Martial Arts Book Review:
Fit to Fight

Author: Jason Ferruggia

I came across Jason Ferruggia’s Fit to Fight while browsing through the martial arts section at the local Borders one day. “Lo and behold,” I thought, “another martial arts conditioning book.”

Granted, martial artists need to be in shape – something Bruce Lee was way ahead of his time in pointing out. But it seems like lately everyone and their brother has been releasing martial arts conditioning books, training videos, online courses, membership websites, and on and on…

And to be frank, a lot of it simply covers the same stuff everyone else is doing. That wouldn’t be so bad if the material I’d seen had been written from a solid exercise science perspective (and readable by the average joe – nothing worse than trying to glean useful training information from a book that was written for grad school exercise physiology squints).

Enter Ferruggia’s book. As I sat down to glance through it while nursing a dark roast in a comfortable corner of the cafe, I quickly flipped to the table of contents. “What’s this? ‘Injury prevention’… now there’s something you don’t see in most MMA conditioning guides. ‘Nutrition’ – there’s another rare find in a martial arts workout guide. ‘Supplements: Substance and the Scams’ – okay, now I’ve got to read this thing.”

Fifteen minutes later, I was headed to the checkout with a new addition to my martial arts training library. Just the chapters on supplements and recovery would have made the book worth it (and I paid $20 for mine, but you can get it on Amazon now for $8). But of course, the book is supposed to be about martial arts workouts, right? So let’s talk about Ferruggia’s treatment of that topic… here’s what you’re going to get in this book:

• Info on bodyweight exercises
• Interval and sprint training
• Sandbag training
• Keg training
• Sledgehammer training
• Sled training
• Using rope training for conditioning and fitness
• Tire flips
• Traditional weight training exercises for fight conditioning
• Chins, pull-ups, and straps
• Plyo training…

Should I go on? The book is pretty freakin’ complete as far as what’s covered. And, Jason gives you tables with complete martial art workout routines to follow that put it all together. For $8, you can’t go wrong with this book.

Click here to get Fit to Fight for $8 at Amazon…

- M. Massie

Oh, and another thing… Jason also has a course called Muscle Gaining Secrets that’s all about putting on muscle so you look jacked. He has some pretty dang impressive testimonials on his site, but I can’t personally say whether or not the course is worth the price. But, considering the amount of info he put in his $20 (’er, $8) book, I’d guess that the $77 course he sells on his site is probably worth the cash if you’re a hard gainer.