Training for the MMA is no small feat. Conditioning your body leads to an extensive range of body mobility, which is the harbinger of success in boxing and martial arts.
A combat fighter for the MMA requires all the conditioning they can get. Full-body conditioning equips you to bear the brunt of MMA fighting, whether for stamina, resilience, or the ability to hop around with small and large steps in skilful style.
Here are some of our favourite ways to condition our students for MMA competitions:
Only a few exercises condition the body as well as a burpee. They are included in almost every MMA conditioning workout routine.
Since burpees include a push-up, plank, squat, and squat thrust, they become a gruelling bodyweight exercise - improving your body's readiness to last in long in-cage battles. Even better, burpees help you get your cardio for the day in a short time.
Additionally, a burpee targets your core muscles, arms, and chest. Thus, it helps MMA fighters to grapple and strike their opponents better. They also aid in boosting your endurance level to the standards of pro-MMA combatants. Due to this combat sport being such an intense act, you require a large amount of stamina that burpees build.
A few types of burpees you can incorporate into your workout are:
While MMA conditioning and training incorporate lunges into your rep sets, few are aware of its potency. Don't forget, the all-rounding effect of lunges conditions and strengthens your legs, hips, and back muscles with resistance training.
Begin adding stationary lunges to your MMA training routine first. Gradually move on to walking lunges and side lunges. Those who've developed an outstanding balance through learning fluent static lunges can expect conditioned abs and quadriceps as well.
Perform reverse lunges to switch up your routine and focus on your hamstrings more. They ease up the pressure from your knees and ankles and bring stability to your leg muscles. Moreover, adding a twist, where you turn your torso, will work your ankle muscles.
This no-equipment MMA conditioning exercise will make your legs like steel, readying you to test your combat skills against experts in the cage.
Another favourite of ours is the classic push-up. As we all know, the push-up primarily works out your chest, triceps, and shoulders. Such exercises support MMA trainees and professionals gain strength that helps them punch with more force. Simultaneously, they earn sufficient stamina to last in the boxing ring.
Read More: 5 rule guide while practicing on punching bags
Keep in mind that MMA trainees should not do extensive push-ups every day as you will strain your shoulder muscles, and it will hinder your ability to dole out a hit. Unless you only do two to three sets a day, it is recommended you give your shoulders an occasional break.
To condition your body to give you more force while hitting, you can add plyometric or explosive push-ups to your workout. We recommend adding:
Deadlifts develop your core strength, stabilise the spine, and ensure proper hip functioning - translating to the flexibility that most expert MMA fighters possess. This conditioning exercise improves your posture, increases muscle growth, and burns wasteful calories.
It is recommended for MMA fighters to deadlift as resistance training. Deadlifts target the glutes, hamstrings, and lumbar erectors. Furthermore, they improve the muscle’s ability to develop tension, i.e. the rate of force production.
To get the most out of your deadlifts, make sure:
Read More: How to improve your cardio for MMA?
Swimming is a sure-shot way to condition your body aerobically. For starters, swimming utilises all your muscles from your feet to your shoulders. Further on, it even expands your lungs and thus the oxygen flow in your body.
MMA conditioning needs aerobic exercises to sustain the work to leisure ratio. In short, it’s best to maintain a 1:2 or 1:4 proportion of a highly intense workout to a lower intensity workout. Remember, swimming enhances your cardiorespiratory threshold as well.
Note: If you want to make your swim session more intense, add aquatic hill sprints and do ten sets of high jumps for five reps in a shallow pool. After, perform six consecutive laps around the main pool.
Our most loved takes on MMA conditioning and training are a mix of both high and low-intensity exercises. Take care of how far you are straining your body. Conditioning is not a one-day process - we suggest planning out which exercises you do on which day.
Doing so will decrease the risk of overworking and fatiguing your muscles from the get-go. If paced out well, these five workouts will train your conditioning to desirable extents for an MMA competition.
Come train at our MMA Matrix gyms at Mumbai, Kolkata, Amritsar, Bareilly, Lucknow, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Kolhapur, and Vadodara.
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