This is a Strength and Conditioning workout I designed for combat athletes. It’s pretty brutal, and will definitely challenge your conditioning.
The Workout
Round 1: 3 minutes as many reps as possible of Man Makers.
Rest 1-3 minutes, depending on your level and how much you like a good kick in the balls.
Round 2: 3 Minutes as many burpees as you can do
Rest 1-3 minutes, depending on your level and how much you like a good kick in the balls.
Round 3: 3 Minutes as many rounds of MMA Drill 1 (see video) as you can do.
Rest 1-3 minutes, depending on your level and how much you like a good kick in the balls.
Round 4: 3 Minutes as many round as you can get of:
10 Push Ups
10 Squats
5 Pull ups (modify if you need to)
What This Workout is Designed to Do
This HIIT session is designed to improve aerobic power (the amount of oxygen you can use) as well as anaerobic capacity.
3 Minutes is a long time to go all out. Just like in a fight, you have to be able to keep going. Doing anything after man makers isn’t fun, especially burpees.
Workouts like this will definitely boost your mental toughness as well. It’s nice to know you can suffer so much and still put out. If you’re looking for more on mental toughness, check out this article
If you try this out, let me know! Thanks for being here, now go get some.
Mike (Supastrong)
Bioforce Certified Conditioning Coach and personal trainer. I’ve run boot camps and served as the wellness coordinator for a fortune 500 company. Currently a Federal Agent in San Diego, CA, and an Infantryman in the Army Reserve.
Brief overview of the aerobic system as the foundation of conditioning
How to improve and build the aerobic engine
High and Low intensity methods/benefits
Programming
You have to decide.. Do you want to have a Charger SRT Hellcat engine, or a 4 cylinder prius? Powerful conditioning is within your grasp, if you’re willing to educate yourself and do the work, training smarter AND harder. Conditioning for MMA athletes must have a foundation, and this article will focus on that.
Powerful conditioning could be the difference between having your hand raised, or your opponents.
Strength and Conditioning for MMA athletes can be a slippery slope. Most mistakenly believe that, since the sport is explosive in nature, high intensity training is all that is needed. This is a failure to really examine the energy demands of the sport. Fighters gas out all the time.. and conditioning is at the heart of many victories and defeats.
Profile of an MMA Fighter
Ideally, the following is what I’d want to see in an MMA athlete from a strength and conditioning perspective:
Resting Heart Rate in the high 40’s to low 50’s (aerobic fitness)
High level of mental toughness under stress and fatigue
Body fat under 12%
High Peak Power/neuromuscular ability. Especially in the lower body.
Obviously, not all athletes will possess all of these qualities, but this is an ideal profile of an elite MMA fighter with high-level conditioning.
The Aerobic System is Your Foundation
Try This out and see how it feels when Your Aerobic Engine is pushed to it’s limits
The Aerobic energy system uses oxygen along with fats and carbohydrates to create energy. MMA fights are characterized by explosive bursts mixed with periods of less explosive activity. The aerobic system is what refuels your ability to repeatedly be explosive throughout a fight. It clears out waste products and restocks energy. If your aerobic system is lacking, you will fatigue over the course of a fight.
“Although, according to the duration of an MMA bout, the energetic demands derived mainly from the aerobic system, it should be noted that the outcome of the match was often decided by explosive actions, which were based on anaerobic pathways.“
It doesn’t matter how powerful you are.. If you can only be explosive for the first round, you are going to run into problems.
How Do You Train and Build the Aerobic System for MMA Conditioning?
The Aerobic system needs a high frequency of stimulation (4-6 days/week), and a variety of different training methods to improve. This calls for a mixture of high and low intensity methods to really build up the aerobic engine. Conditioning for MMA will require various methods to be utilized for maximum adaptations and benefits.
Cardiac Output Method (Low Intensity)
Example of a Cardiac Output Session
Benefits:
Increased volume of blood pumped per beat (Stroke Volume)
Increased size of the left ventricle of the heart (eccentric cardiac hypertrophy)
Improved capacity for recovery (you can recover faster)
Lower Resting Heart Rate
Increased Heart Rate Variability
Methods:
30-90 minutes, 4-5 days/week with Heart Rate between 130-150 bpm
Can use any activity; cardio equipment, shadow boxing/drills at low/moderate intensity, or a combination of activities
Use a heart rate monitor to keep yourself in the proper range
Start with 30 minutes and build up over time.
Measure your resting HR when you wake up in the morning to track improvements. Use HRV tracking to get a deeper look.
Swimming is a great, low impact/high reward option for this method.
Lower intensity sessions will result in improved aerobic abilities resulting from a multitude of adaptations down to the cellular level. The Heart will pump more blood per beat, and your body will be able to utilize oxygen more efficiently. Lower intensity sessions also stimulate recovery, which is huge in such a demanding sport.
