With the increased interest in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) as a sport and method of fitness training strength & conditioning within combat sports has rightfully become more accepted. Gone are the days where your old school boxing coach will tell you not to lift weights as it will make you bulky and slow. Evidence based strength & conditioning works hand in hand with combat sports performance. Combat sports include boxing, kickboxing, MMA and various traditional martial fighting styles. In this article we merely scratch the surface of combat sport strength & conditioning.
What is Strength & Conditioning
Firstly we should define strength & conditioning. Generally speaking strength & conditioning refers to physical training to assist a particular activity, primarily a sport but could be an occupation, as opposed to training for general fitness. Certainly combat sport falls into this category, as strength & conditioning will assist your combat sport performance and training. Strength & conditioning can consist of weight training, other forms of resistance training, speed and agility, lactic threshold conditioning and required aerobic
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The goal of a bodybuilder is to increase muscle size (muscular hypertrophy) and definition (low percentage of body fat) all for the purpose of aesthetics. Whilst there will be a certain level of increased strength the large muscles do not mean a package of potential terror; all show and no go as it is said. Whereas strength & conditioning training has a focus on applied GPP and SPP improvement in areas of strength & conditioning. Athletes would focus more towards increases in neural activity in muscle fiber recruitment, and its application in force production and speed. Athletes would also focus on other areas such as conditioning (energy system -primarily lactic anaerobic), mobility, agility and