A Step-By-Step Guide to Building Peak Performance in MMA
A complete 90-day fight camp blueprint covering 4 phases: fight-specific prep, shock block, developmental block, and taper. Includes endurance, resistance, and simulation protocols.
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The MMA-Specific Fitness Test You’re Probably Not Doing: The Fighter’s Drill
Discover the only MMA fitness test designed to measure real fight readiness. The Fighter’s Drill uses 4 sport-specific drills across 3 rounds to test striking, grappling, and conditioning.
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How To Avoid Overtraining in MMA: PART 2 – Recognizing the signs and symptoms
Learn to recognize overtraining in MMA before it wrecks your fight camp. This guide covers the warning signs, recovery strategies, and smarter approaches to training volume for combat athletes.
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How Much Rest Should I Take Between Sets?
When you’re lifting weights, the amount of time you take between sets can influence how your muscles will adapt. And there are lots of considerations for choosing how much rest you take, including the phase of the fight plan you’re in, your training status (beginners generally require more rest than intermediate and advanced fighters), the…
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How Many Sets Should You Do? Science-Based Guide for MMA Fighters
When someone talks about resistance training volume, they might be talking about the number of sets they perform for each exercise in a workout, or they may be referring to the total number of sets performed across all exercises in the entire workout. Here we’ll be using the term ‘volume’ to refer to the number…
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Choosing the Right Load & Reps for Fight Performance
How often should MMA fighters lift weights? Learn the evidence-based guidelines for resistance training frequency (2-3 sessions per week), optimal load selection, and rep ranges for strength, power, and hypertrophy. Includes a practical weekly schedule for fight camp.
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How to Order Resistance Exercises for MMA
Master the correct MMA exercise order with this evidence-based 3-tier system. Learn how to sequence resistance exercises and choose the right load and reps for power, strength, and hypertrophy.
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Essential Resistance Training Exercises for MMA Fighters
An evidence-based framework for choosing the best resistance training exercises for MMA fighters. Covers power movements, core multi-joint lifts, and accessory work—with peer-reviewed research to back it up.
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How Muscles Work
Learn how muscles work and why it matters for MMA fighters. This guide covers muscle fiber types, contraction mechanics, and the science behind building strength and power for combat sports.
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Unstoppable Endurance: Part 6 – A complete guide
In the final part of this article you’ll be given the framework for creating your very own, individualized training plan. To give you an idea of what it will look like, below is an example of a 6-month training plan. The MMA Training Bible uses a four-step process for designing any periodized training plan, including…
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Anaerobic & Aerobic Performance Testing
Learn how aerobic performance testing helps MMA fighters measure and improve conditioning. This guide covers the Balke treadmill test and other key assessments to track your cardio fitness for combat sports.
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Boost Your MMA Performance: Testing Muscular Endurance the Right Way
Learn how testing muscular endurance helps MMA fighters identify weaknesses and track progress. This guide covers the partial curl-up and push-up field tests with step-by-step protocols for combat athletes.
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Unstoppable Endurance: Part 5 – Performance Testing
The real mechanism behind fading in round three — and what you can do about it
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Building Real MMA Strength: Practical Tests for Bench Press and Squat
Learn how MMA strength testing with bench press and squat protocols helps fighters measure real-world strength. Track your progress and build a foundation for explosive power in the cage.
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Measuring Muscular Power for MMA
Learn how to measure muscular power MMA fighters need with vertical jump and medicine ball toss tests. These practical protocols help you track explosive strength and improve fight performance.
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Performance Testing in MMA Part 4: Body Size & Composition
A complete guide to body composition MMA testing. Learn how to measure body fat, muscle mass, and size using skinfolds, DEXA, BIA, and BMI — with a free tracking sheet for your fight camp.
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The Metabolic Demands of MMA: Part 5 – Aerobic Oxidation
The aerobic energy system powers most of your time in the cage. Learn how the oxidative system fuels MMA performance, why it matters for recovery between bursts, and how to train it with science-based interval workouts.
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Performance Testing in MMA: Flexibility
Most fighters approach flexibility testing in MMA the wrong way. They either ignore it completely, assuming their kicking range “feels fine,” or they chase extreme flexibility—thinking that more range of motion always equals better performance. Neither is true. Flexibility is measurable. It affects your kicking range, submission escapes, ground scrambles, and injury resilience. Without testing…
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How to Avoid Overtraining and Build Unstoppable Endurance in MMA
The Common Pitfall: Generic, Overzealous Training Most fighters fall into a trap: trying to cram too many high-intensity workouts, skill drills, and strength sessions back-to-back. They neglect proper rest, leading to: Chronic Fatigue Injuries Plateaued Cardio & Performance Ultimately, this hampers your ability to sustain the intense demands of Mixed Martial Arts, whether you’re grappling,…
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The Metabolic Demands of MMA: Part 4 – Aerobic Glycolysis
Learn how to train all three energy systems for MMA with specific protocols, work-to-rest ratios, and sample workouts for the ATP-PCr, glycolytic, and aerobic systems.
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The Metabolic Demands of MMA: Part 3 – Anaerobic Glycolysis
Your explosive power — takedowns, combinations, scrambles — runs on the ATP-PCr system. This article breaks down how it works, why your aerobic base determines how fast it recharges, and what the creatine research actually says for fighters who need to make weight.
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Unstoppable Endurance: Part 4 – Periodization
Periodization is perhaps the most important, yet most often neglected component of a fighters’ training plan. Periodization is the process of organizing your training plan over a period of time to help you manage your fatigue on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. It is hoped that this will reduce your potential for overtraining and…
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Unstoppable Endurance: Part 3 – How to Avoid Overtraining
A PhD exercise physiologist explains why the aerobic system is the most important energy system in MMA, backed by research on metabolic demands, recovery, and fight performance.
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Is Alcohol Destroying Your Training Gains?
It’s normal to have a few beers every now and then, especially after a tough sparing session, right? The purpose of this article is to identify whether this sort of drinking is interfering with your training gains. In this article, we’ll explore what alcohol is, and what it does to your body. You’ll also learn…
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Aerobic exercise | Anaerobic exercise | Bioenergetics | Metabolic Demands | Periodization | Unstoppable Endurance
Unstoppable Endurance: Part 2: How to train an Energy System
Bioenergetics in MMA explained: how the three energy systems (ATP-PCr, glycolysis, aerobic) power your fight performance, the VO₂max threshold for sparring, and evidence-based conditioning strategies.
