Mixed Martial Arts Conditioning
If you are a mixed-martial artist and you have experienced a fight that’s gone the distance, then maybe you understand the terrible feeling of having nothing left to give with two minutes left in the round. In case you have not gone the distance or haven’t had a pro fight yet, then make use of the 5 tips in this article to ensure you are the only one maintaining pressure and imposing will - not your opponent.
1) Do sprints and intervals as opposed to long, slow runs.
MMA is actually a sport that requires explosive, quick moves and strength at various times through a 5 minute round. You never know if you will be inside a clinch, defending a shot, escaping the mount, or sinking in a triangle. The very first thing you do know is that you Will not jogging around the ring in a slow pace for half an hour. Trained in this fashion can help you get your time down for your local charity run, but won’t do anything to assist you knock the other fighter out.
Instead, stay with sprints and intervals if you are going to do running workouts. One particualr good sprint workout would be to warm-up for five minutes carrying out a dynamic warm-up routine, then doing 5 short 40 yard sprints that you gradually improve your pace from about 60% to 90%. Rest a minute, then perform a 100 metre sprint, walk back to the beginning, and repeat for a total of 10 sprints. This workout will beat distance running hands down for its ability to improve your performance in the cage.
2) Take 2 recovery weeks off for every four weeks of conditioning.
This tip is huge, and has helped skyrocket the conditioning of the athletes I train. Most fighters have a thing about working themselves to death - this mindset is what makes them tough, but additionally what keeps them injured and frequently overtrained, limiting overall performance both in training and competition.
You can avoid these complications by taking two weeks off of your conditioning workouts. You continue to do your Training for mma training and strength/power workouts, but let the conditioning go for 2 weeks. When you are getting back to it, you will end up fresher and ready to take your conditioning up another notch.
3) Do more specific workouts in the four weeks prior to the fight.
Sprints and intervals are good, but they are not specific to mixed-martial arts. The workouts that I have my athletes perform include jumps, sprawls, quick feet drills, core stabilization exercises, explosive push-ups - all movements that are used in a fight, performed as quick and explosively as possible. I call these workouts NRG System Complexes, because they tap into every energy system from the body and therefore are made up of a lot of different exercises.
Each complex lasts about 5 minutes, as well as your goal ought to be to do 4 complexes consecutively with 1 minute of rest where you feel fresh and powerful within the last round. So the closer you will get to the fight, the more specific you want to get with your conditioning routine.
Use the tips in this article and you should improve your conditioning as well as your opponents will wish they didn’t waste so much time training doing slow, hour long runs.
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