Doing conditioning exercises before a martial arts session can help you improve your stamina, physical endurance and strength while enhancing your mental clarity and focus.
It’s largely accepted that in order to be a good fighter or warrior, you have to train both your body and mind but no matter how confident and excited you are about a competition, you won’t manage to achieve the desired results unless you physical condition is at its best. It is therefore obvious that in order to become a successful MMA player you have to work hard on improving your agility and reflexes, your physical strength and power, your endurance, quickness and muscle tone.
The easiest way to achieve these goals is to include in your daily schedule a personalized cardio and weight lifting routine, designed to match your body’s needs and weaknesses. If your main problem is muscular strength, this personalized routine should concentrate on heavy weights lifting but without neglecting cardio exercises. If you feel your body tired after only few minutes of kicking and punching, then you should concentrate on improving your resistance and stamina.
The purpose of martial arts conditioning exercises is to build a very strong and muscular physique that is able to recover faster after a fighting session. So let’s take a quick look at the exercises a MMA player should do to be in perfect shape before a competition.
1. Power training sessions
These exercises are essential as they improve the explosiveness, strength and stability, the muscular endurance and flexibility of the player. Squat jumps and thrusts, heavy bag kicks and punches, medicine ball rotations and throws, box jumps, depth push-ups and other plyometric exercises are designed to improve the functioning of your nervous system, the coordination between your body parts, the elasticity and responsiveness of your muscles.
By performing such high intensity exercises on a regular basis you’ll manage to react faster, hit harder, jump higher or through farther, depending on the goal of your power training session. So make sure you train both your upper and lower body and increase intensity whenever you feel your body is prepared for the next level.
2. Strength trainings
Next on the list of martial arts conditioning exercises you should include in your weekly training routine are strength exercises, which help in developing stronger muscles for more powerful knockout strikes. Most common exercises for strength improvement are bench press, shoulder press, squats, deadlifts, crunches, leg raises and push-ups. Make sure you start with fewer repetitions to avoid overworking your body as this triggers muscular fatigue, but choose heavy weights if you really want to see noticeable results in short periods of time.
Remember, strength training is important as it allows you to improve control over your opponent during competitions by increasing the power of your strikes. Core strength for example allows you to sweep easier, to execute specific movements faster and to throw more powerful punches. But unless your body is powerful enough, technique and resistance become useless.
3. Endurance exercises
The purpose of these martial arts conditioning exercises is to improve your respiratory and cardiovascular performance during fights so if you want to make sure your body won’t reach its limits right in the middle of the competition, include endurance exercises in your weekly training schedule. Jogging and running sessions, cycling and elliptical trainer workouts as well as swimming sessions are essential in building a more resistant body and keeping your properly motivated but besides these benefits, endurance exercises are also a great way of burning excess fats so if you need to lose some pounds for a competition you shouldn’t neglect this type of training!
It’s largely accepted that in order to be a good fighter or warrior, you have to train both your body and mind but no matter how confident and excited you are about a competition, you won’t manage to achieve the desired results unless you physical condition is at its best. It is therefore obvious that in order to become a successful MMA player you have to work hard on improving your agility and reflexes, your physical strength and power, your endurance, quickness and muscle tone.
The easiest way to achieve these goals is to include in your daily schedule a personalized cardio and weight lifting routine, designed to match your body’s needs and weaknesses. If your main problem is muscular strength, this personalized routine should concentrate on heavy weights lifting but without neglecting cardio exercises. If you feel your body tired after only few minutes of kicking and punching, then you should concentrate on improving your resistance and stamina.
The purpose of martial arts conditioning exercises is to build a very strong and muscular physique that is able to recover faster after a fighting session. So let’s take a quick look at the exercises a MMA player should do to be in perfect shape before a competition.
1. Power training sessions
These exercises are essential as they improve the explosiveness, strength and stability, the muscular endurance and flexibility of the player. Squat jumps and thrusts, heavy bag kicks and punches, medicine ball rotations and throws, box jumps, depth push-ups and other plyometric exercises are designed to improve the functioning of your nervous system, the coordination between your body parts, the elasticity and responsiveness of your muscles.
By performing such high intensity exercises on a regular basis you’ll manage to react faster, hit harder, jump higher or through farther, depending on the goal of your power training session. So make sure you train both your upper and lower body and increase intensity whenever you feel your body is prepared for the next level.
2. Strength trainings
Next on the list of martial arts conditioning exercises you should include in your weekly training routine are strength exercises, which help in developing stronger muscles for more powerful knockout strikes. Most common exercises for strength improvement are bench press, shoulder press, squats, deadlifts, crunches, leg raises and push-ups. Make sure you start with fewer repetitions to avoid overworking your body as this triggers muscular fatigue, but choose heavy weights if you really want to see noticeable results in short periods of time.
Remember, strength training is important as it allows you to improve control over your opponent during competitions by increasing the power of your strikes. Core strength for example allows you to sweep easier, to execute specific movements faster and to throw more powerful punches. But unless your body is powerful enough, technique and resistance become useless.
3. Endurance exercises
The purpose of these martial arts conditioning exercises is to improve your respiratory and cardiovascular performance during fights so if you want to make sure your body won’t reach its limits right in the middle of the competition, include endurance exercises in your weekly training schedule. Jogging and running sessions, cycling and elliptical trainer workouts as well as swimming sessions are essential in building a more resistant body and keeping your properly motivated but besides these benefits, endurance exercises are also a great way of burning excess fats so if you need to lose some pounds for a competition you shouldn’t neglect this type of training!
