Here’s another common scenario that I come across in the gym.
A guy will come up to me and ask me, “Hey, what do you think about this, on Monday I do chest,
Tuesday legs, Wednesday abs, Thursday back, and Friday is for arms. Is that a good split?”
Let me put it bluntly, the traditional bodybuilder split is a waste of time for a mixed martial artist.
If you’re currently training MMA and you need to add muscle mass, traditional body part split
workouts will sap your energy and hurt your MMA skill development.
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There is a better way to add muscle if you’re an MMA fighter that gets the job done without
making you too sore or tired for your MMA training. But that’s beyond the scope of this report.
Instead of old-school and out-dated bodybuilding workouts, I setup full-body 2-3 days/week
programs, combined with conditioning work, which all changes depending on how far away from a
fight you are and what phase you’re in.
Let me break it down even more for you.
First off, my programs are based on movement patterns.
There are 6 major movement patterns a mixed-martial artist should be concerned with:
Squat, Deadlift, Lunge, Push, Pull and Twist.
Two additional patterns are necessary: accessory movements, which are generally
single-joint movements such as bicep curls and tricep extensions, and core stability,
which includes exercises like bridges, supermans, etc.
If you make sure that within a week every movement pattern is worked, then you will
undoubtedly be working every muscle in your body, in the way that it was meant to be worked.
So instead of doing a ‘legs’ day once per week, I’ll setup a program where you’re doing a Squat on
Day 1 and a Reverse lunge on Day 2.
Here, you’ll be hitting the legs twice a week, but with different movement patterns, so no muscle
group gets overloaded, yet you’re still able to increase your strength.
Same idea for the push movement pattern. For Day 1, you could perform a bench press. Day 2
could be an overhead press. You’ll be working the chest, shoulders and triceps on both days, but
more chest on Day 1 and more shoulders on Day 2.
This prevents overtraining and fatigue, allowing you to train MMA at full intensity!
Getting back to the problems of bodybuilding programs for mixed martial artists, there are actually
3 issues that make them a horrible choice if you’re an MMA fighter.
There are 6 major
movement patterns
every mixed martial
artist should be
concerned with…
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The first problem is that most bodybuilding programs require too many training days a week,
usually requiring 4 workouts a week.
If you want to follow this program, but then have to grapple, box, do MMA and more, then you’re
going to be wasting energy lifting weights as opposed to learning what’s actually going to win you
a fight.
Nobody ever won a fight with a double biceps pose and nobody ever will!
Obviously I’m not downplaying the need for strength and conditioning workouts, but I do
recognize that your time is precious and where you spend it must be thought about and prioritized
– getting buff is NOT a priority for a mixed martial artist.
The second issue is that old-school bodybuilding workouts prescribe too much volume per muscle
group. For example, a typical workout would include a bench press for 4 sets, followed by incline
dumbbell presses for 3 sets, and flys for another 3 sets and maybe some cable crossovers for 3
sets, which is basically 13 sets of chest exercises.
This is great if you want to totally rip your muscles apart and grow, but useless for a mixed
martial artist since your goal is relative strength, which means being strong relative to your weight.
Also, whatever muscle group you annihilated will be useless to you in training, so if it’s shoulder
day and you expect to train boxing later, you’ll have a difficult time maintaining proper technique
through your combos since you won’t be able to keep your hands up!
The final problem is that many traditional bodybuilding exercises are just not useful for a mixed
martial artist.
Exercises like hack squats, machine presses, lying leg curls and donkey calf raises are a poor use
of your training efforts compared to front squats, dumbbell presses on a ball and deadlifts.
Following my scheme of 2 days per week of strength training requires that each exercise have a
purpose and that no time is wasted in the gym.
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You’ve got a life to live outside of the gym so you’ve got to get the most bang for your buck out of
every second you spend lifting weights, otherwise you’re wasting your time and energy.
That’s why you focus on the major movement patterns: Squat, Deadlift, Lunge, Push, Pull and
Twist, then add in accessory exercises to round out the routine, training your full body each
workout, but in different patterns.
This is the only way you can train 2 days a week while still getting results, which renders
traditional training methods obsolete for the MMA fighter.
Check out what Gregory O’Gallagher had to say about switching from a bodybuilding style routine
to my program:
“Hey,
Great to hear from you Eric Wong. I have to say I have ordered tons of workout programs over the
past few years and no ones service has come close to yours. I truly feel like your mission is to help
people reach their goals and potential and I think thats very refreshing (so many ppl out there that
are more interested in making a quick buck and spend more time on marketing tactics than
workout construction - (name deleted)!!
Anyways before I ordered your program I was into bodybuilding style workouts and achieved
descent results in muscle gains and strength. However after quite a bit of contemplating I decided it
was time to get really fit and functional and get the lean look that so many guys desire but so few
attain. That is when I ordered your program and so far results have been going very well. My
stamina is going through the roof, my waist line is narrowing and i'm starting to see more cuts. I
actually just had a photo shoot for a underwear company. (I know your programs aren't focused on
aesthetics but they'll get you leaner than any other workouts out there and you'll have more funnn!
Gregory O’Gallagher”