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

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.

In other words, how would you like to kill two birds with one stone (how the hell did this saying get popular, anyway?) by developing your cardio in your next mma weight training workout?

What most people think is that anytime you are resistance training or lifting weights that you are only developing strength and power in your muscles, and not your cardio.

The fact of the matter is, anytime you are breathing hard, where your heart is beating faster and you are huffing and puffing, you are developing your cardio.

This means that if you are lifting heavy weights for an hour long period, and your rest periods are short enough that you are breathing hard the WHOLE workout, then you are getting a cardiovascular workout.

However, lifting heavy weights, doing low reps, and taking long rest periods -though still may be a cardio workout – isn’t ideal for the type of conditioning required for mma fighters.

So in order to maximize your time, effort, and most importantly your results in your mma workout routine where you are not just developing strength and power in resistance training but you are training in a way that still makes it a great cardio workout, you’ll want to try circuit training.

There are many, many benefits to circuit training that in most cases actually develop your cardio far better then running around your block for several miles.

Some example benefits of circuit training are:

- More intense cardio sessions than running: meaning you are actually working your heart and lungs harder in a shorter period of time then simply running can do

- Trains the conditioning of your entire body, rather then just your legs as with running or cycling.

- Much more effective at burning calories and fat, thus a more faster and effective way then traditional cardio exercises

- Specific circuit training mma workout routines can increase your strength, power, strength endurance, power endurance, or all four all while increasing your cardio capacity

- More sport specific to mma (circuit training exercises are more similar to muscles and movements used in a fight, rather then just running)

These are just a few of the key benefits of circuit training. The bottom line is that you don’t have to train your strength and your cardio separately like it’s traditionally done.

In fact, it’s more effective to do them together, assuming you are following a specific mma workout routine with this purpose.

Not sure how to set up an effective circuit training workout? Eric Wong’s Ultimate MMA Strength and Conditioning Program contains a lot of different circuit training exercises in his book, especially towards the end after the main workouts he has in there.

Check it out here for more details on his book, I bought it over a year ago and still follow his programs to this day, all good stuff and I highly recommend it.

Hope this helps,

Derek Manuel
MMA Workout Routine

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