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The following article was written by Eric Wong one of the worlds top MMA strength and conditioning coaches who has been kind enough to allow us to publish for you.

Isometrics are not often used in sports specific strength and conditioning. Because most sports are dynamic in nature, isometrics aren’t obvious to they eye and thus aren’t trained.

In MMA, isometrics can add another element to your game that can help you submit your opponent, escape a submission, or achieve a dominant position whether standing or on the ground.

For example, if you get caught in an armbar and your opponent doesn’t immediately lock you in, you’ve got some time to escape. How long you have depends on your ability to keep your arm flexed using your biceps while trying to move your body around so that your arm is in a safe position.

Another example is when you’ve got a triangle locked in. Submitting an opponent with a triangle is no easy task, so you’ve got to have the ability to keep your knees squeezed tightly together for an extended period to tire your opponent out to make him tap.

A final example is in the clinch. When you’re pummeling back and forth with an opponent or you have a single-leg, you’ve got to hold your arms in a certain position against his bodyweight – this is isometrics in action.

So how do you train isometrics in the gym?

My favorite way to do it is to throw isometrics into the middle of a set. That would mean if you’re doing 12 reps of an exercise, after rep 6, you do an isometric hold at the middle of the range of motion, then finish the set off.

Or, you can break it up into thirds, so you can do an isometric hold of 5 seconds after the 4th rep, 8th rep, and at the end of the set.

But let me warn you – this method is difficult and burns, making it a great method for training mental toughness at the same time.

Here are 3 of my favorite exercises to use isometrics with:

1) Inverted Row

* Hang under a barbell with your feet on a swiss ball so your body is parallel with the floor
* Hold when your elbows are at 90 degrees

2) Push-up

* Do your standard push-up, or put your feet on a ball for an added challenge
* Hold at 90 degrees of elbow flexion

3) Leg curl on Swiss ball with knee squeeze

* For this one, you need a squishy child’s ball
* Put it between your knees and for the entire set of leg curls, squeeze the ball together as hard as you can

So now you have 3 exercises and a new method for developing your MMA strength and conditioning. Put these into your workout routine and you’ll be tapping people out when you would’ve given up before, and you’ll take your MMA game to the next level.

Isometrics are a component of a good strength and conditioning program. But there are a few things that many MMA fighters do wrong in their MMA workouts. Don’t make the same mistakes, have a look here now.

http://www.ultimatemmastrength.com/

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When you think of a core exercise, most people think of doing situps, crunches, and the hundreds of variations of these exercises. These exercises are good for when you’re on your back in MMA, but aren’t as applicable to developing your core for striking power.

To develop your core so that your punches and kicks get harder and faster, you need to train your core in a standing position.

The medicine ball is the perfect tool to use to develop explosive hands because it develops your rotational power. But using the medicine ball requires you to be able to throw it – something not possible for many people who train in the gym (or have to train in the gym in winter, like here in Canada).

To get the same benefits as using a medicine ball, you can use a heavy bag.

You’re going to learn 2 exercises that will really develop explosive striking and you can do them at your MMA club.

Here’s the first one:

Heavy Bag Chest Throw

1. Stand in front of a heavy bag and push it up until it’s at a 45 degree angle and you’re holding your body at an angle
2. Take a wide stance and bend your knees to get in a quarter squat position
3. Throw the bag up and forward and catch it and repeat immediately

This exercise gives you the sagittal plane stability that you need to keep a solid base when you lean into a punch and connect.

The next exercise gives you the transverse plane stability for generating explosiveness in your strikes:

Heavy Bag Hand-to-Hand Pass

1. Stand in front of a heavy bag with a wide stance and bent knees
2. Keep good posture throughout
3. Throw the ball with one hand to the other as hard and fast as you can without losing your posture
4. Keep your abs tight (braced)

Now for each of these exercises, you want to do them quickly and explosively, but never lose your posture. Maintaining your posture is how you train the core muscles, once you lose it, the muscles you want to be working stop.

Instead of doing these exercises for reps, do them for time. Do as many as you can in 10-15 seconds, rest a minute between sets, then repeat for 3-5 sets each. You can also super set them, depending on your current fitness level and what you want to get out of the training.

For more just click Here: http://www.ultimatemmastrength.com/

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Strength and conditioning for MMA is an evolving science, getting more detailed as the popularity of the UFC and mixed-martial arts grows. Like all sports, MMA athletes must dedicate themselves to workouts that will take them to the highest level of physical fitness possible.

To make sure you’re achieving your full potential as a fighter, make sure you utilize these 3 MMA workout tips in your strength and conditioning program.

Tip #1 – Follow a Program

If you’re not following a program, you could simply be spinning your wheels. The worst thing you can do is go to the gym and say to yourself, “OK, now that I’m here, what am I going to do?”

If you’re serious about being an MMA fighter, then you must have a strength and conditioning program that’s laid out for at least the 8 weeks leading up to your fight. If you don’t have a fight lined up, then you must think about what you need to improve and focus on those aspects of your game.

Tip #2 – Maximize your Efficiency in the Weight Room

As a mixed-martial artist, you’ve got to train jiu-jitsu, boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, wrestling, and put them all together into MMA at the very LEAST. This doesn’t leave you a ton of time to work on strength.

So you’ve got to get the most bang for your buck in the little time that you do have.

In your strength program, you can do so by training full body workouts focused on movement patterns. Think squat, lunge, deadlift, push, pull, and twist instead of chest, biceps, quads, hams, back, etc.

Hitting the full body with different movement patterns two days a week will allow you to make progress in your routine without over training. Here’s an example of a 2 day split:

Day 1: Reverse lunge – Bench press – Woodchop – Arnold press – Reverse Curl
Day 2: Squat – Chinup – Romanian deadlift – 1-arm row – Skull crusher

You could do these workouts on Monday and Thursday to develop your strength and power.

The repetition range you use will depend on your goals, if it’s muscular endurance, then choose 10-12 reps, if you’re going for pure strength, you can get down to 3-5 reps. A good balance is between 7-8 reps per set. The lower the reps and heavier the weight, the more rest you generally want to take.

TIp #3 – Use a Medicine Ball for Conditioning Circuits

By far the best tool for developing MMA specific power is the medicine ball, since you can throw the ball as hard and fast as you can in rotational movements that heavily involve the core. Integrating the medicine ball will allow you to develop knockout power with your strikes, as well as explosive take down ability.

Exercises like the side toss and chop toss will have you (and your opponents and sparring partners) feeling a difference after only a few weeks.

Unfortunately, many people do these exercises completely wrong, in terms of reps, weight, and form.

To see how you can integrate exercises into your MMA strength and conditioning program, click the following link: http://www.ultimatemmastrength.com/

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There is a devastating technique that has been favored by street fighters for centuries the head butt. It is a simple concept just draw your head back and throw it forward to your opponents face. If you are successful the fight could be over if you get it wrong you could damage yourself more than your opponent. Since I started training in the early eighties this technique has not been part of any curriculum in any school I have attended. Why not? Well the only conclusion I have been able to draw is, it has not been recognized because of its simple brutality.

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