3.16 MMA and Combat Sport Performance

The short version

A boxer needs to be good at boxing. A wrestler needs to be good at wrestling. A mixed martial artist needs to be good at both, plus submission grappling, plus every awkward transition between them — and needs the physical qualities each of those disciplines demands, all at the same time.

No other sport asks for this much. Maximal strength for takedowns. Explosive speed for striking. The ability to hold a position under load for the clinch. Tolerance for the burning, breathless work of a long control battle. And underneath all of it, an aerobic base big enough to keep recovering between every one of those things.

The awkward part is that some of those adaptations actively fight each other. Building maximal strength and building aerobic capacity pull in partly opposite directions. Heavy lifting needs recovery, and hard sparring wants the same recovery. There are only so many hours in a week and only one recovery budget to spend.

This article maps out what each phase of a fight actually demands, explains why fighters fade late in a way that has almost nothing to do with losing strength, sets out how to plan a camp backwards from the date, and deals honestly with the two places combat sports culture creates avoidable damage: weight cutting and sparring volume.

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One sport, four different problems

Stop treating "MMA conditioning" as a single thing. A fighter who keeps losing the clinch has a completely different problem from one who fades in round three. They need different fixes. Working out which phase somebody actually loses in is far more useful than piling on more generic work and hoping.

The four phases barely overlap physically. Striking, clinch, takedown and ground control each lean on almost entirely separate systems (James, 2016; Kirk et al., 2020). Being excellent at one tells you very little about the others, which is why fighters so often have one glaring hole surrounded by genuine competence.

"He gassed" is usually the wrong diagnosis. The folk explanation is that the fighter ran out of cardio, and the folk prescription is more running. What is really happening is more specific, and knowing it changes what you do about it.

Here is the actual mechanism. During a hard exchange you burn through a small, fast fuel store in seconds. Between exchanges, that store gets refilled — and the refilling is an aerobic process. Someone with a big aerobic engine recharges quickly and is ready again almost immediately. Someone without one needs longer and longer each time. Eventually the opponent is starting every exchange, simply because they got there first.

So a fighter looking heavy in round four has not got weaker. Their muscles are fine. They are just permanently behind on recovery inside the round, never quite topped up before the next exchange begins. Which is why aerobic work — which feels nothing at all like fighting — is the foundation of combat conditioning. It is not building the exchange. It is buying you the next one.

Your grip goes before anything else. In any grappling exchange, forearms and grip fail first, well ahead of legs, lungs or anything people usually worry about. They are also just about the least trained quality in the sport. That gap is worth closing.

Camp is not where you get fit. Physical qualities get built in general preparation, in the quieter months, when there is room to recover from hard work. Camp is for sharpening and expressing what you already own. Trying to build strength eight weeks out mostly means arriving tired, and tired is a worse problem than slightly weaker.

The two things that hurt fighters most are avoidable. Aggressive weight cutting and too much hard sparring do more damage across a career than anything that happens in a fight. Both are traditions rather than necessities, and both are worth arguing with.

The rest of the article goes into the detail: the demands broken down phase by phase, the fatigue data across five rounds, how to build a camp backwards from fight night, and specific guidance on weight management and sparring load. Those sections are more technical, so read them when you want the mechanism rather than the map.

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Physical demands by fight phaseA four column table describing the four phases of a mixed martial arts contest and the dominant physical demand, energy system and training priority for each.Physical demands by fight phaseDominant demandEnergy system biasDuration patternTraining priorityStriking at rangeRate of forcedevelopment, footworkPhosphagen with aerobicrecovery1–5 second exchangesBallistic power,repeat-effort capacityClinchIsometric strength,grip, postureGlycolytic and isometricendurance10–60 second holdsIsometric strength,positional enduranceTakedown and scrambleExplosive strength,reactive abilityPhosphagen andglycolytic2–15 second burstsMaximal strength,reactive drillsGround control andsubmissionIsometric endurance,breathing under loadGlycolytic and oxidative30 seconds to minutesPositional conditioning,aerobic baseBetween exchangesRecovery andrepositioningOxidativeContinuousAerobic capacity

Figure 1. Mixed martial arts is not one sport with one demand profile. A striking exchange, a clinch battle, a takedown scramble and a ground control position load the athlete in almost entirely different ways.

