I'd like to begin by first covering what a MMA fighter workout should not look like. Here are, what I've identified to be, the top 3 mistakes made by most MMA fighters in their workout design.
MMA Fighter Workout Mistake #1 - Strictly Training the Mirror Muscles
Before we start off let's first define what "mirror muscles" are. Mirror muscles are exactly that, muscles you can see in the mirror. They include the pecs, anterior delts, biceps, abs, and quads. In a nutshell, they are the muscles on the front of the body. While these are important muscles to develop, they are not the only muscles in your body! Bodybuilding America has us believing that chicks love big pecs and biceps. So what do we do? Bench press and curl until our arms feel like they're falling off, leave the gym, rest for a day, and then repeat.
There's a lot of pulling involved in MMA. You're pulling when you're working to finish a takedown, pulling someone into your guard to prevent him from posturing up on you, and tightening your lock on someone when you are in the clinch. These are all functions of the lats and rhomboids, some of the ever important non-mirror muscles necessary for dominating in the cage.
Similarly, the hamstrings and glutes (two other sets of non-mirror muscles) are responsible for more powerful strikes, better sprawls and stronger hips when looking to finish an arm bar.
So before you head back to the gym for another pec and bicep pump session, be sure to start reading up on the best ways to develop the muscles on the back of your body and in between searches check out a few of "The Barn Cat's" YouTube videos to see some of the things he's doing to get brutally strong.
MMA Fighter Workout Mistake #2 - Lifting the Same Weights
One of the biggest mistakes I see is fighters (heck, most people that go to gyms) not recording their workouts. As a result, they end up lifting the same weights week in and week out. After a few months of lifting on their own they come to me completely lost as to why they're not getting any stronger.
The definition, or at least my definition, of getting stronger is lifting heavier weights than you've lifted before. For instance, if you bench 150 for 5 reps one week and a couple weeks later you bench 160 for 5 reps, guess what? You're stronger!
I used to go up to MMA fighters working out at my gym and put my hand on their shoulder and politely ask, "Are you currently satisfied with your level of strength?" 100% of the MMA fighters I did this to would always respond with a no. I would then go on to ask, "Then why are you lifting the same weights that are giving you this current level of strength that you possess but are not satisfied with?!" Most of the time a light would go off in their head and they would immediately increase the weight.
MMA Fighter Workout Mistake #3- Performing the Same Exercises
Your body adapts; it's designed to. But adaptation is something you don't want in MMA. Why? Adaptation is another word for plateau, and no one ever wants to plateau in their quest to constantly improve their strength, speed, skills, etc. Your body adapts to reoccurring stimulus so performing the same exercises, sets, and reps week in and week out is a great way to put your body in an adapted state very quickly.
So in order to prevent you body from adapting to your MMA fighter workout there are a couple changes you can make. However, since I suggest MMA fighters use a conjugate system that basically follows a certain undulating rep scheme you're left with rotating your exercises to prevent adaptation (I won't go into depth on this, just know that this scheme of sets and reps has been shown by a number of research studies to be more effective than the traditional linear system where you start with high reps and work to low reps over the course of a 10-12 week period).
Here's where things get a little tricky and will take some trial and error. To explain how to rotate exercises I'll use an example. Say you've been box squatting for 3 weeks now and think it's time for a change. You probably think to yourself "the box squat works the legs so what else do I have available that will work my legs" and begin to look around your gym. "Bingo," you say as you see a leg press. You swap out the box squat for a few weeks with the leg press and then go back to the box squat. If your box squat hasn't gone up, it's safe to assume the leg press didn't help and you shouldn't use it in your program. However, if you box squat has gone up, then you can assume the leg press has a positive carryover to your box squat and you should rotate it in every so often. Other changes you may make to your squat may include varying the box height, switching bars, and using bands and/or chains. In fact, these are all much better alternatives than switching the exercise completely (ie going from a squat to a leg press).
Now that that's out of the way, let me now show you what a MMA fighter workout should look like. Below is a sample week I used with Tamdan "The Barn Cat" McCrory during his 9-week Base Building Program.
Day 1- Lower Body/Core Focus
Superset 1: Safety Squat Bar Box Squat (5x5) and Dumbbell Side Bend (4x10) Superset 2: #3 Pin Pull (5x3) and Hanging Leg Raise (4x8) Superset 3: Split Squat (4x8 each leg) and Glute Ham Raise (4x10)
Day 2- Upper Body Focus
Superset 1: Bench Press (5x5) and Weighted Chinup (5x3) Superset 2: Dumbbell Bench (4x8) and Cable Row (4x10) Triset 1: Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press (3x8) and Barbell Curl (3x8) and Dumbbell Upright Row (3x12)
Day 3- Strongman/Power Focus
Superset 1: Medicine Ball b/w Leg Toss (5x3) and Grappler Twist (5x5 each side) Superset 2: Clean (5x2) and Ab Wheel (4x8) Superset 3: Dumbbell Snatch (4x3) and Weighted Back Extension (4x8)
Sandbag Shouldering (3x2 each side)
MMA Fighter Workout Mistake #1 - Strictly Training the Mirror Muscles
Before we start off let's first define what "mirror muscles" are. Mirror muscles are exactly that, muscles you can see in the mirror. They include the pecs, anterior delts, biceps, abs, and quads. In a nutshell, they are the muscles on the front of the body. While these are important muscles to develop, they are not the only muscles in your body! Bodybuilding America has us believing that chicks love big pecs and biceps. So what do we do? Bench press and curl until our arms feel like they're falling off, leave the gym, rest for a day, and then repeat.
