What is strength training in MMA?

MMA Strength is not that easy to understand as it is very broad.  But, we would try to break it down to make things much simpler for you.  This article focuses on the strength training aspect of the MMA.  If you are into MMA, then you need the strength to be able to go head to head with your rival.  This article would try to focus on making you last for 3 to 5 five minute round scenario. 

 

Strength training in MMA is different to a regular strength training that most people does.

Before anything else, we need to know what kind of strength you would need in MMA.  To tell you the truth, there are many kind of strength and it would help if you can identify, what kind of strength you would need in a sport like MMA.  But, in MMA, the most important types are strength endurance and power endurance. Strength endurance is not the same as muscle endurance as it has something to do with how long you can imply the same force to your opponent, whereas muscle endurance is defined by how long you can exert your muscles regardless of how much force you have already produce.

Perhaps, you would have a deep understanding if we have some examples.  Let’s say that you can bench press for a 1 rep maximum (RM) of 225 lbs.  Now, we have a perfect example of your strength.  Strength endurance has something to do with s how many times you can continue to do single reps with short rest periods (10-30 seconds).  It would last till you cannot do anymore reps.  Muscle endurance in the other hand is more on the number of times you can do push ups.   To make things easier, muscle endurance doesn’t really translate to strength.

It is not enough to just have the strength since you would easily tire if you can’t keep it up for a longer time period.  Furthermore, strength endurance won’t help you much if you don’t have the power to move your opponent. The key here is balance, you would need to have the strength to move your opponent and have the strength to go on with it till it’s over.

Another factor that you need to consider is power endurance.  It is almost similar to strength, except that it also involves how fast you are able to deliver that power in a short amount of time. So if you can bench press 225 for a 1RM is your level of absolute strength, then that translates to how fast you can perform that rep.  Perhaps you can understand it easier it we put it on an example, say, you can bench press 2.5 seconds then later on it just took you 1.5 seconds to lift the same weight, which clearly illustrates an improvement in power.  However, if you increase the weight and it took you more than 2.5 seconds to lift it then that clearly demonstrates strength. 

Now, you can illustrate that power endurance is the ability to move the same weight over and over again throughout the whole fight.

Strength Training Tips for the arms

For people, who don’t go to the gyms, they think that people with large arms are the strongest since these guys are mostly massive.  But, for someone, who goes a lot in the gym, they knew that strength doesn’t come from massive arms alone, it comes from the whole body.   So, the idea of growing arms depends upon the person looking at it.  

 

We use the arms in almost everything that we do, but we don't have to concentrate on it when strength training.

Okay, this article tells the truth about those guys with massive arms.  Some of the beliefs you might know about people with massive arms might not be true and this article would shone some light into that:

• Train your arm less:  Contrary to popular beliefs that you need to train the arms the most, you need to train them the least.  The whole has some of the smallest muscle in the body.  There are lots of muscle that needs to be improved like the back, chest, core, and upper legs. All of which are needed in our daily lives thus, we need to strengthen them more.  Those, who spends too much time to strengthen the arm tend to bypass most of the important muscle groups in the body.

•  It releases hormones:  If you are a body builder then you need to know that the body releases a hormone, which helps the body to build more muscles.  This includes the testosterone, essential in building muscle mass into the body.  The isolation of exercise in the arms won’t do much because the targeted muscle is pretty small.  If you want to be stronger, you need to train more muscle group at the same time.  

• Compound Exercises:  The best way to target more muscle groups at once is to incorporate compound exercises in to your routine.   The term compound means that it involves more than one; in terms of muscle, it means that one exercise would have affect more than one muscle at once. Take for instance the squats you perform while exercising.   You would need to use your knees, hips and ankles to perform this exercise.  Compound movements involves more than one muscle group at once.  Most of the time, this is what muscle builder targets since it helps the body to produce the hormone need to develop the body. 

• Arms are not prioritized:  As said before, compound exercises help your body to exercise more than one muscle group.  However, the arms are not prioritized in such exercise.  You can exercise the arms, the same time as you exercise the other parts of the body.  Though, it is not prioritized, it doesn’t mean that it won’t grow since an increase in the testosterone level would also increase the muscles of a person.

We all want stronger arms, but you don’t need to concentrate on improving the arms since it also get the same benefit as the other parts of the body whenever we do strength training.

Strength Training with no weights

If you are going to strength train then the first thing that you would look for are weights or machines, which you can avail from a gym nearby.   However, because they are costly and not every people can avail it because of the rising cost of living.  Not everybody can avail of the gym memberships.   Fortunately, we don’t need to be stuck using exercise machines and dumbbells since there we can still do strength training even if we aren’t going to the gym.

Want to strength train, but you can't afford those gym memberships?  Fear not, strength training without any weights is pretty much real.

Why opt to using stretch bands for strength training?

There are a lot reasons why we should opt for using bands in strength training. And the number one reason is to avoid injury.  Those heavy equipment and barbells can present danger to us.  You need to do it right or you might suffer from an injury.  There are some people saying that using barbells or exercise machines resulted to death already.

Another reason for using bands is that they are convenient to use and that they can easily carried on a small bag, meaning that you can exercise wherever you want to go.   This means that you can go wherever you want; also, you don’t need to break your bank just to exercise.  They are not costly and they are as effective as they can be.