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The first practical step is to stop treating "MMA conditioning" as one thing. A fighter who consistently loses the clinch has a different problem from one who fades in the third round, and they need different interventions. Diagnosing which phase the athlete actually loses in is more useful than adding generic work.

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Why fighters gas

The folk explanation for late-round fatigue is that the fighter "ran out of gas", usually treated as a cardio problem to be solved with more running. The mechanism is more specific than that, and understanding it changes what you do about it.

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Fatigue across a five-round contestTwo lines across five rounds showing peak output declining and time to recover between exchanges lengthening, with a third line showing a well-conditioned athlete.Fatigue across a five-round contestPeak output per exchangeRecovery time needed betweenexchangesWell-conditioned athlete: OutputR1R2R3R4R5EndLowModerateHighRoundRelative magnitudeConditioning flattens the output declineAnd limits the growth of the recoveryinterval

Figure 2. Championship rounds are not lost because the athlete runs out of strength. They are lost because the recovery interval between exchanges lengthens until the opponent gets to act first.

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During a hard exchange, the athlete draws on stored phosphocreatine, which depletes within seconds. Between exchanges, that store is replenished, and the rate of replenishment is an oxidative process. An athlete with a large aerobic capacity recharges quickly and is ready sooner (Tomlin & Wenger, 2001). An athlete without one needs progressively longer to be ready, and eventually the opponent is initiating every exchange because they got there first.

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The visible symptom is a fighter who looks slow and heavy in round four. The underlying cause is usually not that their muscles have weakened but that they are permanently under-recovered within the round. This is why aerobic development, which feels utterly unlike fighting, is the foundation of combat conditioning.

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• Phosphagen system Fuels the first five to ten seconds of maximal effort. Depletes quickly and recharges aerobically. Powers every scramble and exchange.
• Glycolytic system Dominates efforts from roughly ten seconds to two minutes. Produces the burning, heavy-limbed sensation of an extended clinch battle.
• Oxidative system Provides the sustained baseline and, critically, powers recovery between the other two. The single most important system for a five-round fight.
• Repeat-effort capacity The practical expression of all three working together: The ability to produce a hard effort, recover briefly, and produce another at a similar quality.

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Grip: The quality nobody trains

In grappling exchanges, grip and forearm endurance frequently fail before anything else. A fighter who cannot hold a collar tie, maintain an underhook, or keep hold of a wrist has lost the position regardless of how strong their legs are.

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Grip endurance is specific. Crushing grip, pinch grip, and the sustained isometric holding required to control a limb are not the same quality, and training one does not fully develop the others. Grappling itself trains grip to an extent, but it also fatigues it, and dedicated work is usually needed.

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• Sustained holds: Gi or towel hangs, farmer carries, and timed holds on a thick bar.
• Positional grip work: Holding a wrist or collar against progressive resistance for time.
• Forearm endurance: High-repetition, low-load work at the end of sessions, kept away from grappling days.
• Recovery: Grip tissue tolerates frequency poorly when training volume is already high, so add it cautiously.

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A caution on volume. Elbow and forearm tendinopathy is common in grapplers, and adding heavy grip work to an athlete already grappling five times a week is a reliable way to produce it. Add it during general preparation, not during camp.

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Managing competing adaptations

The interference problem, honestly stated

Training concurrently for strength and endurance produces smaller gains in each than training for either alone (Hickson, 1980). This is well established, and it is unavoidable in a sport that requires both. What is avoidable is making it worse than it needs to be.

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The interference is not symmetrical. Endurance training blunts strength and power adaptation considerably more than strength training blunts endurance adaptation (Wilson, 2012). It is also dose and modality dependent: High-volume, high-intensity running interferes most, while cycling and lower-volume aerobic work interfere less (Wilson, 2012).

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1. Separate modalities by at least six hours where possible, and place strength work first when they must be on the same day.
2. Prefer low-impact aerobic modalities such as cycling or rowing for base work, reserving running for specific conditioning.
3. Keep strength work heavy and low volume rather than moderate and high volume, since the heavy end is less affected by interference.
4. Concentrate on one quality per block during general preparation rather than pushing both maximally at once.
5. Accept maintenance rather than development for the non-priority quality during any given block.

