Fitness: Strength Training

Lets face it a large part of Mixed Martial Arts is fitness. Guys like George St Pierre will always have an advantage over other fighters with less conditioning. Watch some of his fights the guy never gets gassed. With that I just wanted to post a routine(Weight Training) as the first part of my fitness installment that I have done myself and has been proven very effective by athletes and bodybuilders alike. I personally think it applies very well to MMA because it builds an incredibly strong base and is an effective way to pack on muscle mass. So without further a due:

• This workout is designed mostly for beginners and people returning to weight training but is still a very good workout for people more experienced. I got this workout mainly from Mark Rippetoe's book Starting Strength which I highly recommend.
• It is recommended that you do not supplement this workout with other strength exercises until you are more experienced as to not create muscular imbalances. The workout contains all free weight, compound movements that are very good for building overall strength and muscle for your entire body.
• The workouts are each done for 3 sets of 5 repetitions at a weight that is difficult to do, but not impossible, for 5 reps. After a week 5 pounds of weight should be added to each exercise in order to keep the resistance difficult and to induce hypertrophy of the muscle(make the muscle increase in size.) They are as follows:

1. Squat
2. Bench Press
3. Deadlift
4. Standing Shoulder Press
5. Power Cleans or Pendlay Rows

• The workout should be done everyother day for 3 days out of the week and the excersices should be alternated to where 3 exercises are done a day.(2 and 4 can be substituted and 3 and 5 can be substituted.) So a sample schedule could look like this:

Day 1(Monday)
Exercises 1, 2 and 3
Day 2(Wednesday)
Exercises 1, 4 and 5
Day 3(Friday)
Exercises 1, 2, and 3
And then continue to alternate in the same fashion starting with the 2nd workout the next Monday.

For a more detailed explanation of the workout and exercises go here: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=998224

If done correctly this workout should produce fast muscle and strength gains and create explosive power perfect for MMA. However it must also be supplemented with the right nutrition to produce good results. I will get to the nutrition in a later post but for now happy strength training.
Deren