James Langford - Physical Performance Coaching

James Langford - Physical Performance Coaching James is a physical performance coach who specialises in delivering strength and conditioning support to combat athletes and martial artists.

James has supported athletes to Olympic & Paralympic games, UFC, WAKO Kickboxing, and many more......

05/09/2026

Conditioning is one of those areas where there is so much misinformation and misunderstanding often coming from either coaches or practitioners that have worked in other sports trying to apply the same methods to fighters.

Here are 5 of the biggest myths or beliefs I tend to face and have to fix when I start working with someone.

04/09/2026

One thing the last week has really highlighted for me is apparently your either ‘old school’ or ‘new school’ and S&C coaches have ruined boxing.

Personally there is no this or that.

You don’t have to do just one or the other you can incorporate both very effectively in to your training.

I tried to give the analogy to one coach that you need to think of training like an investment.

If you had 10 grand to invest in your future and I gave you two stocks to choose from:

1 - had research and statistics showing is absolutely would produce a positive return.

2 - has no research or stats to show it works but there is anecdotal feedback that it works.

Where would you put most of your cash?

This is the old school methods like chopping wood, slow road running, high rep circuits versus newer sport science.

It’s not to say that stuff doesn’t work, not at all.

It’s just that I can pretty much factually guarantee this other stuff does.

So do both if you must but just make sure you put at least some investment in what will give the most likely returns.

Finally and this will upset some Boxing coaches and fighters… do more due diligence on who your bringing in to help you.

There is a lot of S&C coaches who have no more than an online certificate and have offered to coach a few fighters for free to build a name as their CV then complain their fighters are tired or sore.

I wouldnt hire a builder who did a 3 week online course to build my house.

01/09/2026

What do you think?

Do you agree with Abel or not?

Personally, it always makes me feel a little bit down when I hear comments like this from top coaches or even top retired boxers.

Combat sports seem to be one of these niche sports where everyone thinks they're the exception, not the rule.

There's a reason why organizations like Olympic Sports and the UFC, football teams, NFL teams, NBA teams, Tennis players, Golfers and even Formula One drivers invest significantly in making sure they have the right physical performance staff around them.

Because these things, if done correctly, can give a huge competitive advantage.

I'm always curious to try and understand if some coaches feel this way because they've been burnt by unqualified or unexperienced coaches in the past, or if this is just a genuine belief that they hold.

I would always die on this hill that just focusing on one area of an athlete's training such as their sport and neglecting other areas of development is not the best way to maximise success.

26/08/2026

Most athletes will wake up one morning, feel tired and start to think they are over training or their training load has spiked too high.

What many fail to realise is that overtraining is often not how you feel one day after training. It's chronic changes that are happening day on day that are all leading you to start to believe that your training volume might have got too high.

It might be your resting heart rate slowly increasing over the course of a few days. It might be starting to feel ill and not able to shake the cold.

It could be a niggling elbow that then also turns into a niggling knee.

The signs of overtraining often aren't little things that are happening overnight. They're these build-ups of issues that are compounding day on day and week on week.

24/08/2026

Patiently waiting but still getting the work done.

Hopefully has some news he can share with the world soon ⏳

Top weekend down in London for Ioan Croft this weekend and as always grateful to be a part of his team as he continues t...
23/08/2026

Top weekend down in London for Ioan Croft this weekend and as always grateful to be a part of his team as he continues to grow and build as a professional.

I would say his stoppage was the highlight of the weekend but me and beating Garan Croft and Adam Maca at Padel probably tops it to be honest.

September & October are shaping up to be busy months with more big nights on the cards. Let’s go 💪

19/08/2026

Work hard in silence and let success be your noise.

Just over 4 weeks until returns to the Co-op in Manchester and he’s been putting in the work to make sure he’s more than ready.

18/08/2026

Conditioning tends to be the area that I get asked the most questions about because I think it's the one that people lack an understanding of and, equally, how to structure conditioning either during a training camp or outside of a training camp.

I think everyone understands strength training a little bit more clearly because it's easy to understand that if you want to get stronger, you add more weight to the bar. If you want to increase your capacity, you perform more repetitions.

Whereas conditioning can be more challenging than that.

Whilst conditioning is incredibly multifaceted, these are a few sessions that I find myself constantly reaching for fighters at different stages of their camp.

If you're lost with your conditioning and need more guidance and structure then DM me the word 'MMA' And I will send you over a copy of my 12-week conditioning for MMA guide / program.

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Arena Way, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne And Wear NE4 7NA
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE4 7

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