At Home MMA Conditioning

The term “conditioning” in the MMA refers to how long you can last. It’s more than just endurance. Runners have endurance, but they’re not very well conditioned. Conditioning is actually a multitude of things:

• The ability to keep going even when you’re physically tired
• The mental strength to push through a tough fight
• The ability to unleash a barrage of combos, rest for a short moment, recover, then go at it again.
• The ability to take a lot of hits, and hit back faster and stronger

In other words, it’s all about outlasting your opponent. This is why an MMA fighter’s conditioning routine is so varied. It needs to be. It must address a multitude of strength qualities at once.

So how do you develop a conditioning routine, using the tools in your own home? Well, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Gradual Progress

There are two issues I see with most training programs: 1) there is no planning for progress and 2) the planning for progress is too fast. Yes, you must PLAN for progress. But this planning must be gradual.

For example, instead of adding 5 lbs each week to a lift, you can perhaps add just 1-2 lbs per week. But, obviously this isn’t always doable, as dumbbells and barbells only go up by 5lbs. So, what are some other things you can do?

Well, there are 5 different things you can manipulate in a workout to make it slightly more difficult:

1. Increase weight
2. Reduce rest periods
3. Increase sets
4. Switch to a more difficult movement
5. Add reps

So instead of just adding 5 reps to a movement each week. You can perhaps try and drop you rest periods on week, add an extra set the following week, add some weights the week after, etc. These gradual and varied progressions will dramatically boost your conditioning over a 10-12 week period.

Re-Defining Intensity

The term intensity is constantly tossed around the fitness world with a variety of meanings. In strength training, it refers to what percent of your 1RM you lift. So if you’re max is 200lbs, and you’re lifting 190lbs, you’re lifting at 95% intensity.

In the MMA world, it’s all about a percentage of your maximum effort. In a way both definitions are very similar. But fighters measure intensity as Perceived Effort. Most fighters know what they’re capable of and are constantly trying to push though the threshold.

However, as a beginner, you may need to use a scale to gauge your intensity level. For example, start off with a general workout, and record that as a “5″  Perceived Effort (PE) level. 5 means average.

Now every workout you do in the future will be ranked based on that first workout. After a few weeks, you’ll find that “sweet spot” where most of your workouts are at a PE level of 7 or higher. 7 or higher refers to super intensity workouts.

Sports Specific Training

Once you’ve understood intensity and planning for progress, it’s time to take a look at all the movements you perform and make sure that you’re using sports-specific movements and drills. There’s nothing wrong with jogging and bicep curls.

However, they should not be the back bone of your training. MMA is all about speed and power. So you want to focus a lot on Olympic lifts or hybrids of those lifts with dumbbells or kettlebells. In addition, you want to perform movements that allow you to engage your entire body.

Once you’ve got these functional movements into your routine, you can incorporate jogging for some aerobic training and biceps training for arm strength. However, MMA does not require the level of endurance training of a jogger, nor do you need superior arm strength. Keep that in mind.

The next step is to organize your workouts based on the time and conditions of your fight. So, if your fight includes 5 rounds at 5 minutes per round, 1 minute rest, then it would benefit you if you organize your training to teach your body to go all out for 5 minutes, rest for 1 minute, and repeat that cycle 5 times.

Putting it All Together

Now it’s time to put these three principles together. First, make sure you’re using majority compound movements and organize your workout based on your fight. Second, after your first workout, write down your PE.

I suggest keeping your first workout at a PE of 5. This will be your marker – what you compare it to future workouts. To plan your future workouts, make gradual changes to make it harder and increase your PE.

There you go. These three tips should help you develop a comprehensive MMA conditioning program. However, if you want a proven, done for you program, then I suggest checking out Eric Wong’s MMA Strength and Conditioning Program.

Click here for more information.

Tags: at home mma conditioning, conditioning program, eric wong, Intensity, mma strength and conditioning