Martin Rooney - Warrior Cardio: The Revolutionary Metabolic Training System for Burning Fat, Building Muscle, and Getting Fit

T he sport of Mixed Martial Arts has undergone a huge evolution since Royce Gracie won the first Ultimate Fighting Championships in 1993. To compete at the highest levels of MMA nowadays, a fighter must not only possess a high level of technical skill, but he must also be in top physical condition. He must place as much emphasis on becoming a world-class athlete as he does on perfecting his martial arts technique.

In April of 2008, I won a fight in the International Fight League that cemented me as a top local prospect on the brink of bigger fights against tougher opponents. At that time, Strength and Conditioning was the most neglected aspect of my training and I knew I would have to gain in size, strength, and endurance if I was to compete with the worlds best lightweights. Backstage at that event, I met Martin Rooney and when he offered to train me and my brother Dan, we couldnt pass up the opportunity.

The initial sessions with Martin were not what I expected. I thought they were going to be the all-out, gut-busting sessions that I saw on TV with guys left half dead on the ground. I was actually disappointed when this was not what I received. My disappointment lessened as I started to get the one thing that I should have been more worried about: results. During the first year of our training with Martin, Dan and I made physical improvements, learned a lot about training, and fulfilled our dreams by being asked to fight in the UFC. As we signed our UFC contracts, we quit our construction jobs and went from hammering nails to pumping iron.

Lucas Noonan

In the three years that I have been following the Training for Warriors system, I changed from that tough local-level fighter into a professional athlete. I have fought ten times for the UFC, going 91 over that span, and am currently ranked Top 10 in the world. I have not only been able to pack on 10 pounds of muscle and add hundreds of pounds to my lifts, but I have also stayed healthy. One secret to my success has been the design of Martins training. I have taken Martins philosophy and applied it to all other aspects of my fight preparation, from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to Muay Thai to nutrition. We train hard, but we also train smart, which is an aspect that seems to be overlooked by many of my peers. MMA is becoming a worldwide sport, but it is surprising how few athletes really train like professionals. While the growing trend in MMA is fighters constantly getting hurt in training and pulling out of fights, I have become the fastest fighter to reach ten fights in UFC history.

The information in Warrior Cardio is professional training. As you will see in this book, the detailed warmups, speed training, strength training, endurance training, flexibility work, and nutrition are put together in a format that is easy to follow. Warrior Cardio will show you that Martins approach to training is simple. If you train with him, Martin will help you get away from the current fads where everything has to be extreme and get back to the same movements that mankind has been doing for millennia. I have lived this training and reaped the benefits, and I have seen it consistently work with everyone else who has used it as well. Whether you are a fighter or not, I know you are going to benefit from the information contained in this book.

If you want to build strength, improve conditioning, lose fat, and/or gain muscle, Warrior Cardio will deliver results. I can say that with confidence because I know that it worked for me. Buy this book, live this system, and you will see results.

JIM MILLER
TOP RANKED UFC LIGHTWEIGHT
MAY 2011

F rom the dawn of man, we have recognized that an increase in energy expenditure leads to a faster heartbeat, an increase in body temperature, and a decrease in energy. Whether hunting for food, building a shelter, or covering some distance, our earliest ancestors had to be aware of the effects of this movement on their energy stores. As time has progressed and technology has improved, there has been an inverse relationship to the amount of energy expended for a given task. Today, we no longer have the daily mandatory physical demands that were once necessary for survival. As a result, energy expenditure has gone down, hard work has been experienced less often, and I believe that we have lost touch with the bodys natural sense of response to exercise. Perhaps it could be said that we have lost touch with our Warrior Within.

In the last 100 or so years, fitness training has become a necessity as a result of this decrease in workload. In the last 50 years especially, there has been a trend to replace the once mandatory physical demands with voluntary physical exercise to achieve the effects of caloric expenditure and health benefits that we know are essential to our health and longevity. In this same time period, there have been many interesting trends that have ultimately led to the current state of what is often referred to as cardio training. In the 1970s, Kenneth Cooper launched a concept of aerobics that got everyone doing something new: jogging. Following this movement, aerobics moved into the confined areas of gyms and fitness centers called aerobics rooms. Since then, there has been an endless supply of gimmicks, gizmos, and gadgets designed to capture our imaginations just enough for us to ignore how contrived the exercises actually are. I say contrived because today, most cardiovascular activity is a far cry from the elementary movements and stressors for which the human body was designed. Most cardio training today is simply some kind of mildly interesting yet invented excuse to get someone to move around for about 30 minutes. Even today, complete sections of gyms are devoted to the glorified burning of calories on shiny treadmills and cycles designed more for look and feel than results. As the fitness trends moved from the gym to within the home, more and more contrived gadgets, topics, videos, and Internet programs were created to satisfy the never-ending need for modes of exercise. Since humans become quickly bored with every new contrived mode, there must be an endless supply of new gadgets, equipment, and ideas to keep pace.

Unfortunately, despite all of our shiny new equipment, statistics demonstrate that the world is not becoming more fit. Instead, we are getting increasingly obese and sedentary, even as the number one fitness request of most people is to lose fat. Why cant we get it right? I believe there are two reasons that are currently stopping us.

First, people and trainers select and prescribe exercises according to what I call the Illogical Four: Novelty, Coolness, Ability to Produce Soreness, and Ability to Produce Fatigue. What amazes me is that the veil of the Illogical Four has been pulled so strongly over our eyes that we no longer look for the reason why we started voluntary exercise in the first place: improvement in health and performance, a.k.a. results.

The first rule of the Training for Warriors system is that We do not do something for nothing. Although it can be argued that many of the exercises contained in Warrior Cardio will satisfy the parameters of the Illogical Four, know that these are only a by-product in the pursuit of results. What makes this book different is that instead of just delivering the how, I am also going to deliver the why. By my outlining the exact science, readers can understand the purpose behind each exercise and avoid the haphazard approach that is currently plaguing physical training. My goal here is to, along with a team of the top professionals in the world, deliver the new science behind cardiovascular training and nutrition in a simple and condensed fashion. Once you are armed with the understanding of why this system produces results, you will be better engaged to apply the how to do it.