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Best Workouts for Fighting

75K views 32 replies 23 participants last post by  Danny89 
#1 ·
I need a list of all the work outs I should do for mainly fighting purposes.


Thank you.
 
#3 ·
Go to bodybuilding.com and pick a weight routine that fits your schedule (ie how many times a week) and lift. Core strength and leg strength is very important so don't forget those overlooked muscles. Mix that in with cardio and sprints and you should have a pretty well rounded workout. I'm assuming you have fight specific training a few times a week also to get in your heavy bag work and partner stuff.
 
#5 ·
Hadu said:
I need a list of all the work outs I should do for mainly fighting purposes.


Thank you.
i heard the pro fighter "krazy horse" say , "masturbation is the best exercise you can get, you get a workout and pleasure yourself at the same time..."
 
#6 ·
Hadu said:
I need a list of all the work outs I should do for mainly fighting purposes.


Thank you.
If you are training to be a fighter, here's what I suggest.

Do lots of bodyweight excersise. In pro MMA you are fighting guys who are the same size and weight as you, so working with your own body weight (pullups, pushups, squats) is a good place to start while building up an appropriate amount of muscle and targeting key muscle groups.

Practice your ground techniques (those seem to require the largest amount of raw strength) with a training partner a little bit larger than you. Do takedowns, throws, groundnpound drills and submissions with partners bigger than you. It helps to build strength.

Use a groundnpound bag at a weight a little bit heavier than you and do should tosses , suplexes, slams and any other throws that require a great deal of physical strength. Make sure that you are exploding to your own full ability as well as practicing form.

Do some reps on the heavybag, but spend most of your time striking with the pads and weight yourself with a body vest, heavy gloves and ankle weights.

And roll and spar alot. The best workout that you can get to train for MMA is to do it. Train your grappling and your striking as much as you can with training partners. It makes you think about the way that everything is going to work in the fight.
 
#7 ·
the best work out is core training is the best training bar none.

I use to think there was no diferance intill i tryed it and I have never gone back.

there is a great artical about it in issue 17 of tapout magaqine by erik paulson under shooters touch. pick it up and be inlightened.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Heres the aritcal

this is how the artical reads from the mag.
By erik Paulson
"In 1997 I went to teach a seminar in Madison Wisconsin for my friend?student Jhon hinds at his gym, the monky bar. the two day seminar concentrated on valetudo and submission wrestling. the attendees were a mixed crew of JKD, Muay Thai, Bjj and wrestling practitioners. drills techniques tool development counter situations and live go situations pointed out what became a major turning point in my approach to training creating sort specivic exercises to train the athlete not the artist.

I came from the old school mentality that to be good you should mostly train your arts and craft of fighting. who had time to waste on exercises that had nothing to do with fighting. bottom line, how many rounds did you spar today and how many rolls did you get in? when I was competing later in my career, i implemented weight lifting running sprinting swimming rollerblading bag and pad work asike from 2 wirkouts a day for grappling and striking."

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#9 ·
I trained my body harder for each opponet who faced me. ther is a saying that when your body is poisoned, your mind is poisoned, so my mentality was to train as hard as possible this was our spirit training; hard, bloody,sweaty and full of bumps and bruises. it was just another day at the office.

Back to the turning point, Jon said My core was weak in 1996, but what the hell was my core? he explained that my care was made of my center stabiliqers that kept me balance, fast and strong. I just remember thinking the word "corews a new fad word like tae bo. what i didnt know was that Jon and his father Bobby were both on the cutting edge of supplemental training devices. they were the ones to contact for health products for rehab strength tendon and ligament development and what is now known as "Core development Training"

Jonwas right; my striking was off balance after I fired a punch. my takedow hip defense was pathetic, so I decided to stay in Madison for a few extra days. Jon invited me to a training sessinon and I remember wanting to roll maby hit some weights. Jon had some new exercises in store for me along with some new products he and his father had developed. I showed up at the gootball stadium and began doing five minuts of 100 revolutions with heavy rope for thwarm-up. Jon made stations for all of us and proceeded to make us go through all of them. I was so sore after this workout that I could barely walk sit caugh sneeze or do anything for the next week without hurting somewhere!

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#10 ·
I was disappointed by not pumping iron, but he said not to worry because we were pumping rubber! How could I explain this to my friends? we did rubber medicine ball throws agains the wall jump rope power push ups amd dip. we also did rubber power cable squats , jumps twists and power cleans. we ran th ladder and did 50-yard sprints after all of that we gradually did the power wheel.

when I was shaking and twisting uncontrollably Jon's friends all shouted that I didn't look like much of a champion. While I faked laghed,sneered at themand sucked my thumb! If you do this workout like me youll be sore for days at first then your abs will pop out your obliques will be ripped and your love handles will disappear.

by doing all of this and making your core stabilizers strong, your overall game will improve. Jon kiked my coreless weak as and showed me the alternate ways to do the same. this was truly and ewe opener and a hallmark in the development of my fighter training today. every time I train my guys, I thank the crew over a lifeline USA for changing my body and game. what I've done now is develop the same power core development training routine on dvd, utilizing the power rope power cord with belt and power weel. this will soon be available for puchase on my website, www.erikpaulson.com."
 
