In a typical MMA workout routine that focus’s on using body-weight, most people think of exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, bear crawls, etc.

Though these are indeed excellent bodyweight exercises, another method fighters should include in their mma strength and conditioning workouts are doing resistance exercises, such as with dumbbells or barbells, using actual bodyweight as the resistance.

Though it’s key to condition your body to get comfortable moving it’s own weight, it’s important not to forget that when you’re in a MMA fight, you’re not just battling your own resistance, but that of your opponents.

That being said, it is equally important that you include this type of resistance training in your mma workout routine.

Here are some of the most important exercises you should be doing in your mma workouts with your bodyweight as the resistance:

- Bench press’s

- Squats

- Deadlifts (both regular and stiff-legged)

- Lunges (both forward and reverse)

- Bent-Over Barbell Rows

- Shoulder Press’s

A good measure of relative strength, which is your strength to bodyweight ratio, is to be able to perform at least a couple reps of each of these exercises with your bodyweight in good form.

If you find yourself not able to do at least 3 -5 reps with any of these exercises with your bodyweight in good form, then you know a good place to start.

For exercises that you find relatively lighter, such as with squats and deadlifts, you can work on your strength endurance with these exercises through various mma workout routines.

Most people struggle with the lunges and the shoulder presses at this weight, so you may want to build up your levels of strength with these exercises first before working them into your mma workout routines for strength endurance.

After all, it’s called strength endurance, if you have no strength to begin with, what the hell are you trying to endure – weakness?

Next time, before one of your mma workouts, record the amount of reps you can do for each exercise above (remember to have a spotter) in good form, and make it a goal to increase these numbers every several months.

Don’t forget to share your results below!

Train hard, train smart, fellow fighters and fans.

Derek Manuel
MMA Workout Routine

MMA Strength Training with Death Sets

When most people think of training with heavy weight, they follow the mindset that it must be done with low reps. Same kind of thinking goes with the reverse: light weight, a lot more reps.

When it comes to MMA strenght training however, mma fighters are the rare type of athletes that need not only raw strength, but strength endurance as well, or the ability to exert maximum or near maximum effort over and over for a long period of time.

One way you can incorporate this into your MMA strength training routine is through power complexes, where you superset a compound exercise with heavy weight and low reps immediately with a light or body weight exercise for a lot of reps.

This is a very effective way of developing both strength and strength enduranace, and you can do this to develop your power and power endurance as well.

Death Sets

Another but much less known method fighters can incorporate into their mma strength training routine is called “Death Sets,” and by their name you’ll get a glimpse of how grueling they are.

The concept of death sets is simple: heavy weight for a lot of reps.

Huh? Isn’t that a paradox?

Maybe, but this can be done with a few exercises, mainly compound exercises for the bigger muscles.

The most grueling exercise you can do, but also perhaps the most beneficial as a mma fighter and complete athlete overall, are death sets with squats.

Here’s how you do them. Load up the barbell with weight you would normally do 10 reps with. How do you make this into a death set? Do 20 reps with it instead.

On paper, this may sound illogical and even impossible, but most people underestimate their capacity with certain exercises.

You can’t do this with every exercise, such as isolation exercises, but with the major compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, and bent-over barbell rows, you can definitely give it hell.

Try incorporating these into your mma strength training workouts a couple times a year. I usually don’t suggest doing them more then 2 to 3 times a year, 6 or so weeks at a time, as it’s too exhausting to do in conjuction with regular MMA conditioning and skills training and requires a lot of rest in between each workout (3- 4 days in between each).

You’ll not just discover it’s one of the hardest things you’ll ever do physically, but you’ll be developing strength, strength endurance, conditioning, cardio, and mental toughness all in one.

Train hard, train smart, fellow fighters and fans.

Derek Manuel
MMA Strength Training

It’s not only the start of a New Year, but a new decade. If you’ve read my last post on how to ACTUALLY set and achieve your New Years Resolution goals, then you’re on the right track, assuming you’ve begun applying the first 3 steps.

Check out the blog post here if you havn’t read it yet.

If one of your goals for the new year will be to improve your performance for mixed martial arts, fitness, or both, you’ve come to the right place.

This year one of MY New Year’s resolutions is to really help you guys out in getting in better overall shape, specifically strength and conditioning for MMA.

That being said, this blog will hopefully be a much bigger help to you and your goals moving forward. So let’s say you want to start off the New Year with a bang. You want to get in elite fighters shape, whether to fight, compete, or just look and know you damn well could if you needed to.

