28 May Knee Strengthening And Rehabilitation Exercises for MMA Fighters

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is one of the most dangerous and physically demanding sports of our time. Fighters, like the ones we see competing in the UFC, need to be extremely resilient and physically fit to practice and perform effectively. While the sport involves the entire body, one particular joint that takes a lot of heat is the knees.

In this article, we’re going into detail about why some knee strength and rehabilitation exercises should be a part of your training regime as an MMA fighter. Let’s begin.

What Knee Health Means for MMA Fighters

The knees are equally essential for us all — athlete or not. It’s the single most important joint for basic mobility. But, for MMA practitioners, it means much more than that. Due to the dynamic nature of the sport, the knees go through immense strain during training and fights. From kicking, takedowns, and submission defense, the knees do the heavy lifting for it all. To make matters worse, a “leg kick” to the knee can sometimes be enough to cause a fracture then and there.

With all that in mind, it makes sense that ligament tears, strains, and knee sprains aren’t uncommon in this sport. Problems usually stem from insufficient rest or overuse, conditioning, poor technique, or just bad luck (for example if you’re fighting Justin Gaethje, the meanest leg-kicker).

Your best bet against these risk factors is to build and maintain optimal knee health all year round. Have a proactive approach by incorporating knee rehab and strengthening exercises. Even if your knees aren’t injured, they can still be inflamed or overworked, so some rehabilitation movements could go a long way.

Strengthen Your Foundation

Since the knee is a joint, the only way to fortify it is to strengthen the muscles that surround and support it. These are your hamstrings, quads, calves, and then stabilizing muscles to prevent injury and maintain stability.

Let’s go over some exercises that can strengthen each of these muscle groups.

Hamstring

• Romanian deadlifts and Swiss ball leg curls are great tools for building hamstring conditioning. All these movements involve challenging eccentric control which is ideal for developing your balance and stability.
• Machine leg curls and deadlifts are also excellent tools to directly target your hamstrings. Do these regularly to avoid building imbalances between your quadriceps and hamstring muscles.

Quadriceps

• Quads are responsible for extending your knees. Enhancing the endurance and strength of your quads can do wonders for knee injury prevention.

Strengthening exercises that directly target them include lunges, leg presses, squats, and of course, seated leg extensions. Putting some miles on the seated exercise bike will also strengthen your quads.

• To promote stability, consider exercises that involve your quads while keeping the joint still. One such example would be wall sits.

Calves

• Calves also play a crucial role in supporting your knee movement so throwing some box jumps and calf raises in your leg day is a great idea. All that calf strength also helps in explosive movements associated with MMA such as being quick on your toes, jumps, and kicks.

Stability Exercises

• To build stability, resorting to single-leg exercises works best. Movements like Bulgarian split squats or single-leg squats challenge your ability to balance yourself while pushing weight, somewhat mimicking what your body experiences during MMA.
• The Bosu ball is also a great tool to develop your balance. It challenges one’s proprioception, which is a key skill for any MMA fighter.

Rehabilitation Exercises

So far, we’ve gone over exercises that strengthen the muscles around your knee to prevent injuries and fortify the joint. But, what if you’ve already sustained an injury? Depending on the severity, your mobility may be severely compromised. Your MMA practice may be cut down or at a complete halt until the joint recovers. Since that’s not ideal for any fighter’s career, here are some rehabilitation exercises that can accelerate the recovery by miles.

ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) Rehabilitation:

• Step-ups and mini-squats can help increase mobility in your knee. Aim to do these exercises with a much smaller range of motion while still maintaining perfect form.
• You can also talk to your concerned physiotherapist about including terminal knee extensions and straight leg raises in your regimen to boost recovery by strengthening your quadriceps while putting minimal stress on the injured knee joint.

LCL (Lateral Collateral Ligament) and MCL (Medial Collateral Ligament) Rehabilitation:

• Controlled side-to-side movements with weights or resistance bands can rebuild the lateral stability of your knees.
• Perform exercises that directly target the muscles supporting the LCL and MCL. Side-lying leg lifts would be a primary example.

Meniscus Tear Rehabilitation

• Seated leg extensions directly aid meniscus rehab as they bring back the control in your knee movements over a large range of motion. It’s also convenient to adjust the resistance level on this exercise as required, which helps when you’re recovering from an injury.
• Light-weight leg presses and partial squats can also rebuild knee strength and maintain lower body muscles without putting too much strain on the injured meniscus.

Injury Prevention Tips

Having gone over strengthening and rehabilitation exercises to look after your knee’s well-being, let’s now look at some key injury prevention tips.

• Make sure you’re warming up and cooling down adequately before and after your MMA training sessions or workouts. Get some blood flow going before you expose your joints to the demands of this high-intensity sport.
• Static stretching and foam rolling after the sessions can also help post-onset muscle soreness. The healthier the supporting muscles, the safer your knee will be. 
• Cross-training is another excellent tool to prevent overuse of any joint, switching up the type of stress you expose your joints to. You could do so by including different types of workouts in your regimen like cycling, swimming, or even yoga.
• Prioritize proper technique and safe sparring practices in the gym. Technical and controlled sparring will sharpen your skills, while a voluminous session with improper technique will only expose you to higher injury risks.
• Have regular consultations and check-ups with healthcare professionals to make sure everything’s working as it should. Doctors can highlight issues before they come to the surface, allowing you to correct your mistakes before the body even sustains an injury.

Summary

As an MMA fighter, you put your joints through hell during matches and training. While no joint is safe, the knees in particular are highly susceptible to injuries. Hence, knee rehabilitation and strengthening exercises can be a game-changer for optimal performance, injury prevention, and also recovery. This article has shed light on some key tips to help you recover from and prevent knee injuries, propelling you toward a healthy and successful MMA career. All the best!

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Last Updated on May 28, 2024 by Marie Benz MD FAAD