If you're spending your time on the road to get in shape for your fights, you are wasting your time - here's why! Whilst competition and high-intensity technical training like sparring, wrestling or pad work are mostly alactic and glycolytic activities, slower technical drills are often aerobic.
Technical training in heart rate zone 2 and 3 below the ventilatory threshold will build a good aerobic base. Additional technical training at higher heart rates will improve both, your aerobic and anaerobic fitness.
Hours spent running on the road or treadmill would be much better invested into additional technical training, rest and recovery or strength and conditioning.
So stop wasting your time with hours of steady-state cardio. Instead, incorporate High-Intensity Interval Training into your schedule to boost your fitness as a fighter.
High-Intensity Interval Training performed once or twice a week at 85-95% of your maximum heart rate will build sports-specific conditioning by boosting your VO2max and your anaerobic fitness.
Or in other words, it will boost your maximal oxygen uptake at high training intensities and your ability to perform and maintain high-intensity movements.
A meta-analysis from T.D. Scribbands et al. (2016) has revealed that low training doses at higher exercise intensities can achieve similar adaptations in VO2max as higher training doses of lower-intensity endurance training.
Not only do you need to spend more time on low-intensity steady state cardio for the same reward, roadwork is also more taxing on the joints and it often causes delayed onset muscle soreness. Too much of it can make you slower and in hot training environments there is a risk of dehydration and heat stroke.
You can include timed high-intensity sparring or shark tanks in your training - keep in mind, though, that this means less controlled variables and an increased risk of injury. Instead, I'm a big fan of HIIT sessions incorporating weight training and cardio machines. The controlled training setting enables you to push the pace safely.
Here's a HIIT protocol that you can follow:
Incorporate full body exercises to increase the cardiovascular demands of your workouts. Combine multiple exercises in supersets or trisets to mimic the physical and physiological demands of your combat sport.
Aim for a 1-to-2 high-intensity-to-low-intensity ratio within your supersets or trisets. For example, perform a high-intensity movement for 20 seconds followed by 40 seconds of a medium- to low-intensity effort.
Try to stick to a 2-1 to 3-to-1 work-to-rest ratio during your workouts - so going with the previous example: if you exert yourself for 60 seconds, aim for 20-30 seconds of rest.
You can also include sprint intervals or - if you want to go easier on the joints and manage muscle soreness - perform intervals on a cardio machine like the assault bike, ski erg or rower.
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