MMA fighters are some of the best-conditioned athletes in the gym. Their all-round fitness is also one the most balanced, combining bodybuilding weights with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and bodyweight exercises to make them as strong and flexible as possible. Here's the ultimate list of MMA exercises to get you into the best shape ever.
Mastweing & Maximising MMA Exercises
punches with power, be fast enough to avoid being hit as well as having the staying power for three 5-minute rounds.
For example, UFC lightweight Edson Barboza uses many of the following exercises in his killer leg workout that increases the effectiveness of 'sudden' powerful movement.
So let’s start with the legs. Nobody likes leg day!
Squats
The staple of nearly every ducking and diving boxing move. If you want to fight like Edson, then you need to add a number of squats into your exercise routine.
- Body weight squats
- Lunging squats
- Barbell squats
- Jump squats
- Pistol squats
- Goblet squat
Muscles Targeted:
Squats will improve your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves, but depending on the type of squat they could work a lot more.
Resisted Sprints
Heath Sims is one of the best known MMA trainers, and one of his key MMA philosophies is increasing your Muay Thai skills. Speed and strength are critical in MMA, and Muay Thai fighters spend a lot of time on speed, strength, and conditioning in training.
How To:
Tie a belt or resistance band around your waist and pull a weight sled (alternatively, use a parachute or get someone to pull you back) in sets of 'resisted' sprints preserving form throughout with short sprints at maximum effort. Reverse the exercise by pushing the weight sled.
Muscles Targeted:
Increase muscle fibres in the hip extensor muscles and increased neural activation.
Isometric Exercises
According to Greg Jackson, a trainer of multiple MMA champions, to get explosive power (like that seen in Olympic-style lifting), you must include isometric tension exercises.
Plank bridging and side bridging is good for the abdominals, but for upper and lower body strength you need to focus on:
- Isometric Push Ups
- Isometric Shoulder raises
- Isometric Squats
- Isometric Hip Extensions
- Isometric Hip Abductions
It's not how much strength you have, but how hard you explode with it. The key to gaining this explosive power is through isometric tension exercises, and they are effective because they train your body for holding and grappling situations.
Muscles Targeted:
It targets upper body muscles like the pectorals, the lower body muscles of the abdominals and obliques, as well as the muscles around the hips like the adductors and glutes.
Hanging Leg Raise
According to Ryan Parsons, an MMA trainer and manager, this exercise is one for serious core strength. All you need is a pull-up bar and some serious Bruce Lee concentration.
How To:
Using an overhand grip, let yourself hang from your pull-up bar, then engage your core and slowly raise your legs to form a perfect 'L' shape. Hold. Then slowly lower your legs.
Muscles Targeted:
Not only does it ‘bullet-proof’ your entire core it also helps target your glutes, external obliques, latissimus dorsi, and quadriceps.
Deadlifts
Essential for executing explosive fighting moves, the deadlift is also effective in building power for bouts which alternate from jockeying and posturing to sudden bursts of energy and strength.
How To:
Start with the weight on the floor and maintain a neutral lower back, to resist injury, and pull up to your thighs, locking your knees and hips. Return to the floor by moving your hips back and bending your legs.
Muscles Targeted:
Deadlifts are perhaps one of the most effective exercises for building and developing the glutes, hamstrings, adductors, and lumbar.
Medicine Ball Slam
Another example of how a simple exercise can help increase the explosive power needed in nearly every MMA move.
How To:
Holding the medicine ball with both hands at shoulder level, proceed to lift it above your head and slam it down in front of you (just make sure no one's standing nearby!) Catch the ball after bouncing and repeat. For variations of this try these medicine ball exercises, designed specifically for MMA fighters.
Muscles Targeted:
This exercise is great for the shoulders and upper back muscles, including the latissimus dorsi. It also works the triceps and abdominals.
Plyometric Push-Ups
Adam Zart, strength and conditioning coach for the Hayastan MMA school, concentrates on anaerobic exercises, as MMA athletes don't require extensive running or aerobic work in fights. Plyometric exercises like these push-ups can ‘push’ fighters as hard as any five-minute round can.
How To:
Adopting the standard push-up position, explode out of the top of the push-up so that your hands leave the ground and extend.
Muscles Targeted:
This simple exercise targets the upper arms, chest and shoulder muscles.
Skipping
We cannot include a list of MMA exercises without including skipping, a staple of boxing workouts and a stereotypical routine incorporated by boxers, such as Muhammad Ali to Rocky Balboa.
Skipping, or 'jumping rope', helps to build stamina and endurance, which is key to the later rounds of a fight. According to former MMA fighter Chris Reilly it “incorporates many elements fighters are attempting to master; conditioning, timing and hand-eye-foot coordination”.
How To:
Grab a rope and start jumping!
With these MMA exercises in your locker, there’s no reason why you can’t be the next MMA champion. Perhaps not, but you can at least you can look like one!
