MMA Conditioning Workouts

The common misconception that many new MMA Fighters and Athletes have is that just having the ability and endurance to run 5 miles a day will somehow translate in the MMA fighter's ability to shave the proper MMA conditioning they will need to fight in the ring.

In order for the MMA Fighter to perform at a high level, during the whole fight they are going to need to train in multiple "levels" of endurance training. These types or levels of endurance relate to the muscles and their ability to perform with and without oxygen. The types of endurance training an MMA fighter most focus on is...

• Aerobic Endurance - The ability of your muscles to perform with oxygen over long periods of time
• Anerobic Endurance - The ability of your muscles to perform without oxygen.
• Anaerobic Threshold - A level of exercise intensity beyond which the body cannot consume oxygen fast enough to support the energy demand. As a result, lactic acid begins to rapidly accumulate in the working muscles, hastening exhaustion.
• Vo2Max - the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and utilize oxygen during physical activity.

Increasing your Fight Endurance

Increasing your endurance really means increasinh the levels and capabilities of your...

1. Anaerobic Threshold
2. Vo2Max
3. Ability to relax

Increase Anaerobic Thershold

To improve your threshold you need to be perform activities at a VERY high intensity for up to 2 minutes. When performing these activities, your body learns to cope with increase lactate levels. Common exerises for increasing your Anaerobic Thershold would be any type of high intensity sprinting (running or swimming), high intensity circuit weight training, bodyweight conditioning exercises, high intenstity grappling and sparring.

When training to improve your Vo2Max - longer periods of exercise at a lower intensity. Swimming is an excellent way to increase your Vo2Max.

Relaxtion plays a huge role in the ability for a MMA fighter to perform in the cage. The ability to relax comes from experience and mental preparation. Some key tips for increasing your ability to relax during fight time are...

1. Hard sparring and fight training: If the training is brutal and hard, the fight is a welcome release. Challenge yourself outside the cage so that the MMA fight is easy.
2. Fight visualization - imagine everything about the fight, from getting your hands wrapped, walking out, hearing your music, entering the cage, touching gloves, the initial exchange, the techniques you before, and you WINNING the fight.
3. Start small - enter grappling or boxing fights first, this will prepare you for the big show.

Sample Workout Circuits

The best way to condition yourself for a fight is to condition yourself according to the rounds and time of the fight. If you fight is 4 minute rounds with one minute rest, perform your exercises non-stop for 4 minutes, take 1 minute rest and repeat or go on the next stations.

When training for conditioning, it is best to setup stations.

• Station 1: Burpees 30 seconds
• Station 2: Jump Rope 30 seconds
• Station 3: Sprawl 30 Seconds
• Station 4: Instense Jab Cross Combos 30 seconds

Rest

• Station 5: Sprawl to Double Takedown Exercise 30 Seconds
• Station 6: Ground and Pound bag 30 Seconds
• Station 7: Pushups 30 Seconds
• Station 8: Jumping Squats 30 Seconds

Rest - Repeat 2 more times

You can see that you can mix in or up anything into these workouts. You can just do kicks on the bag one time, you can do all combinations on the bag, you could incorporate dumbbells, a sandbag, a parnter, etc. Get creative. As long as you keep moving at a high intensity pace, you will do well.

The Pit Workout

The Pit Workout is a dynamic, three-day per week MMA and fighter workout program designed to build speed, power and endurance. Each one-hour program includes full body conditioning while targeting specific muscle groups. Be ready to work hard, sweat and have fun while building endurance, flexibility, strength, speed and power.

The Pit, John Hackleman and MMA Roots joined together in early 2004 in order to bring you one of the most talked about and physically demanding workouts of MMA today. Combine traditional martial arts with proven modern day MMA training techniques and your result is The Pit Workout. Take your MMA workout one step further by learning the top 27 fighting techniques in modern day mixed martial arts. These techniques are the most commonly utilized tested and proven pit skills. The Pit of today is the most well rounded Martial Arts & Fitness program anywhere.

The Pit seamless fused together traditional martial arts and MMA, to create an effective disciplined workout. The Pit Workout introduces “state of the art” training and incorporates a style of fitness that is tested and proven in modern MMA today. John “The Train” Hackleman has created the fitness and fighting system that is unequaled in the Martial Arts of the 21st Century. He also shares with us over 30 years of Pit History by boiling down and reducing old school systems into a simple philosophy, “use what works and discard what doesn’t.” Whether you are training for a martial arts competition or cross training for any other sport in the world, The Pit Workout will get you closer to your goals of ultimate fitness and conditioning. Simply combine a few of the basic Pit Techniques with one of the conditioning workouts and you will also be learning how to fight in competition or defend
yourself in the streets. Always, “Train for the Worst, and Hope for the Best”

Pit Workout One:
Emphasizes the upper body with specialized push-ups and punch combinations.