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The physical qualities a mixed martial arts (MMA) athlete needsA branching diagram with three main branches for force qualities, energetic qualities and resilience qualities, each with specific sub-components.The physical qualities an MMA athlete needsComplete MMA preparationForce qualitiesMaximal strength for takedowns andclinch controlRate of force development for strikingand scramblesIsometric strength for holding andresisting positionGrip strength and endurance, whichfails before almost anything elseEnergetic qualitiesAerobic capacity for between-exchangerecoveryRepeat-effort capacity for consecutivescramblesGlycolytic tolerance for extendedclinch and control battlesBreathing efficiency undercompression, which is specific andtrainableResilience qualitiesNeck strength for impact and fordefending chokes and postureJoint tolerance at the shoulder, kneeand cervical spineRecovery capacity across a trainingweek with multiple disciplinesBody composition managed without acutedehydration

Figure 3. The breadth of this tree is the defining problem of the sport. No other athlete is asked to develop this many competing qualities simultaneously.

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The practical consequence is that a fighter cannot develop everything simultaneously and should stop trying. General preparation blocks should have a clear priority, with the other qualities held at maintenance. Camp should have no development priority at all.

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Conditioning matched to the actual work pattern

Combat conditioning has traditionally been either long roadwork or brutally hard circuits with no clear structure. Neither matches what happens in a fight (Del Vecchio, 2011).

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A defensible programme has three distinct conditioning components, each with a clear target.

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• Aerobic development Continuous work at conversational intensity, thirty to sixty minutes, two to three times weekly during general preparation. Builds the recovery engine. Feels nothing like fighting and is the most important component.
• Aerobic power intervals Efforts of two to five minutes at a hard but sustainable intensity with equal rest. Raises the ceiling of the aerobic system (Buchheit & Laursen, 2013). Two sessions weekly at most.
• Repeat-effort work Efforts of five to twenty seconds at maximal intensity with incomplete recovery, repeated in sets (Bishop et al., 2011). Directly trains the pattern shown in Figure 2. Highly fatiguing; use sparingly and specifically.
• Positional and simulation work Live rounds, positional sparring against fresh partners, and fight simulations. The most specific conditioning available and the dominant form during camp.

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The classic error is running only the third and fourth of these, because they feel like fighting and produce satisfying levels of suffering. Without the aerobic base underneath, they produce fatigue without producing much adaptation, and they degrade skill quality because they are always performed exhausted.

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A second error is performing all conditioning as circuits with mixed exercises. These are difficult to progress, difficult to measure, and rarely load any system hard enough to drive adaptation because the limiting factor keeps changing.

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Strength work that survives contact with a full week

The realistic constraint is two sessions a week during general preparation and one during camp. Everything must fit in that, which forces ruthless prioritisation.

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The lifts that earn their place are the ones with the broadest carryover: A bilateral lower-body push, a hip hinge, a horizontal and a vertical upper-body pull, and one loaded carry. Isolation work is almost entirely a luxury a fighter cannot afford.

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• Session A: Trap bar deadlift or back squat, heavy for 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5; single-leg work; horizontal pull; loaded carry.
• Session B: Overhead or incline press; hip hinge variation; vertical pull; rotational medicine ball throws.
• Both sessions: 45 minutes maximum, including warm-up. Anything longer competes with skill work.
• Both sessions: Placed on the same day as hard skill work, not the day before or after.

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Pulling volume should exceed pushing volume, typically by around two to one. Grappling loads the pulling musculature heavily and the shoulder is a common casualty in the sport, so the balance in the gym should compensate rather than reinforce (Lystad et al., 2014).

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Unilateral work deserves specific mention. Almost every position in the sport involves asymmetric loading through one leg, and bilateral strength alone does not develop the stability required. Split squats, single-leg hinges and step-ups belong in every programme.

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Building a camp backwards from the date

The most common structural error in fight camps is that everything increases at once. Skill volume rises, sparring intensity rises, conditioning intensifies, and weight management begins, all in the same eight weeks. The result is an athlete who peaks in week three of an eight-week camp and arrives flat.

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Structuring a fight camp backwards from the dateFour stacked rows describing the phases of a fight camp, from a general preparation base at the bottom to the taper at the top.Structuring a fight camp backwards from the dateFinal 10 days — taper and sharpenNo new stimulus. Volume falls sharply, intensity is maintained in short doses, sparring reduces tolight technical work. Weight management is finished, not started.Weeks 3 to 5 out — specific preparationFight-simulation rounds, hard sparring, round-specific conditioning. Strength work drops to oneshort maintenance session. This is the highest-risk block for overreaching.Weeks 6 to 9 out — transitionConditioning becomes increasingly sport-specific. Strength volume falls while intensity holds.Skill work moves from technical to tactical and situational.Weeks 10 to 16 out — general preparationThe only window in which physical qualities can genuinely be developed. Heavy strength work,aerobic base building, and technical skill acquisition with low sparring volume.Rising specificityFalling volume

Figure 4. Camps fail more often from accumulation than from insufficient work. Each phase should remove something as it adds something.

