MMA Workout in the Weight Room

 In the sport of mixed martial arts you are required to go all out for 5 minutes straight with only 1 minute of rest in between rounds.  This is hard enough in a normal 3 round fight but when you are going for the championship your add an extra ten minutes of working with only 2 added minutes of rest.

This workout was designed to mimic the type of work load your body encounters when being pushed to that level.  It is meant to try and recruit all systems and fiber types of the muscles and work you aerobically as you try and recover between rounds.  It covers all major muscles in the body and incorporates some plyo-metric drills to develop further recruitment.

Here is how it works.  Do your best to look ahead through each round individually and if possible set up stations as needed for each exercise.  Each exercise is allotted 65 seconds (5 seconds to get there and get set).  Choose a weight you can do many reps with but with not make you stop after only 15 seconds.  If you are unable to finish the set with that weight, drop it down or adjust form to finish out the minute.  You then have a 65 second rest where you set up your next round and try and get your wind back.

Round I:

1. Incline Alternating Dumbbell bench press (press one arm, then the other)
2. Dumbbell two arm bent row
3. "Praying" Abs  (rope attachment on tricep push-down, kneel on the floor and perform crunch)
4. Box Step Ups (holding dumbbells in each hand)
5. Upright Row with Plate (take narrow grip)

Round II:

1. Reverse ez-bar curl (to further difficulty turn it into a drag curl)
2. Plate shrugs (hold plate along edge in each hand and perform shrug)
3. Dumbbell sumo squats (hold dumbbell however it's comfortable, take wide stance and hold between leg, perform squat)
4. Dumbbell shoulder lateral raises
5. Dumbbell Hammer curls

Round III:

1. Step Hops (try and keep knees as straight as possible and hop onto 1st step as quickly as possible for allowed time)
2. Push ups with feet elevated (move to normal position if can't finish or onto your knees (it's freaking hard))
3. Front Planks
4. Walking Lunges (with barbell across shoulders)
5. Box Jumps (find height that you can reach, try and land and explode if possible)

See the Championship rounds after the jump (Read More)



Round IV:

1. Closed/Reverse grip pulldown (on "lat" pulldown machine, palms towards you, shoulder width apart)
2. Reverse dumbbell flyes (working rear deltoids)
3. Straight bar tricep pushdowns
4. Physio ball hamstring curls (switch to single leg if possible)
5. Straight bar cable curls

Round V:

1. Dumbbell floor press  (dumbbell bench press but on floor, explode up after elbows touch floor)
2. Medicine ball "get-ups" (sitting against wall, sitting down until ass to floor, stand up using shoulders to work way up and squat up)
3. Dumbbell standing shoulder press, alternating
4. Dumbbell flyes
5. Three way rope pull down (rope extension on tricep pulldown, step back and keep arms mostly straight, pull down to left, right and center was if holding a thai clench and attempting to throw them)

Best of luck, it is not easy but is a phenomenal work out.

 For other versions of this workout contact me and I would be happy to pass them along.