How to Weight Train for MMA - MMA Conditioning Tips

Elite MMA athletes are some of the most well-conditioned people in the world. This is due to the high anaerobic capacity required to do five minute rounds in a sport that requires constant exertion and power. If you're fighting a wrestler, it's almost impossible not to go 90% throughout the entire fight. Because of this, many MMA athletes have started taking on serious strength and conditioning programs that'll allow them to hang.

The most important part of your strength and conditioning workout should be building core strength. This is pretty straight forward if you know what your core really represents: your hips. In order to maximize the power of your core, you'll need to do exercise the muscles that attach to and are around your hips. These are your glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, abdominals, and spinal erectors. The two best core training exercise are the squat and deadlift, both of which will push you to your max and build up a fantastic foundation with which you can crush the competition. After you've mastered the squat and deadlift, you can move on to pure power exercises like the cleans and snatches. These are multi-step lifts that will increase your anaerobic conditioning significantly.

While building core strength is definitely the most important part of mixed martial arts conditioning training, you'll also want to focus on other muscles because they all have their uses. Your biceps, for example, will be useful for powering out of arm bar attempts. Because of this, you'll want to try to hit all of the muscles in your body. Contrary to what some people will say, no muscle is useless in mixed martial arts. Your pectorals can be useful for holding onto someone on the ground or even getting your opponent off balance so you can sweep them.

When you're working out, you'll want to use reps in the 3-5 range. Anything more and you'll start gaining muscle mass in large amounts, something you don't want to do if you're training for mixed martial arts. Remember: you want to be as strong as you can for your weight - you do not want to gain weight to become more powerful. The key is to minimize muscle gain and maximize strength gain. This can be done by using lower reps and higher weights, which neurologically conditions your body to support the great weight. These will also help you anaerobic conditioning, which means you'll be able to wrestle for longer periods of time.