I often ponder what makes a certain workout routine good for mixed martial artists. While a workout may be good for general fitness and include fight type exercises, it doesn’t mean it’s a good MMA workout. In fact, I am becoming increasingly aware that the body of internet knowledge isn’t really helping guys understand MMA workouts at all.
Googling “mma workout”, I noticed that you get no less than 14 bazillion results. There’s an article where one fighter tells one of his routines, a youtube video of Bas Rutten or Ken Shamrock doing their thing, a link to a forum discussing some hot new MMA exercises. But all in all, it wasn’t helping.
What I seek to set forth in the MMA Workout Basics series is a collection of fundamental workout principles – sport specific information that may help you from becoming a collector of techniques and programs. Instead, my hope is that you get enough know-how and wisdom to guide yourself on how to put together an exercise program (long term) and an exercise routine (one workout).
Along the way, of course, I’ll post different factoids about someones training regimes, or I’ll give my two cents on specific exercises, just like I did with pull ups. However, within the posts titled “MMA Workout Basics” I’m going to stay true to my goal – to help you understand the fundamentals of mixed marital arts workouts.
As usual, if you have any questions or comments, I’d love hearing from you.
Pull ups are a measure of your toughness – and lets face it, a barometer of your true manliness – whether you’re a fighter or not. Nearly since the dawn of time, the US military has been using pull ups to de-sissify recruits and weed out wimps. If you are a mixed martial artists, the pull up definitely needs to be in your rotation of exercises.
For a long time now, I’ve harbored the belief that spending an hour on the treadmill is retarded. For MMA’ers, I think there are better things to do with your time. Personally, I love to hate fast as possible, puke-your-guts-out, sprinting.
It’s not that this notion is new, or without it’s detractors and misinformed proponents. An article that bring up the basic idea was put up recently at Men’s Journal, titled Cardio is Bunk. Essentially,
As opposed to aerobics, this type of exercise [anaerobic exercise] involves maximum-effort training, such as sprinting and lifting weights, in which the intensity of the exercise exceeds the body’s ability to supply oxygen to muscles. “Shorter, high-intensity workouts burn off glucose much faster than long runs, so you start burning fat at a much higher rate, your heart beats so hard that it becomes stronger, and you’re pushing yourself to such extremes that anything else you do feels easier.”
.. [I]n terms of sports performance, endurance training is no longer seen as the key to being a better athlete.
Now, I don’t agree with everything said there, but it’s a decent introduction to the idea.
For fighters, developing a bigger gas tank (IE having more fight endurance) is crucial. If you are considering fighting competitively, consider this: How long will you be fighting – total rounds, duration, and rest periods. Are your current workouts modeling the body workload and energy expenditure of a real fight?
Interestingly enought, at the University of Utah, a friend of mine is beginning a study involving hypoxic training, ATP production and lactic acid thresholds. Essentially, try doing a round of shadow boxing/heavy bag hitting breathing through a snorkel and see how that effects you. Hopefully, this study will further develop a body of research to help fighters train better.
Between stand-up and ground fighting, there is clinching. Maybe you’re a judoka looking to improve your throws, or an MMA’er trying to beat strong wrestlers – maybe you just want to be able to disable relatives with a fierce bear hug. These exercises will improve your ability to gain, control, and break clinch positions.
Basically Speaking
Clinch control is about controlling and manipulating balance. Without it, your strikes lose power, throw attempts fail, and your opponent can take you down to the mat with ease. If I had to give a highbrow explanation, I’d say that balanced clinching comes from having a dynamically strong, rooted stances that allow for you to actively manipulate your opponent’s balance. As such, clinch control primarily relates to three strengths: leg power, core stability/sensitivity, and griping/pulling. Perhaps a judo master could expound more – I’ll ask Vladimir Putin about it.
But enough about that, lets get to exercises that develop muscular strength and skill to control the clinching positions.
Tire Flipping
Old-school and awesome. If you’ve never done them, make sure you read about the saftey pointers and proper technique from the guys over at EliteFTS here. They’re not deadlifts, and doing them like a deadlift can injure you. Don’t give up on deads, I think they’re great – just different.
