FIT FOR THE FIGHT10 exercises you must use for MMA Strength & Conditioning

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The ultimate test

MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world. Over the last twenty years, since the formation of Shooto

events in 1989, and the formation of UFC in 1993, it has continued to gain popularity by both people watching,

and participating in the sport. In more recent years in 2006 UFC 66 generated over a million pay per view

sales, and in that year grossed more money through pay per television than ever before in history and

exceeded in PPV sales of both Boxing and WWE. In August 2011 UFC announced a seven year TV deal with

Fox one of the major US television channels. In the first UFC broadcast on Fox it attracted 8.8 million viewers.

What makes a champion?

As interest has grown massively, the level of fighters has continued to develop as more and more athletes are coming into the sport. The future of MMA looks very bright and as more and more exposure and finance comes into the sport, the level of fighters and champions will continue to rise.

There are several aspects that make a truly great combat athlete:

Neglect any of these areas and you will not be able to achieve your optimum success. Whilst early MMA fighters were maybe originally from only one discipline; as the sport has evolved and grown, fighters have had to become better equipped at several disciplines as well as strong, powerful, and highly conditioned.

The most important aspect that cannot be overlooked of a combat athlete is having the skill set. If you are not a well-trained, and highly skilled mixed martial artist, you will never be successful.

Skill

Anaerobic Endurance

Speed

Strength

Core Strength

Flexibility and Mobility

Mental Toughness

“If you are not a well trained, and highly

skilled mixed martial artist, you will never

be successful.”

To be successful you need to study multiple disciplines, and must train in some form of wrestling or grappling, striking, and submission fighting.

Beyond the skill disciplines chances of success in the ring, on the mat or in the cage can be greatly improved by becoming stronger, increasing explosive power, and overall conditioning.

No matter how technically skilled you are if you are not strong, fast, powerful or conditioned you are selling yourself and your potential short.

At FSI we focus our MMA athletes to become highly conditioned and powerful warriors. We focus on developing strength, core power, explosive power and speed.

Jonny Bones Jones is the UFC Light Heavy Weight Champion. He is the fasted rising star in the UFC since

the first UFC saw the Gracie name shoot to stardum. He is also the youngest UFC champion in history. Everything

about Jones strikes of a change in the future of the sport. You don’t just need to be a top martial artist, you need to be

a top Athlete. Strong but lean, fast but powerfull and ofcourse, disciplined. This is the kind of athlete FSI show you how to be.

Developing in the right areas

Speed ensures that fighters can move on the opponent or strike the opponent with incredible speed, as well as being able to react to an opponent’s actions. If you are not fast enough to sprawl when a highly skilled wrestler tries to take you down, your fight could be over quick. If you don’t have the speed necessary to avoid a punch from a deadly striker, you could soon be on your back staring at the lights. While most people presume speed is important for offensive moves, it is almost more important for defending and reacting to an opponent’s attack.

Although strength is not as important as speed or conditioning, increasing strength can still vastly improve your chances of being victorious. At any levels, if all things are equal between two fighters, the stronger athlete will be the winner. Improving strength can improve endurance, as you become stronger, you will be able to do more with less effort, thus expending less energy. Please note that strength training should not resemble bodybuilding training, which is common for most fighters to fall into the trap of completing 8-12 reps and completing isolation exercises.

Explosive power is vital to developing a fighter that is offensively aggressive and dangerous for opponents. The body has three principle systems that it uses in an overlapping fashion to produce the energy your body needs to survive, move around, and punch, kick, or elbow people in the face. These systems are known as the anaerobic-alactic, anaerobic-lactic, and aerobic systems. The three systems vary both in terms of how fast they are able to produce energy and how long they are able to sustain that energy production. This means that each energy system has a power component as well as a capacity component. The alactic energy system is key to devastating striking and brutal ground and pound, and it is vital to develop to be a top explosive fighter.

Increasing your energy, increasing your power

All three energy systems ultimately produce the body’s energy currency known as ATP, but the alactic system can produce extremely high levels of power because it requires very few chemical reactions to generate the ATP needed for muscular contractions. Fewer chemical steps mean that ATP can be generated very quickly. However, it also means that it’s capable of using all of its energy producing capacity very quickly and generally only lasts 10–12 seconds at max power.

Training properly improves just how explosive you can be in those 10–12 seconds, and it can extend how long you can maintain that power. In a fight, this can mean the difference between a knockdown and a knockout, or scoring a takedown and taking a knee to the face on the way in.

How much power you’re able to generate using the alactic system is the result of a few different components. Once you understand these components and how to improve them, putting together a program is just a matter of piecing together the puzzle.

