Bodyweight training is unrivaled when it comes to realistic, functional and convenient workouts. That’s why bodyweight exercises have been used in virtually every combat conditioning training routine known to man. If you are a combat athlete, grappler or mixed martial artist, bodyweight workouts are a terrific compliment to your training routine.
Here’s why:
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that bodyweight exercises possess some magical powers or that they are the only exercises that will work. That simply isn’t true. But bodyweight exercises can be incredibly powerful conditioning tools if you use them properly. Not to mention they can be done anywhere.
If you’re reading this, you might be a mixed martial artist, grappler, boxer or submission wrestler looking to improve your conditioning. Or you might be a business executive, janitor, school teacher or secretary just looking for a convenient way to sweat off a few extra pounds. Either way, a short education in bodyweight training is a must.
Bodyweight Workouts Train The Human Body As A Single Unit
Your body is not just a set of isolated muscles. So why train it that way. A fitness routine built around bodyweight exercises - especially if it is any good - teaches your body to function as a whole.
In MMA and grappling for example, it rarely helps to have isolated muscle strength. But that is how lots of trainers look at it. Don’t mistake a bodybuilding routine for a combat conditioning circuit.
My personal experience with bodybuilding workouts and other weight lifting is that it led to little — if any — improvement on the mat. The time I spent at the gym just didn’t follow through to my grappling.
Weight training does have its benefits and you can perform many compound exercises. But I have found better all around improvements in my balance, coordination, movement on the mat and functional conditioning from bodyweight drills.
When you’re grappling, striking or clinching, you never use isolated muscles. When you punch, pull or push your opponent, you use strength from a variety of angles and in a variety of combinations. This is because your positioning is always changing. You can mimic this dynamic strength and body movements with a workout using only the weight of your own body as resistance.
So what can bodyweight training do for you?
You can realistically expect huge increases in your levels of conditioning after using bodyweight exercises on a regular basis. You can realistically double your body’s work capacity in a short period of time.
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If you can only do 20 pushups now, it wont take you long at all to reach 40. So yes, your strength, endurance and conditioning can definitely improve greatly. If you can only grapple for five minutes before getting tired, you can improve that very quickly as well with some high intensity drills.
How To Pick The Right Bodyweight Drills
To create your workout, you really don’t need lots of exercises. But the ones you do choose should offer the most bang for your buck. You want to hit your entire body — from several angles — in the shortest amount of time possible.
Unlike most trainers, I’m not interested in making your training complicated. And I’m not interested in putting you through grueling workouts just to make myself feel superior to you.
What’s the answer then? It’s Simple.
Don’t complicate your workouts at this point. Even the simplest bodyweight exercise routine is a great place to start. Perform basic exercises like pushups, pullups, situps, chinups, leg lifts, and of course bodyweight squats. Do as many of them as you can without killing yourself. And do them often.
If you’re looking to go deeper than that right now, you should sign up for my conditioning tips at the very top of the this page. Then I can communicate with you more directly and we can go in-depth about a number of topics.
Please feel free to exercise your mind and expand your learning by checking out more of my articles on bodyweight training, workouts for mixed martial arts and other conditioning training.
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