2 Day Full Body Workout – 5x5 for MMA and Combat Sports

2 day full body workout for people whose main training happens on the mat, in the ring or on the field: two short barbell sessions a week, five sets of five on the lifts that matter, and steady weight increases without the fatigue of a three- or four-day lifting program. Hardy tracks every set for you: log your reps, and the app raises or lowers your working weights automatically according to the rules below, so you never touch a spreadsheet.

This is 5x5 for MMA, BJJ, wrestling and other combat sports: the StrongLifts A/B built on Bill Starr's 5×5, run on two fixed days as BJJEE recommends for grapplers, so strength training for MMA or BJJ stops competing with skill work.

Weekly structure

Lift on two days with at least two days between them, for example Monday and Thursday, and keep sparring or hard conditioning off the lifting days when you can. It is a 2 day split in the simplest sense: the same two full-body sessions every week.

• Workout A: squat 5×5, bench press 5×5, barbell row 5×5
• Workout B: squat 5×5, overhead press 5×5, deadlift 1×5

Each session takes 45–60 minutes. Rest 3 minutes between sets, more if the last set was a grind.

Progression

Each lift has its own working weight. Every time you complete all the reps it goes up next session: 2.5 kg (5 lb) on squat, bench, press and row, 5 kg (10 lb) on the deadlift. Because each lift comes round once or twice a week, progress is slower than on the 3 day 5x5 workout but far easier to recover from alongside a fight camp. Fail the same weight three sessions in a row and it drops 10%.

Tips

• Start lighter than you think; strength work should leave you fresh for skill sessions.
• During a fight camp cut every lift to 3×5 at the same weight. Hardy counts a session with skipped sets as a miss, so after three camp sessions it will propose a 10% drop; discard it on the review screen and carry on.
• If your sport already has heavy pulling (wrestling, judo), swap the barbell row for chin-ups and progress them by reps.
• Fighters who already have a strength base can move on to 5/3/1 for MMA & Combat Sports, the two-day 5/3/1 in Hardy.