Should YOU Train Like a Fighter?

Recently I was interviewed for a MMA website. I always love to talk training because I think there is so much more you can say than is possible to write, plus I can be long winded in a good way:)

I think talking MMA is great because it is both popular and relatively new. There are so many aspects of MMA training that is makes it one of the more challenging sports to train for. However, let's face it, most of us are never going to get into the Octagon and fight. Yet, I think even every day people can benefit a lot from implementing concepts from MMA.

MMA brings together many aspects of fitness; strength, endurance, flexibility, and skill. However, one could argue that most sports bring these qualities, but MMA is unique in the fact that there needs to be flexibility in some pretty extreme positions. Strength has to be possessed in all ranges of motion for the whole body. Endurance has to be a good mixture of not only anaerobic training, but dynamic and isometric as well.

This may be why MMA athletes generally have physiques many would be very happy to possess. In my KNOCKOUT! e-book I cover how one can use sandbags and other implements to achieve these impressive physiques, however, the good thing about MMA is that is traditionally has been a minimalist approach.

Before "functional fitness" was fashoinable, MMA athletes borrow so much from different arts that allows them to move so efficiently and have strength that is hard to match by many athletes. What lessons could we learn from the training of MMA athletes to use for our own fitness?

1. Train in many ranges of motion: Just thinking of the lunge exercise with a sandbag I can come up with 50 variations that will challenge the body in unique ways to improve both performance and strength.

2. Training isometric and dynamic strength: There is only so much energy and time to train it is hard to think of adding even more can be overwhelming. So, here are some quick ideas of how to add some isometric training....

a. Add pauses to various positions when you perform lifts, great examples are pull-ups, squats, and push-ups.

b. Use variations of bear hug and zercher training to build both trunk and upper body isometric strength.

3. Mix up your anaerobic training: Typically people think interval or circuit training is very hard to vary. Nothing could be further from the truth!

a. Mix up the work to rest ratios: If you are use to training for 30 seconds and resting for 60 seconds, simply add ten seconds to your work or reduce your rest by ten seconds.

b. Change the loading position, instead of doing bear hug squats, simply change to shoulder squats and the exercise becomes new!

c. Keep track of the number of repetitions performed during an interval and try to not let it drop 10% during the whole workout.

d. Perform static positions for the duration of the work interval.

4. Do an exercise you have been putting off: I can say get-ups aren't my favorite, but I probably need to implement them more. Usually we stick with what we are good and familiar with. Try to select at least one exercise in your routine that you have been avoiding.

You see, there are a lot of important lessons to be learned from MMA. Yet, there are easily a lot of mistakes these athletes make. To learn more tips and avoid the mistakes check out my e-book KNOCKOUT! or my recent interview.

Click Here to Listen to Interview

Click Here to Check out KNOCKOUT!