Whenever a professional fight commentator comments on Anderson “The Spider” Silva’s matches, underneath all their words, generally comes the term ‘unorthodox’. Many consider the middleweight champion the top pound-for-pound fighter in MMA when he is on his game, and as he has shown time and time again, he is always on his game when he steps into the ring. He has only risked loss in one fight, to contender Chael Sonnen, but Silva managed to pull out a submission with seconds left in the fight.

The middleweight fighter has not been defeated in his time in the UFC, even when he stepped up his game and put on twenty pounds in order to fight at light heavyweight vs. popular fighter Forest Griffin. He again showed his ability as a top fighter by taking out Griffin in the first round of the fight. Silva has also never been shy about his desire for a fight vs other superstar fighter George St. Pierre, the UFC welterweight champion.

With a fighting pedigree and record like that, Anderson Silva must have a training regimen that puts all other fighters to shame, right? Well, like the fighter himself, Silva’s training routine is comparatively unorthodox compared to fighters that show the same level of talent and conditioning. Silva does not punish his body with workouts that last all day, every day, he doesn’t spend every waking hour thinking about fighting, and he doesn’t carefully plan out his diet for meal after meal.

What Anderson Silva does do is try and maintain a balanced workout schedule between conditioning and technique training. He spends a great deal of time honing his knowledge of different techniques, so that he can always approach his opponents from different angles, and confuse them by never using the same types of techniques repeatedly. From UFC’s All Access show, Anderson Silva took them through a week of his training. His technique training has a specific schedule. He works Jiu-Jitsu on Monday, Muay Thai on Tuesday, and traditional boxing on Wednesday. For Thursday and Friday he repeats techniques he learned the early part of the week and puts them together in combinations built to confound his opponents. Sparring two days a week reinforces that training style, and gives him a chance to put it all together.

His diet and conditioning workout is just as unusual, in that he doesn’t pound his body every day of the week like some fighters. His strength training routine lasts two hours a day, four days a week, while he cycles through a thirty-minute training cycle. He also runs forty minutes every day to build his cardio. This workout is moderate compared to many other fighters, but it means he also doesn’t abuse his body and push things to injury. He doesn’t pay attention to the specifics of his diet, but he keeps his calorie intake at about three-thousand calories a day, and does his best to eat lots of high protein foods, such as one of his favorites, sushi. He does avoid alcohol and sugar intake, but other than that, he doesn’t specifically pay attention to his food intake. It is a very casual attitude towards his diet that many fighters don’t seem to share. In an aside about his life before fighting, Anderson Silva admits that during his time working at McDonalds, he developed a taste for the Big Mac, and so now before a fight he often indulges himself with a couple of burgers before fights.

Despite Silva’s unorthodox fighting style, and training style, the UFC fighter is obviously doing something right. He is the longest reigning UFC title holder with 9 title defenses under his belt, against some of the strongest middleweight fighters in the division, as well as two decisive light-heavyweight bouts that never went out of the first round. Anderson’s attitude, good humor, and unusual fighting style also make him one of the most entertaining fighters to watch, and he proves above all that it doesn’t really matter the specifics of how you work out and condition, as long as it works for you and how you want to approach the octagon.

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The newest league of MMA superstars have all shown that there is a new generation of athlete coming out. These ‘super athletes’ take their workouts to extreme, push their bodies to maximum of endurance, and sometimes further in their efforts, and in their quest to become MMA legends. Different fighters concentrate on different aspects of their game, striking, grappling, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, but if there is one thing that is proven time and time again is that anyone that gets into MMA cannot neglect their cardio workouts. How many fights have you seen where a competitor dominated a round, or even two rounds, but then became so gassed that they lost all ability to defend themselves, push the positions, and thus, lose the match. All of the current champions have phenomenal cardio, they can fight through five rounds with no problems, and they constantly prove that they have what it takes to be champions.