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The organising principle is that each phase should remove something as it adds something. When sparring intensity rises, strength volume falls. When fight simulations begin, aerobic development work reduces. When the taper starts, everything reduces except sleep.

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1. Weeks 10 to 16 out: Develop physical qualities. Heavy strength, aerobic base, technical skill work. Low sparring volume.
2. Weeks 6 to 9 out: Transition. Conditioning becomes specific, strength volume falls while intensity holds, tactical skill work increases.
3. Weeks 3 to 5 out: Specific preparation. Hard sparring and fight simulations dominate. One maintenance strength session. Highest injury and overreaching risk in the camp.
4. Final 10 days: Taper. Sharp, short, low volume. No new stimulus of any kind. Weight is already made or nearly made.

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A camp does not build fitness. It expresses and sharpens fitness that was built earlier. A fighter who arrives at camp unfit will finish it tired rather than prepared, and the eight weeks are not long enough to change that.

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Weight cutting and sparring: The two real risks

These deserve to be addressed directly rather than left implicit, because they are where combat sports culture creates most of its avoidable harm.

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Acute weight cutting through dehydration impairs strength, power, cognition and thermoregulation, and there is a plausible mechanism by which reduced cerebrospinal fluid volume increases vulnerability to head impact (Franchini et al., 2012). Large cuts also compress the rehydration window, and full recovery of plasma volume and muscle glycogen within twenty-four hours is not always achievable (Barley et al., 2019).

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• Manage body composition across the year rather than in the final weeks of camp.
• Choose a division based on realistic off-season weight, not the lowest number ever achieved.
• Keep any final acute reduction small and supervised by qualified professionals.
• Treat repeated large cuts as a signal to change division rather than as evidence of toughness.

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Sparring volume is the largest modifiable contributor to cumulative head impact exposure in combat sports. The evidence connecting repetitive head impacts to long-term neurological consequences is serious enough that reducing unnecessary exposure is a straightforward decision, and it does not require certainty about individual risk to justify.

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• Distinguish hard sparring from technical sparring and log both separately.
• Cap hard sparring rounds per week and per camp, and hold to the cap.
• Use positional sparring, drilling and situational work to develop timing without full-contact exposure.
• Remove an athlete from contact immediately after any suspected concussion and follow a supervised return protocol.

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Neither of these adjustments makes a fighter softer. Both make them more likely to be available, healthy and performing well over a career rather than for a single camp.

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A general preparation week

This is the phase where physical qualities are actually built, and the only phase where a coach has room to work. It assumes an athlete outside of camp with no fight booked.

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• Monday: Striking session, then strength session A. Both hard, same day.
• Tuesday: Grappling technical session, then aerobic development ride of 45 minutes.
• Wednesday: Wrestling session, then repeat-effort conditioning, 2 sets of 8 by 10 seconds.
• Thursday: Low day. Mobility, neck work, grip work, easy aerobic session.
• Friday: Striking session, then strength session B.
• Saturday: Positional sparring at controlled intensity, then aerobic power intervals.
• Sunday: Complete rest.

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What each element in the week is doing

