Last week I passed my test and earned my MMA Conditioning Specialist certification from NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine). This specialty is very exciting for me because of the growing interest in martial arts that exists in the fitness community as well as in myself. For those who don’t know, MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts. The MMA conditioning specialty isn’t a course designed to teach specific martial arts moves but rather the strength and conditioning skills necessary to compete. I am now more qualified to focus on teaching routines that can vastly improve strength, speed, power, flexibility, and endurance. I’m excited to take what I have learned and apply it to Jakes Home Workouts.
I earned this specialty in part because I need to earn a certain amount of continuing education credits for my personal trainer certification. However, I had the choice of several different courses but I chose this one for several reasons. The first being that martial arts are awesome. I like using martial arts in fitness because you can get a great workout and learn a skill. Even though most of us will never use any martial arts moves in the real world or for sport, it’s still good to work on basic self defense skills. And the best part is that it’s a lot of fun!
Even though the specialty doesn’t teach specific fighting movements, it does teach a lot of exercises that help avoid boredom while working out. The high pace high intensity workouts are challenging but fun as well. There are a wide variety of exercises to choose from and they all contribute to increasing functional fitness. Most of the concepts in the MMA conditioning specialist course are very similar to the concepts that I include in Jakes Home Workouts but there are some things that can help to make them even better. So stay tuned in here at Jakes Home Workouts because things are going to get better and better.