“Training Smart is more important than training hard.” -Georges St. Pierre
High Intensity Aerobic Training.
Obviously there is also a need for higher intensity training in MMA. These sessions should be limited to 2 times per week, and sparring would ideally take up at least one of these sessions.
The Goals/Benefits of high intensity aerobic training are:
Increase in VO2 Max (Aerobic Power) The maximum amount of oxygen your body can use
Increased ability to sustain high intensity effort for longer durations
Increased power at threshold: You can work harder at the point where anaerobic energy processes start to take over.
Faster recovery between rounds (Heart Rate Recovery)
Methods
Power Intervals
Power Interval Session with Hill Sprints
Power Intervals are the most intense form of aerobic training. The term “intense” means you’re training at close to your max heart rate.
Drive the heart rate up to as close to maximum as you can get, then keep it there for 20-30 seconds.
Immediately stop the activity and rest for one minute.
Use active recovery (very light activity) for 1-3 more minutes, then repeat for 3-5 total reps.
Can use various implements; inclined/hill sprinting, sparring, circuit training, etc..
High Intensity Continuous Training
High intensity continuous session
Get your Heart Rate up to 155-160 bpm and keep it there for 10-20 minutes. Repeat 1-2 times. This should feel difficult but not max intensity.
Keep a consistent pace/effort for the duration. Treadmill/Rower/Machines are best for this purpose.
You should be training right below your anaerobic threshold. You’ll know if the intensity is too high because you will feel like you cannot maintain the pace for the duration.
High Intensity Interval Training/Sprinting
High intensity intervals
Use 400m Sprints or full body circuits with a 1:1 work to rest ratio (rest the same amount of time as the work interval). Aim for 3 minute work intervals.
Decrease Rest/Increase Work periods periods over time
Use full body movements: Clean/Press, Pull Ups, Explosive movements
Shoot for 20-30 minutes total.
Max Effort during the work intervals
“High Intensity” refers to any training session where you’re training at greater than 90% of your max heart rate. Get a heart rate monitor and use it. Elite athletes are doing it, why shouldn’t you?
Programming Your Training
Part 3 of this article will cover programming your training in depth. For now, focus on building your engine and break it down something like this:
2 days per week of High Intensity Conditioning. This can include high intensity sparring sessions.
3-4 days per week of low/moderate intensity Conditioning
The intensity of any method can be made higher or lower by increasing or decreasing the volume, total sets or reps.
Conclusion
When it comes to conditioning for MMA, your foundation is the Aerobic system. It is your engine. You have to decide if you want the SRT or the Prius under your hood. Take the time to develop your aerobic engine and make yourself a machine!
On high intensity days, train even harder. On lower intensity days, take the time to back off a little and get specific adaptations from your body by training intelligently and with a purpose. Recover, get better… build the engine! Then, when you don’t have to worry about gassing out… your opponents will be in trouble!
Get ready to push your conditioning on this one. Full Body movements with explosive components.. This will test your metal for sure.
Excuse the video quality. Had to use my phone for this one, but it’s enough to get the idea
All you need are 2 kettlebells (or dumbells) and something heavy to throw around. I’m using a 50lb slam ball, but work with what you got. If you don’t have a rower, then do 45 second sprints or rows.
Each round is 5 Minutes total… 4 minutes of work, followed by 1 minute of rest. Complete 4 rounds getting in as many reps as possible. = 20 Minutes.
Round 1: Kbell high pulls x 8/Overhead throw x 5
Round 2: Kbell Clean and Press x 8/Over the shoulder throw x 5
Round 3: 250 meter row/Explosive Pushup x 8
Round 4: Single arm Kbell swing x 15/explosive wall throws x 5
This Method of Training Will:
Increase VO2 max
Increase ability to sustain high intensity effort for longer
Improve strength and power endurance
Improve Your Mental Toughness
Improve Aerobic abilities
Tips
Try to keep good form under fatigue.
During rest periods, really try to drive your heart rate down as much as possible.
Wear a heart rate monitor, get familiar with what HR you begin to reach that deep state of fatigue.
Make sure to follow this session up with a Recovery Training day the next day. Don’t train HIIT/High intensity back to back days. For more on recovery check out my article on Recovery Training
You Don’t need 2 hours at the gym. In fact, I’d argue that if you’re spending more than an hour or so working out, there may be a problem with your training. Too much talking maybe. Too much narcissistic mirror watching, or messing around on your phone. I cannot relate. Training is sacred, and when I train I’m all about getting down to business, being focused and getting something specific done. With just a couple dumbells and 20 minutes, there are endless possibilities to hammer out a great, productive session.