Pit Workout Two:
Works the lower body through squats, lunges and kick combinations.

Pit Workout Three:
Combines both workouts in an intense full-body routine.

MMA Gym Strength Workouts

A MMA fighters gym workout needs to be different then the typical bodybuilders workout. A MMA fighter's body needs to work as a whole and requires different types of strength from different groupings of muscle.

First, an MMA fighter needs to be able to explode and needs POWER. So a good portion of the exercises that the MMA fighter must perform needs to focus on raw explosive powerful strength. The best exercises for this are Push Presses, Deadlifts, Squats, Chest Presses, High Pulls, Cleans, Snatches and the variations of these exercises.

Second, a fighter needs to have strength endurance. They need their muscles to be able to keep humming and working for them. A lot of these exercises can done in circuits in conjunction with grappling and MMA drills. You would incorporate more bodyweight exercises along with punching drills, sandbag exercises, high reps cleans and snatches, sprints, etc. The bodyweight training article has some good examples of some circuits you can do.

Lastly a fighter needs to know when to train and how often to train along with your regular MMA training. Typically most fighters train 5-6 days a week. Unless you are a pro-fighter and fighting all the time, most fighters still need to go to a job everyday so it becomes tough to fit in your grappling, boxing, and MMA training along with your strength training.

The best way to split your training and incorporate both aspects of MMA training, is work on your strength in the morning or mid-day, then do your MMA skills training at night. I would suggest strength training 2-3x a week, preferably 3. If you have a fight coming up, cut it back to 2. Many MMA schools also have a conditioning day 1-3x a week. Don't lift on those days. Lift on opposite days.

Sample MMA Gym Workout Routines:

MMA Athletes Routine for Strength and Power

MONDAY
Power Clean - 3 sets of 3 reps warm up, then 3 t5 sets of 3 reps with a work weight, about 80% of a 1RM.
Bench Press - (medium to heavy day)- (if med)- 3 sets of 5 t6 reps warm up then 3 sets of 5 with a work weight. (if heavy)- work up over six sets of 5 t6 reps to limit set of 3 t5 reps on the last set. A rule of thumb puts a limit triple at about 90% of one's 1RM.
Squat - (light speed day)- one warm up set of 10 reps. Then 5 sets of 5 reps with no more than 65% and no more than 60 seconds rest between sets. Start with 60% . Apply 100% effort on every rep and do each rep as fast as possible.

WEDNESDAY
One Power Clean followed by 3 Military Presses followed by 2 Push Presses for 5 reps total per set - 3 warm up sets, then 3 sets of 5 reps with a work weight.
Deadlift - warm up- 10 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, then the same work weight for 3 t4 sets of 3 t4 reps. The Romanian DL or Straight Back Clean Style DL's are recommended. (On clean DL's use about 80% of your 1RM your first workout.)(On RDL's weight is not as important as doing the exercise correctly with strict form.)
NOTE: Because squats and deadlifts overlap the working of a lot of the same muscles, squats are not recommended the same day as deadlifts.

FRIDAY
Bent Row - 3 sets of 5 t6 reps warm up, then 3 sets of 5 t6 reps with a work weight.
Squat - (medium to heavy day) same formula as BP on Monday.
Bench Press - (light speed day) same formula as Squat on Monday.

Randy Couture MMA and Grappling Workout Circuit

Bent rows x8
Upright rows x8
Military press x8
Good morning x8
Lunges x8 (each leg)
Squat push press x8
Deadlift x8

Brock Lesnar Strength Workout

Sample Strength Training: 1 Hour Workout Duration

Leading up to a fight, these exercises need to be conducted with less weight, higher intensity that will also work on overall conditioning.

Day 1: Chest & Triceps

• Bench Press: 6 Sets 12 Reps
• Incline Dumbbell Press: 4 Sets 10 Reps
• Dumbbell Flyes: 3 Sets 8 Reps
• Cable Crossovers: 3 Sets 8 Reps
• Triceps Dips: 4 Sets 10 Reps
• Triceps Pushdowns: 4 Sets 10 Reps
• Skull Crushers: 3 Sets 10 Reps

Day 2: Back & Biceps

• Wide-Grip Pull-Up: 4 Sets 6 Reps
• Medium-Grip Pull-Up: 4 Sets 6 Reps
• Narrow-Grip Pull-Up: 4 Sets 6 Reps
• Seated Cable Row: 4 Sets 6 Reps
• Stiff-Legged Deadlift: 4 Sets 6 Reps
• Deadlift: 4 Sets 6 Reps
• Preacher Curl: 4 Sets 12 Reps
• Hammer Curl: 3 Sets 10 Reps
• Incline Dumbbell Curl 3 Sets 10 Reps