One of the first places to look is at your current MMA strength and conditioning routine. Do you have one? Or do you just wing it? For most people, they either construct their own mma workout programs each day as they feel, or they think they are getting a good enough workout in the regular MMA skills training.

The problem with these two approaches is that you’ll never really improve your strength and conditioning for MMA to the point where you’ll have an advantage over your competitors.

Sure, you might (and should) be progressing nicely in your MMA technique and skills training with your instructor or class, but if you’re not putting in the same deliberate practice in your MMA strength and conditioning workouts you’re giving up a huge advantage.

So where to begin? The first place to begin is to learn from the experts. Since most people either can’t find or afford a specialized trainer specifically for mma strength and conditioning, the next best thing is to follow a proven program.

I have broken down and reviewed the top three MMA strength and conditioning programs out today, where everything from exercises, diet and nutrition, full on programs, and more are covered. All you have to do is follow instructions.

1) Eric Wong’s Ultimate MMA Strength and Conditioning Program
(Best overall MMA strength and conditioning program out today)

2) Jim Smith’s Combat Core Training
(All about training the core muscles most used for combat athletes)

3) Eric Wong’s MMA Ripped
(Best program for fan’s and fitness enthusiasts who want to train like a fighter without being one)

By starting off with one of these programs in the new year, you will be well on your way to making 2011 THE year to really step up your MMA strength and conditioning goals.

Not only will you get results after completing one of these programs, but you will have the knowledge and experience to THEN start experimenting with your own workouts and exercises since you’ll have a hell of a lot more knowledge the before. Start building your mental and physical momentum now, and make 2011 your year.

Hope this helps,

Derek Manuel

MMA Strength and Conditioning

As the above image of the heavyweight enigma Fedor Emelianenko suggests, looks can be deceiving. At first glance you wouldn’t think he’s a very physically strong or conditioned human being, but anyone who’s seen him fight would attest otherwise.

Have you ever rolled with an opponent who, before clashing, you thought you were going to be able to manhandle – only to discover he’s freakishly more strong then you anticipated?

What about the other way around? If you train in MMA or some kind of grappling art long enough, I’m sure once you were intimidated by the muscle size of your opponent, and then realizing right after you start grappling that he isn’t nearly as strong as you thought.

Some people naturally have better looking builds then others, and some people are naturally strong but don’t look it. And then there are those gifted with both, such as the case with Georges St. Pierre.

However, there are some people who can train as hard as GSP and for as long as he has (though I seriously doubt that many do) but will never have the physique of the Canadian welterweight.

Again, everybody’s born with different physical genetics, and everybody develops at a different pace then each other both looks wise and strength wise.

The point is this: for combat athletes, it is much more important to develop one’s strength and conditioning in your mma workouts and not gauge you progress on how you look.

Of course, any athlete who follows a solid mma workout and has a good diet will most definitely develop a better physique then if they sat around on their asses all day eating Twinkie’s, but this should just be a by-product of your training, and not the end goal.

If you’ve read any of my past stuff, you’ll know how I emphasize power endurance as the main physical attribute mma fighters want to develop to be in optimal fighters shape.

Power exercises means moving resistance quickly. When you are moving resistance quickly, you are not necessarily building the muscle fibers that are ideal for muscle mass and definition.

This means you can be very powerful, but not look physically imposing (i.e. Fedor).

Now, I’m a guy, and I like having a fit and muscular and lean looking body just like the next guy, so I’m not saying that working out with the goal of looking good from your mma workouts is necessarily a bad thing.

What I’m saying is that if you are planning on fighting or competing in some kind of martial art competition, remember to follow the advice of Pat Riley, “the main this is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

And the main thing in a mma strength and conditioning workout is to further develop your strength and conditioning.

If you want to throw in an extra set of curls every once in a while or do a couple ab exercises that have absolutely no use other then building a thick muscular six pack, go ahead, especially if it’s the beginning of your “training camp” and your fight isn’t for a while.

But the closer it gets to your fight or competition, you’d better be focusing on your performance in your coach’s eyes rather then how you look in the mirror.

Hope this helps,

Derek Manuel
MMA Training Workouts

Although mma workouts weren’t the first to include odd shaped objects with various strength and conditioning exercises, the sport is certainly helping it grow in popularity.

Outside of being an exciting way to add spice to your mma workouts rather then the same old push and pull exercises with barbells and dumbbells, their should be a method to the madness.

Just because your flipping tires and throwing medicine balls and carrying around a sandbag doesn’t necessarily mean your optimizing your mma workouts if there’s no formula for progression to it.

