MMA Training Blog

MMA Workouts with Odd Shaped Objects

July 12th, 2010

Derek Manuel

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.

Posted in MMA Conditioning, MMA Strength Training, MMA Workout Routine, MMA Workouts

Tags: MMA Conditioning Workouts, MMA Strength Training, mma training workouts, MMA Workout Routine, MMA Workouts

MMA Strength Training for Muscle Endurance Part 2

July 6th, 2010

Derek Manuel

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:

Posted in MMA Strength Training, MMA Workout Routine

Tags: MMA Strength Training, MMA Workout Routine

How 60 Seconds or Less Change Your MMA Conditioning Workouts Forever

June 1st, 2010

Derek Manuel

When conditioning for MMA, every second of exercises AND rest count

If you’ve been training with mma conditioning workouts for a while but you still find yourself gassing out in your training or competition, you may be making a mistake in your training that can be fixed in 60 seconds or less.

One of the biggest but perhaps unnoticed mistakes that I’ve seen mma fighters or combat athletes make in their training is not enough attention to the time they “rest” in between sets, reps, intervals, or rounds in their mma conditioning workouts.

Posted in MMA Conditioning, MMA Workout Routine

Tags: MMA Conditioning, MMA Conditioning Workouts

MMA Workout Program with the Sledgehammer

May 27th, 2010

Derek Manuel

Sledgehammer MMA Workout

When you think of hardcore or old school training methods to develop raw strength and power, usually the picture of some bad-ass looking dude wielding a sledgehammer like it was Thor’s Mighty Hammer and slamming it on an old monster truck tire comes to mind.

Although this exercise goes back decades, to this day it is still a vital one to throw in your mma workout program. On top of the many physical benefits, it just feels damn good to swing a thick wooden stick with a big chunk of iron at the end with all your might.

It brings to the wielder a feeling a raw power and animalistic aggression that smith machines and sissy looking stability ball exercises simply can’t provide (nothing against these exercises, of course; they have their time and place).

Posted in MMA Workout Routine, MMA Workouts

Tags: mma workout program, MMA Workout Routine

MMA Conditioning Workouts: New Age of Circuit Training

May 25th, 2010

Derek Manuel

Bear crawls is a great mma conditioning exercise

Circuit training has been around for a long time. It is a staple in exercise routines for developing cardiovascular endurance and muscular conditioning.

As the sport of mma becomes more and more popular and the standards for mma fighters strength and conditioning continues to increase, mma conditioning workouts need to be more refined and sport specific then ever.

Traditional circuit training had trainee’s doing typical “old school” exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups.

Although these will continue to be staple exercises for any athlete, fighters and combat athletes need more sport specific mma conditioning workouts and exercises.

Posted in MMA Conditioning, MMA Workout Routine, MMA Workouts

Tags: MMA Conditioning, MMA Conditioning Workouts

MMA Workout Routine for Strength AND Cardio

May 11th, 2010

Derek Manuel

GSP is an example of a strength and cardio machine

Anyone who knows the type of conditioning that is required to survive several rounds in a mixed martial arts bout understand that a high level of strength, power and cardio is absolutely vital.

Traditionally, when an athlete wanted to develop their strength and cardiovascular conditioning, these would essentially be two separate workouts. The athlete would strength train at one part of the day, then go run several miles or some other similar cardio exercise at another time of the day.

Surprisingly few are aware that you can develop your cardio, strength, and power at the same time in one mma workout routine.

(more…)

Posted in MMA Workout Routine, MMA Workouts

Tags: mma training workouts, MMA Weight Training, MMA Workout Routine, MMA Workouts

MMA Workout Routine for Grip Strength

March 6th, 2010

Derek Manuel

Grip strength is important for many techniques, such as wrist control for setting up submissions

In the sport of mma, fighters need to maximize their strength and conditioning in all areas to the highest level possible. One type of strength that is often overlooked or undeveloped is wrist or grip strength.

Yes, exercises like grappling and weight training exercises such as pull-ups or dead-lifts will certainly help your grip strength, but a supplementary mma workout routine that specializes on wrist and grip strength is needed every so often.

When most people think of grip strength, they think of how well you can squeeze the hell out of someones hand in a handshake. However, this is only one aspect of grip strength, often known as the crushing grip.

Other forms of grip strength are the pinch grip, where you are holding or pulling weight between your thumb and fingers, forearm and grip endurance, how long your forearm muscles can endure a certain grip, and finger strength.

Posted in MMA Workout Routine

Tags: MMA Workout Routine

MMA Workout Routine for Increased Strength Endurance

February 10th, 2010

Derek Manuel

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.

Posted in MMA Strength Training, MMA Workout Routine, MMA Workouts

Tags: MMA Workout Routine