There's a lot of pulling involved in MMA. You're pulling when you're working to finish a takedown, pulling someone into your guard to prevent him from posturing up on you, and tightening your lock on someone when you are in the clinch. These are all functions of the lats and rhomboids, some of the ever important non-mirror muscles necessary for dominating in the cage.
Similarly, the hamstrings and glutes (two other sets of non-mirror muscles) are responsible for more powerful strikes, better sprawls and stronger hips when looking to finish an arm bar.
So before you head back to the gym for another pec and bicep pump session, be sure to start reading up on the best ways to develop the muscles on the back of your body and in between searches check out a few of "The Barn Cat's" YouTube videos to see some of the things he's doing to get brutally strong.
MMA Fighter Workout Mistake #2 - Lifting the Same Weights
One of the biggest mistakes I see is fighters (heck, most people that go to gyms) not recording their workouts. As a result, they end up lifting the same weights week in and week out. After a few months of lifting on their own they come to me completely lost as to why they're not getting any stronger.
The definition, or at least my definition, of getting stronger is lifting heavier weights than you've lifted before. For instance, if you bench 150 for 5 reps one week and a couple weeks later you bench 160 for 5 reps, guess what? You're stronger!
I used to go up to MMA fighters working out at my gym and put my hand on their shoulder and politely ask, "Are you currently satisfied with your level of strength?" 100% of the MMA fighters I did this to would always respond with a no. I would then go on to ask, "Then why are you lifting the same weights that are giving you this current level of strength that you possess but are not satisfied with?!" Most of the time a light would go off in their head and they would immediately increase the weight.
MMA Fighter Workout Mistake #3- Performing the Same Exercises
Your body adapts; it's designed to. But adaptation is something you don't want in MMA. Why? Adaptation is another word for plateau, and no one ever wants to plateau in their quest to constantly improve their strength, speed, skills, etc. Your body adapts to reoccurring stimulus so performing the same exercises, sets, and reps week in and week out is a great way to put your body in an adapted state very quickly.
So in order to prevent you body from adapting to your MMA fighter workout there are a couple changes you can make. However, since I suggest MMA fighters use a conjugate system that basically follows a certain undulating rep scheme you're left with rotating your exercises to prevent adaptation (I won't go into depth on this, just know that this scheme of sets and reps has been shown by a number of research studies to be more effective than the traditional linear system where you start with high reps and work to low reps over the course of a 10-12 week period).
Here's where things get a little tricky and will take some trial and error. To explain how to rotate exercises I'll use an example. Say you've been box squatting for 3 weeks now and think it's time for a change. You probably think to yourself "the box squat works the legs so what else do I have available that will work my legs" and begin to look around your gym. "Bingo," you say as you see a leg press. You swap out the box squat for a few weeks with the leg press and then go back to the box squat. If your box squat hasn't gone up, it's safe to assume the leg press didn't help and you shouldn't use it in your program. However, if you box squat has gone up, then you can assume the leg press has a positive carryover to your box squat and you should rotate it in every so often. Other changes you may make to your squat may include varying the box height, switching bars, and using bands and/or chains. In fact, these are all much better alternatives than switching the exercise completely (ie going from a squat to a leg press).
Now that that's out of the way, let me now show you what a MMA fighter workout should look like. Below is a sample week I used with Tamdan "The Barn Cat" McCrory during his 9-week Base Building Program.
Day 1- Lower Body/Core Focus
Superset 1: Safety Squat Bar Box Squat (5x5) and Dumbbell Side Bend (4x10) Superset 2: #3 Pin Pull (5x3) and Hanging Leg Raise (4x8) Superset 3: Split Squat (4x8 each leg) and Glute Ham Raise (4x10)
Day 2- Upper Body Focus
Superset 1: Bench Press (5x5) and Weighted Chinup (5x3) Superset 2: Dumbbell Bench (4x8) and Cable Row (4x10) Triset 1: Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press (3x8) and Barbell Curl (3x8) and Dumbbell Upright Row (3x12)
Day 3- Strongman/Power Focus
Superset 1: Medicine Ball b/w Leg Toss (5x3) and Grappler Twist (5x5 each side) Superset 2: Clean (5x2) and Ab Wheel (4x8) Superset 3: Dumbbell Snatch (4x3) and Weighted Back Extension (4x8)
Sandbag Shouldering (3x2 each side)