Good Sports to Keep Your Body in Shape for the Ring
One of the great things about MMA is that it allows people from many different sports backgrounds to enter the ring and be successful. You can approach from many different angles, focusing on standing fighting, grappling, or a mix of both. MMA also tends to be a bit more demanding in terms of staying fit compared to your competition for this very reason. It requires a good degree of strength and flexibility, and there is no “perfect” formula for how you should be building your body. That said, there are some sports that can definitely give you a good edge over your competitors.
Running
Stamina plays a big role in MMA, especially if you’re an active grappler. It becomes a game of endurance when the two players’ grappling skills are roughly the same, and there’s hardly anything better you could do to make yourself last longer than to hit the track on a regular basis. Endurance running is something you should definitely look into if you’re having problems gassing out before your opponents on a regular basis. It will take a while to build up the foundation, but it will be very important in the long run.
Climbing
Climbing can help you develop great core strength, flexibility, and hand-to-eye coordination. It can also contribute to your endurance, especially in terms of how easily your limbs tire out. Many people underestimate the challenge of supporting their own body weight with their arms and legs dangling high up on a wall for extended periods of time and trying to push up while they’re at it too. Climbing is a bit restrictive in terms of where you can practice it, unfortunately, but if you’ve got a good climbing gym or outdoor wall in your area, you should definitely give the sport a try if you haven’t before.
Golf
Golf can also develop your body to a good extent, and it’s a good way to train yourself to stay focused for extended periods of time as well. Like climbing, golf often gets underestimated in terms of depth and challenge, but it can be a surprisingly complex sport once you start to get into it. And that’s just with regards to learning the moves – just wait until you start digging into the market for equipment. Spotting your first set of quality PXG clubs will send you down a rabbit hole that your bank account might not be very happy about. That’s the one downside to golfing – it can get expensive very fast.
You don’t have to play all of these at once, of course – they’re just some suggestions to get you started. Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to sports and similar activities, and the important thing is that you find something that works for you personally. Don’t give up if you don’t enjoy the first one you try and keep searching until you’ve found something that you can truly stick to over a longer period of time. With enough persistence, you’ll become a much scarier opponent in the ring.