#14 ·
If you have all the equipment and a timer then just blast away on the bags. Do 3 full minutes on a heavy bag(just punches), then 3 minutes on speed bag, then 3 minutes on kick bag, then 3 minutes doing elbows and knees, then 3 minutes combining all of that. Take a minute or two break, then start all over. this wil ultimately help you gain the proper muscles needed and help yu hit harder.

Also pay attention to which muscles are sore afterwards as then you can specify weight training workout to those specific muscles.
 
#17 ·
Listen to me, if you want good workouts for fighting you need to focus on STRENGTH and CONDITION. As far as strength is concerned, it's important to do Power Lifting type excercises, such as squats, presses, pulls, etc. The best way to group these is into 3 days: squatting, pushing, pressing. MAKE SURE you're doing squats, deadlifts, and overhead presses. Power Training Exercises is a good link for some excercises that really relate to fighting and strength. I would also suggest checking out rosstraining.com for some AMAZING strength and conditioning workouts. i would write more but im lazy and more people on this forum arent serious anyways so if youre serious check those links out and u can msg me if u have questions
 
#19 ·
Erik Paulson's a great submission specialist and comes from a great camp, but he isn't in any kind of shape to go the distance in a fight. At least, he wasn't at the HDNet fights in Dallas earlier this month. It didn't matter because he had Jeff Ford tapping early in the first round, but my point is that if you want fighting workouts you want to be prepared to go the distance (and Paulson didn't seem to be ready for that). If you're going to follow a pro fighter's training regiment I'd go with Randy Couture or Sean Sherk. Someone that has proven he can go the distance consistently.
 
#21 ·
Everybody has said basically everything you needed to hear. Bodyweight exercises are as absolutely essential as Ironman said and it shouldn't be avoided. Yeah, the core as well needs a lot of work. Good thing about the core is that it can be worked every other day, unlike legs, back and chest.

You want to build your FUNCTIONAL strength, though. Fedor doesn't look all imposing, but he is so strong and has a lot endurance in his strenght. A lot of that is down to simply wood choppin' to work the core and lots of dips and pull ups.

Squats are a must, but from the research I have done, Front Squats is the best in terms of a weight lifting exercise carrying over for atheletic performances, due to the fact that there is great emphasis on your. GSP does a lot of Front Squats and has claimed that it's the exercise most responsible for making him strong.
 
#23 ·
just fight ppl.

pretty good workout for fighting.

in my boxing gym when i grew up it was 80% sparring, 15% bags/training and 5% running.... but everything you can learn on the bag/training you can learn sparring, depending on who you are sparring with and what the purpose of the session is.

nothing builds fighting muscles like fighting tho.... seriously... i know it sounds stupid and im prepared for the massive neg reps but alot of ppl waste time doing workouts when they should be fighting...

JMO of course and im very biased by the way i grew up training.

go ahead and flame away.
 
#24 ·
Technically speaking, that's not an altogether bad idea and the issue can vary person to person. If you want to be a good sprinter, the best thing you can do is field work performing various sprints, but sprinting is almost 100% physical. There is technique involved to maximize different phases of a sprint, but it’s 95% dependent on your physical ability. Therefore, spending most of your time sparring and simply learning technique should be the broad base. When you’re wrestling or rolling with someone, you are stimulating all the relevant muscles to a ground game [this would be the area of functional strength or what I call, manhandle strength]. When you’re standing, whether it be striking, shooting or sprawling you are stimulating all the relevant power structures, the velocity based movements generated from hip flexion, hip extension and hip rotation.

I think weight training is something to consider if you feel you need improvement on certain aspects. If you’re striking technique is solid and you need more power, you can train your hips to generate greater velocity and therefore, faster, harder strikes. The principle is the same when shooting and sprawling. Power snatches and power cleans have a direct translation to a high velocity hip extension aka sprawling or shooting, punching or kicking [hip flexion/hip rotation].

I agree that you simply need to spar a lot, or at least perform a lot of reflex work, because what comes before effective physical capabilities, is your reaction time. Reaction time dictates everything (on the feet at least). If I had to break down a pie graph, I’d say 80% in the ring/matt/cage, 15% power training, 5% functional strength. I’m more in line with the idea that cardio comes with the rolling, wrestling and sparring. That kind of cardio is sport specific, short bursts of power exertion, back to low intensity, back into power exertion and so on. Jogging has it’s place, but in a fight, you’re not in a low intensity situation for 20 min. It’s back & forth, exertion & relaxation, which you get when you’re putting in ring/matt time. That variation of speed & relaxation training effects how well your body utilizes fats & sugars in that situation. Jogging forever, though good, trains your body to utilize fats effectively, but you need to be effectively at metabolizing sugars as well. Anyway, my two cents.
 
