The MMA Strength & Conditioning Template (60-Minute Session)

Jun 15, 2021

Everyone talks about MMA strength and conditioning. Almost no one gives you an actual template. Here is one you can paste into your notes app and run today.

This is the exact 5-block, 60-minute structure we use with fighters — a template built to make a fighter more athletic and more durable without leaving them too smoked to hit mitts the next day. Below the template you'll find the weekly split, how to progress it, and the one rule that matters more than any exercise on the page.

The template at a glance

One session. Roughly 60 minutes. 5 blocks:

Block 1 — Mobility & SMR: 5 min
Block 2 — Activation: 5 min
Block 3 — Speed, Agility & Power: 5–10 min
Block 4 — Strength: 20–25 min
Block 5 — Conditioning: 10–15 min

You do every block, every session. The volume inside each block changes based on what you need that day. That's it. That's the whole game.

Block 1 — Mobility & SMR (5 min)

Goal: Free up the joints that get locked from training. Hips, thoracic spine, ankles, shoulders.

Do this:

Foam roll t-spine, glutes, quads — 60 sec each
90/90 hip switches — 8 per side
Cat-cow — 8 reps
Ankle rocks against a wall — 8 per side

Don't spend 20 minutes rolling. If a spot is truly locked, address it in a separate mobility session. This block is a doorway into training, not the training itself.

Block 2 — Activation (5 min)

Goal: Wake up the nervous system. Raise core temp. Get the muscles that shut off during the day (glutes, deep core, scaps) firing again.

Do this — 2 rounds:

Bear crawl — 10 yards forward, 10 yards back
Glute bridge — 10 reps
Dead bug — 6 per side
Band pull-apart — 10 reps

You should be breathing a little at the end of this block. Not gassed. Warm.

Block 3 — Speed, Agility & Power (5–10 min)

Goal: Train the nervous system to move fast before you're tired. This block always comes before strength — never after.

Pick one from each category:

Sprint / cut: 4x10-yard sprints, 4x lateral shuffle cuts, or 4x agility ladder patterns
Jump: 3x3 box jumps, 3x5 broad jumps, or 3x5 lateral bounds
Throw: 3x5 med-ball slams, 3x5 rotational med-ball throws, or 3x5 chest passes

Rest fully between sets (30–60 seconds). If you feel slow, the set didn't count. Speed is the whole point.

Block 4 — Strength (20–25 min)

Goal: Build the body underneath the fighter. Strong hips, strong pillar, strong grip, strong neck.

The 4-lift structure:

Main lift — a heavy bilateral push, pull, or hinge. Trap-bar deadlift, front squat, weighted pull-up, floor press. 4x5 or 5x3.
Accessory — an opposing pattern to your main lift. If you pressed, now you row. If you squatted, now you do a hamstring pattern. 3x8.
Unilateral — one side at a time. Bulgarian split squat, single-arm row, single-leg RDL, single-arm overhead press. 3x8 per side.
Carry or core — farmer's carry, suitcase carry, sandbag bear hug carry, or a heavy anti-rotation core piece. 3 rounds.

Rotate the main lift across the week — one push day, one pull day, one hinge day, one squat day. That's how you cover the whole body without redlining any one pattern.

Block 5 — Conditioning (10–15 min)

Goal: Build the gas tank a fighter actually uses. Not "cardio" — fight cardio.

Rotate 3 modes across the week:

Base engine (long, steady): 15–20 min at conversational pace — sled drag, bike, ruck, easy shadow rounds. 1x per week.
Repeat power (short bursts): 8–12 rounds of 20 sec hard / 40 sec easy — assault bike, sandbag clean, KB swing. 1x per week.
Grind capacity (fight rounds): 3–5 rounds of 3–5 min continuous work — burpee-to-shot, sandbag getups, KB circuit. 1x per week.

All three build a different piece of the fighter. Skip one and something's missing. For a deeper breakdown of how to structure conditioning across a fight camp, this is exactly what the Fighter program is built around.

How to run it across a week

3-day split (typical for a fighter in-camp):

Day 1: Full template — heavy squat/hinge day + base engine conditioning
Day 2: Full template — heavy push day + repeat power conditioning
Day 3: Full template — heavy pull day + grind capacity conditioning

4-day split (typical for off-season or non-fighter athletes):

Day 1: Squat + base engine
Day 2: Push + repeat power
Day 3: Hinge + grind capacity
Day 4: Pull + light base engine

In-camp fighters skew toward 3 days so the mat work owns the calendar. Off-season, 4 days lets you build more raw physical qualities.

Stimulate, don't annihilate

This is the rule that matters more than any exercise on this page. The goal of the session is to make the fighter better tomorrow, not to bury them today.

If you can't hit mitts hard the next morning, you overdid it. If you're chronically sore, you overdid it. If your speed on Block 3 got slower this week than last week, you overdid it. Pull back. Progress comes from stacking good weeks — not surviving hard ones.

Every rep, every set, every conditioning finisher should be earning something. Not just costing you.

Build the gas tank fighters actually need.

Start with the free Fighter's Conditioning Starter Kit — 7 sessions you can run this week to build real fight-specific engine. Or step into THE PHYSICAL FIGHTER, our 12-week program built around round-five conditioning, strength that transfers, and durability that holds up to fight camp.

Get the Free Fighter's Conditioning Starter Kit Get THE PHYSICAL FIGHTER

Train hard. Recover harder. Fight longer.