So, when you are starting out in your MMA careers you should not overlook the importance of a good MMA cardio workout. In fact, you should probably consider that before you even look into your technical skills. That said, cardio is not what many people expect when they get into the sport. Most athletes consider cardio the ability to jog mile after mile, or to do hundreds of reps at almost no weight. They think of it as low impact, long duration workouts. That is something of a fallacy though, because when you workout in that fashion, you may increase your long-run endurance, but you end up neglecting your ability to sustain bursts of energy for long periods. It may be counter-intuitive, but you want to feel the burn in your muscles. You want to get that build up of lactic acid in your muscles, and then push through it and continue. Increasing your anaerobic endurance increases your aerobic endurance, where the inverse is not true. Just because you can jog twenty-five kilometers doesn’t mean that you can sustain maximum effort for five minutes.

Oh yes, I know that pushing maximum effort to your limits every time is going to hurt, and you think it’s going to push yourself to the brink of injury, but you don’t have to push maximum effort, you just want to avoid the trap of pushing minimal effort. So how do you avoid that trap? Simple, you push near maximum effort, use a small number of reps per set, but take very short rest periods per set before you kick things into the next set. This way you are getting a still getting a lot of reps, but you push your body’s routine and limits to accommodate the greater weight, and thus build that intense high-strength endurance that helps you sustain maximum effort for longer periods of time. Here is a sample workout originally published elsewhere, start at 65% of your lifting capacity, and take 60-second rest periods between sets;

Sample Workout #1 — two days per week

Day 1:
Clean and Press: 15 sets x 2 reps
Curl Grip Chin: 15 x 2
Medium Grip Bench Press: 10 x 1
Deadlift: 20 x1
Abdominal Work

Day 2:
Dips: 12 sets x 3 reps
Clean and Front Squat: 20 x 2
Bent Rows: 12 x 2
Barbell Curl and Press: 6 x 4
Abdominal Work

Sample Workout #2 — performed every workout
Clean and Press: 20 sets x 1 rep
Bench Press: 8 x 2
Barbell Curls: 6 x 3
Chin: 15 x 2
Squat: 20 x 1
Abdominal Work

As your body starts to get used to these exercises, you will find that you should take shorter rest periods between sets, and then eventually increase your weight limits with the workouts. Generally, once you get down to about 20 second rest periods; look at increasing your weight limits. Don’t forget, your rest periods don’t have to be you standing there, gasping for air as your body is sore. Use that time and work muscles that didn’t get hit during your reps, perform the exercises with no weights, but it will keep your hard up, and keep you pumped up so that you can get right back into the workout when your rest period is over.

Sticking with one of these anaerobic, fast-push and high intensity, conditioning workout doesn’t just build your muscles and strength, it builds your endurance in a fashion you can use. Don’t get gassed out in the ring, that five minutes of maximum effort is nothing when you have a minute rest between rounds, especially when your body gets used to doing near maximum effort with 30 or even 20 second breaks. Go into every fight and perform every instance of your training as if you are going to go a full 25 minutes with you pushing your opponent to the limit of their endurance, so you can make sure that you don’t reach the limit of yours.

Former heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is a modest fighter, despite his dominant win over Brock Lesner to take the heavyweight championship in October of 2010. He does not talk badly about his opponents, and he shows grace and modesty, even after his loss of the title to Junior dos Santos at the first UFC on Fox in November of 2011. Despite this setback, which many attribute to a bad shoulder due to a torn rotator cuff, he continues to strive to a rematch for the heavyweight championship, with an announced fight with Antonio Silva at an unspecified date.

Velasquez is one of the newer generations of UFC fighters with an emphasis on overall conditioning that tones his entire body. Coined ‘super athletes’ by Rogan when talking about Johnny ‘Bones’ Jones, this new generation of fighters pushes the physical envelope of their training to tone their bodies to the extreme. These athletes make training their number one job between their fights, and push their bodies to extremes that even regular sports athletes are hard pressed to match. Many times you can find guides to these athlete’s extreme workouts, but Cain Velasquez has been reluctant to talk about the specifics of his workout.

