This post is excerpted from the June/July 2014 issue of UFC Magazine. Click here to subscribe!
If you can’t do 12 controlled chest-to-the-ground push-ups, start there. Then level up to push-up chest touches on a Smith machine. Set the bar to a height that allows you to execute 20 reps. From a push-up position, lower your body to the bar until it touches your chest, and then push yourself away from the bar as rapidly as you can, attempting to create as much distance as possible between your hands and the bar. Regrab the bar and repeat.
Rest for five days and then go at it again. This time set the bar to a lower height; continue in this fashion until you’re capable of doing explosive push-ups from the floor. When you feel you’re ready, add a clap at the peak of the movement.
“Incorporate supersets of bench presses and medicine-ball push passes into your chest workouts as well,” Soszynski suggests. “Aim at a specific target on the wall and do four to five sets with a 12-pound medicine ball.”
The Program
Chest Fly
Sets: 4
Reps: 12, 10, 8, 6
Bench Press
Sets: 4
Reps: 12, 10, 8, 6
Superset
Medicine-Ball Push Pass
Sets: 4
Reps: 20, 20,15, 15
As a former competitor in the Octagon and creator of the KSOS fitness system, Krzysztof Soszynski knows firsthand what it takes to get in shape. Schedule a workout with him at UFC Gym Torrance and follow him on Twitter @KSOSufc.
