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

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

Every fitness enthusiast is familiar with good old barbells and dumbbells. With just these two pieces of equipment themselves you can build a body that will make a supermodel drool or develop the raw strength and power that would even impress the local blacksmith.

When it comes to mma strength and conditioning, however, there is a limit with barbells and dumbbells to the type of power that mma fighters need.

With barbells and dumbbells, there are only so many power exercises you can do, such as cleans, snatches, or high pulls.

These exercises however are limited in terms of range of motion. In other words, you’ll notice that these particular lifts are all within the sagittal plane of motion – or vertical plane.

Mixed martial artists and combat athletes require development in power more in the transverse plane of motion – or any twisting movement that usually rotates from the core.

Punching, kicking, and throwing are all mainly in the transverse plane of motion, so it only makes sense to include these movements in your mma strength and conditioning workouts.

And This is Where Barbells and Dumbbells are Most Limited

Think about it; is it realistic (or safe) to swing or throw a dumbbell to the side, do a wood chop motion, or throw a barbell in the air while doing bench presses?

This is where medicine balls come in.

I’m sure you’ve seen them lying around your local gym, but you probably haven’t quite figured out how the hell an eight pound leather ball can develop knockout power, or just how and why to fit them into your mma strength and conditioning program.

Here are some recommended exercises you can (and should) begin adding to your mma strength and conditioning program right away so you develop the type of power that is required in throwing knockout punches and rib snapping kicks.

Wood Chops: Start with the medicine ball in front of your stomach with both hands. Extend your arms up and to the side towards your right ear, and then powerfully throw the medicine ball down diagonally (like you’re chopping wood) against the ground or the corner of a wall so that it is easy to retrieve. Work both sides. Keep your torso and head as straight as possible throughout the movement.

Side Tosses: Stand perpendicular to a wall with the medicine ball in front of your stomach in both hands. Now explosively rotate your body to the side as throw the ball with against the wall. Work both sides and keep your legs as stationary as possible through the movement.

Chest Passes: Lie down with your back flat on the ground and the medicine ball resting lightly on your chest with both hands. With a partner above you and ready to catch the medicine ball, explode the ball straight up with your chest and arms as powerfully as you can.

Medicine Ball Slams: Stand with your feet slightly wider then shoulder width apart with the medicine ball hanging by your stomach in both hands. Raise the ball up above your head, slightly raise up on your toes to build momentum, and slam the medicine ball down explosively with your torso and arms as one unit.

These are just a few good medicine ball power exercises you can utilize in your mma strength and conditioning workouts.

All you need to do is 3 or 4 sets max of 8 – 10 reps, with enough rest in-between so that each rep can be done as powerfully as possible.

Train hard, fellow fighters and fans.

Derek Manuel
MMA Strength and Conditioning

A benchmark in the MMA strength and conditioning fitness industry has truly been set at the beginning of this new decade.

With the memorial day of UFC 100 to in 2009, the straight up trend that has become the sport of MMA in terms of both fighters and fans, the ever increasing record breaking numbers as the UFC continues to grow, and the fact that it seems like every month the UFC is getting permission to host this fabulous sport into a new state or even country, MMA as a sport is well on it’s way to becoming the next NBA or NFL.

But last December has birthed a niche in mma that will become more and more popular as the months and years progress with the first UFC Gym opening up in Concord, CA.

The UCF and the New Evolution Fitness Company (NEFC) has formed an alliance to create a cutting edge fitness facility combing the mma training workouts and mma strength and conditioning techniques of professional mma fighters with that of the ever booming fitness industry.

First it was bodybuilding that the general public fell in love with, then cross-fit training has become a new trend in fitness, now the UFC is setting the trend for the latest new and innovative way for the public to get in shape.

Combining the fitness industry with MMA such as boxing, Muy Thai, jui-jitsu, wrestling, etc along with the many unique mma training methods will have people completely shift their perpestive in training and getting in shape.

“Our gyms are more than just treadmills and free weights. We want people to step foot inside a UFC Gym and be a part of an awesome experience.” Say’s UFC President Dana White.

These are truly exciting times for the MMA community. I have always stated that MMA strength and conditioning is still in its infancy and now we are beginning to see it age in maturity.

When MMA first become public, fighters were not only limited in their ability to mix different martial art styles to become more effective as a fighter overall, but they were also much less knowledgeable in terms of mma strength and conditioning.

Where as before fighters would just combine bodybuilding and other more general forms of strength and conditioning, now mma fighters are beginning to understand more and more the importance to developing their mma training workouts to be more and more specific and focused on the actual physical neccesities that the sport requires.

With the first UFC Gym now launched, I feel that not only the public but mma fighters themselves will begin to realize the importance of mma strength and conditioning as an integral part of their overall mma training workouts.

If you don’t live near the current UFC Gym but would still like to train like a fighter, I recommend Eric Wong’s MMA Ripped Program.

You don’t have to be a fighter to train like one, and Eric’s program is a complete and comprehensive program for those wanting to get in shape and look good using many of the same strength and conditioning exercises professional mma fighters use.

For more details, check it out here ===> MMA Ripped

Train hard fellow fighters and fans,

Derek Manuel
MMA Training Workouts