My Most Recent Grocery List of MMA Conditioning Exercises

At the end of my past blog post, Stepping It Up: Conditioning for MMA, I wondered whether my coach was serious about the conditioning sessions being typically much harder than the one I had just endured. The truth came out last night.

Here is the grocery list of my conditioning session last night: 5 3-min. rounds of skipping, 300 squats, 150 leg lunges (75 per leg), 200 donkey kicks (100 per leg), 200 calf raises, 3 min. of jumping/ stepping up and down off the side of the ring, 3 sets of 50 push ups in three different hand positions, 3 min. of holding my arms out to the side while gripping a 2-lb. weight in each hand, 100 tricep dips, 50 dive bombers (similar to a tiger push-up), 50 tricep lifts with a 9-lb medicine ball, 50 shoulder presses with a 9-lb medicine ball, 100 arm circles with a 3-lb medicine ball (50 in each direction), 100 sit-ups with a 5-lb medicine ball, 100 twisting sit-ups, 100 leg lifts.

Even though last night’s training session was more intense than the conditioning session that I described in my previous post, mentally, it was much easier. I suspect it was easier physically as well, but it’s hard to judge. And it’s only been a couple of weeks since that session too. Conditioning has always been my least favourite part of martial arts training, but it really is amazing how quick you can make progress with conditioning, much as I hate the process.

That being said, when I cheerfully announced that the conditioning seemed to be getting easier, my trainer told me to expect it to get worse… much, much worse.