MMA Workout Routines

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The newest league of MMA superstars have all shown that there is a new generation of athlete coming out. These ‘super athletes’ take their workouts to extreme, push their bodies to maximum of endurance, and sometimes further in their efforts, and in their quest to become MMA legends. Different fighters concentrate on different aspects of their game, striking, grappling, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, but if there is one thing that is proven time and time again is that anyone that gets into MMA cannot neglect their cardio workouts. How many fights have you seen where a competitor dominated a round, or even two rounds, but then became so gassed that they lost all ability to defend themselves, push the positions, and thus, lose the match. All of the current champions have phenomenal cardio, they can fight through five rounds with no problems, and they constantly prove that they have what it takes to be champions.

So, when you are starting out in your MMA careers you should not overlook the importance of a good MMA cardio workout. In fact, you should probably consider that before you even look into your technical skills. That said, cardio is not what many people expect when they get into the sport. Most athletes consider cardio the ability to jog mile after mile, or to do hundreds of reps at almost no weight. They think of it as low impact, long duration workouts. That is something of a fallacy though, because when you workout in that fashion, you may increase your long-run endurance, but you end up neglecting your ability to sustain bursts of energy for long periods. It may be counter-intuitive, but you want to feel the burn in your muscles. You want to get that build up of lactic acid in your muscles, and then push through it and continue. Increasing your anaerobic endurance increases your aerobic endurance, where the inverse is not true. Just because you can jog twenty-five kilometers doesn’t mean that you can sustain maximum effort for five minutes.

Oh yes, I know that pushing maximum effort to your limits every time is going to hurt, and you think it’s going to push yourself to the brink of injury, but you don’t have to push maximum effort, you just want to avoid the trap of pushing minimal effort. So how do you avoid that trap? Simple, you push near maximum effort, use a small number of reps per set, but take very short rest periods per set before you kick things into the next set. This way you are getting a still getting a lot of reps, but you push your body’s routine and limits to accommodate the greater weight, and thus build that intense high-strength endurance that helps you sustain maximum effort for longer periods of time. Here is a sample workout originally published elsewhere, start at 65% of your lifting capacity, and take 60-second rest periods between sets;

Sample Workout #1 — two days per week

Day 1:
Clean and Press: 15 sets x 2 reps
Curl Grip Chin: 15 x 2
Medium Grip Bench Press: 10 x 1
Deadlift: 20 x1
Abdominal Work

Day 2:
Dips: 12 sets x 3 reps
Clean and Front Squat: 20 x 2
Bent Rows: 12 x 2
Barbell Curl and Press: 6 x 4
Abdominal Work

Sample Workout #2 — performed every workout
Clean and Press: 20 sets x 1 rep
Bench Press: 8 x 2
Barbell Curls: 6 x 3
Chin: 15 x 2
Squat: 20 x 1
Abdominal Work

As your body starts to get used to these exercises, you will find that you should take shorter rest periods between sets, and then eventually increase your weight limits with the workouts. Generally, once you get down to about 20 second rest periods; look at increasing your weight limits. Don’t forget, your rest periods don’t have to be you standing there, gasping for air as your body is sore. Use that time and work muscles that didn’t get hit during your reps, perform the exercises with no weights, but it will keep your hard up, and keep you pumped up so that you can get right back into the workout when your rest period is over.

Sticking with one of these anaerobic, fast-push and high intensity, conditioning workout doesn’t just build your muscles and strength, it builds your endurance in a fashion you can use. Don’t get gassed out in the ring, that five minutes of maximum effort is nothing when you have a minute rest between rounds, especially when your body gets used to doing near maximum effort with 30 or even 20 second breaks. Go into every fight and perform every instance of your training as if you are going to go a full 25 minutes with you pushing your opponent to the limit of their endurance, so you can make sure that you don’t reach the limit of yours.

Former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is a modest fighter, despite his dominant win over Brock Lesner to take the heavyweight championship in October of 2010. He does not talk badly about his opponents, and he shows grace and modesty, even after his loss of the title to Junior dos Santos at the first UFC on Fox in November of 2011. Despite this setback, which many attribute to a bad shoulder due to a torn rotator cuff, he continues to strive to a rematch for the heavyweight championship, with an announced fight with Antonio Silva at an unspecified date.

Velasquez is one of the newer generations of UFC fighters with an emphasis on overall conditioning that tones his entire body. Coined ‘super athletes’ by Rogan when talking about Johnny ‘Bones’ Jones, this new generation of fighters pushes the physical envelope of their training to tone their bodies to the extreme. These athletes make training their number one job between their fights, and push their bodies to extremes that even regular sports athletes are hard pressed to match. Many times you can find guides to these athlete’s extreme workouts, but Cain Velasquez has been reluctant to talk about the specifics of his workout.

