How Strong Do You Really Need to Be for MMA?

One of the questions I get from athletes is some variation of, “How strong do I need to be for MMA?”

It's a reasonable question, but I don't think there is a single number that answers it. There isn't a squat number, bench press number or deadlift number that suddenly makes someone strong enough to be an MMA athlete. Strength matters, and for some athletes it matters a lot, but MMA requires much more than strength. The more useful question is not how strong you can become. It is whether strength is still one of the things limiting your ability to perform.

That distinction is important because I think strength training can easily become an end in itself. You start with the reasonable goal of becoming stronger, you see the numbers going up, you enjoy the feeling of getting stronger, and pretty soon the strength numbers become the goal. There is nothing wrong with enjoying that process. I enjoy lifting. But an MMA athlete isn't training to become a powerlifter. Strength is supposed to help you become a better athlete and a better fighter.

Strength Matters

For a newer athlete, strength can provide an enormous return. If you're generally weak, getting stronger can improve your ability to control positions, resist an opponent, maintain posture, produce force in a takedown, finish a takedown, fight for grips, strike with authority and continue producing force when you're tired. It gives you a larger physical foundation from which to express your technical skills.

This is particularly obvious when you put a relatively inexperienced athlete against someone who is both technically competent and substantially stronger. Strength doesn't replace skill, but it can make the physical demands of learning and applying that skill much easier.

That's why I have no problem telling a developing athlete to get stronger. If you're weak, get stronger. I don't think we need to overcomplicate that.

The question becomes more interesting after you've spent several years doing it.

Strong Enough Is Different From As Strong As Possible

There is a point where an athlete can become strong enough that strength is no longer the biggest thing holding him back. That's where I think a lot of strength programs for combat athletes can lose their way. The athlete gets stronger, so the natural response is to keep getting stronger. The squat goes from 250 to 300, so now the goal is 350. Eventually it's 400. Then 450. The number keeps moving because there is always another number to chase.

But the athlete has other qualities that need attention.

Maybe he has plenty of strength but isn't particularly explosive. Maybe his aerobic conditioning is poor. Maybe he can't repeat hard efforts without his performance falling apart. Maybe he lacks mobility or coordination. Maybe he is strong but doesn't express that strength quickly. Maybe his technical ability is far ahead of his physical preparation, or his physical preparation is far ahead of his ability to use it in MMA.

At some point, another increase in the squat may simply be less valuable than improving one of those other qualities. That's the concept of diminishing returns. Adding fifty pounds to a squat when you're relatively weak can be a significant development. Adding another fifty pounds after you've already become very strong may require considerably more training time and recovery for a much smaller return to your actual sport performance.

The additional strength isn't necessarily useless. It just may not be the best place to spend your resources.

An MMA Athlete Needs More Than Strength

An MMA athlete needs strength, but he also needs power, speed, coordination, mobility, aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, repeat-effort ability and durability. Those qualities interact with one another, and the importance of each one will vary depending on the athlete.

Strength is part of the foundation, but it isn't the entire building.

Think about two fighters. One is extremely strong but lacks power and speed. He has poor aerobic conditioning and falls apart when he has to repeat hard efforts. The other is reasonably strong but has excellent conditioning, movement, power and repeatability.

I wouldn't automatically put both of those athletes on the same strength program. The first athlete may have reached the point where getting even stronger isn't his most important physical need. The second athlete may still have a genuine strength deficit that is limiting everything else he can do.

That's why I don't think good strength and conditioning coaching should begin with the question, “What lift are we trying to improve?”

It should begin with, “What is limiting this athlete?”

The Goal Isn't to Collect Impressive Numbers

There's nothing wrong with being strong. In fact, I like strong athletes. I like lifting heavy things. I like watching an athlete's numbers improve, particularly when you can see that improvement show up somewhere else in his performance.

But a good strength number is only useful if it contributes to the athlete's development.

I've seen athletes become very invested in their lifting numbers because numbers are easy to measure. You can put 315 on the bar and know exactly what happened. It's much harder to quantify whether you're moving better, recovering faster, producing force more quickly or maintaining your technical ability deeper into a hard session.

That creates a temptation to focus on what is easiest to measure rather than what is most important. Strength is particularly vulnerable to this because getting stronger feels like progress. You put more weight on the bar, you lift it, and the number goes up. That's satisfying.

But MMA doesn't care what you can squat if you can't use the physical qualities you've developed when somebody is trying to take your head off.

The purpose of physical preparation is to improve performance, not to produce impressive testing numbers.

There Is a Point Where Strength Becomes Maintenance

For an advanced athlete, I think there is another possibility that doesn't get discussed enough: you may not need to keep getting stronger. You may simply need to stay strong. If an athlete has already developed more than enough strength for his needs, maintaining that strength may require considerably less training than it took to build it. That creates an opportunity to redirect training time and recovery toward qualities that will have a greater effect on performance.

That could mean more power work. It could mean improving aerobic capacity. It could mean developing repeat-effort ability. It could mean addressing mobility, movement quality or durability. It could mean simply spending more time practicing MMA.

This is where individualized programming becomes important.

The strongest athlete in the room doesn't necessarily need the most strength training.

In fact, he may need the least. If strength is already one of his greatest physical qualities, continuing to devote a large percentage of his limited training resources to making it even greater may not make much sense.

The goal isn't to eliminate strength training. The goal is to put it in its proper place.

So How Strong Do You Need to Be?

If you're trying to figure out whether strength is still a major limitation for you, I'd start with a few simple questions.

First, are you actually weak? 

If you struggle with basic strength exercises, have difficulty controlling your own body against resistance, or routinely find that stronger training partners can move and control you largely because of a substantial strength difference, then strength probably deserves more attention. You don't need an elite squat or deadlift to be a good MMA athlete, but there should be a reasonable physical foundation underneath your technique.

Second, does your strength show up in your MMA? 

This is where the question becomes more useful than looking at a number on a barbell. Can you maintain your posture when someone is trying to break it? Can you fight for grips and positions without being physically overwhelmed? Can you finish takedowns when your technique is sound? Can you control an opponent without having to use every ounce of effort available to you? Can you produce force when you're tired? If your strength in the weight room isn't translating into useful physical capacity on the mat or in the cage, getting stronger for the sake of getting stronger may not be the answer.

Third, what happens when you compare your strength to your other physical qualities? 

If you're already one of the strongest athletes in your training group but you're slow, lack power, have poor conditioning or struggle to repeat hard efforts, I would seriously question whether another strength block is the best use of your training time. Conversely, if your conditioning and movement are good but stronger opponents consistently expose a physical weakness, you may have identified a legitimate need for more strength.

Finally, ask yourself what another year of strength training would actually accomplish. 

If you could add 10 percent to your major lifts, would that meaningfully change your MMA performance? Or would the same year spent improving power, conditioning, mobility, movement or technical skill produce a bigger improvement? That's ultimately the question I want an athlete to be able to answer.

You don't need to be the strongest person in the gym. You need to be strong enough that strength isn't what's holding you back.

Strength is a tool. It isn't the destination.

Build enough strength to give yourself a strong physical foundation. Then look honestly at the athlete in front of you and figure out what is actually holding him back. If the answer is strength, get stronger. If it isn't, stop chasing the number and go work on the thing that matters more.