He reveals his general schedule easily enough. He keeps a regimented schedule, that alternates slightly as he works out five days a week. On Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, Velasquez does weight training from 8-9:30 am. He follows this with breakfast, hits the gym to do wrestling and he follows that with hard sparring sessions from noon to 2 pm. He spoke with Askmen.com and noted that “the noon workouts on Monday, Wednesday, Friday are the hardest because I’m going in against multiple training partners and fighting each one. Each fighter that comes at me is fresh and that really takes a toll on you and your body — it gets you tired and it really makes you dig deep and work hard to get through the workout. It’s the worst and sometimes I hate going through it, but it is the most beneficial part of my training.” After his massive sparring workout he does three rounds of jiu-jitsu, eats dinner so he can give his body gets a chance to relax, and then returns to the gym so he can finish his day out with cardio and striking workouts. His workout on Tuesday and Thursday is very similar, but he trades out his sparring for additional wrestling and jiu-jitsu practice so he can work on his technique.

He keeps this training intensity up with only short breaks after fights to recover and recuperate. The former heavyweight champion was asked about working out for new people, and for young fighters trying to break into the industry. He said, “You need good training partners — because you’re only as good as your training partners — and a strong desire to always get better. Know what your strengths are, but also keep in mind what your weaknesses are; always work on your weaknesses.” It is good advice for anyone that looks for a workout that will improve their game. Find something that forces an improvement in your conditioning and skills and shores up the weaknesses in your developing skills.

There are various kinds of conditioning though, conditioning for explosive power that will take you off the cage, or off your back when an opponent tries to hold you there, endurance conditioning that says you can dance for three rounds without losing a step, even endurance conditioning where you can simply out-exert your opponent and grind them into the mat. You want to work every kind of conditioning in some way into your workout. There is almost no ‘catch all’ circuit, but there are a few general workouts better suited towards someone new to the sport until you find your best workout style.

First things first though, most MMA fighter conditioning workouts have a strong anaerobic component. They go for maximum effort in the minimum amount of time during their circuits, but it is always wise to warm up with a good aerobic workout. This loosens your muscles, stretches you out, and gets your body ready for putting out everything. Depending on your fitness level, consider this as a method to warm up before you get into a heavy workout;

Jogging 3-5 km,
Hitting an Exercise bike for 45 minutes,
Jump Rope for 30 minutes,

All of those basic exercises will get you nice and ready for the intensity you need for your all-around conditioning workout. Here is a sample workout that is common among several MMA gyms;

Hindu Pushup

Squat jumps 30 seconds
Shadow box 30 seconds
Hindu pushups 30 seconds
Shadow box 30 seconds
Situps 30 seconds

Repeat immediately with no break for a total circuit of 5 minutes, but pushes your body to work into that anaerobic workout where you can make real conditioning progress. Take 1-3 minutes to rest, with a goal being 1 minute, then immediately jump into a second set of that circuit. Repeat as many times as you can until you drop flat from exhaustion. The goal is to push your body hard, and feel the anaerobic burn so that your body can work all muscles groups needed for a career fighting in MMA.

The MMA fight scene has proven to be an ever-evolving competition. Every time the ‘next big thing’ proves that they are the best pound-for-pound fighter in their weight class, someone comes along in short order and proves that no, the sport is still growing, still finding super athletes, and is still developing. Case in point, just look at the youngest UFC light heavyweight champion of the world, Jon ‘Bones’ Jones. This 23 year old athlete rocketed up the light heavyweight charts after destroying 6 opponents in a row in just over three months. This new generation of athlete has turned the fight game into a full lifestyle, and they push every aspect, from their skill training, to their conditioning regimen.

