I’ve had countless MMA fighters and jiu jitsu competitors ask me about cardio to improve their conditioning. After some detective work on my part to see what they mean when they say “cardio” and what they’re currently doing, I almost always come up with steady state cardio (oxidative system or aerobic training) being explained. Most people, including athletes, don’t understand that cardio and aerobics are not interchangeable terms. Aerobics is cardio but cardio doesn’t have to be aerobic. So telling me you do cardio doesn’t tell me much. Cardio is just a medical term used to reference the heart. Unless you’re dead, your heart is always working. So according to the medical definition, walking to your local grocery store or a full out sprint for 100 yards is cardio, but the later is much harder.
There are five different types of energy systems and all of them are cardio but only two are aerobic. Training an athlete as opposed to training your average Joe or Jane that just want to be lean and healthy is a lot more complex. Understand this: Fitness and sports science are two different things. With sports, you have to know what to train that will benefit the sport, as opposed to aiming for overall fitness goals. The majority of people that exercise think they know what they’re doing but the reality is, they have no clue.
While every activity in which we participate requires the cardiovascular system, the article at hand will focus on the predominant energy systems involved in training to become an endurance machine.
The 5 Energy Pathways
0 sec 12 sec 90 sec 15 min 60 min
ATP (6-10, depending how fit)
ATP-CP (after 12 sec, some glycogen)
ATP-CP & Glycogen (12 sec – 2min)
Aerobic & Glycogen (12-20 min)
Aerobic Oxidative (20+; explains 2nd wind after 20 min)
Depending on how long the duration of activity and how intense that activity is performed dictates what energy system you are training. The first three energy systems are important for MMA fighters because of the different strength qualities needed and the time limit involved in a fight. Aerobic training is a waste of time. There is nothing in MMA (or any grappling sport for that matter) that is done aerobically – it is done at high intensity, explosively, and at full speed – predominantly without oxygen.
I’m only going to talk about the anaerobic lactic system because that’s arguably the most important and the hardest system to train correctly. When I’m asked the cardio conditioning question, this is the energy system they’re asking for improvements in without knowing it (improving this energy system will have a ceiling effect on the aerobic system). One thing not mentioned the above graph are the two components within each system, power and capacity. I didn’t include these because I’m not trying to write a book or attempting to confuse you, but to shed some light on the complexity of training the energy systems.
ANAEROBIC LACTIC SYSTEM
The reason why this system can be the hardest to train is because of the waste by-products it produces and because it meets the point where anaerobic training ends and aerobic work begins, which is where an MMA fighter has to be conditioned at if the fight goes deep into the rounds. Because of this, the workouts aren’t fun. I’ve had many athletes throw up while training this system. Usually this only happens upon starting this program because you don’t know how well the athlete can remove the waste by-products yet. The good news is that once you know where they fall on the conditioning continuum if you will, you can start progressively making the workouts harder forcing the athlete to adapt by increasing their ability to remove and/or tolerate the waste by-products. Maybe that didn’t sound like good news, but come fight time; the athlete will not gas out. You MUST train harder than you are going to compete, otherwise the training will not transfer. This is why aerobics suck for the MMA fighter or a grappling athlete.
One of my favourite ways to improve this system is with death circuits. These are circuits where you take compound lifts that recruit a lot of muscle and therefore, give you the most return on your investment.
DEATH CIRCUIT SAMPLES:
Back Squat x 12RM, TEMPO 30X0, 60s rest
Supinated Chins x 12, TEMPO 30X0, 60s rest
Bent-Knee Deads x 12, TEMPO 2010, 60s rest
Dips x 12, TEMPO 30X0, 3- minute rest
Bulgarian Split Squat, 12RM, TEMPO 2010, 60s rest
One Arm DB Row, 12RM, TEMPO 2010, 60s rest
Trap Bar Deadlifts, 12RM, TEMPO 2010, 60s rest
Incline DB Press, 12RM, TEMPO 30X0, 3-minute rest
• Repeat 2-4 circuits
• You will most likely have to reduce your weight on each set.
• 10 is the lowest reps you could do with Death Circuits, but 12 is best
• If you can’t do 12 chins/pull-ups, do pull downs
THE TRAINING BENEFITS:
1. Makes possible a higher volume of work at a higher VO2 max (you can work harder)
2. The rest is used to rebuild the energy substrates and to restore oxygen in the muscle
3. Permits a greater specificity of training
4. Simulates the pace of competition with incomplete rest/recovery
5. Improves aerobic capabilities of the fast twitch fibres (which is important for MMA athletes because of the explosive nature needed for long durations of time).
6. Because it leans people out, you could also use it to move a fighter down in his weight class
BASIC RULES TO FOLLOW FOR BEST RESULTS:
• Maximum 12 weeks to train this system because most of the gains happen and you can’t drive quality up with a longer time. If you have more time than this, work on a different energy system/strength quality or whatever else the fighter needs (I haven’t found any that couldn’t use more max strength or that didn’t need any structural work).
• Train two to three times a week max so adequate recovery can take place.
• With the anaerobic lactic system, a 20 % drop off is allowed in performance from the beginning set; while only a 7% drop off for ATP/CP. After this critical drop off point, cease performance (you can’t beat a dead horse).
• To progress energy system training, increase effort and/or reduce rest by 15 seconds every other workout.
• After warming up, spend no longer than an hour on training, as we’re interested in quality of work with athletes. After an hour you’re so low on fuel (glycogen, glucose) and stress hormones are so high that it’s counter productive to continue.
• If the fighter is not showing improvements in their ability to recover between sets/rounds, check the metabolic pathways involved and see if there’s something lacking in their diet.
If you only have a short time (example: 6 weeks) before a fight, you won’t have time to mess around with different work to rest ratios to determine the athlete’s level of conditioning. This could take to long and jeopardize your training and timing to peak before the fight. In this case, to determine their level of conditioning, I recommend using a heart rate monitor and seeing how long it takes for their heart rate to return to a specific percentage based off their max heart rate (can’t tell the percentages and give away my secrets). This is, in my opinion, is the best energy system/conditioning test you can use for fighters. And without performing tests or knowing how to interpret the data collected from the tests, you’re programming blind. If the athlete just needs to lose body fat to increase performance, the tests aren’t necessary.
Hopefully this has explained to you why saying “cardio” means pretty much nothing and that designing energy system programs for athletes requires extensive knowledge and attention to detail. Just jumping on a treadmill, running around the city, or training in your sport like a wild animal isn't going to cut it. The training must be progressive and therefore, must be measured.
Chris Grayson
graysontrainingsystems.com
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