MMA Workout Routines

Cristiane Santos might very well be the most recognizable female star in MMA. The women’s division is on the move, so being champion was no small feat for Santos. As a member of the renowned Chute Boxing Academy in Brazil, Santos participates in a workout regimen that is intense, but yields phenomenal results. Based on the principles of Muay Thai kickboxing and Brazilian Jui-Jitsu, the Chute Academy trains their fighters to be notoriously aggressive and explosive in the ring.

Santos practices the basics of grappling, take-downs and strikes while incorporating them with aggressive strength training. She slams a sledgehammer on a tire in both standing and kneeling positions, turns over a huge tire and pulls her trainer with a bungee cord as she sprints.

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.

Brock Lesnar chooses to vary his exercise regime by breaking it up into multiple intervals consisting of various types of exercise. His workout schedule is intense, most days consisting of two sessions in the morning as well as the evening.

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.

We’ve got more of Randy’s workout broken down into sets and weight.

If you have a barbell and are ready to build your cardio and get into sparring shape, this is how you do it.

The Randy Couture workout starts with the 45 pound empty bar and works its way up.

Do all of this MMA workout routine without letting go of the bar for the best effect:

Bent rows x8 (Back)
Upright rows x8 (Traps and Shoulders)
Military press x8 (Shoulders)
Good morning x8 (Lower back and hamstrings)
Lunges x8 (each leg) (quads,hams,glutes)
Squat push press x8 (mostly shoulders but also quads,hams,glutes,)
Deadlift x8 (Lower back, hams, glutes (traps when weight is heavier)…

Take a full 1 minute rest between sets. Do 3 sets, 5 sets if you can manage. This will build up muscle fast and hugely raise your cardio.

We all known Georges St. Pierre is super strong a complete animal in the cage, but how did he get that way? Most of St. Pierre’s regime focuses on weight and gravity based training. Whether he’s dead lifting, squatting with heavy barbells or climbing a rope, St. Pierre’s exercise regime either uses his own body weight or added weights to maximize his results.

Besides regular sparring matches, Georges does very little focusing on cardiovascular exercise, instead opting for heavy weights. Like many of his competitors, much of his actual regime is kept secret. What we do know is that he sweats it out, grapples and does as much weight training as he can muster to keep in shape.

Randy Couture has a physique that many men would envy as a result of a training routine that is deceptively simple. He’s known for his signature fighting style that mixes martial arts with Greek wrestling, but he attributes much of his success to a religious regime.

Using 50 pounds on a barbell, Couture does a crazy routine that centers targeted muscle groups in quick repetitions. Much of his routine is done in a standing position, but it is combined with squats and lounges for a full body workout. Here is a quick breakdown of what the Couture regime focuses on:

• Biceps/Triceps
• Glutes/Hamstrings
• Lower back/Lower Abs
• Shoulders/Upper back
• Thighs/Calves

MMA Conditioning Workout -

In a nutshell, Chuck “The Ice Man” Liddell’s exercise plan is a menagerie of different strength training exercises in hyper mode. You won’t catch Liddell going for a morning jog unless he’s dragging something really heavy behind him. With the encouragement of a well known professional trainer, Liddell works out out with a group of other athletes in several grueling sessions a day. Medicine balls and rowing machines are a part of his routine, but they involve a twist. Try speed rowing for two minutes straight, then jumping up to immediately wrestle an opponent.

Of course, Liddell and his trainer don’t neglect to do the traditional strength training exercises like squats and push-ups. For example, on day one he will do three sets of 20 squats, three sets of 20 barbell lunges and two sets of 20 seated leg curls. One day two, Lidell will focus completely on the upper body by doing two reps of push-ups till failure, explosive military presses and front pull downs. Each night ends with Liddell fighting into the wee hours of the morning until he goes to bed, wakes up and does it all over again.

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