Below is one example from my YouTube Channel (SupaStrong). I was able to hammer this out in 20 minutes (5 x 4 minute rounds), while building up a decent amount of volume, and also giving my heart a workout similar to running a moderately fast 2-3 mile run. I’ve attached my HR data from this session to demonstrate.
You can see below that along with a pretty decent amount of lifting volume, I also had my heart rate in the upper training zones (150-168) for about 13 minutes. I also burned over 330 calories (likely significantly more than that considering the “afterburn” effect of intense sessions).. in just a 20 minute workout.
Notice how each interval creeps the heart rate up higher.. this reflects the fact that when you train in intervals, each interval becomes more and more aerobic.. the body becomes increasingly more dependent on the aerobic system to keep you moving.. this is as true for interval sprints as it is for lifting like this.
Building these types of sessions is pretty simple. Choose 4-5 compound movements, using whatever implement you have available (kettlebells, dumbells, small children).. and choose how much volume (reps) you’re going to perform for each. I always choose at least one movement that will really drive my heart rate up, such as clean and press, to really challenge my conditioning with a full body movement. The possibilities are endless.
I highly recommend training with a heart rate monitor. It can be a game changer, but I’ll save that for another article. Till then, go get some!
The desire to push the body to new levels of strength and fitness is something I understand very well. I’ve been training in one form or another for most of my life, and my life has in fact usually revolved around my training schedule. If I knew years ago what I know now, I no doubt could have reached much higher levels of physical conditioning, and in turn, performance. The secret to being that beast you visualize in your head (but havn’t quite achieved, despite punishing your body relentlessly) is not a magic training program, nor is it a supplement or hack. I’m not trying to sell you anything either… I have acquired the knowledge both through my own experiences and through the help of some great coaches, books and articles that I’ve learned from and tested out on myself. I have been my own guinea pig over the years. I’m no guru, but I do believe I’ve got it right.
To spare you from having to read too much, I’m going to keep it as simple as possible. What’s holding most people back from harnessing the full power of their body’s potential is the over-reliance on High Intensity Training (think HIIT, circuit training, etc..). We skip straight into high intensity training, without realizing that we have neglected the foundation of fitness and of high level physical conditioning.. the aerobic energy system.
A Quick Explanation of Energy Systems
The Aerobic energy system uses oxygen along with fats and carbohydrates to create energy for us to continue moving. It is efficient and long lasting, but slow. As exercise intensity increases, the aerobic system will try to keep up, until it no longer can produce the energy being demanded by whatever we’re doing.
At this point, the anaerobic energy system will begin to increasingly become utilized to continue producing energy. The anaerobic energy system does not utilize oxygen, and instead uses substrates already present in the blood and muscle tissue to create energy. This provides a fast, powerful source of energy (think sprinting or any explosive movement lasting less than 30 seconds). The downside is that the anaerobic energy system cannot produce energy for very long. If you sprint at maximum speed, you cannot maintain that speed for longer than about 10-15 seconds.. It is simply not how our bodies are designed.
Thank of the fighter who completely gasses out in the middle of a round. Why, after so much training and sparring and high intensity conditioning would that happen? Most likely, it happens because that athlete has not built up his aerobic engine, the foundation of conditioning.
It can be very counter-intuitive. fighting is a sport where you have to be explosive, so why would you need to build up your aerobic system with lower intensity training? The answer to this question is the secret to achieving a higher level of fitness and conditioning.
The Aerobic System resupplies energy (recovery) between explosive bouts
Building up the aerobic energy system will allow you to recover faster between explosive bouts. The aerobic system clears out the byproducts created during high intensity exercise, and also replenishes energy so you can continue moving at that high intensity. If your body is unable to keep up with the intensity you’re trying to train or compete at, you will “hit the wall.”
So, how can you harness and build the power of the aerobic energy system?
Take a step back and dedicate 12 weeks or so to building your foundation. If you need help, check out how I programmed this for myself here. You shouldn’t completely cut out high intensity training, but keep it to 1-2 days/week. On those days, push yourself as hard as you need to. Devote 3-5 days per week, depending on your current fitness level, to low to moderate training lasting 30-60 minutes in duration. You can use treadmills, running, or any other activity, and should mix it up frequently. These sessions should have your heart rate between 130-150 for the duration of the session. gradually increase the length of the session over the course of several weeks.
Over time, you will be gaining invaluable adaptations in the body. The heart will adapt by pumping more blood per beat, and thus you should see your resting heart rate move lower, which is one of the surest signs of improved aerobic fitness. You will improve your body’s ability to clear out the byproducts of intense exercise and thus will be able to go harder, for longer. To see some advanced ways to plan your programming, check out my article on how to program your training for optimal results.
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