Posts Tagged ‘MMA Workouts’

MMA Workout Routine for Strength AND Cardio

MMA Workout Routine

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.

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8 Reason’s to Include Shadowboxing in Your MMA Training Workouts

The Importance of Shadowboxing in Your MMA Training Workouts
There is a ridiculous amount exercises and drills mixed martial artists have to select from in their mma training workouts. Boxing drills, grappling drills,
the millions of mma strength and conditioning exercises such as battling ropes, tire flipping, weighted sleds, kettlbells, uphill sprinting, circuits,
chicken chasing, sledgehammers, heavy bag training, speed bag drills, etc. (not really chicken chasing, I’m just trying to keep your attention)
But one thing I suggest to mma fighters all the time is to stick to the basics. Whether you are beginning mma or are an established mma fighter, working
hard on the basics is NEVER EVER a bad idea.
One of the most basic exercises that should never be left out of your mma training workouts is shadowboxing; although don’t let the name limit you to just
throwing punches.
There are few exercises and drills that compare to the many benefits of beating the living hell out of an imaginary opponent for several minutes.
Here is a list of SOME of the benefits of shadowboxing:
- Improved footwork (one of the most undeveloped and ignored attributes in mma)
- Foot and hand speed development
- MMA specific nueromuscular effiency
- Immediate feedback in form (when in front of mirror)
- Aerobic conditioning
- Anaerobic conditioning
- Developing combinations
- Noticing and breaking patterns/bad habits (again, a mirror is needed for this one
Not to forget…. it’s fun as hell! Who doesn’t like standing in front of a mirror in an empty room pretending to be in the octogan fighting for the title?
Practice shadowboxing in rounds, such as rounds in a fight. You can add all sorts of various forms of progression such as shorter rest periods, intense
and face paced striking/sprawling for one minute followed by light boxing for a minute for 5 or more minute rounds, or using gloves or light dumbbells
(no more then 3lbs max is needed and any more can actually be bad for your shoulders).
Shadowboxing has always been a staple in a boxers training regime, and I am suggesting that it become a staple in your mma training workouts.
This was also a staple in Bruce Lee’s daily training routines, and if you know anything about me, you know how much I love Bruce Lee. If Bruce gives it
the thumbs up, then there is no reason why it shoudn’t be a main component in your mma training workouts.

Muhammad Ali Shadowboxing

There is a ridiculous amount exercises and drills mixed martial artists have to select from in their mma training workouts.

Boxing drills, grappling drills, the millions of mma strength and conditioning exercises such as battling ropes, tire flipping, weighted sleds, kettlbells, uphill sprinting, circuits, chicken chasing, sledgehammers, heavy bag training, speed bag drills, etc. (not really chicken chasing, I’m just trying to keep your attention).

One thing I suggest to mma fighters all the time is to stick to the basics. Whether you are beginning mma or are an established mma fighter, working hard on the basics is NEVER EVER a bad idea.

(more…)

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MMA Conditioning Workouts: How to Save Time While Developing Strength And Cardio Simultaniously

