I've read on some mma sites that distance running is a mistake. The mma training site I read that continuous running only trains you for continuous runningand is counter to mma. However the olympic judo and boxing programs have running all off-season. 5 miles daily. I think that this is for your base endurance and when you have that up it is easier to maintain throughout the comp year. Am I missing something here?
Train the way you fight. If you intend to fight for 40-50 minutes at the same pace, run 5 miles a day. if you're like every fighter on the planet and your fights include intervals of low activity followed by intervals of intense activity, perhaps you should organize your running that way. There is, however, something to be said for low intensity aerobic work on your off days sice you can only do interval training 2-3 times a week (sometimes less). So a morning jog is not out of the question, but it's not somethign I would base my cardio routine around.
Well my advice to you is run distance to build a solid base and then integrate the intervals into the distance running. I run distance and I swear by it. I can spar 12 rounds at a high intensity level throwing 80-100 punches per round while being hit, working defense ect ect. and I have yet to gas. I am also a fairly big guy tipping the scales at 170-180 lbs. on any given day. also my style is that of a volume puncher/boxer so I have to be in great shape to finish a fight. I know some of the internet warrior gurus will disagree with me and provide all kinds of theories but my method of cardio is the same method used for 80 years by guys who have been to the top or the cusp of the top so take that for what it is worth. Also fighting is my only job it wher eI make my money so if I thought there was a better more proven way to condition myself to fight at a high level i would do it but as of yet I have not seen one person who uses a method other than distance running combined with sprint intervals during the distance running and then sport speciffic drills who has the stamina that I would need to be the fighter I have become.
I hear you. Lots of theories, but it has to say something that the olympic team trains this way. + a top notch hockey player trains at my girlfriends gym and in the summer he's on the treadmill for 45mins daily. Hockey is less anaerobic than mma but still stop and go sport.
My advice to you is go and ask alot of real fighters and athletes what they do to build a good cardio base and my guess would be 99% of them run some sort of distance to get in shape and then incorporate sport speciffic drills into their workout to build muscle endurance ect ect that their sport calls for. On a side note I wrestled in a good highschool program that produced some good college level guys anyways our coach was a Dan Trunion/Tj Nelson/Kevin jackson disciple and one thing he always had us do to build our stamina is run distance and lots of it then wrestle hard in practice with skill drills. So also take that for what it is worth
I'm 6'2 + weigh 218 lbs. I run 4k every second day and walk 4.3k every day at a quick pace. I also hit the heavy bag for about 15 minutes every day and do the Team Quest grapplers weight routine a couple times a week. With this routine I've lost 20lbs of fat over the last 4 months. However, this routine is not good for competitive fighting. If I wrestle someone I get pretty winded after 10 minutes. I IS a good routine for self defence because I have enough wind to go for 5 minutes with half-assed good boxing and wrestling full out.
I plan on starting to run maybe 2 or 3 miles after my lifts just to get in that extra little bit of cardio. As for MMA training...interval is the best considering the flurries and then rests that seem to happen quite often. Switch it up. Never base your training only on long distance or just interval as you would never train just stand up or just ground work. You need all types of training to be well rounded.
I usually run between 3-5km each run. Ross Enimait says that fighters should be able to run 2 miles in under 10 minutes which is a pretty good clip. I like to mix it up running at a constant pace during one session and mixing in fartleks at another session!!
