Randy Couture has some of the best conditioning in MMA

Today I realized a very important lesson, and that is why it’s so important that your mma conditioning workouts need to be bad ass. I have been training in MMA for quite some time now, and tonight’s training was one of the most grueling workouts I’ve ever been through.

More importantly, I experienced the importance of the proper development of strength and conditioning if you are going to be able to last several rounds in a tough fight.

We did round after round of different “battery drills” with the focus on different grappling situations. One drill was the wall drill, where you have your back up against the wall and you have opponent after opponent try to take you down for a five minute round, then another round of taking your opponent down with his back against the wall, and so on with similar drills.

Let’s stay on the wall drill for the sake of this article. If you’ve never done this drill, you’ll get a test of your strength and conditioning instantly the first time you do it, and here’s why:

This drill requires you to use all three energy systems:

1) ATP-CP System: High energy or explosive movements without oxygen (lasts about 10 seconds)

2) Anaerobic System: High energy or explosive movements without oxygen (usually lasts about 2 minutes)

3) Aerobic System: Low energy over long term using oxygen (15 minutes or more)

Let’s say you’re the one attempting to take-down your opponent(s) for 5 minutes. When you shoot in for a take-down, whether it’s a single leg, double leg, or other, this requires the ATP-CP system.

Now your fighting to pick your opponent up, switching from a single to a double or visa versa, pausing for a quick second, exploding again to take your opponent down, but he’s both strong and has great take-down defense. This requires the anaerobic system.

You finally get your opponent down, and the next opponent is fresh and ready to defend (or a real mma fight example, your opponent immediately pops back up and you’re starting over). After several rounds of this, you begin to tap into the aerobic system.

Here’s the point…

If you don’t have the proper conditioning in ALL THREE of these energy systems, you’re gassing out one way or another.

And THIS is why proper mma conditioning workouts are absolutely critical. You can run around your block for 45 minutes a day for months on end, but that will only develop your anaerobic conditioning, so your ass will still gas out in this drill within seconds.

“But, Derek”, you say,” I don’t just jog, I know I need anaerobic conditioning as well, so I do some sprinting and other interval training as well, so what do you gotta say about that!”

Sorry to burst your bubble, do that all you want, then try this wall drill for 5 minutes – you’re still going to physically wear down within the first couple of minutes, if not seconds.

Why? Because you really haven’t done squat yet to develop your ATP-CP energy system, or any muscular conditioning.

Every time you attempt to pick your opponent up and he stuffs you and stays standing, that few seconds of explosive energy takes a toll not only on your heart and lungs, but now your body needs to provide oxygen to all of your muscles involved in that movement as well.

And since you haven’t developed this type of conditioning yet, your muscles aren’t going to be properly trained for this, thus wear out quickly and leave you gasping for air and your arms and legs feeling like noodles.

The wall drill is only one example of why you need to develop these three energy systems. In any MMA fight, you also need to take into account striking battles, defending take-downs, grappling scrambles and other movements that require a mix and match of all these different energy systems.

Summary

As you can guess by now, a good mma conditioning workout must focus on developing all three of these types of energy systems. If you lack conditioning in just one of these, then you’re still gonna gas out in any one of these scenarios no matter how well developed any one of the other energy systems are.

So if you’re just following a standard general fitness workout, or even worse, a conventional bodybuilding  workout with a few random cardio exercises thrown in, you’re not fully preparing yourself for the type of gas tank you need to go the distance in a grueling mma battle.

For some of the best mma conditioning workouts available today, you can check out some of these reviews here:

===> MMA Strength and Conditioning Program Reviews

Train hard, train smart, fellow fighters and fans,

Derek Manuel
MMA Strength and Conditioning