The easiest way to make sure you’r still getting the best out of your mma training workouts with these various pieces of equipment is to follow a progressive program the same way you would with a barbell/dumbbell mma strength and conditioning workout.

If one of your exercises, such as deadlifts, in your traditional mma workouts requires you to either increase the weight, reps, sets, or decrease the rest periods as you progress every week, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t keep this same formula in mind when deadlifting a heavy sandbag, or keg, or railroad tracks, or whatever the hell you decide to get your hands on.

If after a few workouts you can perform a desired amount of reps with the sandbag, instead of using that same weight, changing the exercise, or pointlessly doing more reps…. ADD MORE WEIGHT IN THE BAG!

The same goes with any other exercise outside of the standard iron. If you’re doing an mma conditioning workout that involves tire-flipping, then make a goal to decrease the time it takes to complete a set or circuit.

In summary, don’t just think that since you’re working out with sandbags and tires and any other awkward piece of equipment that you’re getting a good workout.

You certainly wouldn’t let yourself bench press the same weight day after day, week after week, month after month, with no progression be it in weight, reps, sets, or shorter rest periods – so it doesn’t make any sense to forget this important key when training with any other form of resistance in your mma training workouts.

Train hard, train smart, fellow fighters and fans.

Derek Manuel
MMA Training Workouts

MMA Strength Training for Muscle Endurance

Last week I wrote about how increasing your maximum strength (ie your 1 rep max on the bench press) will actually indirectly increase you muscle and strength endurance.

This week, I wanted to add on one extra tactic you can add to your mma workout routine to really develop your muscle endurance in conjunction with newly added strength.

Let’s say you took my advice and really worked on increasing your maximum strength with a MMA strength training workout focusing on a few important compound exercises.

Although this will tremendously help increase your muscle and strength endurance, it is still important that you get your body used to moving its own weight repeatedly without getting tired.

There are two ways you can do this in your MMA workout routine:

1. Include a similar bodyweight exercise for every heavy exercise you do

If you increased your deadlift one rep maximum by 25 pounds, this is a huge step to increasing the muscle and strength endurance of the muscles used in this exercise.

Now, by adding a similar bodyweight exercise, such as hip thrusts or burpee’s, either by doing super-sets or adding it independently, and doing several explosive set’s of these, you’ll take your muscle endurance up an extra notch.

This way you are not only training your body to increase its capacity to deal with heavy weight, but you are now training your body’s cardio capacity to move its own weight quickly and explosively.

2. Perform different exercises with various equipment using your own body weight

Another way to spice up your MMA workout routine and increase your muscle and strength endurance is to not only train with increasingly heavier weight, and not just condition your body to handle its own weight, but to take it one step further and develop your muscles to it to handle the weight of your opponents.

If you weigh 170 pounds, in most cases your opponents are going to weigh roughly the same (at least if you’re competing in an organized event).

That being the case, it makes sense to get your arms, legs, back, and the rest of your muscles used to throwing this weight around and feeling it’s resistance.

By doing various exercises with 170 pounds (or whatever your body weight is) such as bench presses, deadlifts, squats, sandbag workouts, etc, and by doing them in a full MMA strength training and conditioning routine, you’ll be developing your muscles capacity to handle your opponents weight in various scenarios.

Hope this helps

Derek Manuel
MMA Workout Routine

When most people think of developing muscle endurance, they immediately think of body weight exercises and light resistance resistance training for higher volume of reps.

Although this is indeed a good way develop muscle endurance, if this was ALL you did, you would actually be limiting the development of your muscle endurance tremendously.

You’d be developing just the same if not better muscle endurance by doing the exact opposite: lift heavy weight.

“What the hell are you talking about Derek,” you might say, “you’re trying to tell me lifting heavy weight for low reps is a better way to build muscle endurance? You’re crazy.”

Although I indeed may be a little crazy, there is some truth to what I’m talking about; let me explain:

Strength Training vs Light Resistance Training

Let’s say you can bench press 185 pounds for 1 rep, and I can only bench 165 pounds for 1 rep. In most cases, this means that you would most likely be able to perform more reps then me with 135 reps. Follow me?

Now let’s say you go on a MMA strength training program with a focus on just increasing your strength on all the major compound exercises – heavy weight, low amount of reps.

Meanwhile, I continue to build my muscle endurance by doing a lot of body weight exercises and high rep, light resistance exercises.

Fast forward 3 months. Through your strength training program you increased your bench press to 215 pounds for 1 rep.

