If somebody has a "problem" with cardio it usually isn't a chemical or biological situation but a physical one!
If I had an athlete with cardio problems I would concentrate on training for positional dominance
I have no doubt that an elite marathon runner has better cardiovascular endurance than I do since I'm a washed-up B level heavyweight who spends more time drinking whiskey then training anymore however if I were to Grapple with that Elite athlete he would gas out a lot faster than me because my Superior wrestling skill would have him at such a disadvantage that he would have to work like a draft horse just to escape my most basic holds
The fact is you can have all the cardiovascular conditioning in the world but if you're getting beat you are going to gas out quicker than the athlete that is winning the positional exchanges
especially at the early levels winning the first few positional exchanges is hypercritical
to your excellent point about top-tier Elite athletes being different than the high school kids I coached *
The elite professional athletes should all have excellent physical conditioning and relatively narrow skill gaps
However
if you take two identical clones and one of them spends 100% of their time on the mat doing MMA and the other one spends half of their time in the gym and the other half their time running down the road the athlete that spends more time on the mat is going to win every time
That is largely to do with the fact that they will be winning the positional exchanges because they will have a higher level of grappling skill
The domination of the positional exchanges will give the athlete all the advantage they need to win the fight regardless of cardiovascular conditioning
Couple this with the fact that MMA training is more cardiovascularly demanding than running and I think it's clear that running for cardio is a theory that is long past its prime
I never heard of "Joel" and I don't need to measure a fighters physiology or send them to the doctor to figure out if he is in condition to beat his opponent
You're not answering the question, which is specifically about cardio and how to train to build the biggest engine. You're correct that those positional exchanges and the technique and savvy to win them are more important than having slightly better cardio. Yes, the guy who takes superior position is going to exert less energy but that has nothing to do with the question of how to optimize cardio.
Nobody is waiting eagerly to reply...
I only use this site to cut the boredom at work
As a professional coach certified in multiple disciplines in multiple States and a scientific professional I understand all the sales pitches that have been thrown my way for decades in relation to Combat Sports cardio conditioning with all their silly acronyms and names
I don't have an ego problem and I don't brag....I am simply answering the questions posed to me about my background
It's the same old song and dance as usual... after I draw some fire because of my unique perspectives the peanut gallery tries to interrogate my background in order to disqualify my opinion
Then after they do the Recon they realize that I am exactly who I said I was and resort to accusing me of being a braggart
You sound like an intelligent well-read scientific individual with a legitimate cardio credential background however you do not understand the intricacies of Combat Sports at the same level as a veteran coach does
All these fancy training systems are nothing more than a sales pitch in an attempt to cash in on a very basic and simple principle
Much like the modern soap industry tries to package their cleaning products in cute little single use gel caps in order to produce a new marketable product
I don't have any secrets to sell... the fact is hard work dedication and sacrifice makes people better at athletic performance
Inherently practicing the sport you intend to compete in will also make you better faster and stronger in that particular Sports parameters
Nobody plays racquetball to get better at tennis because they are significantly different sports
Jogging for Combat Sports cardio will die a slow and painful death as modern science reveals more and more about the mysteries of the human body
Nobody's baking a cake or building a pyramid here
We're training athletes to win in a combat encounter and you don't get those kinds of skills (or CARDIO) jogging down the road
That's why accomplished Runners do so poorly at MMA cardio
You again bring up jogging. I'm not arguing in favor of jogging. I had a similar discussion about this with my wrestling coach who said that the work McGregor did with Ido Portal on balance beams, olympic rings, moving in strange ways, and playing touch butt in the park was stupid and should have been used to improve his weak area of wrestling.
You should spend your time doing the activity(ies) that you're specifically trying to improve at, whether it be wrestling, boxing, mma, or jogging. What I'm advocating, and you don't have a lot of knowledge about, is the implementation of training zones, training blocks, micro cycles, macro cycles, periodization, aerobic base training, threshold training, and anaerobic interval training. I don't think you're familiar with some of these concepts. The principles behind them can be utilized in just about any sport.
It's more challenging to use zone specific training in wrestling and combat sports because of the dynamic and irregular nature of training with a partner. Really you need a heart rate monitor and partners and coaches who understand what you're trying to achieve in a training session, but the benefits of training with a focus on systematically improving a specific energy system for a month or two at a time and then building upon that is big.
In cycling or running, it's easier to quantify training zones. It's very straightforward in both sports. With running, you run at varying speeds and measurements are taken. With cycling, in a performance lab setting, they measure by power or the number of watts generated at any given time. EVERY serious rider in cycling trains with both a heart rate monitor and a power meter. Determining an athlete's lactate threshold, max heart rate, and vo2 max is fairly simple.
How do you imitate this kind of a controlled environment where power or output, oxygen consumption, and blood lactate can be measured in a combat sport? You can't, but that doesn't make performance measurements of this type and training zones established off of those numbers useless.
Testing begins at about 2:20 into the video
Getting numbers like these from a treadmill or stationary bike can help you determine training zones that, with a heart rate monitor or going by feel for an experienced athlete (very easy, easy, tempo, hard, all out), will enable you to build your aerobic base to a greater level than just going easy or blasting. You and many martial arts coaches are still in the dark ages when it comes to the higher level science of building cardio.
My wrestling coach also talked about wrestling at different intensities and being able to try new things that you can't do when you're always rolling at 100%. He said Dave Schultz used to train this way a lot in a less intense flow roll style. If you have partners and coaches who understand the objective of the training session, it's possible to target specific energy systems even in a less controlled sport like wrestling or mma (compared to cycling or running).
Does that mean that it's not extremely important to know when and how to use proper technique to blast your way into a superior position so that you can use less energy than the other guy from there on in the match? No, but all other factors being equal, you should still strive to maximize your athlete's cardio in addition to proper technique and strategy.
Also, different subject entirely, but if you're a heavyweight and don't need to cut much or at all, then I think it's not a big deal to carry some extra fat. It can actually help cushion and protect you and make you less likely to be injured compared to a lean guy who is mainly skin, muscle, and bone.
