Ways to combine professional training with full and healthy personal life
Becoming a top MMA fighter takes a lot of dedication. Ensuring your body retains its optimum level of fitness requires hours of training, with the activities ranging from sparring with partners to lifting weights to honing your cardiovascular strength with grueling all-weather runs. Sometimes you take on opponents who are bigger and stronger, so you also need mental sharpness as you use agility and speed, but also cunning to get the better of them.
Physical fitness
Once you have attained peak fitness and are fighting on a regular basis, you need to maintain upper body strength and instant reflex reactions in order to to stay competitive in demanding competitions. But if you want to make the most of your fighting abilities, a key factor you need to build into your strategy in appreciating your personal life, making the most of the times when you are not fighting. You will be able to make the most of your combat strengths if you manage to achieve the best balance between your professional training and your personal life.
The former part of that equation is obviously the one fighters focus on. Success in the cage relies on science. As well as the biology of being at the peak of your physical health, you must apply a degree of physics with your power-to-weight ratio, ensuring you make the most of your physique. You must also be capable of executing skillful martial arts moves. This requires a lot more than preening in front of the mirrors of a corporate leisure center after pulling a few weights or spending 20 minutes working up a little sweat on a treadmill or on a fitness workout bike. It comes from years of honing your muscles and levels of coordination. The ultimate aim of all this is to possess the ability to use your body to devastating effect against an opponent; a man who has spent every moment of his own spare time going through exactly the same rigorous training process.
Mental preparation
While emphasis must be placed on training for the next contest, in terms of working on punching, kicking and grappling techniques, fighters also need to factor in quiet time. Obviously, MMA fighters rely on the adrenaline rush that follows the moment the cage door is closed and the crowd begins roaring, but it is also important to prepare mentally. Pre-fight nerves are totally natural. When any athletes become too ‘keyed up,’ muscle tension will increase, and there might be poor decision making during the bout. If the mental game isn’t handled properly, this can disrupt concentration and rhythm.
Staying calm is critical to a fighter’s potential to win, as you need to remain calm, right up to the moment you suddenly have to unleash all that pent-up technique, tactics, strength and strategy. There are many ways for preparing for fights by finding quiet time, but the most important of all is achieving the balance between the professional and the personal life.
Emphasis on relationships
You should always take part in activities where you can temporarily switch-off from fixating on the ‘day job.’ This might involve focusing on other passions, such as chilling to your favorite music, going to the movies, or best of all, spending quality family time.
Getting involved in a relationship can be a boost for fighters who are unattached. Athletes in a peak condition of fitness are always bound to attract the attention of single women looking for men, and there are many dating sites where you can go online to find matches. Making the most of your time outside the cage will only increase your hunger for success when the moment comes to return to the arena.
