Mixed martial arts and lifting weights could almost be viewed as an oxymoron in the past. However, as strength and conditioning have infiltrated their way through many sports, UFC has also recognized the potential benefits of a well-designed weight lifting program.
But as any fighter understands, there’s more than one way to prepare for a fight. Surely, an UFC fighter might not be attempting to break any weightlifting records, but they nevertheless have to train their whole body.
And because they want to be at their peak on the day of the fight, then lifting weights needs to be part of the plan!
So do UFC fighters lift weights? Weightlifting is an important part of any fighter’s fitness and fights preparation routines. Lifting weights and training for strength, on the whole, allows UFC fighter to hit their peak performance levels as well as, most critically, prevent injuries.
UFC fighters do lift weights but not like a traditional bodybuilder or strength sports athlete. Fighters will lift to improve punching ability and power output while at the same time building robustness to injury.
So why does lifting weights gets such a bad rep in MMA circles, and what makes effective weight training for mixed martial arts?
Is It Bad For UFC Fighters To Lift Weights?
Specific styles of weight training can be bad for UFC fighters. At the same time, weight training programs specifically designed for UFC like the one from Elite Training Center are highly beneficial for fighters.
Lifting weights for mixed martial arts should generally be lower in volume but higher in intensity from load or speed. Exercises like jump squats, medicine ball throws, and neck training is stapled in a UFC fighters training program.
Weight training becomes bad for fighters when they are bodybuilding or Powerlifting focused. Bodybuilding routines target purely hypertrophy which relies on volume for muscle growth. This volume of work will leave a fighter highly fatigued for boxing training.
Besides, bodybuilding style training preferentially develops Type I muscle fibers known as slow-twitch muscle fibers. This kind of training blasts and bombs one or two muscle groups every session, leaving you more inclined to injury and reducing your boxing ability at training.
Powerlifting style training, while making you strong, doesn’t render the high-speed component of training. Maximal strength training targets the different adaptations to high-speed training, so neglecting this component can harm UFC fighting performance.
Should UFC Fighters Lift Weights?
Fighters should definitely lift weights. As UFC has realized the benefits of lifting weights, the culture of lifting weights and fighting has slowly shifted towards acceptance.
Especially with the majority of high-level professional fighters and UFC reaping the benefits of a well-rounded strength program.
Professional and aspiring fighters need to have a weight lifting routine as an element of their fitness plan. An UFC fighter needs to be lifting heavy in fast compound movements to maximize their burst power output. This serves them to strike fast and harder without burning as much energy.
Having more powerful legs and being able to use greater rotational forces is what transfers to punching power.
But it’s essential to keep in mind that the heavier you lift, the more rest and recovery time you will probably need. If you’re training heavy all the time, you are expected to feel tired when it comes to skills training.
For a fighter, it’s constantly about trying to get a healthy balance between the various workouts they’ll do in a week.
Do Lifting Weights Make Fighters Slower For MMA?
A well-designed weight training program will not make you slower for MMA. When fighters use traditional bodybuilding systems or general high-rep training without targeting maximal speed and power, the problem arises.
Exercises performed at high velocities or are ballistic such as jumps and throws, provide the best speed and power outputs that don’t stop a fighter from becoming slower but make them even quicker in the ring.
Generic weight training might make an MMA fighter slower as it spurs adaptations for the muscle to activate during a full movement range.
For instance, as you get stronger in the bench press, you develop the muscle activation of the prime moving muscles. These are the chest, shoulders, and triceps.
You also improve the capacity to co-contract the muscles around the joint, further preserving the joint from injury when heavy lifting.
An illustration of this would be both the biceps and triceps contracting to preserve the elbow joint. Sadly, these are unfavorable adaptations when it comes to punching speed.
To be fast, muscles mustn’t contract together around the joint. There should rather be an interaction between activation and relaxation.
The fastest athletes in the world are known to relax their muscles during sprinting faster than sub-elite athletes. Think soccer for a second. The same idea applies to punching. Muscle activation and stiffness need to be greatest at impact to impart the greatest momentum to the target.
