Significantly improving the core strength could provide you with the great advantage in MMA fight. However, by focusing on the bodyweight exercises and improving the upper body and lower body core strengths, the gymnasts are obtaining identical results as weight lifters! Furthermore, compared to the other athletes, gymnasts enjoy greater balance, coordination and overall awareness! On the other hand, if you are not careful, this could lead up to hypertrophy (exaggerated growth of the muscles) which negatively affects the overall performance. Later on, advanced moves require strong triceps and shoulder muscles which could be enhanced through weight lifting. Traditionally, gymnastics exercise programs are not assembled around weight training, especially at the beginnings. Considering gymnasts traditionally get involved with the sport at a young age, it’s always fascinating to perceive the number of push-ups and sit-ups they can do. However, what lies down in the core of their abilities is sheer strength and power. Watching the Olympics and observing gymnasts doing wild flips and swings while showing the superhuman balance at the same time may force you to think that jumping around the gym is their primary aspect of training. Intrigued by the effectives of gymnastics in modern day MMA, we’ve decided to do research for you on the How Gymnastics Can Help MMA Fighters and the results have surprised most of us! Helps Develop Strength And Power “If you take 10 athletes from 10 different sports and you make each athlete plays everyone else his sport, on average the guy who is going to do the best in all the sports is the gymnast” GSP Trainer Firas Zahabi Asked to give his opinion on gymnastics in MMA, GSP’s head coach Faris Zahabi perfectly stated the following: “Gymnasts are the best athletes in the world, they can do movements that nobody else can do” George St-Pierre on Gymnasticĭuring his interviews, GSP has been often pointing out the benefits of gymnastics and how it can improve the movement, core strength, coordination, flexibility, and overall conditioning.Ĭonsidering that GSP has always been in phenomenal shape and his unique style of fighting a mystery for many years now, it’s hard to argue against this. One of the leading advocates of gymnastic training in MMA and a directly responsible man for this specific type of evolution is the former UFC Welterweight and Middleweight champion, the great George St. That’s why it’s not a surprise that innovative methods, training systems and the benefits of the sports which don’t have anything with the fighting instantly began to emerge. The fundamental questions about the effectiveness of the training, consistency of the fighters and their recovery quickly started popping up. Shortly after, especially during the 2000s, MMA experts have spotted that this hardcore approach has many holes, especially in terms of body punishment, overtraining and wasting of energy.

That said, MMA demands a tremendous amount of strength and energy.ĭuring the mainstream beginnings of the sport, fighters and coaches were focusing on traditional methods of training and on each of the four aspects separately. Mixed martial arts training programs are typically built around four main combat techniques: Boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Wrestling. If you take a couple of minutes of your time and check our article on “ Top 10 Reasons Why MMA Is The Hardest Sport”, you’ll instantly recognize what it takes to be a professional MMA fighter. As we all genuinely know by now, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is the hardest combat sport to compete in! What typically makes it so grueling is not the intense competition, but rather the nature of the sport itself!

Gymnastic moves for body