With just a week and a half to go before UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre puts his title on the line against Jake Shields at UFC 129, the Official GSP YouTube channel is offering up some inside looks at St. Pierre's preparation.
Some of the videos, like the one above of St. Pierre working on his striking, are about what you'd expect from any MMA fighter. But a few of the videos show how unique GSP is when it comes to his strength and conditioning work.
St. Pierre is a longtime admirer of gymnastics, frequently saying that he thinks young athletes should learn gymnastics before any other sport, and he has extolled the virtues of using gymnastics, rather than traditional weightlifting, as a means of building functional strength. But until I saw these videos, I didn't realize the extent to which St. Pierre is an accomplished gymnast himself.
In the video above, St. Pierre does some parallel bar techniques while just a couple inches off the ground, which requires a tremendous amount of strength, endurance and balance.
In the video below, GSP gets on the rings and demonstrates a technique known as a muscle-up. This is an explosive movement that combines a pull-up and a dip, and it's incredibly difficult, even for a professional athlete. Take a look at St. Pierre in the gym, and you're looking at one of the most finely tuned athletes in the world, in any sport.