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• Striking session with strength session A on the same day (Monday). Hard qualities are deliberately stacked so the following day can be genuinely easy. Splitting hard work across every day is what produces the flat, permanently tired combat athlete.
• Strength session A, heavy lower body and rotational throws. Heavy lower-body work builds the force reserve behind takedowns and stance changes. Rotational throws express that force at the velocity striking actually uses.
• Grappling technical session (Tuesday). Skill acquisition at controlled intensity, which is where technique is actually built rather than tested.
• Aerobic development ride of 45 minutes. Raises the aerobic base that determines how fast the athlete recovers between exchanges and between rounds. Continuous low-intensity work does this with minimal interference to strength.
• Wrestling session (Wednesday). Loads the grappling-specific strength-endurance qualities that no gym exercise reproduces.
• Repeat-effort conditioning, 2 sets of 8 by 10 seconds. Trains the ability to produce near-maximal efforts repeatedly with incomplete recovery, which is the physiological signature of a competitive round (Del Vecchio, 2011).
• Mobility, neck work, grip work, easy aerobic session (Thursday). Neck strength is a concussion-risk and clinch-control quality. Grip work underpins control in grappling. Both are trainable on a low day because their fatigue cost is local rather than systemic.
• Striking session with strength session B (Friday). The second hard stack of the week. Session B rotates the emphasis so that neither the upper nor the lower body accumulates unrecovered load.
• Positional sparring at controlled intensity (Saturday). Rehearses decision-making under pressure in specific positions without the whole-body cost and injury risk of open sparring.
• Aerobic power intervals. Develop the upper end of the aerobic system, which sets how much of a hard round can be paid for aerobically rather than anaerobically.
• Complete rest (Sunday). The week contains four hard exposures. Without one full day of no training, skill quality and strength both regress within a few weeks.

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What changes in camp

• Strength drops from two sessions to one, kept heavy and very short.
• Aerobic development drops to one maintenance session.
• Repeat-effort work is replaced by fight simulations and hard positional rounds.
• Grip and neck work continue, since they cost little and matter throughout.
• The low day stays. It is the first thing cut and the last thing that should be.

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How to tell the week is too much

Objective markers beat feel, because fighters are unusually poor at self-reporting fatigue. Track a few things consistently and act on them.

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1. Morning body mass trending down unintentionally over a week or more.
2. Countermovement jump height falling by more than five per cent from baseline.
3. Resting heart rate elevated by more than five beats for several consecutive mornings.
4. Grip strength dropping, which in grapplers is often the earliest measurable sign.
5. Sleep quality deteriorating, and irritability rising, both of which precede most performance decrements.

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Any two of these together for more than a few days means the week is too much. The correct response is to reduce volume, not to add a recovery modality on top of an unchanged load.

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Sport applications

Wrestling-based fighters typically need more attention to striking-specific rate of force development and to the aerobic base, since wrestling culture tends to produce high glycolytic tolerance and lower aerobic capacity.

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Striking-based fighters usually need more maximal strength and isometric endurance to survive the clinch and control positions, which is a different demand from anything their base discipline trained.

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Grappling specialists in Brazilian jiu-jitsu need the most grip and isometric endurance work of any combat athlete, and often the least ballistic power work.

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Amateur competitors on shorter formats face a demand profile weighted more towards repeat-effort capacity and less towards the fifth-round aerobic problem.

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Athletes competing frequently on short notice cannot rely on camp structure at all, and must maintain a much higher baseline of physical preparation year-round.

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Common mistakes

• Treating all conditioning as one quality. A fighter who loses the clinch and one who fades in round four have different problems needing different work. Diagnose the phase before prescribing.
• Building fitness during camp. Camp expresses fitness, it does not build it. Trying to develop physical qualities in the eight weeks before a fight produces fatigue, not adaptation.
• Skipping aerobic work because it does not feel like fighting. The aerobic system powers recovery between exchanges. It is the least sport-like and most important component of combat conditioning.
• Adding without removing. Every camp adds sparring, conditioning and weight management simultaneously. Something must come out each time something goes in.
• Running mixed circuits as the main conditioning method. Hard to progress, hard to measure, and rarely load any one system enough to drive adaptation because the limiting factor keeps changing.
• Neglecting grip until it fails. Grip endurance is frequently the first thing to go in a grappling exchange and one of the least trained qualities in the sport.
• Cutting large amounts of weight acutely. It impairs performance, compromises recovery, and carries genuine health risk. Manage composition across the year instead.
• Uncapped hard sparring. It is the largest modifiable contributor to cumulative head impact exposure, and much of the timing benefit can be obtained through positional and technical work.

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Coaching cues

• "Breathe through the position" for clinch and control conditioning.
• "Recover between, not during" to frame the repeat-effort quality.
• "Heavy and short" as the rule for camp strength sessions.
• "Pull twice as much as you push" for shoulder health.
• "Grip is a skill and a tissue" when adding forearm work.
• "Hard days hard, easy days easy" to stop the week collapsing into uniform moderate fatigue.
• "Nothing new in the last ten days."
• "If you are making weight in fight week, you picked the wrong division."