He reveals his general schedule easily enough. He keeps a regimented schedule, that alternates slightly as he works out five days a week. On Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, Velasquez does weight training from 8-9:30 am. He follows this with breakfast, hits the gym to do wrestling and he follows that with hard sparring sessions from noon to 2 pm. He spoke with Askmen.com and noted that “the noon workouts on Monday, Wednesday, Friday are the hardest because I’m going in against multiple training partners and fighting each one. Each fighter that comes at me is fresh and that really takes a toll on you and your body — it gets you tired and it really makes you dig deep and work hard to get through the workout. It’s the worst and sometimes I hate going through it, but it is the most beneficial part of my training.” After his massive sparring workout he does three rounds of jiu-jitsu, eats dinner so he can give his body gets a chance to relax, and then returns to the gym so he can finish his day out with cardio and striking workouts. His workout on Tuesday and Thursday is very similar, but he trades out his sparring for additional wrestling and jiu-jitsu practice so he can work on his technique.

He keeps this training intensity up with only short breaks after fights to recover and recuperate. The former heavyweight champion was asked about working out for new people, and for young fighters trying to break into the industry. He said, “You need good training partners — because you’re only as good as your training partners — and a strong desire to always get better. Know what your strengths are, but also keep in mind what your weaknesses are; always work on your weaknesses.” It is good advice for anyone that looks for a workout that will improve their game. Find something that forces an improvement in your conditioning and skills and shores up the weaknesses in your developing skills.

When you watch the UFC events, you constantly hear the mantra, “conditioning, conditioning, conditioning.” They are always talking about one opponent having excellent conditioning, poor conditioning, or better conditioning then their opponent. In the current fight game it looks like conditioning is what you need to up your game. Usually when they are referring to a fight, conditioning means the ability of one fighter to keep up maximum output for as long as possible, or at least until their opponent gives out.

There are various kinds of conditioning though, conditioning for explosive power that will take you off the cage, or off your back when an opponent tries to hold you there, endurance conditioning that says you can dance for three rounds without losing a step, even endurance conditioning where you can simply out-exert your opponent and grind them into the mat. You want to work every kind of conditioning in some way into your workout. There is almost no ‘catch all’ circuit, but there are a few general workouts better suited towards someone new to the sport until you find your best workout style.

First things first though, most MMA fighter conditioning workouts have a strong anaerobic component. They go for maximum effort in the minimum amount of time during their circuits, but it is always wise to warm up with a good aerobic workout. This loosens your muscles, stretches you out, and gets your body ready for putting out everything. Depending on your fitness level, consider this as a method to warm up before you get into a heavy workout;

Jogging 3-5 km,
Hitting an Exercise bike for 45 minutes,
Jump Rope for 30 minutes,

All of those basic exercises will get you nice and ready for the intensity you need for your all-around conditioning workout. Here is a sample workout that is common among several MMA gyms;

Hindu Pushup

Squat jumps 30 seconds
Shadow box 30 seconds
Hindu pushups 30 seconds
Shadow box 30 seconds
Situps 30 seconds

Repeat immediately with no break for a total circuit of 5 minutes, but pushes your body to work into that anaerobic workout where you can make real conditioning progress. Take 1-3 minutes to rest, with a goal being 1 minute, then immediately jump into a second set of that circuit. Repeat as many times as you can until you drop flat from exhaustion. The goal is to push your body hard, and feel the anaerobic burn so that your body can work all muscles groups needed for a career fighting in MMA.

The MMA fight scene has proven to be an ever-evolving competition. Every time the ‘next big thing’ proves that they are the best pound-for-pound fighter in their weight class, someone comes along in short order and proves that no, the sport is still growing, still finding super athletes, and is still developing. Case in point, just look at the youngest UFC light heavyweight champion of the world, Jon ‘Bones’ Jones. This 23 year old athlete rocketed up the light heavyweight charts after destroying 6 opponents in a row in just over three months. This new generation of athlete has turned the fight game into a full lifestyle, and they push every aspect, from their skill training, to their conditioning regimen.

Jones’ conditioning has made every single one of his opponents look like they were at retirement age; he keeps up a pace for every round that few opponents can come close to matching. He also uses a dynamic style that compliments his athleticism so that he can keep his opponents guessing with barrages of unconventional strikes, and a strong ground game, as proven by his recent title defense against Quentin ‘Rampage’ Jackson, where he brought down the former champion with a rear naked choke.

Jones’ workout routine is extreme, though it is no secret, he runs through a daily routine that would destroy many other athletes. His daily workout routine looks like this:

1. Hang Clean (5 sets of 5 reps)
2. Barbell Push Press (8 sets of 5 reps: 30 sec. rest between sets)
3. Lying Leg Curl (6 sets of 6 reps)
4. Depth Dumbbell Snatch (4 sets of 4 reps)
5. Ring Twists (3 sets of 4 reps to each side)
6. Clean from Knees w/Jump (3 sets of 10 reps)
7. One-Leg Straight Leg Walking Dumbbell Deadlifts (3 sets for 25 yards each)
8. Medicine ball superset (run the cycle three times for a total of three supersets)
• Medicine Ball Power Up (5 reps)
• Medicine Ball Sprawl and Jump (8 reps)
• Medicine Ball Plyo Push Up (8 reps)

He breaks up each set with a mere 30 seconds of breathing time between each. It pushes his body to extremes and forces him to process his workout in explosive sessions that mirrors the explosive intensity he requires for his fights. If Jon ‘Bones’ Jones represents the next generation in the evolution of MMA fighters in his fighting style and workout conditioning, it will be amazing to see what extremes others will have to go through to compete at the higher levels of competition.