MMA Strength Training Tips

Strength training has been an important aspect of a lot of sports, but is generally neglected in MMA. This isn't true for all athletes; wrestlers, for example, have great strength and conditioning due to their background. Many fighters are what I like to call martial arts purists, which means that they think skill will beat out strength and conditioning most of the time. This is true under some circumstances, but the skill gap is becoming less and less visible as the sport progresses. If you look at the top fighters, you'll see that many of them have great strength and conditioning.

Here's a list to consider: Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, Jon Jones, Georges St. Pierre, Jon Fitch, Sean Sherk, Diego Sanchez, Rich Franklin, Vitor Belfort, Fedor Emelianenko, and Minotauro Nogueira.

All of these fighters are at the top of their game and are all explosive and athletic. If you've watched any of GSP's fights, you'd see that he uses his great conditioning to wear his opponents down so he can get a late stoppage. Diego Sanchez and Sean Sherk are the same way, although the latter does lack any real finishing power. Rich Franklin described Anderson Silva's double collar neck hold as surprisingly strong - he was unable to get out of it and was subsequently finished on two occasions!

Now you're probably wondering how you can get fantastic conditioning. Well, you'll definitely need a lot of time and patience, since these things take a while to build up.

Here are three tips that'll help you along your way:

1. Do explosive lifts, like cleans, power straights, dumbbell high swings, and push-pulls. You'll need to take some time to learn the correct form for these lifts, but it's definitely worth it. They'll build great conditioning and muscular endurance and are some of the toughest lifts on your cardiovascular system. One set of hanging cleans will wind you!

2. On top of explosive lifts, you'll want to do heavy compound lifts like the squat, deadlift, and shoulder press. These will help build up your raw core strength. You'll need this to increase your punching power and grappling ability. As you go up in these lifts, you'll be able to sweep and control your opponents more effectively on the ground, since your hips will be much more powerful. Your takedowns and takedown defense will also increase significantly.

3. Run 5 -10 miles on off days. Don't run on the same day that you're working out because you'll just deplete your energy and won't get the most out of your workout. With that in mind, you should run on days that you're not working out or going to the gym. This'll help build your cardio, which is useful in a fight. What you have to realize is that an intense fight is almost entirely anaerobic, so this will only help you to an extent.

You can find more information on how to become a more effective MMA fighter here: MMA Strength and Conditioning.