In almost every sport, the ability to be explosive and powerful often goes hand in hand with success, and this is especially true in mixed martial arts (MMA). Being a faster and more explosive fighter gives you the ability to overpower, outwork, and outgun your opponent from start to finish.
The concept of metabolic conditioning has to be without a doubt one of the most misunderstood topics in strength and conditioning today. It seems that every fitness guru has some different method for improving your “conditioning” with the aim of burning fat or improving performance for a specific sport. However, none of them really get to the heart of how energy production really works.
As we’ve already alluded to, there are three main components of cardiovascular health that we must improve in order to raise your specific level of cardiovascular fitness—structure, function, and regulation.
Although there are more than 600 muscles in your body making up almost 40 percent of your total body weight, there is one muscle that stands out as more important than all the rest.