My MMA Workouts
Written by Brian Cushing, Tuesday March 16 2010
For the month of January I didn’t do too much but rehab my injuries, but at the end of the month I starting training in MMA with Jay Glazer, Randy Couture and other UFC guys. The other day I was grappling with Chuck Liddell!
They’re training a few football players, like Keith Rivers and Thomas Williams, who are also SC guys. They put us through some brutal workouts, submissions, cage work, leg workouts. I got pretty close to being choked out before I tapped out. I had never done this kind of thing before, I really got a new perspective on athletes when I was training with these guys. You think you’re tough, then you get in the ring with a 180-pound guy and he’s throwing you around. There’s no harder training than what they do, and I think it’s really helping me from a mental standpoint.
What’s great is that it’s easy on the body. I’m definitely still healing from the season. I’m not lifting weights every day killing myself. I’ve been on the verge of burnout before, being exhausted when I walk into the weight room. But right now my body feels a lot more fluid. I’ll be back in
With the NFL Combine last month, I want to say I think people put way too much stock in 40 times and agility drills. Obviously, if a wide receiver or cornerback runs a slow 40 time, that could be a red flag, but it’s more important how fast you are on film and how good a player you were in college. I worked real hard and tried to have the best showing I could at the Combine, and I think I did pretty well. But what it came down to for me were the interviews, my work ethic and my game film. I told all the coaches I would be the first one in and the last to leave every day. The drills and the 40, that’s a flashy thing. Who runs the fastest would be important if this was a track meet, but it’s not. It’s a football game. Especially for O-linemen and D-linemen, it’s not very important.
My former SC teammate Taylor Mays has been under the microscope lately since the Combine. All I can tell you is he’s a hard worker, a solid kid who wants to play football. Whatever his time was in the 40, he’s a guy who could catch anyone on the football field. I saw him plenty of times, if anyone on the other team got loose, he was the last line of defense and always made the tackle. There’s absolutely no question that I would be thrilled to have him on our team.
Brian Cushing is a linebacker with the Houston Texans. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.briancushing56.com.
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