One obstacle even the most motivated fighter in world will often face is the inability to realistically sacrifice the time it takes to elite levels of mma strength and conditioning.
I mean, the average person has a job, a family, school, or some other major obligation that simply cannot be comprised for putting the time it takes to become a mma fighter.
If you aspire to become a fighter with a chance to compete with some of the best, you have to develop a certain level of mastery in three different categories:
Martial Arts Skill
Plain and simple, if you want to be a good fighter, you’re going to have to put in the man hours it takes to learn how to fight.
This includes striking, kicking, the clinch, throws and take-downs, grappling, and everything else in between; not to mention putting these altogether so that you can harmoniously transition from each of these distinctive techniques and their respective styles.
This alone can take YEARS to develop and requires a minimum three to five days a week of consistently improving your technique and skill.
There is no short-cut in regards to time when it comes to developing the skill it takes to become a mma fighter.
Strength and Power
Fortunately, because of the nature of the human body, developing strength and power doesn’t take several hours a day to develop. On the contrary, it shouldn’t take more than  4 hours a week to constantly improve your strength and power, and in many cases much less.
This is something most people can fit into their schedule without making any major sacrifices of time in their daily life.
Cardiovascular Conditioning
Developing your cardiovascular conditioning, like strength and power, doesn’t have to take too much time out of your day, but still requires consistent effort.
No more then 20 – 60 minutes of cardio 4 to 5 days a week is needed to develop maximum levels of cardio conditioning.
Again, developing your cardio doesn’t take too much time in your day by itself, but once you begin putting all three of these together, it can add up to several hours A DAY that many people simply don’t have.
Saving Time with Circuit Training in your MMA Conditioning Workouts
Once you factor in your strength, power, cardio and overall conditioning in, the hours start to really pile up.
Like I stated above, the average busy person just doesn’t have an extra 2 or more hours a day to dedicate to strength and conditioning, especially if they are heavily engaged in attending a mma school to develop their skill daily.
There is a way, however, to save time by combining your strength training with your cardio in your mma conditioning workouts. This is through circuit training, also known as complexes.
A circuit is moving from one exercise to another with little to no rest periods in between each exercise, not stopping to rest until one “circuit” is complete.
With each workout, you can either increase the weight you do for each exercise, or decrease the time it takes to complete a circuit.
The great thing about circuit training is that compresses the time it takes to develop strength, power, AND cardiovascular conditioning into one mma conditioning workout; and the best part is that circuit training normally doesn’t take longer than 25 minutes a day to complete.
Don’t assume that with circuit training you’ll work any less hard or get any less of a result.  In fact, this type of training is one of the most physically demanding things you can do if you really push yourself, and is a staple in every fighter’s mma training workouts.
To learn more about circuit training and complexes for mma fighters, or to get started on proven mma conditioning workouts developed specifically for aspiring fighters who have little time but still want the results, the top two programs I would recommend are

circuit-training-room

One obstacle even the most motivated fighter in world will often face is the inability to realistically sacrifice the time it takes to develop elite levels of mma strength and conditioning.

The average person has a job, a family, school, or some other major obligation that simply cannot be comprised for putting the time it takes to become a mma fighter.

If you aspire to become a fighter with a chance to compete with some of the best, you have to develop a certain level of mastery in three different categories:

(more…)

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MMA Workouts: A Great Way to Release Stress

MMA Workouts to Relieve Stress

I had a pretty bad day yesterday and today, and all day long I found myself having a hard time concentrating on my work and other important things in life.

When time came to train for one of my mma workouts, within the first 5 minutes  of training all the negative energy and stress that had been building up all day simply vanished. The intense physical warm-up had me focusing on one thing and one thing only – getting through it.

When it was time to train for technique, my endorphins and adrenaline was running wild, and all my focus was on learning each technique.

Finally, the last hour of my mma workout was my favorite and what really cleared my mind completely of all the negative energy and emotions that had been bogging me down for the past 24 hours: sparring.

Throughout the whole hour, I was forced to FOCUS on nothing but the task at hand. I was placed in a position in which I had to do battle with another opponent. The act of engaging in competition and giving your all physically and mentally left NO ROOM for any outside baggage.

The only thing running through my head was defeating each and every one of my opponents and improving my game.

What’s my point? MMA workouts are some of the best stress relievers of all time.

Nothing else that I tried for the past day and a half could get my mind off of what was bothering me. I couldn’t THINK about anything else, and I couldn’t FOCUS on any work at hand.

But when I was forced into a position in which I HAD to be in the moment and focus on my opponent – otherwise resulting in pain and defeat – everything that had been stressing me out from before instantly vanished.

Sure, there is a plethora of physical benefits from mma workouts, but one of the best benefits you can ever receive is clearing your mind of any negative baggage you may currently be experiencing.

Of course, it will come back, but your mind will be a lot sharper and much more clearer, and your level of stress will certainly be lowered, allowing you to perhaps make better decisions then you might have had you sat around all day and let your negative thoughts snowball.

Hope this helps,

Train hard fellow fighters,

Derek Manuel
MMA Workouts

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