Question: I am an aspiring MMA fighter. He currently trains in jiu-jitsu and kickboxing a total of three or four times a week. My question is regarding weightlifting/cardio. I want to make sure my training is appropriate for my goals. Here is a breakdown of what I am currently doing. This looks good?

Day 1:
1 hour of cardio before training (chest and triceps 🙂
Dumbbell Flat Bench Press 3 x 14-20
Incline Dumbbell Press 3 x 14-20
Decline presses 3 x 14-20
Fly wire 3 x 14-20 (Dips 3 x 14-20
Cable push down 3 x 14-20
One Arm Pulldown 3 x 14-20

Day 2:
1h of cardio 2h before training
shoulders and abs
(Smith Military Press 4/5 x 10-12
Lateral Raises 4/5 x 10-12 (Front Raises 4/5 x 10-12
Shrug 4/5 x 10-12
ABS

Day 3:
Same cardio as day 1
back and biceps
(Lat Pull Down 4/5 8-12
Seated Row 4 x 8-12
Top row of cables 4 x 8-12
Back extension 4 x 12-20
Preacher curls 4 x 6-10
Dumbbell Curls 4×4-8
Seated curls 4 x 8-10
Cable curls 4 x 8-12

Day 4:
1 hour of cardio

Day 5:
Same chest routine as Monday

Day 6:
Legacy(
45 degree leg press 4 x 8-12
Leg Extension 4 x 8-12 (Leg Curl 4 x 8-12)
Calf raises 4 x 8-15

Answer: This is a typical bodybuilding style program and is not of much use to an aspiring fighter in MMA, any fighting sport or any other sport. Here are some problems with your current program:

1) You are training too often. You don’t get stronger by lifting weights, but from the recovery process that needs to take place. According to his schedule he only rests one day and as far as I know he is still doing jiu-jitsu or kickboxing on that day as he didn’t specify which days he does them.

2) You are doing too many sets per muscle group. On day 1 alone there are 12 sets for the chest alone. This is too much. You should focus on the minimum amount required to get the desired training adaptation. Any more than that and you’re just drawing down your energy reserves that could be used for recovery.

3) Several of the chosen exercises are either poor choices (leg extensions, smith machine presses, front raises, cable flyes, etc.) or redundant. For example, all elbow flexion exercises (biceps exercises) are done with an underhand grip, and again, you don’t need 16 sets to get the job done.

4) The strength qualities needed for MMA or any grappling sport are: relative strength, explosive strength, and strength endurance. (Functional hypertrophy might also be included unless your body fat is very low and you’re already in your weight class.) Most of his rep ranges are for strength/endurance. There is no work done for the other two qualities of force.

5) You’re doing straight sets when you should be overlapping antagonistic muscle groups. This will allow you to get more work done in a shorter unit of time and will ensure that your body is balanced on both sides of the joints so that you have a solid structure.

An example of straight sets is doing one set of barbell bench presses, resting, and then doing another set of barbell bench presses. An example of overlapping antagonistic muscle groups would be doing a set of barbell bench presses, resting for the desired amount of time based on your goals, and then doing a set of seated cable rows.

6) The cardio workouts you’re doing are too long and look a lot like your weight training workouts. Stop doing cardio before you lift weights and don’t do any traditional steady-state aerobic cardio. You should be getting a lot of effective conditioning while training in your sport. If not, you need to time your rest intervals between rounds and make sure they are progressive. If you can’t do this, have your coach do it for you.

Since there is no off-season for your sport and you train in it three or four times a week, you have to worry about the weather so you don’t overtrain, so you need to select exercises that give you the most performance. your investment. I would also only train with weights two or three times a week. I can’t promise that you still can’t overtrain as I don’t have enough information about you (ie diet), but there’s certainly less chance of what you’re currently doing.

Here are some better exercise options. Select only one exercise from each group:

Pressure exercises:
Incline dumbbell press, palms facing each other
Parallel Bar Dips (close grip barbell bench press, shoulder-width grip)
Barbell or Dumbbell Floor Press (Standing Barbell Press)

Upper Body Pulling Exercises:
Parallel grip pull-ups
Shoulder-Width Pull-Ups (Wide-Grip Overhand Pull-Ups)
Incline dumbbell rows (one-arm dumbbell rows)
String Face Jumpers (Seated Rows with Parallel Grip)

Leg, Hip and Knee Dominant Exercises:
back squats
Deadlift, clean grip, sumo, or snatch grip
Romanian deadlift
power cleans
split squats
Lunges, decelerative or accelerating

Support/remedial exercises:
Elbow flexor family (biceps)
(Elbow Extension Family (Triceps)
(Family of external rotators
(Family of calves(
belly family

So here’s a sample three-day routine that shouldn’t take more than an hour. (Exercises, sets x reps, tempo, and rest interval are listed):

Day 1
(A. Power Cleans: 4 x 3-5 x 11X0 x 240 seconds rest
B1. Barbell Standing Press: 4 x 3-5 x 20X0 x 120 seconds rest
B2. Parallel Grip Pull-ups: 4 x 3-5 x 3010 x 120 seconds rest
C1. Lying Decline Dumbbell Triceps Extension: 3 x 6-8 x 30-10 x 90 sec rest
C2. Seated Zottman Curl: 3 x 6-8 x 3010 x 90 seconds rest

Day 2
(A. Clean grip deadlift: 3 x 6-8 x 2110 x 180 seconds rest
B1. Dumbbell floor press: 3 x 6-8 x 31X0 x 90 seconds rest
B2. One arm dumbbell row: 3x 6-8 x 3110 x 90 seconds rest
C1. Incline Bench Powell Raise: 3 x 10-12 x 60 seconds rest
C2. Incline Hammer Raise: 3 x 10-12 x 30-20 x 60 seconds rest

Day 3
(A. Telemark Squat: 3 x 12-15 x 2010 x 75 seconds rest
B1. Parallel Dip: 3 x AMRAP (as many reps as possible) with bodyweight x 2010 x 60 seconds rest
B2. Seated Cable Rows with Overhand Grip: 3 x 12-15 x 2011 x 60 sec rest
C1. Seated Dumbbell External Rotation, Arm Above Knee: 3 x 10-12 x 3010 x 60 seconds rest (C2.) Seated Calf Raise: 3 x 15-20 x 2210 x 60 seconds rest

Take a day off between workouts.

Once every four or six workouts, you should change all the load parameters: sets, reps, tempo, rest interval, and exercise selection.

Keep in mind that this is just a sample program and there are many other great exercises you could do that will help you, plus for a weightlifting program to be more specific to you, you would need to do a structural balance assessment. about you and get more detailed information.