MMA Workout Routines

Posts Tagged ‘increase endurance’

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.

So hopefully you’ve managed to build up your endurance and strength, but how tough are you? By that I mean have you actually sparred or done any grappling with a human opponent? Even if you have, you will need to further your current training routine by doing some serious work.

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.

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.

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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Rashad Evans uses just about every fighting style allowed in MMA to take down his opponents. He already had a considerable background in fighting before entering the UFC, but he changed up his workout style in order to maximize his ring prowess.

When training for a bout, extensive workout sessions are spent perfecting his technique, getting stronger and quicker and examining potential weaknesses. Rashad Evans isn’t the time of fighter who comes into the ring looking for a knockout in the first round. Instead, he prefers to duke it out and really punish all those who challenge him.

Spending about as much time to train in the ring as we do working each day, he focuses on sparring, endurance building and strength training. Twice a week, Evans focus completely on strength training. On the remaining days he focuses on disciplines such as boxing, wrestling and takedowns.

After working out for several hours, Evans ends the day with supplementary conditioning and punching exercises. Like all serious fighters, Rashad eats a healthy, basic diet everyday.

Combined with a day off here and there, Evans gives his body the perfect balance of clean fuel and rigorous training necessary to be the best.

Machida’s workout plan is surprisingly simple. As a well known fighter, most would assume his regimen would have a lot of fancy bells and whistles, but with a lifelong background in karate, Machida mostly does what he knows best.

While he trains anywhere from four to six hours a day, he also breaks up each training session into approximately two hour blocks.

Starting with karate, Machida trains with fellow MMA fighter and brother Chinzo for a few hours in the morning as he has been doing most of his life. He attributes much of his success to working closely with his family in preparation for fights, both in the gym as well as psychologically.

His second workout session of the day consists of a lot of hitting mitts, sparring and take-downs, but it is also notable that that all of his workouts are based in some form of karate. Lyoto will usually follow up with some strength training exercises, similar to a combination of soccer drills and Jiu-Jitsu.

Multiple intense workouts spaced throughout the day allow for a full body workout that is as much cardiovascular as it is conditioning.

Much of Machida’s training looks and feels exactly how he moves in the ring; constantly moving while using tactical blocks, hits and evasive maneuvers.