Methods of Weight less Strength Training

Isometrics

 It can be done by holding the band for several seconds before finally releasing it.  While contracting, you need to pushes away an object to exercise.  The object can take the form of a wall, special device, or it can also be the palm of your hand.

This type of training is practice in yoga, and Chinese martial arts.  Now, some people use it for building strength.

Resistance bands

This must have been the most popular type of motionless training since more and more people are buying bands just for this purpose.  Here elastic bands are use to strengthen and condition your muscles.  As you stretch more, you would feel more resistance.   The resistance of the band varies accordingly to the thickness of the band.

This has become popular as it is very convenient.  Also, they are much more affordable compared to that of a weight set.  You can carry it wherever you want to go since it can be pack in small bags.

And because it is versatile, it can be use with the upper or lower body part.  As an added bonus, you can also use this to strengthen your abs.   Last thing that you should know about this is that you can use it regardless of your age, as you don’t need to wary that you are overdoing an exercise routine.

Don't fear Stepping into 50's if you are into strength training

People over 50 are weak and fragile since the muscles in their body are already dwindling by that time.  Well, that maybe true, but the dwindling process can be slow down if you are into strength training.   It is like turning back the time and that is what strength training can do for your body.

A person stepping into his 50's might not be terrible if you are into strength training.   You can still enjoy an activity that involves the use of muscle if you would use it regularly.  It means that you need to do strength training as you age.

There is an old saying about “use it or lose it”, which has been proven time and time again as we get older.  A person starts losing their muscle when they step in their 40’s, but the dwindling process can be slow down if you are into strength training.  Studies have proven that it is the best method to stop the aging process.

What is wrong with muscle loss?

All of it and no one want to lose their strength since their strength let them enjoy a lot of things.   Less muscle me and that you are susceptible to injury and you would get tire easily.  If you are into strength training then there won’t be a problem with simple activities like stand longer, walk further, and a lot more activities that use muscle.

With more muscles, you can rest assure that you can do a lot more activities while minimizing the risk of incurring an injury.  It is said that the body has around 12 muscles that helps you in your daily activities.  Getting these muscles in shape need to be in your top priority since it would lessen the injury that you would sustain daily.

One of the main reasons why get tire easily is dwindling core strength.  For most people, strength is all about those bulging biceps, but that is further the truth.  It is just part of the truth as there are many muscles that we need to strengthen.  If we are able to develop core strength then you would have better balance, more stamina, improved coordination, and generally feel more physically centered.

Stronger bones

Older people breaking bones seem to be prevalent since they got weaker bones.  That happens as we get older, but if we are going to put a brake to it and tell the muscles that it is not yet time to retire then our muscles won’t surely dwindle.  That is what strength training can do for you even if you already more than 40 years old. 

Easy weight control

Strength training is the means to control your metabolism.  A muscle resembles a hot burning furnace and the fuels are the fats stored in the body.  The muscle uses fat to gain more energy.  Needless to say, that muscle burns fat.

Five myths regarding Strength Training for women

If you have been doing strength training for more than a year now, then you have heard some myths regarding strength training.   Perhaps, you don’t know that this is a myth yet, and thinks that they are true.  Some myths are just for males, while there are some that are for females.   Anyway, this article is about the myth of strength training for females, so you would have read about the subject a lot here.

Some women tend to avoid strength training because they don't know what is real and what are myths in strength training.

Naturally, the main goal of the article is to dispel some of the old myths regarding female that discourages them to do strength training.   Here are some myths that you might have heard before, but might not know that they are just myths:

1.  Female tend to grow big muscles just like men if they do strength training –  The fact of the matter is that science doesn’t support this.  Women don’t have enough testosterone to grow huge muscles.   Testosterone is the hormone that builds muscles and study says that men do have lots of this hormone, making them to grow larger than women.  If you see a woman with huge muscles then you can bet on it that she is using some muscle growth enhancing drugs.
2.  Do 10 to 20 reps to make sure that your muscle won’t grow that big –  Experts say that this is the exact opposite that you need to do if you want to minimize muscle growth.  This heavy weight/lower rep scheme has been proven time and time again.  It helps to train the nervous system and not the muscular system. Heavy loads helps increase the bone density.
3. Most trainers know what they are talking about – Just remember that anyone could be a trainer, as long as they are fit themselves.  There is no such a thing as a license to be a trainer.  The fact of the matter is that most trainers are not well-educated regarding training their clients.  They just want to satisfy the wants of the clients, so they give them the old “3 sets of 10-12 rep schemes on a circuit of weight training machines.  This makes the client happy since they don’t have to work that much, but they aren’t getting the results they wanted.
4. You won’t gain weight if you do strength training even if you eat lots of food – Everyone would gain weight if they eat too much and this applies to people, who do strength training regularly. The fat of the matter is that you need to need to control the calorie intake, so it would be easier for the body to lose weight. There is an old saying that goes like “you can't out-train poor nutrition."
5. Training with machines would be better for women since it is safer – This is the most inaccurate myth of them all as a machine doesn’t exercise all the body parts.  This myth started since machine manufacturers want to sell more of their machines.  Machines dictates the movements of the person, so you can’t expect to have a compete workout with it.