Fight in one month, sprint/interval training advice?

[josh jennings]

I've agreed to a fight on relatively short notice; one month away.

I've been training 5 days a week for the last month already, but I want to take it up a notch cardio wise.

I've had 14 FC rules matches, but my last one was over a year ago. I'll be fighting three 2 minute rounds.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. :)

Thanks,
Josh Jennings

[Good advisor]

don't have any advice, but do your best.

[shevbo]

I'm no expert so people may criticise what I am saying.

Don't train too hard...do a little bit of mental relaxation. Do tonnes of sparring...not intense just relaxed. Then occasionally do intense sessions.
Watch fights on TV, DVD, VHS...anything you can get your hands on. Watch how they move, patterns, general faults.

Prepare youself mentally, aswell as physically. Before the fight get a good nights sleep and eat carbohydtrates (pasta blah blah blah).

At the fight, don't drink water, drink an isotonic ("An isotonic beverage may be drunk to replace the fluid and minerals which the body uses during physical activity") liquid such Powerade.

Do realistic kind of training - with a partner...preferably they should be better than you because that way you can learn more.

Phyche yourself up before the actual fight...listen to music (I prefer metallica - the old stuff, ACDC - back in black, audioslave - cochise, and linkin park)

Be fast (not furious) and good luck!

Hope this helps lol
Tell us how it goes!

[jwinch2]

I've agreed to a fight on relatively short notice; one month away.

I've been training 5 days a week for the last month already, but I want to take it up a notch cardio wise.

I've had 14 FC rules matches, but my last one was over a year ago. I'll be fighting three 2 minute rounds.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. :)

Thanks,
Josh Jennings

Hi Josh,

Intervals would be a great idea for a person in your situation.

One option for mixing them into your workout would be to do FARTLEK's. Basically what this means is go for a run, but NOT a slow long distance run. You only need to last and perform at a high intensity for 6 minutes so if you run any longer than 12 or so, you are training the wrong metabolic system. When I say run, I mean about 80% of your max sprint. When you are getting ready to die from the sprint, stop and bust out a set of push ups to failure, then get up and run again or turn around and run backwards, stop and do crunches or pullups or 30 seconds of vertical jumps and get up and run again. Once you can go hard for 12 minutes or so, you can think about adding some external resistance in the form of hand, wrist, or ankle weights.

One other idea that you could try to implement during your weight training sessions is that of combination/complex lifts.

With the LSU football team we do several of these at different points in our training cycle. One example would be to 4 sets of 6 each: snatch grip upright rows into hang snatches into back squats into overhead presses. You could also do, front squats into upright rows into hang cleans into push jerks. In your case, try to make the rest times between the comlex sets mimic those that you will have between rounds in your fight and remember that from one exercise to another during the complex there is no rest allowed. In addition to football, I have used them with my middle distance swimmers and collegiate wrestlers, (who have very similar time requirements to what you are getting ready to do), and have had great sucess with them. Let me know if you need ideas for different complexes to do...


One of the biggest fitness/training myths out there is the belief that training in long duration cardiovascular activities like jogging or cycling or swimming is going to help you perform an activity that occurs in multiple bouts of two minutes like your upcoming fight. Metabolism is a cascade of events where you go through the immediate, short term, and intermediate energy systems before you get to the oxidative systems. In events that last under 10 minutes and especially those like what you are doing which occur in multiple bouts of 2 minutes, all of your time is spent in the glycogen system. If you were doing 10 rounds it would be a different story but in your case, you will never enter into aerobic metabolism so all of the distance running in the world isn't going to help you one bit.

Do your intervals, lift hard, eat carbs (glycogen is just stored starch in your liver and muscles), and taper down in both intensity and volume prior to your fight and you will do great!

Good luck!

Jason

[gmtkd]

I notice that the match which prompted this post must have already taken place. How did you do?

Marcy Shoberg

[ROBDOGGIE]

I agree with jwinch2 with the sprints and interval training im not a big believer in high carbing it except before your match (night day before) high preotein med carb low fat although if your serious about fighting you should see a nutritionist and a personal trainer to help you attain your goals or you could just go to the library and read up anyway good luck !!!!