Being a fighter, you must have a very tough physical and mental workout. It’s important to understand that you should do specific training if trying you’re trying to become a mix martial artist.
You will need an efficient workout that combines strength, endurance, and size. Today I will give you an efficient workout that will get you into fighting shape in less than 20 minutes a day. You will also learn tons of benefit’s both mental and physical to training mixed martial arts and incorporating more functional workouts.
MMA Workout Warm-up
It’s important to remember to do a sufficient warm up; an MMA workout will always be more intense than a standard workout. Typically a good warm up would be to do a fast jog in place or jump rope. Ideally if you can jump rope I would recommend that, as you will engage more of the muscle fibers responsible for explosive movements. Make sure you complete a minimum of 5 minutes for your warm-up.
MMA Routines
1) Thigh Tap Push up
Directions- In the push up position bring your chest to the floor, keep your spine in a neutral position. At the top of your rep bring your hand to the side of your leg while balancing with the opposite arm.
2) Assisted Chin up
Directions- Grab the bar shoulder-width using an underhand. Rest your feet on the bench with your ankles crossed. With arms straight and knees bent hand from the bar, then Pull your chest up, pause at the top and lower yourself. Then repeat the process over again.
3) Inverted Shoulder Press
Directions- Place your hands on the floor about shoulder width apart and place your feet on the bench. Raise your hips so that your stomach is perpendicular to the floor. Your arms should be straight and your hands should fall beneath your shoulders. Bend your elbows and lower your body until the top of your head almost touches the floor. Then push off with your hands until you are in the starting position.
4) Upright Power Row
Directions- Stand up straight by keeping your spine in a neutral position and hold a pair of dumbbells in front of your thighs, palms toward your body. Lean forward slightly from your hips this is the position you will start from. Pull the weights up and straighten your stomach, turning your palms towards each other, then reverse the movement to return to the starting position.
Your Athletic Level
Start these workouts by doing about 5 reps of each back-to-back with no break in between. Then reduce down to 4 reps 3,2,1 until you are complete. See if you can complete all of these under 15 minutes, if it is to easy try starting with 6-8 reps. If it is too difficult simply reduce the amount of reps and increase the time between sets to give yourself an adequate amount to recover.
The Benefits of Learning Self Defense
Social – Most of the time you learn mixed martial arts in a class, unless it’s a private lesson. This means you will get to know more people and learn to partner up with people for certain drills. You will be forced to tolerate different skill levels and also understand different fighting cultures.
Confidence- Many people go to self-defense courses for the ability to gain confidence men or woman alike. This is great for woman, as it gives them a better ability to defend themselves and boost there confidences overall. Unfortunately more woman than men are victims of assault these days and it’s even more important that woman can defend themselves.
Safety- You can learn many different ways to defend yourself in various situations when taking a mixed martial arts class. This will make it easy to be out in public and feel less anxiety than normal. Like stated before assaults do happen and you can learn how to disable an attacker by closing the distance or striking them.
Knowledge- By learning a mixed martial art sports you are equipping yourself with more brainpower. By learning something new you are also engaging in a healthy lifestyle. You also will have the know how to beat someone up in practice or in an emergency situation.
Getting in great shape- It’s great to be emotionally prepared for a fight however you must be in great physical shape as well. These start with a warm up like the one given today and learning certain techniques. Boxers, wrestlers and mixed martial artist are among some of the fittest athletes on the planet.
Here is a video of myself practicing mixed martial arts:
The Benefits of MMA functional training
Standard resistance training exercise will target one muscle for each exercise. By incorporating functional training such as the MMA workout, you will target much more than one body part with each movement. Functional training is exceptionally important in mixed martial arts training and even rehabilitation as well. Functional training, when broken down is essentially “real world movements” or “sports movements” that will lead to safer performance and more optimal performance.
By doing more functional exercises such as the MMA one given today, you will see improved endurance, improved balance and improved range of motion. It will also allow you to work your muscles from different angles and planes, building your stability muscles as well as targeting your main muscle group. Remember when using a machine for a workout they are only pre set to that angle or range of motion. When training functional you are utilizing multi-plane and many different angles closely simulating the movements in real life.
You can incorporate more functional training by using stability balls, resistance bands or cables and training on an unstable surface. For example, even a simple crunch can be altered to be more functional. If you were to do a wood chop this works your core out but does so more effective way and simulates more of a “real movement”.
Conclusion
Whether you are a mixed martial artist or just a gym junkie trying to obtain more functional strength I am confident you will see great results from this workout. You should apply some of the principles in your workout even if you are utilizing a split routine, as they will help you overall. It’s important to remember you will gain more range of motion, endurance and improved balance all of which will help your lifting routine.
-Terry Asher
Terry
Latest posts by Terry (see all)
- How Important Are Net Carbs For Building Huge Muscle? - Apr 28, 2017
- The Matt Damon Workout Explained - Apr 27, 2017
- Watercress – Benefits And The Best Way To Consume It - Apr 26, 2017