How much power you’re able to generate using the alactic system can be broken down into mechanical and metabolic components of the neuromuscular system. This probably sounds more complicated than it really is, but it’s important to understand. The mechanical side of the equation simply means how much force the muscle is able to generate and how fast it’s able to generate it. This primarily depends on the nervous system’s ability to rapidly contract as much muscle as possible at once and on how well the supporting connective tissues (tendons, fascia, etc.) can use elastic energy to produce force.

The alactic energy system is also known as the creatine system or the ATC-PC system. It’s the most powerful of the three energy systems, though this also means that it has the shortest duration as well. The alactic system fuels the most explosive efforts—those few crushing seconds that result in your opponent getting knocked out, tapped out, or the fight stopped by the referee.

The second half of the alactic power equation stems from the metabolic properties of the muscle, or in other words, how efficiently they produce the ATP that they need to contract. The faster the chemical reactions of the alactic system can take place and the more of the raw materials the muscles are able to store in them, the more power you’ll be able to generate.

Training to improve alactic power means that both sides of the equation need to be developed. The nervous system must be developed to contract the maximum amount of muscle as rapidly as possible, and the connective tissues must be trained to use elastic energy effectively. This will result in stronger, more explosive muscular contractions. In addition, the energy producing properties of the neuromuscular system must be developed to fuel these explosive contractions using the alactic energy system to the maximum of its ability.

The real reason some gas out

Anyone who has fought in MMA or trained in combat sports knows how draining it can be. Getting on the ground and grappling, or exchanging punches and kicks is very demanding, and requires a great deal of endurance. For true fighting conditioning you need good anaerobic endurance, notice I said anaerobic endurance and not aerobic, and there is a big difference. Most sports with the exception of distance running and other marathon type endurance events are anaerobic in nature.

When a fighter midway during a fight starts to tire people often say that it is due to lactic acid or they have gassed. Lactic acid is a big myth, scientists have known that this is not the case for many years, this myth is all-too-frequently cited as the underlying mechanism of what happens when a fighter gasses out – even by otherwise knowledgeable people. The truth, however, is that lactic acid is never the reason fighters gas out. This is because it doesn’t even exist in the human body (Robergs RA, 2004). There is never any lactic acid in your muscles, either during fights or otherwise.

Instead, a substance known as lactate is produced when your body breaks down carbohydrates and turns them into an energy source your muscles can use through a process called anaerobic (without oxygen) glycolysis. Rather than causing fatigue in your muscles, the chemical steps that result in lactic formation actually help prevent fatigue, and are an absolutely vital process in energy production. In other words, lactate is your friend, not your foe.

People often claim that a fighter has ‘gassed’. This is a catch-all term that essentially means a fighter is running low on energy, and it’s another one that seems to make sense on the surface, yet fails to hold up under the microscope of exercise physiology.

The truth is that the chemical fuel on which your muscles and your entire body run, Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP), never drops below 60% of resting levels in working muscles, even during the most intense periods of exercise

and exertion (Westerblad H, 2010). Fights also don’t last long enough for your muscles to run out of glycogen, the stored sugar used to make ATP.

You don’t fatigue because your muscles run out of energy. It doesn’t happen because your body is smarter than you. If your car runs out of petrol, you just end up getting stuck somewhere. By contrast, if your muscles actually did ever run completely out of ATP, there would be serious cellular damage, and you’d be in major trouble.

To prevent this from happening, the body has a number of failsafe mechanisms in place to make sure your muscles never run as low on ATP as people run their cars on petrol. The entire metabolic system is designed to make sure there is always gas left in your tank. It may look like a fighter has no energy left whatsoever when he’s gassing out, but in actuality, his tank is more than half full.

How to become truly conditioned for MMA is not to go out and run miles, that is aerobic conditioning, that method is outdated and ineffective. Aerobic training targets the wrong energy system and does nothing to improve your performance in MMA. All combat sports are anaerobic in nature; the inclusion of aerobic training is pointless. Also a key point to note, anaerobic training CAN actually improve your aerobic capacity, but aerobic training cannot improve your anaerobic capacity. Conditioning is so important as regardless of how skilled you are, if you are too tired and not properly conditioned it doesn’t matter how skilled you are.

Now I am going to outline 10 bits of equipment that you MUST be using as part of your strength and conditioning training for MMA. These are equipment that we use with ALL of our combat athletes, to improve all of the key attributes discussed above that make up highly effective strength and conditioning training. The exact application and parameters we use them is specific to the individual fighter and specifics of their training plan and fight schedule. Any top strength and conditioning coach can advice you on how and when you should schedule your training to be an ultimate combat athlete.

Remember if you are not using all of these at present you are selling yourself short.

What you need to know

The rope is a brutally effective fat burning and conditioning tool that will set your lungs on fire within seconds of starting each set. You can use rope training (also known as battling ropes or battle ropes) for pulls, slams, climbs, waves, dragging, and a million other exercises, all of which will get you sweating while helping you build killer grip strength at the same time.

