Fighting fit cardio?

**PhilipOs** · Posted On: 1/30/2007 3:04am

I have a question for all the fighters on this forum. I am going to do my first fight and im training all the time at the gym and all the rest.

My question is how good should a fighters cardio be when it comes time to fight. Do you run everyday? Do you do more than running? I go for about a 40min run with 5 sprints of a rugby field eveyday. I have been doing this for about a week its good, but does anyone do anything else aswell as running?

Thanks
Phil

**alex** · Posted On: 1/30/2007 3:36am

focus more on training. to be honest i think the old running gig is an ineffective method, if you really push yourself while you are training you can get the same results. 40 minutes a day sounds over the top tbh and i doubt you are doing real sprint interval training if you are going for 40 minutes a pop

as to how "good" your cardio should be, well it should be pretty damn good if that answers your question ;) the big problem comes with whether you have a huge adrenalin dump and enter the rnig already exhausted or not. try not to do this.

**Asriel** · Posted On: 1/30/2007 4:11am

I agree with Alex to a point. If you REALLY push yourself in your training then you should be getting a better carido workout than normal jogging. It is a good idea to do proper sprint training however for those burts of energy.

**alex** · Posted On: 1/30/2007 4:16am

yes in my retarded way i made it sound like i think wind sprints are bad. we do wind sprints every weekend- i mean running, like the old 5 mile in the morning etc, is crap.

**Buffman** · Posted On: 1/30/2007 7:28am

Check out this article.

http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50339

If you're fighting 2 min rounds with 1 minute break, or 3 min rounds with 2 minute break modify the protocols.

Long runs are great if you need to lose fat or get good at doing long endurance events .... not if you want to fight

**PhilipOs** · Posted On: 1/31/2007 3:57am

Well thats all good news for me becuase I fuckin hate long runs. Thanks for all the info and advice guys.

**TheCount** · Posted On: 1/31/2007 2:24pm

Fight wise I would say you want to do a single distance workout for general endurance but ideally HIIT the rest of the time. This doing sprints or rowing will get you sorted... its more applicable to a fight I personally think.

**Arbiter** · Posted On: 1/31/2007 3:23pm

I also think it is a waste of time... the longer jogging part of it, not the sprints. If you go for a run make it shorter and fast, a real fast run maybe 2 or 3 miles max with wind sprint intervals the whole time, working on recovery and gassing yourself. you could also do this on a treadmill or in other ways, obviously lots of sparring like they said. And do longer rounds than you will have to fight, with less recovery time.

All long roadwork will do for you is burn some extra calories if you are trying to lose weight (but even then there are better ways to do this) and give you some really bad shin splints.... Repetitve pounding on pavement is not good, so unless youre are already a long distance runner (which most fighters arent; time constraints), then your legs will not be to this. Worst thing you can do is injure your legs ramping up quickly doing an excercise youre not used to and that can give you shin splints. You could burn the same or more calories in the gym or doing shorter more relavent sprints. Shin splints suck you don't want to mess with them, can be terribly counter productive and screw up your footwork and kicks, they hurt like hell and take a while to heal, could throw your whole game off for the fight.