How bodybuilders can use the UFC workout split for faster results
If you’re like anything like me – or anyone else that’s ever stepped foot in the gym – at some point or another, you’ve totally obsessed over your workout split. After all, you want to get the most gains from your workouts you can, right? You want the biggest arms to stretch your t-shirt, the most ripped abs, and the heaviest Bench Press. But, you also don’t want to waste your time. Sure, you have fun in the gym, and like most meatheads, you really get into putting in your time with the iron.
However, as much fun as working those arms, abs, or Bench can be, it’s about eleventy-billion times better actually *having* the arms, abs, and Bench. So you wanna build all those – and more – as quickly as you can.
And the right workout split is one of the most critical keys to doing that.
Designing workouts for MMA
In my last article here on TheGymLifestyle.com, I talked about how my introduction to the world of MMA completely changed how I looked at designing workouts. MMA – especially the early days of the sport – is a very all-encompassing activity, requiring a fighter to attend several skills sessions each week if he wants to progress. Unlike other athletes that would practice their sport 3-5 days per week, an early MMA fighter would have to go to as many as 8-10 (or more) different skills workouts spread across different disciplines each week. Then, add to the mix that most fighters didn’t make a full-time income from MMA (meaning they had to spend 40+ hours each week at a “regular job”) and that MMA is a sport that has such a wide need of physical traits, and you’ve got a scenario in which workouts have to get the most “bang” for their “buck”. And that’s what bodybuilders, athletes, and/or guys that just want to be in “fighting shape” can learn from MMA-style workouts.
After all, isn’t the point of finding the right workout split?
To find that combination that will let you do just enough work to get everything you want (remember, the arms, abs, and bench), but not so much that you spend all your free time in the gym?
Train movements not muscles
One of the things that too many people get caught up in is training muscles. Everything is an “arm workout” or a “chest exercise” or whatever. The problem with this line of thinking is that it trains the body in the wrong way. See, it’s an overly simplistic way of looking at it, but we get better at what we do. Want to get a bigger bench press? Then you’d prolly better bench. Want to jump higher? Then you’d better do some jumping. Well, if you spend a bunch of time doing one thing or training one way, then that’s what you’ll get good at and train the body to adapt to.
So when you spend a bunch of time training the body as a collection of individual muscles – i.e. do this exercise for that muscle and that exercise for that muscle – then it trains the body to work as individual muscles.
Problem is that nothing in life is really that way. Think about normal, everyday activities. Walking out the door. Carrying a bag of groceries. Hell, even something as simple as writing with a pencil. They all use multiple muscles in unison – working together. The group becomes one collective unit so as to achieve a goal. Like all the corny lessons your teachers and coaches tried to feed you about team building, you’re more capable when everything comes together to work as one. That’s why you can handle more weight in a Bench Press than you can with something like Flies or Cable Crossovers. Why you can Squat more weight than you can use on a Leg Extension machine.
Because you’ve got multiple muscles working together as one unit to accomplish a goal.
If you have any modicrum of actually wanting to be able to USE the muscle and strength you build, you need to get out of the mindset of working individual muscles. Instead, look at training movements: Pushing weight over your head or weight off your chest. Pulling yourself up over something or pulling weight toward you. Squatting weight up or pulling it off the ground. That sort of thing.
The MMA workout aspect
This is what I focus on very heavily when I design workouts for fighters. Because their workouts have to be so efficient, we only want them doing what they have to. It doesn’t matter if the fighter has to focus on strength, explosive power, hypertrophy, different forms of endurance, or what – if exercises can somehow be manipulated so as to accomplish multiple things at once, then that does nothing but benefit the fighter.
(TIP – There’s a link below that you can visit to get a sample from the workout program I put together for a then Top-10 MMA fighter. My goal with him was to slightly increase strength, covert as much strength to explosive power as possible, and radically build conditioning. You can see how I manipulated exercise selection and application to do all that.)
Now a full-body workout can work well, but it can also beat the hell out of a guy if he’s not careful. And it can really wreak havoc on his CNS (central nervous system). This can happen with just a guy looking to put on size or strength, but when a guy is trying to do as much as most fighters are, then it only compounds the problem. So what we do is divide the body up into types of movement and general section of the body.
Specific applications will, of course, vary from fighter to fighter, but in general, I like to try to split the main emphasis of a workout into the upper body and the lower body, alternating between the two. Each will then focus on something different.
One upper body workout will have a “vertical” (overhead) emphasis, with the other having a “horizontal” (bench) emphasis. Both will have back movements like Chins/Pullups and various Rows as assistance. One lower body workout will generally emphasize some sorta Squat variation, while the other will emphasize a Deadlift. Both will have athletic movements that build explosive power and the back part of the body (think very basic Olympic lift variations, Jumps, Swings, and the like).
This allows you to train as much of the body as possible in as short of a time as possible. And when the right types of exercises, sets, reps, and loading are used, muscles are worked even in workouts that don’t emphasize them.
For example, the vertical upper body workout might have something like a PushPress as a “main” movement, but still include lighter Dips or Dumbbell Bench as assistance work. Then the other workout will switch it up, focusing mainly on Barbell Bench, but use Dumbbell Overhead Press as assistance work.
But what about the bodybuilding aspect?
So this all works well for fighters and athletic training in general. But what about looking good in the damn mirror? Well, first of all, I firmly believe that if you train in an athletic fashion, you’ll build all the muscle you want or need. If you want some extra vanity work – say on the biceps, triceps, side delts, calves, or whatever – then it’s an easy fix.
You can either just add a few exercises to the end of your workout to fill in the gaps. or add in short “vanity-based” workouts to tackle this stuff.
Because with all the heavy Presses, Dips, and more you’ll be doing, you’ll build big triceps. Add a few sets of Pushdowns now and then, and you’ll be set. With all the Chins/Pullups, Rows, and other pulling exercises you’ll do, the biceps will get taxed plenty. Add Curls to the end of your upper body workouts and you should be stretching out your t-shirt in no time. Besides, you have the added benefit of knowing that should you ever need to actually USE the muscle you’ve built, you’ve been training in a way that the body can use. You’ll move, be, and act like an athlete because you’ve been training like an athlete.
And as far as the “ripped” look or muscle definition goes…that’s all just about bodyfat level, son.
Get your diet in check and you’ll have that in spades. (Plus, training like an athlete generally burns more calories, meaning you’ll burn more bodyfat in general.) If you want a great example, check out lighter weight powerlifters, Olympic lifters, or wrestlers. These are all guys that have to be strong, fast, powerful, and have intense conditioning…but at their bodyweight. There’s no room for carrying extra chub. You’ll find most of ’em will have the type of physique you’re looking for. You can do the same thing…all while spending less time in the gym than you probably do, now. It’ll just be smarter time.
Author: Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins
Owner of WorkingClassFitness.com, Matt “Wiggy” Wiggins is a self-taught, 20+ year veteran of the “Iron Game” that focuses on helping MMA fighters, military/law enforcement, and “regular guys” all over the world get in “fighting shape”. TheGymLifestyle.com members can Click Here Now to get the workout he created for a Top-10 MMA fighter.