For rope climbs it really helps develop pulling strength. Strength and power is driven through the hands and for combat athletes, it can make or break their ability to control their opponent. In all actuality, the hands are the endpoint of the kinetic chain and all power is driven through the hands.

For rope battles the athlete is developing power while they are on their feet and also they are not in a fixed position or restricted by a rigid implement. They are moving and flowing which is more of a natural exercise. They can develop power in non-advantageous positions. In the cage, on the field and during game time, athletes don’t have time to fix their feet parallel to each other. They don’t have time to optimally brace or even to pre-tension the movement. They just have to react. This can be replicated perfectly by using the ropes.

Suggested exercises Battle ropes, rope climb, tug of war

Want an exercise that can develop true functional strength, speed, power and endurance then flip some tyres. Tyre flipping really is a fantastic total body exercise, working just about every muscle in your body. This exercise develops unbelievable real world strength and power not to mention incredible levels of conditioning.

Suggested exercises Tyre flips, tyre battles

The champion of conditioning tools as well as being able to supplement lower body strength work, and help with recovery; it really is a must for any athlete. This tool is heavily used by all our coaches for every individual as it is so versatile and beneficial to a wide range of users. Additional to the physiological benefits one other area which is the psychological aspect, no other equipment can push an athlete to their limit and beyond as quickly and test a person’s mental toughness.

Suggested exercises:Conditioning, Prowler suicide challenge, lower body power push

One of the most neglected areas of most individuals is the lack of grip strength. In fact grip strength can often be your weak link. Grip strength is vital for fighters, in holds, and clinches. The Fat Gripz can help to improve strength in your forearms and hands. Not only that, Fat Gripz can help reduce injuries by putting less pressure on joints like wrists, elbows and shoulders.

Suggested exercises: Chin ups, chin up holds, hangs

What you need to know

There’s a reason why people admire the capabilities of gymnasts, they have it all: strength, agility, power, and leanness. And what do they use for their training (and in some Olympic events)? Gym rings. Work your way up to an iron cross using gym rings and rest assured that you will be one strong and lean piece of iron. Of course, simple exercises like push ups, rows, pull ups and muscle ups will do just fine. We prefer using rings to do exercises like dips and chin ups as unlike the bars which keep you in more of a fixed plane, the rings allow you to move naturally. That and I guarantee someone who can do 10 chin ups on a bar will struggle to manage 6 using the rings.

Suggested exercises Chin ups

The versatility of this piece of equipment is fantastic. Using the TRX can improve the following – core stability, power, flexibility, balance, and endurance. When you move your own bodyweight through space (like you do using the TRX) you produce more full body tension and elicit greater neuromuscular activation. This leads to faster gains in muscle and strength.

Suggested exercises Power Knee jumps with lunge, Back Rows, Push up with Oblique Turn, plus many more.

What you need to know

The sled is one of the most versatile and effective training tools for combat conditioning. It can not only condition a fighter but also be used to increase lower body strength as well as increasing lateral (side to side) strength and speed.

Suggested exercises: Sled drag, lateral sled drags, rope pull

Sledgehammer training has many benefits that transfer over very well to MMA fighters and combat athletes. Using the sledgehammer will help develop grip strength which is key for both strikers and grappler’s. Executing the exercise correctly will also develop your core strength and rotational power, which is the basis for developing knockout power in your kicks and strikes as well as explosive and powerful throws.

If you follow a MMA workout program that emphasizes repetitive slams with the sledgehammer, this will develop your muscular endurance, especially in your back, shoulders, and arms – muscles that are all used heavily in combat sports.

Suggested exercises Sledgehammer hits

Farmers walk are great as a finisher to a workout, they build your traps, core and grip while developing tremendous total body strength and stability. Another benefit of farmers walk is that it develops stability and strength in the hip, knee, and ankle joints.

Suggested exercises Farmers walk

It is common in most fighters to find they have weak posterior chains, the glute ham raise is regarded as one the best movements for the posterior chain (lower back, glutes, hamstrings and calves). GHR is one of the most important movements of any training program. Very few movements train the hamstrings at both joint angles (hip and knee). This is critical because this is how your body works when it moves.

Suggested exercises Glute Ham Raise

Some extra tips

At FSI we have our specialist MMA training camps; Our packages can be tailored made specifically for you. We can help you become an unstoppable gladiator. For further information please check out: FSI MMA S&C Training Camp

Always wear your mouthpiece when doing conditioning training. Breathing with your mouthpiece in is far more difficult than breathing without it. If you want you’re conditioning level to be at its highest when you go in for your fight, make sure you try conditioning training with your mouthpiece in.

Kettlebells should be another bit of equipment that is incorporated into every fighter’s strength and conditioning training plan. There is a vast range of exercises that will benefit combat athletes.

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