To improve these qualities best, a lot of time developing the punch is needed. But improving by lifting weights fast through jumps, throws, and other ballistic actions can magnify this further.
How Often Do UFC Fighters Lift Weights?
Depending on individual schedules, UFC fighters lift weights 1-3 times a week. If they are further away from competition, they lift three times a week if their weaknesses are strength, speed, and power.
UFC fighters train for an average of four hours per day. Their regime will usually include a mixture of skills-based development and fitness training of various types. Because of that, UFC fighters can have especially high levels of fitness and endurance.
Mixing their training is awesome for UFC fighters looking at the long-term career prospects of being an athlete, as this will assist them in developing their body into something more durable over time.
Ultimately that means they’ll be able to get through longer fights without being tired or feeling pain in their muscles, even in facing blunt force to their limbs and body.
Do Francis Ngannou, Stipe Miocic, and Other Heavyweight Fighters Lift Weights?
Heavyweight fighters do lift weights. It might look counterintuitive since they are already big athletes.
However, being big and heavy doesn’t indicate a heavyweight fighter has strength, speed, and power attributes similar or better than their opponents.
Further, lifting weights assist in building robustness to injury. When performed correctly, a heavyweight UFC fighter won’t put on any extra bodyweight. But rather, increase their strength and power via enhanced neural pathways vs. extra muscle mass.
How Do Fighters Build Muscle Without Lifting Weights?
You’d be hard-pressed to find a fighter holding a lot of muscle mass that doesn’t lift weights. If they don’t lift weights, they likely perform high volumes of calisthenics which is typical of many MMA fighters.
However, calisthenics will just get you so far. They cannot load heavy, leaving you training mainly strength endurance and limiting maximal strength and speed development.
Strength Training For MMA
Strength training for MMA is about delivering a faster, more powerful punch. Training the legs to be robust and the sequencing to assign the force through the legs to the hands are the most critical aspects of MMA strength training.
These are the qualities we must focus on when designing a strength training program for MMA. Additionally, it’s important to know the common injuries associated with the sport to address those areas in training.
Can you build muscle doing MMA?
You can build muscle doing MMA, but it might depend on your exact caloric needs. Most MMA workouts are high-intensity and will burn calories and fat stores you have if you’re in a caloric deficit or ketosis. You’ll still grow some muscle definition because of the muscle gains in burst output like striking.
MMA demands strength and endurance to fight at the highest level for prolonged periods. The mixture of workouts you will do in this sport will make your body build more lean muscle mass, muscle resistance, and even flexibility.
I have found the greatest gains from utilizing compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, bench press, and bodyweight exercises as the pull-up and dips. These skills, alongside training, allowed me to stay in peak performance and prevent injuries to which I am quite prone.
MMA Strength Profile
Being powerful for fighting is about being able to produce the fastest, most powerful punch possible. To sum up the latest research, strength training for MMA performance should cover these aspects:
· Harder punchers have more exceptional contributions from the legs and trunk. Centering on lower body strength and power and trunk rotation.
· Rain the sequencing so efficient transmission of force can be transferred from the legs through to the hands by using medicine ball tosses and overhead Weightlifting derivatives.
· Use the bench press as a principal upper body exercise as the bench press is highly related to punching speed.
· Grow both maximal and high-velocity strength to optimize boxing performance.
The importance of lower body power can’t be understated. KSW fighters were put through a series of jumps and a match. As research has shown, vertical jump height was highly correlated with the total number of punches thrown to the body and the effectiveness of punches to the head.
Further, how quickly these fighters could produce force during the squat jump (vertical jump with a pause before jumping) associated with rear hand punch performance and effectiveness of head punches. The height of this jump was also associated with activity rate, meaning those that could jump higher were more active during a fight.
Elite amateur MMA fighters show similar traits where the squat jump and vertical jump performance explained 78% of punching impact force. Meaning the fighters who can jump higher punch harder. We likewise can’t forget the upper body. Power generated in the leg press and bench throw show very strong correlations with punching power.
Utilizing this framework provides a guideline for putting together an effective strength training program specifically for an MMA fighter.
