You could consider building a home gym for several reasons, ranging from a tight daily schedule to convenience and accessibility.

With a home gym geared towards MMA, you could train at your own pace without worrying about others. And since there is no queue in a home MMA gym, you can plan it accordingly and train to your heart’s content.

The trouble is, for beginners in particular, judging what equipment you should procure can take a lot of work. After all, everyone requires a different level of training and a unique approach to their eventual training goals. The key to building an MMA gym is to design it practically, with a complete action plan ready to go for it.

Let’s look at what you’ll need to build a custom MMA gym and a brief overview of how to set it all up. Learn how to start your journey to joining the MMA fighters community!

Why Build Your Own MMA Gym

Imagine this: you wake up in the morning, get in your car to go to the gym and are immediately greeted by the office-going traffic. Not only does this interrupt your time, but it can also make your daily schedule extremely turbulent. This scenario should be avoided, especially if the nearest gym is not within a kilometre or two.

Moreover, you will be racking up expenses incurred from a gym membership year after year. Plus, there is no guarantee of getting access to the workout implement you need if others use it during your gym visit.

And since most office workers have broadly the same schedule, you’ll find that gyms can become extremely overcrowded at certain times of the day. A gym sees the highest turnout early in the morning and around 8 pm at night.

By setting up a home mixed martial arts gym, you’ll avoid all of these pratfalls associated with a typical gym membership. When you reach home, you can change into a workout outfit and start working out immediately, saving valuable time.

Home gyms are a one-time investment that pays massive dividends in the long run. If you’re looking to commit to a workout routine for the long haul, a home MMA gym is the way to go.

Besides, you are guaranteed access to your workout implements at any time of the day. There is no crowd to worry about, so you can train whenever you want for as long as needed.

What You Need For An MMA Gym

The equipment for a home MMA gym can be categorised into two types: pre-workout equipment and core workout equipment. 

Both of these equipment types serve a distinct purpose, with the former acting as a warm-up session that primes you up for the core workout. After all, with a proper warm-up, you may be more relaxed to train effectively. And avoiding injuries during the core workout is important to maintain steady strength and agility growth while training.

Let’s look at both types of equipment in detail and what you can do with them:

1. Pre-Workout Equipment

Pre-workout equipment is typically much simpler than core workout tools, as they are designed to get your blood flowing and keep you flexible. So, you will find plenty of workout implements geared towards stretching your muscles, like jump ropes, floor mats and foam rollers.

You can start by adding a jumping rope like the Venum Challenger Speed Jump Rope to your home MMA gym setup. Being one of the easiest and most effective warm-up tools, a jump rope can give you a thorough cardio workout. The floor space it takes is minimal at most, leaving adequate space for arranging the other workout tools.

Next comes one of the most important additions to the home mixed martial arts gym: an exercise mat. The primary purpose of exercise mats or kickboxing floor mats is to cushion any impact you may sustain while exercising. Jumping, falling, practising MMA moves and stretching can all be performed safely on an exercise mat.

And lastly, consider using a foam roller to stretch your legs as a part of your pre and post-workout sessions. This can help you stretch your muscles and prevent injuries during an intense exercise session.

2. Core Workout Equipment

Core workout equipment is where the bulk of your training will be. The initial heavy equipment list for a home MMA gym will be rather small, but you can continuously add to it over time as necessary. For starters, keep punching bags, boxing gloves and a training dummy in the mixed martial arts gym.

When creating an MMA workout plan, you will need to focus on three primary skills: striking, grappling and submission. To develop these skills, you will need to improve your strength, agility and technique.

A. Punching Bags

What better way to build strength than to punch a bag with all your might? To develop your skills in mixed martial arts, consider having a few punching bag options in your home gym.

A reflex bag can improve your reaction times and hand-eye coordination, which is necessary for landing critical strikes in the heat of an MMA match.

Reflex bags like the Shinobi Cyclone Freestanding Bag are small punching bags mounted atop a flexible spring with a heavy base that keeps the bag steady. And for being such an important part of your training, it takes up very little living space, making it quite convenient.

Next, you may add a heavy bag to build strength in several muscle groups in your upper and lower body. The muscles in your arms, shoulders, back, chest, and legs are engaged while practising with it, making it an effective tool for a full-body workout.

And lastly, you can add a speed bag to improve the speed of your strikes. You can train your hands, arms, shoulders and upper body reflexes while building your accuracy, power and footwork.

B. Boxing Or MMA Gloves

Even while training, bare-knuckled punching is a bad idea. While hand wraps can protect your hands to a certain extent, they may not be enough.

Punching bags are not particularly soft, and during prolonged MMA workouts, striking these heavy bags can potentially cause a boxer’s fracture. And once you fracture your knuckles, it will take several weeks to recover fully. During this time, your hand will need to remain mostly restricted in a brace.

You can rely on MMA training gloves to reduce the striking impact while keeping your knuckles safe from potential fractures. With gloves like the Fairtex Super Sparring Grappling Gloves, you can practise grabs and clinches further to hone your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai techniques.

C. Training Dummy

Knowing how to grapple your opponent and put them in a submission lock is important for mixed martial arts bouts. And just like punching bags, you can have several types of dummies, like a grappling dummy, to train for a specific technique.

Additionally, you can use a training dummy for honing your striking prowess, making them a highly versatile addition to an MMA home gym.

Setting It All Up

Now, the basic setup discussed above will not take up much space. A 10 x 10 sq ft. room like a garage, back porch, or spare room can have enough space to facilitate all aspects of MMA training.

While placing all the equipment, you must ensure adequate spare room between them. That way, you won’t accidentally strike or step on another piece of equipment, which can either lead to injury or an interrupted training flow.

To do so, consider mapping out your mixed martial arts gym on paper before setting it all up. With the exact measurements of your martial arts training space, you can figure out where to place each training tool. That way, you can avoid any restrictions on your training.

Building Your Own MMA Gym At Home

Building an effective MMA gym has a host of benefits that can further enhance your workout experience. You can make the most of regular training sessions by approaching your gym setup practically and with good planning.

And for fruitful training sessions, you’ll need the right equipment to train your speed, strength, coordination and techniques. Choosing your workout tools based on durability, quality, price, and the scope of exercise can broaden the scope of your fighting ability.

So, if you’re looking for quality equipment, visit a reputed fight gear and professional training equipment store like MMA Factory. At MMA Factory, you’ll find everything needed to embark on your journey to be a great MMA fighter. So, visit our website today for high-quality and fairly-priced MMA training equipment!