Running & Martial Arts Gear

How to Become a Mixed Martial Artist

Many athletes that get into MMA do if for their health since this type of training is great for physical development while other athletes are drawn in by the thought of fighting in the ring or ocatgon. One great thing MMA has done is it has forced the instructors to learn and teach more than just one discipline. In this article we will go over 4 key areas that will help your quest of becoming an MMA fighter or just in better shape. This article is assuming that you don’t have access to all the MMA training camps of Las Vegas. These four elements can be used in any town across the US.

1. Punch and Kicks (Karate, Boxing, Muay Thai)
This work is to quicken you hand and feet work and can be done with a heavy back o if you can train with a partner who can hold either the kicking bags or focus mitts. To improve the quickness and targeting on your punches and kicks train with the focus mitts. To get that knockout power you can train with the heavy bag.

2. Strength training (Power Cleans, Snatch, Jerk)
Most of you strength training needs to consist of compound exercises. A compound excercise is a movement that uses more than one muscle to perform the movement. Unlike body builders that want to isolate the muscle for maximum growth you want to train your muscle to work together and have then fire exactly at the same time. Lifting heavy weights is exactly how you do this. The Olympic lifts are excellent at doing this while also training your core. The best lifts to increase your quickness and explosiveness are the power cleans, jerk, and the clean. If you have access to dumbells for your workout use those if not the next best thing is barbell as opposed to machines Although machines have their place when it comes to physical development and exercise it is much better for martial arts training to choose the barbell and even better the dubmell. For MMA training dumbells are the best for excercises since they build the stabalizer muscles also. This type of training will pay large benefits in explosiveness since both your left and right side muscles will explode in sync.

3. Ground Training (Judo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu)
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu can be difficult to train on your own but you can get BJJ dummies that really help simulate a partner to practice your submissions. To practice this part of your game it is best to join a school or class. If its possible to only make it to class once a week and train at home the rest of the time can provide a great deal of benefits~If time or traveling is an issue you can even train at home while making it to an MMA Training at least one day a week to train in the correct techniques. The local highschool is also a great place to look. A lot of coaches would love to have another assistant coach that will get down and roll with the kids while you get a fantastic workout.

4. MMA Training

MMA is a game of being well rounded and not specific to one style of martial arts. This can make it tough to train since a lot of schools and trainers don’t have multiple skills yet. Instructors with multiple fighting styles will become more of the norm with the explosion of MMA. Many traditional Taekwondo schools have moved towards teaching their student some ground movements. So whether you have a school close by that trains in all the different disciplines or you have to go multiple places to get your MMA Training and get better it is well worth it.

Judo vs. Taekwondo 1