Holly Holm, a celebrated fighter in MMA, first gained global recognition with her fight against Ronda Rousey, solidifying her place as a top competitor. Known for her intense training regime and relentless dedication, Holm recently shared a snapshot from a mountain run on her Instagram, where she looked powerful and focused in her pink workout gear. Captioning the post “5 miles,” Holm continues to showcase the fitness routines that keep her at the top of her game. From her rigorous training camps to diverse fitness classes, Holm follows a multifaceted approach to health and wellness. Here’s a glimpse into how she maintains her fierce form, prepares for fights, and stays mentally and physically resilient.
As you can see from her Instagram post, Holm likes to run to stay in shape. She also talked about this to Muscle and Fitness. “Other than that I run five days a week, with Saturday’s sprint run being one of them. Monday through Friday four out of the five days I’m running distance as well…Saturday I just run. The other runs I’m going slowly. I’m not training to be a runner; I’m training to be a fighter. When I sprint run, I go as hard as I can. When I do distance runs I don’t care how fast I go. I do it to keep moving, keep the weight coming down and just kinda cruise.“
Holm shared some of her favorite workouts with Muscle and Fitness. She revealed that she goes to fitness classes five days a week. “Monday through Friday every morning we have class and it’s intense,” Holm says. “They’re pretty hardcore workouts. Monday there’s MMA sparring, Tuesday is sparring, Wednesday is wrestling, Thursday is MMA day, Friday is wrestling, and Saturday I do sprint runs. So that’s just the morning.“
In order to prepare for her fights, Holm does a lot of drills. She shared her favorites in her Muscle and Fitness interview. “I do mitt work three to four times a week. I go back to either jujitsu or wrestling at night Monday through Thursday. I’m working out about four and five hours a day depending [on my schedule]. Sometimes it’s more drilling; sometimes it’s going hard. I usually am doing at least two to three hard workouts and the rest of the time it’s technical drilling.“
When it comes to her upper body, Holm likes to do bodyweight workouts. “I do some strength training, but most of what I do as far as arms is bodyweight,” she told Muscle and Fitness. “I’ll do pull-ups, pushups and dips. Of course with fighting, we’re constantly using our arms punching. In the clench you’re wrestling around with other people so they’re constantly being worked. I don’t ever use really heavy weights with my arms.”
Holm shared how she approaches fights in an interview with Strong Fitness Magazine. “Every fight is different, every fighter is different, every training camp is different. So I try not to compare because sometimes that could set you up for a mental breakdown if you’re thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this isn’t going like it did before!’ I just try to take each day and learn from what I did wrong, try to retain what I did right, keep it one day at a time. Our whole training camp and how overwhelming it is can be too much to handle, so I just take it one day at a time.”