What are the benefits of MMA Workouts?
In anticipation of an article to come out soon on this website, we’d like to open up a discussion about Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) workouts and training. What do you feel are the benefits, as opposed to other types of training?
What do YOU say?
We’d like to hear from our students and friends, and anyone has “two cents” to share. For those visiting this website, we want them to get first-hand accounts from students, especially those who can still remember what it was like when you first started.
You should be able to use our Facebook comments to keep this thread going.
Here’s a first draft of a video…
Open discussion, let's hear what YOU have to say about MMA Training and what YOU get out of it. Thanks!
Lot's of cardio without feeling like you are doing cardio.
This might be in the article but I think that it is important to define "MMA workout". Does JTX "count" since it is a mix of JKD and Muay Thai?
Exactly, Jim. Once you understand that MMA is an expression of different fundamental styles; striking, BJJ, Wrestling, even Silat, you name it…you realize that you have to isolate and "live" in the different arts and keep going back and forth as you put it all together.
I don't know, I can be huffing and puffing pretty hard at the end of a class! 🙂
In that case, I feel more "qualified" to enter the discussion. I get a lot out of the workouts – exercise and all that entails, be it strength, coordination, cardio or flexibility. Also important are the relationships and comradeship that one develops with training partners.
5 years of training, shifting from a 280 lb fat kid to a 235lb martial artist comes with the territory. Yet, the benefit I really gained wasn't just physical, but mental as well. I hear a lot about martial artists and seeking the ultimate art or claiming to know it. Anyone who claims that their art is pure should be viewed with a raised eyebrow. Every art is composed of elements found in another and modified to conform with the user. Therefore, every martial artist becomes a mixed martial artist by training in their respective art. What makes a supposed "mixed martial artist" great, is their jack of all trades training. Covering bases from weapons to striking and even grappling. Rounding the individuals abilities and enhancing, by means of complimenting, the natural inclinations. This makes finding what is useful to a particular student a far simpler task. The benefit of a school with a large curriculum is that the student is more inclined to maintain the "white belt mentality" aka "empty cup" wjen presented with something new.
Let me also add that taking multiple arts/styles has helped me develop and improve in each. For example, double stick or stick and knife training has helped my empty hand skills in JTX.