Sandbag Conditioning for MMA

Here’s a little clip of a sandbag conditioning routine that we use with some of our fighters. The main focus is the use of the sandbag, but with some pretty unique exercises.

Sandbags are some of the greatest training tools in almost any sport but they especially apply to fighting. Almost nothing else will give you that shifting, moving, non-linear, bone breaking strength that you need to overpower another human. Make no mistake about it – technique is wonderful, in fighting and super important, but eventually at the high level everyone’s technique is good and it makes a big difference how freakin’ strong and psychotically enduring you are.

Train harder than the fight will be. That’s the only way to really survive.

In this clip you see Derrick Stansberry in one of the multiple six-minute rounds involved in this training. MMA rounds are now standardized at 5 minutes – that’s why we’re doing six. The first exercise is the get-up with the sandbag. One of the big problems I see with most people about sandbag training is that they don’t use a heavy enough bag. The bag should be very hard for you to deal with – that’s the point. You can get really strong if you force yourself to use a heavy bag.

The round is set up like this: He goes about a minute or so doing get-ups with the bag at 170lbs (nearly as much as Derrick weighs), then immediately goes and does a hard 30 seconds of kickboxing a Thai bag and a hard 30 seconds of sprawls. Repeating immediately back to the bag non-stop for six minutes.
Watch this video and see how hard he’s working.

A full round of this workout as well as 3 other variations with different and unique sandbag lifts can be found at our new membership site, Super Human Training. Not a member yet? You can get started for just $1 by clicking here.

God Bless,
Bud Jeffries