Ronda Rousey Gets in Fighting Shape with 6-Hour Gym Sessions! Her Trainer Breaks Down Her Intense Workout

Becoming a champion fighter requires a lot of time in the gym.

"The key to success is long hours, instead of just coming in the gym and getting a quick workout," Ronda Rousey's trainer Edmond Tarverdyan tells PEOPLE.

When Rousey is training for a fight, she meets with Tarverdyan for up to six hours a day, six days a week, where she goes through strength and conditioning training as well as boxing conditioning.

Tarverdyan, a Reebok partner and owner/head trainer at Glendale Fighting Club, breaks down exactly how Rousey gets in fighting shape:



A typical workout begins with stretching. Rousey often uses a long stick to help maintain posture and improve balance during stretches.

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"You're stretching out your hips, shoulders, knees," says Tarverdyan. "You're getting a nice warm-up before throwing any punches so you'll be nice and warm to prevent injuries."

Next Rousey – who is the star of Reebok's #PerfectNever campaign – skips rope for 10 minutes to get her heart rate up.

Once she's warmed up, Rousey does 10 to 12 rounds of bag work. Tarverdyan is a fan of bag drops – circling around the bag while punching, changing directions every minute-and-a-half.

"It's important to keep that intensity and that consistency," he says. "To be a professional fighter, you want to be able to punch non-stop."

Next, Rousey will do mitt work in the ring – throwing punches in various combinations into Tarverdyan's mitts. She typically does 10 to 15 rounds of three to five minutes each, but sometimes will do an hour of mitt work without any rests!

"When you learn how to throw a punch you're throwing it with your whole body – your hips, your shoulders, your core is tight," says Tarverdyan. "You're engaging maximum focus, maximum speed, maximum power."

Surprisingly, no heavy weights are incorporated into her routine. Rousey works with 2-lb. dumbbells to do a series of arm exercises, including uppercuts, straight punches, high punches, tricep curls and shadowboxing.

"It's not much weight so you're not going to get so muscular, but you're going to get toned," explains Tarverdyan. "You're conditioning your body."

Rousey finishes her workout with ab work – sometimes doing up to 2,000 crunches per session.

"Abs you can do as much as you want," says Tarverdyan. "She keeps the intensity very high!"