's  Strikeforce 145lb champ.

I am very excited to welcome Cris Cyborg Santos to the FitBlender.com family!!!

About 3 weeks ago Cris asked me to help out with her training camp and of course I jumped at this great honor and opportunity. Cris already has a great strength and conditioning coach in Gustavo Pimenta and I'm very excited to work with and learn from him as well.

In preparation for her fight on December 17th to defend her Strikeforce featherweight world title Cris has been training her butt off. I can only say the level of athleticism she displays is super human.

I will show a few small clips of her workouts with both me and Gustavo but as always, I don't want to show too much (trade secrets). I'll try and show Cris and I working next week.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to Congratulate my good friend Josh from DirtyWrestler for making it on the Punishment team. Josh is not only an up and comer in the fight world but one of the best coaches I've ever met.
Great Job buddy!


Genius-

Power + High Heart Rate Circuit

Circuits are fun and fun'ction'al.

I very rarely have my guys do the same exercises as each other on the same day let alone the same circuit. Last Friday that all changed. I started the morning with Cosmoe (7am) then Cyborg (9am) and Jake (10am). I wanted to get Cosmoe's heart rate up without doing boring cardio. My plan was to do complex power movements with speed and lower than usual weight with high repetition in a circuit. I made said circuit and Cosmoe made it look easy, like he does, but was sweating his ass off so I knew I had to keep it. None of these guys complained but I saw the look of "f-u you coach" in their eye's. It was so nice, I had to see it thrice! We will be doing these every Friday for the next 8 weeks.

Lateral step up and over. Do this w/o the smile and fast!

Warm up circuit:
3 rounds.
Lateral speed step up and over x 25
Bosu air squats slow and controlled x 8
Swiss ball push ups 3secs down and up x 8
1 min break-

Swing a dumbbell if no kettlebell is available.

Circuit of doom:
5 rounds.
Cable high low hop sweeps x 12 each side
Burpee with jump to pull up x 5-8 (jump high so you have a shorter pull up)
Dumbbell/kettlebell swing x 8-10
Barbell stop and go flat bench press

Give it a go , if you have any idea what any of these exercises are....Those who don't shouldn't do them without supervision anyway.
Genius-

Winning Weekend For Arena Team!

Rich Power, Jake Mapes, and the man they call Krutch(far right) all won via first round stoppage. Arena Fight Team.

The Arena pro/am team swept all their fights in California last weekend. Though some didn't get truly tested, a fight IS a fight. Good job guys!

These shorts will get work soon.

On another note, Cosmoe Cala, one of the FitBlender.com sponsored fighters was scheduled to fight as well. After both he and his opponent weighing in at 205 lbs, for some unknown reason his opponent pulled out of the fight. Cosmoe was mad to say the least, this being the ninth time this has happened and all. Lets just hope he doesn't make it an even 10 by scaring yet one more fighter out of the ring.

And a final update. Though they fought their asses off, Cyborg Santos and Felipe Portela didn't bring home the "W". My man Cyborg was back in the gym with me the next week. I know they both will work hard and learn more to come back better then ever. You both gave your fans a great show and we thank you.

                                                                 The Genius-

A Show Of Skill, Heart and WORK!!!

Vince and Joe putting in work!

Big Congratulations to Joe Duarte!

Last Friday at Strikeforce Challengers series Joe fought a man he considered an idol in Jorge Gurgel. In that fight Joe showed he is a man who put his time in the gym and beat a seasoned vet decisively.
I've had the privilege on a few occasions to watch Joe work with his trainer, Vince Salvador and let me tell you, they work damn hard. Vince has a great workout plan balancing coordination, movement, power and form (not to reveal the man's secret training) and Joe has the work ethic to make it through.  It was little surprise that the fight was fast paced and exciting. Good job guys and keep working hard on that road to the belt.

Yet another two Congrats to my jiu jitsu coach, Jake Mapes and My boxing coach Rich Power !

Rich lived up to his name and ko'd his opponent in just 2 rounds. Rich has taught me alot and I was happy to work sprint drills to help him get ready for this fight and every fight in the future.

Jake fought a very crafty and experienced fighter and showed he has the heart of a champion pulling a dominant unanimous decision win.  I know that Jake worked through multiple injuries to get ready for this fight never once complaining or making excuses.
I have worked with Jake only one time before this fight, and am hoping to work with him alot more for his next one.

I know I will have two more congrats to write in September for Cosmoe Cala and Evangelista Cyborg Santos. Cosmoe has had a string of fighters pull out of MMA fights and is going to take a boxing match to stay busy. I feel sorry for the poor guy that's going to take a beating six guys avoided.
Cyborg has a fresh face to beat in one, Jordan Mein. We've been working very hard and as Cyborg says he treats all his fights like it's for the belt. On Sept 10th I think we will see a very hungry Cyborg ready to get yet another "W". Video and pics of Cyborg working hard tomorrow, I promise.