The transfer of power from your legs helps you sprawl with strength, as well as push through a sprawl put on you, among other things.
Car Pushing
Again, old-school. This will help you get rooted and keep a good stance while working for clinches like “over/under control” (you have one under-hook and over-hook at the same time). Also, when you compete it is important to be able to drive your opponent back while clinched up. Once their back is on the ropes/cage, you can use that lack of mobility to your advantage.
If you have the access, train some drills with football linemen – the ones where they slam into each other and push right after the hike of the ball.
Crush Curls
I learned about this one over at the DragonDoor forums, and think this is a mighty nice exercise. Normally, I hate bicep curls, partially due to the immature fascination of body builders with the biceps and partially because bicep curls don’t translate really well to most sports and performance. These are a tad different.
They’re great to produce full body tension, which you need to keep your root and stance while struggling in clinches. Think about it – if you have great chest power from bench pressing, but while standing you can’t back up that strength with a rooted core body, you’ll just get pushed over to your back.
This curl can be done with medicine balls, kettlebells, or rocks. Anyway, Chris Smith describes the exact process of doing them in an article on EzineArticles.com,
To perform the kettlebell crush curl, you simply grasp the kettlebell on each side with a palms-facing grip. Squeeze as hard as you can, like you would with a box of valuables while moving. This will serve to keep the kettlebell from falling to the ground. I perform the kettlebell crush curl with the handle on top, this seems to be easier for me.
Starting at the bottom position, your elbows will be fully extended and the kettlebell should be in front of the thigh area. Keep your back straight throughout this exercise. While squeezing the kettlebell, slowly curl the kettlebell up. Pause at the top and lower the kettlebell in a controlled manner, all the while “crushing” the kettlebell.
Also, if you have shoulder or elbow problems, this curl is friendly to your joints.
Pull Ups
Pull ups are challenging – they engage a lot of muscles to do them right. As a general rule, MMA training exercises should be compound, multi-joint movements that incorporate many muscle groups and link them cohesively together, mimicking some specific movement from the sport ( isolation training is a no no!). You want to be able to use your body as a whole, integrated unit instead of a collection of parts.
Anyway… you can do these with either grip – as shown above or by gripping the bar palms facing you. The key to good pull ups is to keep stabilized and don’t cheat kinetically. Cheating is when you swing your knees to help you pull on the way up, or other such shenanigans.
If you can’t muster one full pull up yet, don’t fret. Over at The Art of Manliness blog, there’s a article on how to do more than one stinking pull up. If you look at the picture there, you’ll notice a fun variation that I give two thumbs up.
**Update**
Due to popular demand, I’ve put together a huge resource about pull ups called pull ups for fighters.
Beating Tires
Primarily, this exercise is used to gain rotational core strength. That core strength will help you pull opponents off balance and keep yourself rooted, not to mention it’ll help punching power. Fedor Emelianenko and his team, the Red Devils, beats the crap out of tires with sledgehammers – its a big part of their training. Enough said.
Suitcase Lift
The suitcase lift is like a deadlift, but you are only picking weight on one side of your body. It strengthens the core. Just like the photo, squat down like you’re sitting in a chair and drive with your hips on the the way up. Keep your shoulder girdle parallel to the floor – you should stand erect like you don’t have any weight in your hand. The opposite side obliques will be hit hard! Additionally, it can increase your grip strength.
Sand Bags
Oooo…. this is just the tip of the iceberg. You can shoulder carry and practice body slams, put it on the ground and do over head throws (like a back suplex), or just bear hug squeeze for all you’re worth. Front squats, turkish get ups, it doesn’t end. Also, you can use medicine balls.
One I enjoy is the partner drill where you are in sit up position (at the top), back to back, and pass off the medicine ball to the side to your partner. If you’ve got Pavel Tsatsouline’s book, Bullet Proof Abs, his combat twist is awesome too.
Mike Tyson, Chuck Liddell, Roger Mayweather – there are just some guys whose punches hit like the sledge hammers. Even if one of these devastating blows doesn’t KO – it can change the whole feeling and destiny of a fight instantly.
