UFC star Holly Holm is feeling emotional after her bout with Kayla Harrison. Holm, 42, admits she wasn’t at her best during the April 13 fight, and told fans how she felt during an Instagram video of herself wearing a black tank top which showed off her powerful shoulders. “A little broken hearted but never broken. These are the moments we dream of etching in our legacy, a dream I failed to reach. Thank you all for the love. ❤️,” she captioned the post. Here’s how this MMA icon stays focused and fit.
Holms works hard during the week, mixing up training and workouts. “Monday through Friday every morning we have class and it’s intense,” she told Muscle & Fitness. “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. 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.”
Holm stays grounded by focusing on her family and always striving to learn more. “I have a different perspective on who I am in MMA,” she told Oxygen. “I don’t like to think of it like that — I just try to be my best with all aspects of my life. With my husband, my family, my sport, my fans, my sponsors. I simply try to be the best I can be and always try to learn more.”
Holm does distance running to keep her weight down and to keep moving, she says. “I go back to either jiu-jitsu or wrestling at night Monday through Thursday,” she told Muscle & Fitness. “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. 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.”
Holm has a quality protein like chicken or fish before a fight. “I always have sweet potatoes,” she told Muscle & Fitness. “I might have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I might have trail mix. I like to have light proteins and good carbs. I might have some fruits. I don’t want to only do fruit because the sugar doesn’t last with you as long. I feel good when I have a good sweet potato, and nut butters and honey. I snack on stuff the whole time I’m in the locker room. I don’t want to be too full and have too much at one time, so I’ll eat little bites here and there, all the way up until about 30 to 45 minutes before the fight.”
Holm is a philanthropist who donates her time hosting events for up-and-comers. “People ask about the new up-and-comers, like they’re hungry. Well, so am I,” she told KRQE. “I still am. The day that I don’t feel that hungry is the day I will retire. It’s life changing, their health, their confidence, even just how they communicate, everything. It’s like, you see them completely transform into the better version that they can be and in turn, they also, very much, inspire me.”