Jones’ conditioning has made every single one of his opponents look like they were at retirement age; he keeps up a pace for every round that few opponents can come close to matching. He also uses a dynamic style that compliments his athleticism so that he can keep his opponents guessing with barrages of unconventional strikes, and a strong ground game, as proven by his recent title defense against Quentin ‘Rampage’ Jackson, where he brought down the former champion with a rear naked choke.

Jones’ workout routine is extreme, though it is no secret, he runs through a daily routine that would destroy many other athletes. His daily workout routine looks like this:

1. Hang Clean (5 sets of 5 reps)
2. Barbell Push Press (8 sets of 5 reps: 30 sec. rest between sets)
3. Lying Leg Curl (6 sets of 6 reps)
4. Depth Dumbbell Snatch (4 sets of 4 reps)
5. Ring Twists (3 sets of 4 reps to each side)
6. Clean from Knees w/Jump (3 sets of 10 reps)
7. One-Leg Straight Leg Walking Dumbbell Deadlifts (3 sets for 25 yards each)
8. Medicine ball superset (run the cycle three times for a total of three supersets)
• Medicine Ball Power Up (5 reps)
• Medicine Ball Sprawl and Jump (8 reps)
• Medicine Ball Plyo Push Up (8 reps)

He breaks up each set with a mere 30 seconds of breathing time between each. It pushes his body to extremes and forces him to process his workout in explosive sessions that mirrors the explosive intensity he requires for his fights. If Jon ‘Bones’ Jones represents the next generation in the evolution of MMA fighters in his fighting style and workout conditioning, it will be amazing to see what extremes others will have to go through to compete at the higher levels of competition.

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Simple exercises like pushups, situps and lunges should be done as well to tone and strengthen muscles, then add some hand weights to your routine to push your body to the limit.

You might be very pleasantly surprised to see how much your body can change by doing a lot of cardiovascular mixed with some light strength training.

If you try to start grappling or dead lifting without the right strength or stamina, you won’t like the results.

So don’t sell yourself short and get to sweating it out.

You can do this in one of two ways; lengthen the time you workout, or add more intense techniques to your current regimen.

If you’ve been running two miles a day on a track, start running uphill.

Lifting 20 pound dumbbells? Crank up the weight to 30 pounds on each side.

You’re not trying to kill yourself, but your opponent isn’t exactly going to take it easy on you. Each time you set a physical goal for yourself, see if you can set the bar just a little higher.

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Some of the basic changes made was to cut out the focus on bodybuilding and light conditioning many fighters choose to work with. In it’s place, Mir has added the principles of strongman strength training to add both strength and size to his arsenal.

The physical results are hard to deny as Mir is now a well defined powerhouse. How all his hard work will play out in the ring, no one yet knows. It is worth mentioning that some of the most successful fighters have followed this same plan.

Basically, strongman training focuses on lifting heavy weight in short reps many times over. Forget about just doing dead lifts and arm curls, the strongman technique will involve turning over tires, pulling cars and sending kegs barreling over your head.

Traditional strongmen aren’t necessarily known for their strength, but with Mir combining endurance building exercises and getting rid of most of his body fat, he will definitely be a formidable force in the ring again.

Much of her cardiovascular work comes from these explosive and dynamic techniques developed by her experienced trainers both in and out of the gym. Swinging a sledgehammer takes a lot of energy, and alternating from a standing to a sitting position will give your muscles a burn never felt before. Using martial arts as a base, Santos focuses on several fighting styles a day with a focus on building endurance.

Lesnar combines cardiovascular exercise with grappling and weight training to create a full body workout each and every time he trains. While he does focus on heavy lifting, his reps are in short sets and dispersed throughout his workout.

Brock is a heavyweight, so cardiovascular exercise is necessary to keep his bulk down while spontaneously keeping him flexible and limber. Most his workout sessions are short, but by doing them multiple times a day several times a week, Lesnar is able to combine strength with endurance.