Day 3: Shoulders

• Overhead Barbell Press: 4 Sets 10 Reps
• Seated Dumbbell Press: 3 Sets 10 Reps
• Dumbbell Front Raise: 3 Sets 10 Reps
• Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 3 Sets 10 Reps
• Smith Machine Upright Row: 4 Sets 6 Reps
• Barbell/Dumbbell Shrug: 4 Sets 6 Reps

Day 4: Legs

• Leg Extension: 3 Sets 10 Reps
• Leg Curl: 3 Sets 10 Reps
• Narrow-Stance Smith Machine Squat: 4 Sets 6 Reps
• Medium-Stance Smith Machine Squat: 4 Sets 6 Reps
• Wide-Stance Smith Machine Squat: 4 Sets 6 Reps
• Leg Press: 4 Sets 6 Reps
• Stiff-Legged Deadlift: 4 Sets 6 Reps

Brock Lesnar MMA Muscular & Cardio Intense Endurance Training

1st Round: Pushing Muscular Endurance - 1 Minute

• Spiderman Push-ups
• PlyPush-ups
• Mounted Punching
• Tire Push
• Hand Switch

2nd Round: Pulling Muscular Endurance - 1 Minute

• Recline Pull-ups
• Bodyweight Pull-ups
• Pulling/Pushing tire
• Jumping Pull-ups
• Heavy bag Twirl

3rd Round: Cardio Endurance Training - 1 Minute

• Airdyne Bike (70rpm)
• UBE Machine
• Incline Treadmill (as steep as possible)
• Windsprint Bike (standing full time)
• Airdyne Bike

4th Round: Hybrid Strength Training

• Jammer Machine
• One arm Sledge Hammer
• Medicine Ball Sprawls
• Bear Crawls
• Transition Station

5th Round: Most Intense Round - No Rest Periods

• Airdyne Bike (70rpm)
• UBE Machine
• Incline Treadmill (as steep as possible)
• Windsprint Bike (standing full time)
• Airdyne Bike

INTERMEDIATE BOXING/MMA WORKOUT

Workout Summary:

Training Level:	Intermediate
Main Goal:	Muscle Tone
Days Per Week:	6
Workout Type:	Split
Designed By:	M&S Writers

Description of Workout:

This workout is designed for anyone in Boxing/MMA and any combat sports. It’s a 6 day routine based on two compound weight days and four days intense cardio. This workout is for anyone on an intermediate level and beginners should do a 12 week beginners routine before attempting this one.

It was taken into account that most people would be training in proper classes so the day of that class would account for a cardio day on this routine.

Reps Can Be Adjusted To Suit Your Goals:

• Strength = 4-6 reps
• Gaining Muscle = 7-12 reps
• Endurance = 15-20

Workout Schedule:

• Monday: Weight Training
• Tuesday: Cardio/Fighting Practice
• Wednesday: Cardio/Fighting Practice
• Thursday: Weight Training
• Friday: Cardio/Fighting Practice
• Saturday: Cardio/Fighting Practice
• Sunday: Rest Day

Monday & Thursday - Weight Training:

Monday - Legs, Back & Grip Strength
Legs
Exercise	Sets	Reps
Squats	4	15-20
Leg Press	4	15-20
Leg Curls	4	15-20
Calf Raises	5	15-20
Back
Exercise	Sets	Reps
Pull Ups	4	15-20
Lat Pull Down	4	15-20
Seated Row	4	15-20
One Arm Dumbbell Row	4	15-20
Hyperextensions	4	15-20
Grip Strength
Exercise	Sets	Reps
Hand Grips	4	30 (slow reps)

Thursday - Chest, Shoulders & Triceps
Chest
Exercise	Sets	Reps
Bench Press	4	15-20
Incline Dumbbell Press	4	15-20
Shoulders
Exercise	Sets	Reps
Military Press	4	15-20
Dumbbell Press	4	15-20
Upright Rows	4	15-20
Shrugs	4	15-20
Triceps
Exercise	Sets	Reps
Dips	4	15-20
Close Grip Bench Press	4	15-20

Tuesday & Friday - Cardio & Bag/Pad Training:

Fighting Practice 30 mins (using bags or pads)

Example of practice for BOXING:

• 3 mins of Quick Jabs and Strikes
• 1 min rest
• 3 mins of Heavy Strikes
• 1 min rest
• 3 min freestyle combo's

Repeat as many times as possible and push it!

Followed by 30 min jog

Wednesday & Saturday - Martial Arts Cardio:

Fighting Practice 45 mins

Example for Martial Artists:

• Loosen Up by moving through the combinations of your preferred style (Karate = Kata)
• 30 second rest
• 3 mins Quick strikes on bag
• 1 min rest
• 3 mins of heavier strikes
• 1 min rest
• 3 mins freestyle combo's

Repeat as many times as possible and push it!

Followed by 100-200M Sprints