Me on the other hand, didn’t increase any of my max lifts but I can perform more reps with 135 pounds in the bench press, and my cardiovascular and muscular recovery is much faster between sets with this weight…..

…. but so is yours with 135 pounds, right?

Think about it. Not only did you increase your strength, but you automically increased your muscle endurance as a by- product. Doing 10 reps with 135 pounds on the bench press is going to be much easier for you after you increase your 1 rep max from 185 lbs to 215 lbs.

But me on the other hand, although I can do more reps with 135 lbs, am probably still not going to be able to do much more then a few reps at 165 or  higher.

Did we both increase our muscle endurance? Yes. But what’s the difference and why is it important for fighters to include MMA strength training in their muscle endurance workouts?

Let’s say you and I weigh the same weight, and fought each other in a mma competition or grappling match (for sake of this example, let’s assume our skill and technique are equal).

Whenever we tie up in different positions such as the clinch, grappling, etc. and use physical force against each other, I have a much more likely chance of “gassing out” then you.

Why? Because since you are much stronger then me, your resistance against mine is much more work for me then my resistance against yours.

Looking at it another way, compare you doing reps with 165 pounds on the bench press vs me doing reps with that same weight.

Since I’m not as strong as you, I’m exerting MUCH more physical strength then you. Naturally then, my muscles are going to lose steam much quicker then yours.

Summary

In short, increasing your maximum strength is the foundation for all muscular conditioning. By developing your max lifts in your MMA strength training workouts, you will still be increasing your potential for muscle and strength endurance.

For mma fighters and trainers, it’s always best to mix these different mma workout routines so that you develop all the necessary attributes of a fighter.

If you’re looking for the best put together mma workout programs available, be sure to check out the top reviewed MMA Strength Training Workouts Here if you haven’t already.

Train hard, train smart, fellow fighters and fans,

Derek Manuel
MMA Strength Training

MMA Strength Training: Free-Weights or Machines?

MMA strength training is much more complex then what most other athletes require. Though there is no one best way to develop mma specific strength, I often time suggest free-weights over machines at least 75% of the time.

The main reason being is that mma fighters need to develop not only the major muscles of the body, but they equally need to develop their stabilizer muscles as well, and machines take a lot away from this.

When building strength with machines, a lot of the movement is guided and leveraged and the machine is doing what your stabilizer muscles would be doing without the support.

With free-weights, the movement is unstable, and when lifting the weight you are not only developing your stabilizer muscles by forcing them to keep your movement balanced, but you are training your brain to learn how to deal with resistance in an unstable environment, something mma fighters brain’s should become familiar with since they often find themselves in these positions.

Free-weights should make up the majority of exercises in your mma strength training program since they develop the type of raw and functional strength you simply cannot get through machines.

Balancing two heavy dumbbells will develop much more functional strength that will carry over to mma then trying to build strength doing bench presses on a smith machine.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I am totally against machines, there certainly is a time and place.

For example, if you are doing pull-ups and after a few sets your muscles are so exhausted you can barely squeeze out a few reps on your next, you can go over to the lat pull-down bar and reduce the weight to an amount where you can do the amount of desired reps.

This and other alternatives are great ways to build muscle endurance.

But for building strength, free-weights are almost always a better choice in you mma strength training workouts.

Once you are looking to develop other types of strength such as strength endurance and muscular conditioning, you can incorporate machines in your workouts along side of free-weights.

In summary, if you are looking to up your strength and power, free-weights should be the staple of your mma strength training workouts.

Mix it up with barbells and dumbbells, sandbags and kettle bells, doing exercises standing vs sitting, and even doing some exercises on the stability ball.

Each one of these methods are unique ways to increase your strength and stabilization muscles from various angles, something machines simply cannot do.

Train hard, fellow fighters.

Derek Manuel
MMA Strength Training

MMA weight training is a whole different ball game than most other sports. Virtually every physical attribute must be developed to the highest degree possible as well as work harmoniously together as one unit.

It has been proven time and time again that, much like having limited skill in various martial arts, having limited physical capacities can be a huge disadvantage as a fighter. MMA weight training and other forms of resistance training, if done properly, can greatly enhance a mma fighter’s strength and conditioning.

But the key phrase here is, IF DONE PROPERLY. There can be a lot of wasted effort in a mma weight training workout if the fighter doesn’t train with a specific purpose in mind. Standard bodybuilding or general fitness exercises performed the conventional way simply won’t cut it.

MMA Specific Weight Training

A proper MMA weight training program consists of the right balance of strength and power exercises coordinated in a way that supplements the techniques and skill of a fighter.

