Ground Fighting for Fitness

The fastest way to achieve great skill is to use what you're learning. And the best way to achieve great results from your MMA fitness training is to challenge your body in regular sparring sessions. And the best form of sparring for quick fitness results is ground sparring (great news for those who are terrified of getting hit in the face!).

When I first began teaching MMA, I used a hands-on approach, where we would dive right into sparring, and then work on the mistakes made as we continued. With constant correction while in action, these guys developed much faster than average. But another thing became very obvious as we continued. People who wanted to lose weight were watching it vanish very rapidly.

The reason for this to happen is simple. What do we always say about burning fat? Work out more muscles every session and the body will have to burn more calories to compensate. When you ground spar, you are using about every muscle you have in ways they're not normally used, and pushing hard to try winning as you're challenged by your opponent. The entire body is getting a heavy work out each time, and so the amount of calories being burned goes through the roof!

Boxing is also great for fitness. The difference, though, is that boxing challenges your cardio more, while ground fighting challenges your strength more. Both use strength and cardio, but at different levels. You don't have to fight your way out of an armbar in boxing.

So if you are getting into MMA for fat loss, don't neglect the ground sparring. But also don't forget that a good High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) routine on top of it will greatly increase your success.

#fitness #ground #grappling