MMA Strength and Conditioning

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Mixed Martial Arts and the Importance of Conditioning

Over the past ten or so years, Mixed Martial Arts has become a worldwide phenomena. Because of this, the level of competition in each fight has increased, and seriously talented and seasoned athletes are beginning to join the ranks of popular promotions. In addition to this, MMA has drifted away from its style vs style roots and has instead become a style in its own right. Since all fighters are well-versed in both striking and grappling, one of the defining characteristics of an elite fighter has become his conditioning.

What is conditioning?

Merrian Webster defines conditioning as “the process of training to become physically fit by regimen of exercise, diet, and rest…” This is an accurate definition for the term in regard to athletics, but it’s a bit too broad to be of use. Conditioning is literally the body’s response to a stimulus through accommodation; that is, your body adapts to certain stimuli in order to more efficiently deal with them when the time comes. Accommodation can come in the form of ventricular hypertrophy, muscular hypertrophy, increased bone density, improved intermuscular coordination, increased motor unit activation, and decreases in explosive-strength deficit.

The idea behind a solid mma strength and conditioning routine is to avoid complete accommodation. If you do the same workout over and over again, your gains will begin to plateau as your body becomes accustomed to the exercises. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’ll limit the overall level of fitness you can attain. In MMA, it’d be akin to getting really good at fighting a 130 pound Thai fighter and nothing else.

The easiest way to continue to increase your fitness for MMA is through the principle of progressive overload. Essentially, you increase the intensity of the exercise every week or two weeks in order to avoid accommodation. Unfortunately, the body isn’t well-suited for this and overtraining or accommodation can still become an issue, which’ll harm your overall level of conditioning for MMA. While progressive overload will allow you to make more overall gains than using the same intensity each time, it still won’t let you push your body to the limit. To use the MMA analogy again, progressive overload alone would be like getting good at fighting all Thai fighters, regardless of weight. It’s a good thing to have, but you’ll only be so good at MMA.

There are several programs that were created to circumvent the issues that come with progressive overload, leading to better conditioning for MMA. Some use a deload period where the body is allowed to recoup, while others change the exercises often. The best plans usually make use of both, to some extent. Very broadly, these programs make use of periodization.

Components of MMA Conditioning

There are several components to MMA strength and conditioning, although the two primary ones are strength and cardio. These, for the most part, encompass the other aspects of conditioning to some extent or another. Other traits often associated with conditioning are power, anaerobic threshold, balance, flexibility, and proprioception.

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MMA Workout Training – 5 Tips to Improve Your MMA Conditioning

Posted on May 18, 2011 by james in Theory

Being in top shape is one of the most important components of a fighter. If you look at any of the top fighters in the sport–GSP, Jon Jones, Cain Velasquez, Chael Sonnen, Frankie Edgar, or Jose Aldo–there is one thing they all have in common: great conditioning. While each fighter may have their own individual style and way of moving, every single fighter needs to be in excellent shape. It doesn’t matter how good you are if you’re unable to move due to exhaustion. That’s one of the worst ways to lose a fight.

Here are five tips to help you improve your conditioning for mixed martial arts in ways that’ll make you a bonafide threat in the cage.

1. Do deadlifts. The increased strength and anaerobic capacity from doing deadlifts will make you a force to be reckoned with. Widely considered to be the absolute best strength training exercise (some people will say squats), deadlifts are great for building explosive power in the hips (think BJJ) by working the glutes and hamstrings tremendously. No MMA strength and conditioning routine is complete without some quality deadlifts. Do them. Now. Seriously.

2. Run long & short distances. Most people know that running helps improve cardio. That should be a no-brainer. It’s the classic aerobic exercise. Recently (especially during the past 15 years or so), people have been advocating using running as an anaerobic exercise, primarily through the use of interval training. This is great, but the problem is that a lot of people then forego long distance running under the assumption that it can reduce muscle strength due to an increase in slow twitch muscles.

While long distance running shouldn’t make up the core of you workout, doing it once or twice a week will only benefit you, just as doing interval training once a week will. Interval training will help increase your VO2 max and anaerobic capacity, while long distance running will help you recover inbetween rounds and teach you how to pace yourself – something that just isn’t learned from interval training, and a thing that a lot of fighters need to learn.

3. Be sexually active. Regular sexual activity is known to increase testosterone levels, in addition to promoting good general mental and physical health. Depression is a great way to gas out; being under stress puts, well, additional stress on the body, so make sure you’re getting some. Don’t listen to that nonsense about not having sex before a fight; GSP doesn’t, so why should you?

4. Spar frequently. Sparring is one of the best ways to simulate a fight. A lot of fighters spar, but they don’t do it as frequently as they should. Low intensity sparring should be used several times a week (4-5), preferably against different opponents for different rounds. I don’t recommend doing high intensity sparring more than one or two times a week due to the possibility of injury and problems with recovery and overtraining. When you’re sparring, make sure to work on your pacing.

5. Stay hydrated. Being dehydrated will significantly decrease your overall energy levels and ensure that you gas out in the first round every-single-time. If you’re cutting weight, I suggest using pedialye to replenish your fluids after the weigh in. If you’re not cutting weight, make sure you keep your body full of electrolytes and water. I recommend drinking about a gallon of water a day while keeping sodium intake up in order to stay completely hydrated. You’ll feel better and last longer (no, not that way.)

Sandbag Workouts for MMA

Posted on May 4, 2011 by james in Calisthenics and Playground

If you’ve been reading this website frequently, then you might’ve noticed the amount of emphasis I put on functional strength for MMA. MMA is all about being functional; it doesn’t matter how much you can bench press if you can’t throw around your opponent. One of the best ways to build functional strength is to use sandbags for training.

Advantages of Sandbag Training in MMA

There are several advantages to using sandbags in your MMA workout. First, you’ll develop killer grip strength which is absolutely essential when grappling. Wrist control is one of the most important factors in submission grappling and MMA. Extensive sandbag training will give you gorilla-like grip strength, which means you’ll crush your opponents. Additionally, you’ll work a lot of stabilizing muscles while engaging in sandbag training. This is due to both the size of the sandbags and their shifting weight. Your opponent isn’t going to stand still while you try to move him, and sandbags are a great way to replicate this and make you a better MMA fighter.

The MMA Sandbag Workout

The MMA workout that follows uses a 3-day split, two of which make extensive use of the sandbag, while the other day focuses more on calisthenics and cardio. This program can be used during the 8-weeks leading up to a MMA fight, although I suggest using it more for maintenance and general strength building leading up to a fight. It doesn’t have enough fine-tuning to be completely effective leading up to a fight – other MMA conditioning routines are superior.

In form sets x reps. All exercises use sandbags unless otherwise specified.

Day 1:
Atlas Lift – 3×8
Split Lunge – 3×10
Sandbag Side Toss – 3×8
100m sprint w/ two atlas lifts at end – 1×5

Day 2:
.25 mile run with sandbag on back
Squats – 3×8
Cleans – 4×3
Full Twists – 3×8
Should Press – 3×6

Day 3:
.5 mile run with sandbag on back
Pull-ups – 3×8
Sprints (100m) 15s break – 2×5
2 mile run
Push ups – 3×30