As an example, this means you don’t just do squats for the sake of getting “stronger or bigger legs.” You’ll want to know how to transfer your new found leg strength into specific application.

So let’s say you added 50 pounds to your squat. Now, you’ll want to work on developing leg power so that you are not just strong, but explosive, such as the explosiveness needed in shooting in for a take-down.

You can do this by supplementing your heavy squats with exercises like box jumps, sprints, or jumping dumbbell squats.

On top of leg strength from squats and leg power, you’ll also need to add supplementary muscle endurance and conditioning exercises to your mma weight training workouts. Newly developed leg strength will become useless in a fight if your legs tire out within the first couple of minutes.

MMA weight training workouts such as circuit training are great for developing the muscular endurance needed to accomplish this. Light-weight high-rep squats, split squats, and lunges would be good exercises to develop not only strength endurance in your legs but are great for developing all the muscles involved in the legs in a coordinating fashion.

Applying Your New Strength and Power

The final and perhaps most important step to maximizing your mma weight training workouts is to apply your new found strength and conditioning to your mma technique.

By combining specific weight training exercises with your skills training, you will not only be just developing strength and conditioning, but you’ll be coordinating your muscles to use your strength and conditioning for a specific purpose.

Apply this principle to all of your exercises and the respective muscles in your mma weight training workouts and you’ll be much more effective than just hitting the gym and doing a bunch of aimless exercises. Make every part of your mma weight training routine sport specific, and leave getting a good “pump” for the Guidos.

A Great Overall Complete MMA Weight Training Program

If you’re looking for a step-by-step complete and comprehensive mma strength and conditioning program, be sure to check out my personal favorite:

Ultimate MMA Strength and Conditioning Guide by Eric Wong

It’s tried and true and covers everything from A-Z with not only weight training for mma but diet, conditioning, stretching, and everything else in between.

Check out the rest of the details here ===> Ultimate MMA Strength and Conditioning Guide

Hope this helps,

Derek Manuel
MMA Weight Training

When training for mma, it is not enough just to have strength. It is not enough to just have endurance. One of the most important attributes to develop in your mma workout routine is strength endurance.

Strength endurance is not the same thing as muscular endurance, though both should be developed in your mma workout routine. Muscular endurance is the ability to execute muscular contractions over and over again for a length of time, where strength endurance is the ability to execute MAXIMUM muscular contractions over and over again.

Think 100 push-ups as muscular endurance and bench pressing your 1-3 rep max for as many reps as you can in a 3 minute period as strength endurance.

Why Strength Endurance is Important in MMA

Put quite simply, if you don’t have strength endurance then being stronger then your opponent isn’t going to be an advantage for more then a few minutes into the fight or even after a few seconds.

If your muscular conditioning isn’t developed properly then after just a few maximum muscular contractions (such as picking your opponent up for a take-down, defending a take-down, or failing an attempt for a guillotine choke) you’ll no longer have that level of strength available for the rest of the fight.

There are many different mma workout routines to help develop your strength endurance. You can develop it partially by just increasing your maximum strength, or working on your muscular conditioning.

If you want a mma workout routine to build both simultaneously, then one of the best ways to accomplish this is strength and power complexes or circuits.

Here is an example of a set of power complexes from a typical mma workout routine:

5 reps of heavy squats followed immediately by 10 reps of burpees. This would be 1 set, and the goal is to do as many sets of these as you can in a given time-frame, such as 5 minutes.

1 Round = 5 min

1 Set = 5 reps of squats followed by 10 reps of burpees

Goal: As many sets as possible in 1 round

In a full mma workout routine you’ll want to execute several of these “rounds”, with each round a different combination of exercises (in other words, round 2 would be 5 minutes of two different exercises other then the squats and burpees, such as deadlifts followed by mountain climbers).

Variations of Progress for Strength Endurance

Depending on what you want to focus on determines how you want to progress with a workout like this.

So if you wanted to increase your muscular endurance and conditioning, you can use the same weight each workout but work on doing more sets per round and/or decreasing your rest period between sets.

On the other hand, if you wanted to increase your strength endurance, you could progress by doing the same amount of sets per round and/or keeping the rest periods the same but increase the weight in each workout.

In summary, always keep in mind that anytime you build new levels of strength, it’s is equally important as a mma fighter to take that new strength and convert it into strength endurance, otherwise 80% of your strength potential could become obsolete very quickly in the ring or cage.

Hope this helps,

Derek Manuel
MMA Workout Routine