Issue 065

August 2010

MMA gyms are popping up in every corner of the land, from sea to shining sea. 

Although it is necessary for a gym to have the typical equipment essentials, such as a ring / cage, punch bags, Thai pads and focus mitts, there is other equipment – particularly from a conditioning aspect – that a gym should acquire, for the simple reason that it adds flexibility and variety to the class structure. 

If you couple that with trying to broaden people’s awareness of the value of MMA conditioning from a perspective of functional training, you hit a home run. Why do I say this? When you look at the aspects of MMA conditioning, it really can be a starter to getting fit for life. If an educated instructor knows what he is doing, he can work with all age ranges and abilities – this can be from soccer moms to children’s classes. Let’s face some facts: UFC fights look fun, but not many of us want to get punched in the face – we want to get ‘fit without the hits’. 

The real challenge for gym owners is to tap into all markets. Lots of people can train, have fun and become physical specimens with MMA training and conditioning. If this wasn’t the case, then why is the UFC opening its own brand of gyms? To be successful in a saturated market requires something different to the many competitors out there. To that end, there is some important equipment that an academy can purchase. 

The days of purchasing tens of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment are gone – for the average gym, that is neither practical or affordable. At BurnWithKearns.com, we stress the following common criteria with equipment purchases: 

 Flexibility

 Affordability

 Space saving

 Adaptability

 Broad spectrum of use

 Portablity 

With those concepts in mind, let’s look at four indispensable pieces of equipment every MMA gym should have. 

Medicine Ball 

The first item that we feel is a great purchase is the time-tested medicine ball. This little gem has been around since the days of the tall ships. Legend has it that when the winds used to die down on the ship the medical officer would take a leather sack and stuff it with laundry. 

He would require the men to throw the ball around the deck to keep them fit and reduce boredom – back then, exercise was considered good medicine. The amount of drills that can be made and incorporated into a class or for a team are truly only limited by your mind.

Resistance Bands 

Rubber bands are not for old ladies any more – when I was in college (about a million years ago), these little diamonds became popular for home training. Little did I know back then that we would be training UFC fighters with them (and training them well). The exercise and the drills are truly fun and interesting, and only limited by your imagination. The best part is, you or your people can take the bands wherever you go. 

Agility Ladders 

Agility is agility, no matter what sport you are doing. From little old ladies to fighters, we can all improve our agility. Agility is all about being able to move your feet faster – as the great boxing coach Peter Welch would say: “Smart feet, smart fighter.” With the right training, agility can be improved regardless of the stage of your athletic development. Many a fighter has heard me say: “I would rather you trip on the ladder in training than trip on your feet in the cage.” 

Stability Ball 

These were created in the 1960s to help children suffering cerebral palsy to develop their balance and reactions. In the ‘90s they exploded into the fitness industry. The carryover to MMA training has been quite seamless with the stability ball. They are very easy to use and incorporate into training. We’ve adapted these and found they can be used for many different exercises to condition our athletes and our fighters. 

Bosu

This was a great invention first seen back in the late ‘90s – they basically took a stability ball, cut it in half and put a platform on it. For balance work and overall conditioning it is a great tool – for MMA conditioning it takes the sprawl to a new level, as well as helping develop balance, plyo jumps and more.  

Okay, so now let’s have some fun! Let’s put this into a program of three five-minute rounds, just like a UFC fight. Spend 30 seconds to one minute on each station, working flat out for the full five minutes. Rest for one minute between rounds. 

Round 1

Punches in bunches with resistance bands

Agility ladder high knees

Medicine ball wood chops

Bosu sprawls

Cage crush with stability ball (available on the Fighters Only website)

Round 2

Agility ladder Ali shuffle

Band rows

Medicine ball rocky twists

Stability ball press-ups

Bosu mountain climbers.

Final round 

Bosu plyometric jumps

Punches in bunches with bands

Agility ladder lateral shuffle

Stability ball crunches

Medicine ball kayaks.

Kevin Kearns is the creator of the Burn with Kearns system and trains several UFC and WEC fighters. For info on his MMA conditioning certification, seminars, workshops, online training or DVDs visit: www.burnwithkearns.com.