How come fighters can't improve their cardio?

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Sean_wongster_wongmastter

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Just interesting, in most sports you can drastically improve your cardio performance. Yet, when it comes to MMA, it seems if someone has bad cardio, they just continue to have bad cardio.

Not even like moderate amounts of improvement... never figured cardio to be a genetic thing mostly.
 
I think it is genetic and if you are a fast twitch or slow twitch body type. I could never get under 6 minutes for the mile, but could play a whole game of basketball and football. I had a lot of trouble competing in Amateur MMA and wrestling. There is no breaks during the rounds and periods and you only get a short time between rounds and periods. In the other sports above, there are many breaks and timeouts, etc. Plenty of time to recover.
 
ventrue said:
I think it is genetic and if you are a fast twitch or slow twitch body type. I could never get under 6 minutes for the mile, but could play a whole game of basketball and football. I had a lot of trouble competing in Amateur MMA and wrestling. There is no breaks during the rounds and periods and you only get a short time between rounds and periods. In the other sports above, there are many breaks and timeouts, etc. Plenty of time to recover.
Click to expand...
/thread
 
There are as many cases of people who always had bad cardio, as there are cases for fighters that improved their cardio.
- Some went a weight class up or down, less drain -> more cardio
- Some just improved it with hard work
- Some improved their breathing while fighting
- Some are more relaxed or changed their style
- Some added Epo or other Peds

- Some lost cardio due to knee injuries
and so on

Haven't seen Conor do much running, there is a rumor he doesn't have the knees for it.
That's why he is always cycling. Some people just don't get good MMA cardio from cycling.
Should do that bike that has integrated rowing.
 
Some are runners and some are sprinters

For some fighters they don’t have bad cardio but their style is dependent on explosive movements and their gas is then drained faster than a guy with a more measured approach to fighting
 
Harlekin said:
There are as many cases of people who always had bad cardio, as there are cases for fighters that improved their cardio.
- Some went a weight class up or down, less drain -> more cardio
- Some just improved it with hard work
- Some improved their breathing while fighting
- Some are more relaxed or changed their style
- Some added Epo or other Peds

- Some lost cardio due to knee injuries
and so on

Haven't seen Conor do much running, there is a rumor he doesn't have the knees for it.
That's why he is always cycling. Some people just don't get good MMA cardio from cycling.
Should do that bike that has integrated rowing.
Click to expand...

apparently mcgregor spent too much time on his knees backstage with Dana.
 
It’s partly genetic as Firas explains in this video. Running can improve your cardio to a certain degree but a guy like Conor will never have Colby level cardio no matter how much high elevation training he does.

 
Who said cardio can't be improved?

Cejudo had suspect cardio in the beginning of his UFC career. Dude was a different fighter in the third round. Years later he goes 5 rounds with MM without even breathing heavy.

Sterling was also known to fade in fights because of shit cardio. Look at him now.

When BJ put in the work in the gym, his cardio was fine.

Cardio is genetic/gifted, but you can also work for it.
 
scytheavatar said:
Examples of that? Try naming an athlete of any sport with shit cardio at 20 that showed drastically improved cardio latter in his career.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking as well. Don't recall any athletes from other sports (soccer for example) being talked about how they massively improved their cardio. "John Doe used to just play until halftime, but now look at him playing the whole game!"
It's like they pretty much stay the same for most of their careers.

To be fair I remembered one case, but it's like the dude that came from a smaller team with little structure to one of the bigger teams. So he just improved overall, cardio included.
 
Genetics will play a part in defining a cardio ceiling an individual can’t really go past.

But you can improve it. But it’s also not fun, so a lot of guys aren’t willing to go through the pain. Or injuries hold them back.

There’s a reason an almost daily dose of many miles of roadwork were and are a foundation for many great boxers. I think this falls by the wayside for many MMA fighters.
 
Completely anecdotally, but my cardio got destroyed the moment I began cutting weight and never came back even though it's been a decade. I used to play full rugby, soccer, basketball, etc., games without getting tired. Same with lifting weights, long intense sessions were easily doable.

The year I added wrestling to the mix and had to cut weight every single sport my cardio went to shit, even after my wrestling season was over or I'd have no tournaments near my other sports or lifting sessions. I'd just hit the wall and feel weak very quickly. And the most I was ever cutting was like 22lbs, which honestly was an easy cut for me. The cutting never felt overly excessive, and I still remember one tournament breezing into my weigh in perfectly on weight meanwhile one team mate was running in the hallways in a garbage bag. I went and got Subway after weighing in meanwhile my coach sent me a pic of him now sprinting on a bike lol.

It's still the same to this day. I no longer run as it just never improved. 5k or 20k felt the same to me. Same with a long weight session or a short session, so now I just spread my sessions across multiple days to get in and out before I'm wiped. And it's weird as I can look at my numbers and see that actually yes, in the areas I've focused on I definitely am stronger and have better than before this. Numbers wise there's nothing wrong, my body can apply and adapt to progressive overload just fine.

But the wall still hits and afterwards it's just all mental as you're not actually getting that much more tired. I know the exact look and feeling you see on some fighters who "gas" but then still manage to go the full distance.
 
Harlekin said:
There are as many cases of people who always had bad cardio, as there are cases for fighters that improved their cardio.
- Some went a weight class up or down, less drain -> more cardio
- Some just improved it with hard work
- Some improved their breathing while fighting
- Some are more relaxed or changed their style
- Some added Epo or other Peds

- Some lost cardio due to knee injuries
and so on

Haven't seen Conor do much running, there is a rumor he doesn't have the knees for it.
That's why he is always cycling. Some people just don't get good MMA cardio from cycling.
Should do that bike that has integrated rowing.
Click to expand...
I used to run, but got too old/beat up. Biking just doesn't do it for me like running did. I bike a fair bit but Cardio down overall.
 
Brutus....... said:
Genetics will play a part in defining a cardio ceiling an individual can’t really go past.

But you can improve it. But it’s also not fun, so a lot of guys aren’t willing to go through the pain. Or injuries hold them back.

There’s a reason an almost daily dose of many miles of roadwork were and are a foundation for many great boxers. I think this falls by the wayside for many MMA fighters.
Click to expand...

Agreed and it seems there's an inverse relationship between cardio and power. Fighters with the best cardio are often volume punchers while the ones with KO power tend to gas.

I would point out that boxing cardio is different from grappling cardio. A lot of MMA fighters have great cardio until they are taken down.
 
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