As a fighter you need good performance for every physical quality: strength, speed, endurance, skills and flexibility.
If you can not achieve this, there is no point in training martial arts; just improve your strength and impose your will on your adversaries.
What physical qualities do you need to improve as a MMA fighters and what drills you can use? Strength You need to consider more aspects of strength: Maximal general strength Maximal general strength is the basic for every other aspect of strength.
To develop maximal strength train with heavy weights and low repetitions.
KB drills for maximal general strength: – Standing KB press – Windmill – KB pistol squat – Bent press – Turkish get up – Gladiator row Explosive strength Power is king in every athletic discipline.
The ability to apply maximal strength in shortest time possible makes the difference between great strikers and novices.
Strength endurance If MMA combat rounds would be just 30 seconds you wouldn’t need strength endurance, but with multiple rounds of 3 to 5 minutes you need.
For developing strength endurance use 60 – 70% x 1 RM loads for sets of 15 – 30 reps.
KB drills for strength endurance: – Turkish get up – KB standing press – KB bent press – KB pistol squat – Double KB squat – Two hands anyhow – Gladiator row – Farmer’s walk Explosive strength endurance If you watch beginner amateurs fighting you will notice that punching turn into pushing by the end of the rounds.
Core strength The real power behind the punch comes from your big and strong hip and leg muscles.
Lower body strength transmits to the fist through the core; that is one of the reasons you need good core strength.
Some drills are especially good for core strength: – TGU – Windmill – Bent press – Double KB squat – Double KB standing press – Gladiator row Forearm strength When you grab the opponent with a strong grip it is scary for him.
Because the KB center of gravity is away from the handle when you grip the KB you need to use your forearm strength to maintain a good wrist alignment.
When performing ballistic drills, because of the inertia, the stress upon you gripping muscles is very high, so all ballistic drills are great grip strength developers.
The most challenging KB drills for your grip are: – Snatch – TGU – Clean – Farmer’s walk – Bottom up standing press and awkward grip press Hip strength Your most powerful muscles should be your hip muscles which stand behind your hip thrust.
The best KB hip strength drills are: – KB swing – KB snatch – KB pistol squat Shoulder strength In MMA the shoulder is one of the most vulnerable parts of your armor.
Windmills train your shoulders on the side plane – Shoulder press, floor press, gladiator row train your front, middle and rear of your shoulders Cardiorespiratory endurance If you got no “Wind” by the end of the round you are in major danger.
Some athletes train with long runs for improving the cardiovascular ability; long runs do not make too much sense for fighters training program because they are aerobic and do not have enough intensity.
KB clean & jerk – do them at a faster pace Flexibility Even if flexibility is not the main goal of KB training, because of some KB drill range of motion, your specific flexibility will improve.
KB drills which improve flexibility – Windmill – KB swing – KB side press – TGU Example of weekly conditioning training cycle for MMA fighters: First I write the sets number and after the reps number( ex 5 x 8 means 5 sets x 8 reps) Training A 1.
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