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FAQs

Why do fighters gas even when they run a lot?

Because running builds the aerobic base but does little for repeat-effort capacity, and because gassing is usually a recovery-interval problem rather than a continuous-endurance problem. The fighter needs to recharge between exchanges quickly, which requires aerobic capacity, and also needs to tolerate consecutive maximal efforts, which requires specific repeat-effort work. Roadwork alone addresses one half.

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How many strength sessions should an MMA athlete do?

Two per week during general preparation and one during camp, each around forty-five minutes. More than that competes with skill work and recovery. The sessions should be heavy and low in volume rather than moderate and long.

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Does lifting weights interfere with conditioning?

There is genuine interference between concurrent strength and endurance training, but it is asymmetric: Endurance work blunts strength adaptation more than the reverse. Separate the modalities in time where possible, keep strength heavy and brief, prioritise one quality per block, and accept maintenance for the other.

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What is the best conditioning method for MMA?

There is no single best method, but the most commonly missing one is straightforward aerobic development at conversational intensity. It is the least sport-like component and it underpins everything else. Add repeat-effort intervals and live positional rounds on top of that base rather than instead of it.

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Should I train grip separately?

Yes, but during general preparation rather than camp, and cautiously. Grip endurance often fails before other qualities in grappling, yet grapplers already load the forearms heavily and elbow tendinopathy is common. Add sustained holds and carries in the base phase, then maintain rather than develop once training volume rises.

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How much sparring is too much?

There is no universal number, but hard sparring should be capped deliberately and logged separately from technical sparring. Much of the timing and reading benefit can be developed through positional sparring and drilling at lower contact intensity. Reducing unnecessary head impact exposure is one of the few decisions in the sport with no performance downside.

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Is it possible to cut weight safely?

Small acute reductions managed by qualified professionals, on top of chronic body composition management, carry much lower risk than large last-minute cuts. Large acute dehydration impairs performance and carries real health risks. If a fighter is repeatedly making large cuts, the correct answer is a different division.

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How long should a fight camp be?

Typically eight to ten weeks, but the length matters less than what precedes it. A camp sharpens and specifies existing fitness. An athlete who maintains a good baseline year-round can prepare in six weeks; one who does not will not be ready in twelve.

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Recommended videos

Each video below was chosen because it covers a specific part of this article in more depth than text alone allows.

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Related reading on FitXplor

• 3.15 Boxing Performance
• 1.4 Exercise Physiology and Energy Systems
• 2.2 Maximum Strength Development
• 2.3 Relative Strength and Power-to-Weight Ratio
• 3.12 Medicine Ball and Ballistic Training
• 1.7 Recovery Science and Adaptation
• 4.7 The Spine and Core: Bracing, Stiffness, and Force Transfer
• 4.8 The Wrist, Elbow, and Grip

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References

James, L.P. et al. (2016). Physiological qualities and performance in mixed martial arts. Sports Medicine.

Del Vecchio, F.B. et al. (2011). Analysis of time-motion and technical actions in mixed martial arts. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Kirk, C., Clark, D.R., Langan-Evans, C. (2020). The physical demands of mixed martial arts: a narrative review. European Journal of Sport Science.

Hickson, R.C. (1980). Interference of strength development by simultaneously training for strength and endurance. European Journal of Applied Physiology.

Wilson, J.M. et al. (2012). Concurrent training: a meta-analysis examining interference of aerobic and resistance exercise. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Tomlin, D.L., Wenger, H.A. (2001). The relationship between aerobic fitness and recovery from high intensity intermittent exercise. Sports Medicine.

Franchini, E., Brito, C.J., Artioli, G.G. (2012). Weight loss in combat sports: physiological, psychological and performance effects. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

Barley, O.R., Chapman, D.W., Abbiss, C.R. (2019). The current state of weight-cutting in combat sports. Sports.

Bahr, R. et al. (2015). International Olympic Committee consensus statement on methods for recording and reporting of epidemiological data on injury and illness in sport. British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Lystad, R.P., Gregory, K., Wilson, J. (2014). The epidemiology of injuries in mixed martial arts. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine.

Bishop, D., Girard, O., Mendez-Villanueva, A. (2011). Repeated-sprint ability part II: recommendations for training. Sports Medicine.

Buchheit, M., Laursen, P.B. (2013). High-intensity interval training, solutions to the programming puzzle. Sports Medicine.