What are the best exercise routines for MMA take downs?
Hi, Gus, there are a couple of routes you can take with this kind of question. If you are currently training in a martial-art class, doing the take downs with a partner and drilling back and forth is one good way to get the movement and the skills down to perfection. But if we are talking about “exercises” to do for take downs, the list can be long. If you are doing a take down from the upper body, I would make sure your lats are in good shape by doing pull-ups, rows, and standing rows with rotation are effective. The abdominals, obliques, spinal muscles and glutes are going to help you manipulate your opponent’s weight, so I would be doing Standing Trunk Rotations with a cable, start out slow and controlled and then speed things up a bit when you get the hang of the movement.
I would also train the lower body just as much if you are doing takedowns from the legs. Lunges, Squats, Glute Lifts, eventually plyometric squats, (jump-squats), as long as you don’t have any joint issues. Work on strengthening your hips, (outer hip muscles as well as inner thigh muscles), glutes and hamstrings, etc…
Any exercise done with control and good effort from the muscle(s) can deliver results in increase of strength and as long as you got the skills and movements of your take downs, you should be ahead in the match.