For example, Saturady the 19th had two very interesting fights – Fedor Emelianenko vs Tim Sylvia and Anderson Silva vs James Irvin, videos shown below. (If you haven’t already heard, Fedor gets the win via rear naked choke and Silva by knock out.) Both fights were remarkably similar – the winner unleased a powerhouse punch early in the first round, sending their opponent to the ground stunned. Once on the ground, the victor took quick advantage of the dazed man, ending the fight.
The appeal of such power is obvious, but how do you get it?
The Bitter Truth
First, a dose of realism. Some people are genetically wired to be heavy handed punchers, some not. Your muscles have a predetermined number and ratio of different muscle fibers (fast-twitch glycolytic fibers {white fibers}, slow-twitch oxidative fibers {red fibers} and Type II-B fibers {intermediate fibers}). Furthermore, the length of your muscles, tendons and bones gear your body to have a mechanical predisposition for strength or speed. Frank Lotierzo over at www.Eastsideboxing.com goes as far as to say that despite strength training knockout power “... is God given, and punchers are born, not created.“
The Good News
You may have less-than-Olympic genes, but the good news is that with enough effort and intelligence, you can increase your punching power substantially. Initially, the best way to develop power is to have great form. You must develop a technical mastery for each individual type of punch, and a good boxing coach can certainly help out. However, there are a few over-arching themes that apply to all strikes.
Grounding and Kinetic Linking
Previously, I wrote:
All punching power ultimately comes from the earth. The reason you can bench press a barbell while lying on your back is because the ground is supporting you. The greater amount of weight you lift, the greater amount of force the earth “pushes” back to support you. To punch powerfully, you need to have a keen awareness with your relationship to the ground. A mighty oak doesn’t withstand harsh winds and weather because it has a large trunk or limbs. The oak tree has become symbolic of strength due to its prodigious roots. Similarly, great punching begins with great footwork and stances. Practicing stances and footwork is not exciting, but it is the foundation of the body’s ability to generate force.
Kinetic linking is a boxing concept involving the flow of power from the ground to your fist. In an article about punching power, Sammy Franco points out that you have three power generators that assist in kinetic linking: your feet, hips and shoulders. “Maximally torquing your body into the blow will increase both the force and penetration of the blow.” He further mentions that the timing and coordination of these generators is a tricky balance of speed and power.
Mastery of Relaxation and Tension
Without speed there is no knock-out power; without proper relaxation there is no speed. Frank Benn, in an article from Stickgrappler remarks, “…[Y]ou have to develop your kinesthetic perception if you really want to be able to hit with power. There is a correct sequence of muscular contractions for every punch, every kick, which happens very quickly in rapid succession. In addition to contractions, there is a correct series of RELEASES (very important) — i.e. when a certain muscle in the chain has done its job, and now needs to let go before it starts to hinder your function.”
In general, you tense muscles to throw the punch, relax, then tighten up right on impact.
The Right Muscles, The Right Exercises
I’ve always liked an exchange between Dan Inosanto and Bruce Lee in the book, ” Art of Expressing the Human Body”-
“I remember once Bruce and I were walking along the beach in Santa Monica, out by where the ‘Dungeon’ (an old-time bodybuilding gym) used to be, when all of a sudden this big, huge bodybuilder came walking out of the Dengeon and I said to Bruce, ‘Man, look at the arms on that guy! ‘I’ll never forget Bruce’s reaction. He said, ‘Yeah, he’s big — but is he powerful? Can he use that extra muscle efficently?”
The major muscles to strengthen for power punching are the following:
Lats, shoulders, and traps
Abdominals and lower back
Quads, hamstrings and calves
To a lesser extent you need to strengthen these:
Forearms and hands
Pectorals
Train the important groups most often and first. Out of the hundreds of exercises that could be done to strengthen these muscles, a few stand out:
Pull-ups, upright rows/seated rows, skipping rope and shadowboxing/heavy bag work with 16 ounce gloves
The combat abdominal twist, janda sit-ups and russian twists
Squats, deadlifts, tire flipping and kettlebell windmills
Bent press, Turkish get-ups, military press and bench press
For some more ideas, see this article from the bodybuilding forums.
In conclusion fighters who have that ability to drop bombs are hated, feared, imitated. Be one of those fighters.