#25 ·
Reasons to power train.

The difference between strength & power is the ability to generate force production in a single moment. Strength can be described as how much weight you can move, power can be described as how fast you can move it. You can be strong as hell, but slow as an Ox. Bruce Lee was a good example of power. Power is primarily velocity based.

Reason #1
MOTOR UNIT COORDINATION

The presence of muscle mass, does not necessarily correlate with the amount of power you can produce, though it is indicative of how much strength you have. What primarily discriminates one from the other are MOTOR UNITS. Your muscle fibers are lined with motor units. Motor units innervate multiple muscle fibers, meaning, one motor unit could be responsible for stimulating 1 muscle fiber or it could control 100 or 1000 muscle fibers. When your muscles contract, like for a bench press, your motor units will begin to recruit muscle fibers for stimulation, however, not all of your motor units fire at the same time. Think about a downtown turning their lights on at dawn, one here, one there, five six there, twelve fifteen there until the entire city has it’s lights on or full muscle contraction. That is how strength is expressed. Power is expressed, when all the motor units fire in coordination at one time, so all the city lights come on at the exact same moment. Therefore, someone with less muscle, but greater motor unit coordination, could generate more power, then someone with more muscle, but lesser motor unit coordination.


Reason #2
GREATER RECRUITMENT OF MUSCLE FIBERS PER MOTOR UNIT.

As discussed, you can train your body to fire all their motor units synchronously, but furthermore, you can also train your motor units to recruit more muscle fiber per contraction. For instance, rather then one motor unit stimulating 100 muscle fibers per contraction, it may stimulate 500-1000 muscle fibers per contraction.

Reason #3.
RELAXING OF THE GOLGI TENDON ORGAN.

Your muscles are also lined with golgi tendon organs, they are an autonomic function. When you throw a punch forward, in an automatic reaction, opposing muscles will contract by reflex (though you don’t feel it) and it does that as an inherent protection mechanism. When you throw out a strike at high speeds, your body does not know you intend to stop the strike at a certain point, so it’s natural reflex is to stimulate the golgi tendon organ, which will begin deactivate the muscles slight, so that you don’t throw your shoulders out of socket.

Reason #3b
DECREASING CO-CONTRACTION.

When you flex your biceps, your triceps contract. When you flex your abs, your lower back contracts. Your body is full of co-contractions. It is very difficult to flex an anterior muscle without flexing it’s opposing posterior muscle. Anything you do moving forward at high speeds, you have the golgi tendon organ performing a manual shut down to a small extent and you have co-contraction occurring which pulls you back, if you’re moving forward. Power training teaches your golgi tendon organ to relax “more,” during high velocity situations, as well as decreasing co-contraction.

Reason #4.
INCREASED NEURON FIRING

In power training, because the movements are high velocity, placing that demand on your body for sudden movement will create the adaption of your neurons finding or creating a shorter path to the working muscle. Meaning, the message from your brain, down your spinal cord and to the working muscle takes a short amount of time. Though any improvements with reaction time are minute, it’s those minute moments, like shooting faster, sprawling quicker, ducking & dodging, countering just a bit sooner then the opponent that has great implications.

Reason #5
LARGER MITOCHONDRIA, THEREFORE, GREATER ADENOSINETRIPHOSPHATE PRODUCTION

On a molecular level. High burst intensity (and strength training as well) causes you to create larger mitochondria (endurance exercises cause you to create more voluminous mitochondria). Mitochondria produces adenosinetriphosphates and large Mitochondria produces larger amounts of ATP at one time. ATP is burst energy currency (ADP and AMP or low intensity energy currency).

- Coordinated Motor Unit Firing.
- Increased Muscle Fiber Recruitment by Motor Units per contraction.
- Relaxation of the Golgi Tendon Organ
- Decreased Co-Contraction.
- Increased Neuron Firing.
- Larger Mitochondria/Greater ATP prodcution.


All these elements have an effect on your ability to generate power & velocity.

All these adaptions will happen to an extend with normal sparring. Punching, kicking, sprawling, shooting are all power movements, but eventually, your body stops making improvements in this area, because the body only adapts to “new stress.” Punching no longer becomes a “new stress” after a very short time, especially for something as strong as your core/hips. I’m a big fan of putting my athletes through power training. Hope this helped.
 
#26 ·
The best way is to locate a gym in your area that specializes in it. Now a days, these kinds of gyms are getting more popular. Another option is gyms that train in kickboxing or boxing. Then, you can always take up some form of martial arts. Personally, I start off with training like a boxer. I prefer more of the cardio stuff like jumping rope and running.
 
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