There are many exercises that can be done easily and do not need to exert a huge effort to perform them, while there are other exercises that are known for being tough and tiring. MMA workouts are among the tough and high impact exercises. They are very essential for MMA fighters to increase their fitness and flexibility. If you want to train like a MMA fighter, then take a look at the following MMA workouts and try to perform them.
– Prepare your body: Before starting doing exercises whether they are MMA workouts or other types of exercises that you do, you have first to prepare your body which means that you must do some exercises or moves that help you to increase heart rate and to prepare the muscles of the body for the strong and tough moves that you are going to perform. Preparing muscles which is known as warming up takes from 5 to 10 minutes and this will help the body to be flexible and the muscles will respond easily to the fast and sudden moves without causing injuries. Sprints, squats, stretching, walking, jumping rope and arm circles are examples for warm-up exercises.
– Running: It is a cardiovascular exercise that is useful and substantial for raising your heart rate which in return helps you to burn fat and lose weight. Some people are capable of running from 3 to 6 miles in just 20 or 30 minutes, so try to exceed this limit and run the same distance in a shorter period of time.
– Shadowboxing: It depends on imagining that you are fighting someone who is not really there, so all of your punches will be in the air and not directed to a specific person or object. It can be done as a warm-up before a real fighting. You can also use a heavy bag that allows you to increase the strength of your punches when you hit it. You have to punch quickly and strongly in order to make the exercise effective and to increase its intensity.
– Push-ups: It is a major exercise for those who want to strengthen their arms. This workout targets the muscles of your arms, shoulders and chest. You can make this exercise more effective and increase its impact through carrying a load on your back such as a backpack or any other weight that makes the exercise more challenging.
– Jumping jacks: This exercise is performed to ensure continuous endurance. It requires jumping through widening the space between your legs and raising your hands to touch each other over your head.
– Bench press: It is one of the MMA workouts in which you lie on a bench and lift weights. This exercise targets many muscles such as triceps, chest muscles, scapulae fixers, trapezii, coracobrachialis and serratus anterior. In order to increase the intensity of the workout on the arms, then you need to make your hands close to each other while the wide grip bench press will increase the intensity of the exercise on the chest.
– Hitting objects: You can work the muscles of your arms through hitting objects such as using a sledgehammer to hit a tire or you can instead of that use an axe to chop wood. Your strikes should be efficient and strong in order to increase the intensity of the exercise and make the muscles of your arm more involved. Swing your arm over your head and grip the axe or hammer tightly in order not to harm yourself.
– Bench dips: The exercise requires two benches as you put your hands on one of them while your legs are placed on the other one. The exercise targets different muscles in the body such as triceps, pectoral muscles and the rhomboid muscles of the back. When you widen the space between your hands, then the intensity of the workout will be increased on the pectoral muscles which lie at the chest. When you narrow the space between your hands, then the triceps will be targeted more.
– Dumbbell lunges: Lunge exercise depends on bending one leg in front of you while the other one is placed behind you and you can also stretch it but without touching the floor. In order to increase the impact of the exercise and make it more effective, you need to carry dumbbells in your hands. This exercise targets the muscles of the thighs, buttocks and hamstrings.
– Pull-ups: It is one of the most challenging exercises that cannot be easily performed. The exercise targets many muscles in different parts of your body such as the trunk, arms, shoulders, abdomen, pelvic floor and your hands. Make the exercise more challenging by carrying weights on your back or around your waist and you can also increase the impact of the exercise through trying to use only one hand.
– Kettlebell snatches: This exercise is ideal for increasing strength, heart rate and the flexibility of your body. It features using an iron ball with a handle that differs in its weight and it can be easily carried. The intensity of the exercise can be increased through carrying the kettlebell with one hand instead of carrying it with the two hands.