Medicine Ball Routines For Improved Mixed Martial Arts and Muay Thai Conditioning

Being a successful MMA practitioner requires the ability to strike, kick, wrestle while controlling your opponent whether standing up or on the ground. Learning these skills can take years of practice. But even a well rounded MMA skill-set is absolutely worthless unless it's matched with a first-rate cardio conditioning routine. Including medicine ball routines in your MMA training can significantly improve your MMA preparedness and enable you to out last your opponent -giving you the competitive edge..

Med Ball drills may not seem like the standard choice to use in your Mixed Martial Arts training, but the reality is, -medicine ball workouts are devastatingly effective at developing dynamic strength, dynamic power, highly developed cardiovascular conditioning, balance, coordination and fight-ending stamina.

MMA med-ball exercises are not difficult to learn and implement. They are suitable for both budding young MMA practitioners, experienced fighters and accomplished Muay Thai and MMA athletes. While simple, med-ball drills integrate balance, build agility, instill quickness, force, control and timing into the fighter's training program. Med Ball routines can be used as a warm-up as well as a finishing drill to increase end of fight stamina and cardiovascular performance in MMA fighting.

Used as a warm-up, the MMA practitioner will grab an appropriately weighted med-ball (usually in the 10# to 20# weight range) and perform three sets of 20-30 rep body squats.

As the MMA practitioner warms up, they will then execute a full squat while holding the med ball close to their torso. At the bottom of the squat, the fighter will then leap upwards and forwards -landing in the full squat position before jumping upwards again.

The first jump-squat should be executed at 60% intensity. As the fighter continues to jump squat, the athlete will increase the intensity -jumping higher and farther with each jump-squat. After another short rest period, the athlete will then stand facing a wall or training partner and perform chest passes, stepping up the intensity with each chest pass. If facing a wall, the med ball will slam against the wall and the fighter will attempt the grab the med ball before it falls to the ground. If facing a training partner, the sportsmen will continue to move away from one another until they can no longer complete sharp chest passes to one another.

This is just one simple example of a complete body warm-up using med balls. After the fighter works on sparring and grappling, the athletes can finish their training session with med-ball circuits to add an extra element of intensity to their MMA training,

Here is an example of timed med-ball circuit that can be used at the end of a training session to improve MMA fight conditioning and performance.

Med-Ball Burpees: - 30 seconds
Rest - 10 seconds
Med-Ball Backward Overhead Throw and Retrieve: - 30 seconds
Rest - 10 seconds
Med-Ball Burpees: - 30 seconds
Rest - 10 seconds
Med-Ball Jump Squats: - 30 seconds
Rest - 10 seconds
Med-Ball Forward Overhead Throw and Retrieve: - 30 seconds
Rest - 10 seconds
Med-Ball Burpees: - 30 seconds
Rest - 10 seconds
Med-Ball Wall Slams: - 30 seconds

That's four and a half minutes of dynamic, lung-burning, fat-scorching, endurance building, muscle-hardening, combat-ready conditioning. To increase the effectiveness of this routine, shorten the rest periods and repeat the circuit....if you can.

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