In my experience, stamina-focused conditioning doesn't help much

[FightingIyan]

As they say, there's cardio then there's fight cardio. This is just coming from a pure boxer though. For conditioning, all I do is spar and spar more and harder with pads too since it also emulates a match. Hardly do any running/sprints or anything of that nature. Stamina is awesome SPECIFICALLY for boxing, which is the primary objective of my training.

Thoughts?

 

[bcplifter2]

of course SPP would work better than GPP.
but realistically you can only spar so much, so adding in some GPP would work when you cant spar

 

[Revok]

^ This. It's wise to stay as versatile as possible. Say you sprain a wrist, or get elbow tendinitis, and boxing is impossible for 6 weeks. You're not capable of bringing your running or swimming volume up enough in that time to maintain your conditioning level, so it suffers.

 

[scoopj]

How many rounds has your awesome stamina taken you, out of curiousity? And might your recovery improve with some roadwork? Have you tested it?

 

[Dino Bravo**]

I boxed for years and can attest to sparring being the best way to raise up your cardio. We still did crazy amounts of circut training though and a shit ton of roadwork.

 

[redaxe]

Good third post ever, bro.

 

[PUO3]

i dont see how one could spar for their entire training regime.

seems to me youd be taking a considerable amount more damage which would leave your body banged up.

going to have to disagree entirely here. sparring is a necessity (obviously) but it cant be the sole conditioning routine. not if you want to do anything above basic training with it.

 

[NurseKnuckles]

Hmm,
Spars lots, gets better at sparring... I think I got all I need here...

 

[luckyshot]

Give this a whirl, then talk to me

http://www.rosstraining.com/sequentialfatiguechallenge.pdf

 

[Normot]

I think this applies for grappling arts but I don't want the brain damage involved in sparring 100% for hours every week.

 

[Linds]

How are you getting brain damaged grappling? Tap sooner to chokes

 

[casperthegst]

its been years sense ive done martial arts....you dont treat every sparring session as an all out fight for your life you pace yourself some sessions and have sessions where you try and push the pace....i second there is no shame in tapping to a submission/choke when you are training for a fight i learned this the hard way as i wouldnt tap to shit...save that shit for a real fight

 

[Midnighter]

Your experience is shit.

 

[casperthegst]

Your experience is shit.

Is this directed at yours truly or the op?

 

[Midnighter]

OP, I didn't read your post.

 

[Normot]

How are you getting brain damaged grappling? Tap sooner to chokes

Oops, I meant you can't train 100% in striking therefore you need to do more roadwork and auxillirary training than with grappling where you really can get most your fitness just from rolling.

 

[HIMBOB]

I do cardio by sparring, well live rolling (BJJ + MMA) to be more specific and yes it does work pretty well, my endurence is good.

BUT what I do tend to do is play it smart with my energy, I do not go all out and if my opponent does go all out at me I let them tire then attack, this is a good stratergy as I get used to fighting efficently.

BUT say come fight time the other guy doesn't tire, I am kinda fucked.

So a cardio prgram is what I am actually looking for right now.



I just popped into the S&C section to have a look for a good cardio for MMA (3*5mins) program, anyone want to link me up????

1 or 2 sessions a week I am thinking.

 

[apizur**]

I'm going to vehemently disagree.
Partially combining the 2nd guy and the guy with the turbin's statement with my own experience. A lot of people made a lot of good points here... enough to make your point mostly moot.

You're right, but not right enough.

"Cardio" makes the breaks between the rounds seem longer to me, I know for a fact my heart rate and rate of breathing slows more in my minute off when I do supplementary conditioning than when I don't.

Your workload in a round is a variable at this point. You could be a slow, lazy, low-output guy who shells up and eats punches for three minutes, returning only one punch at a time. So we don't have enough information to validate your statement, let alone speculate on it.

The part in which you are correct is that: being pushed by a partner to produce a huge workload in the activity you are seeking to improve in is, in fact, the best form of sport specific conditioning. However, like everyone says, it can't be 100% of your workload. You skip rope, you punch the bag, you shadowbox, you hit pads, you probably do pushups and situps..... all of these things are forms of "conditioning."