Improving endurance? (fighting is tiring!!)

J

JackShephard

0
Hi,

I'm quite proud that in the past 7 months I worked hard to build a bit of muscle and shed loads of fat. It allowed me to join a Krav Maga class and not look completely out of place (just a little bit out of place, hahah :)

However, I'm completely struggling in terms of endurance. I basically feel 'out of air' within 15 minutes, gasping and breathing hard, with my heart rate elevated. The same feeling I would get if I was to run very fast for a short while.

My background is a completely sedentary lifestyle and 7 months ago I quit smoking (but I was on 2 packs a day for 10 years).

I guess my question is, 'how do I improve my endurance (cardio vascular?)" I heard about doing cardio with a Target Heart Rate of 70 to 80 % 4x a week... does that sound like the optimal solution?

Thank you!
 
If you want cardio to transfer to your krav maga classes, your cardio should be as similar as the krav maga classes as possible. You will get better cardio for the krav maga by doing krav maga, if you want to do some cardio outside the class, try to mimic the intensity of the krav maga and the rest periods/work periods or low work/hard work periods.
 
Hill Sprints

Try this. Find a hill where you live with a slightly increasing gradient (you don't want it too steep). Start at the bottom, then sprint as fast as you can for 15 to 30 seconds. Walk back to the bottom, then repeat 4 or 5 more times. This will increase your cardio like you wouldn't believe. Do this 3 times a week, and you'll be shocked at how quickly you'll improve. Let us know how it goes!

- Dave
 
I can't endorse interval training enough when it comes to building endurance. When I was running 5 miles a day doing a static run I wasn't getting any gains and wasn't burning much fat. When I switched to doing interval sprints only 3 days a week for about a mile each my endurance/speed and fat burning both showed marked increases. My wife had similar results in weight loss. She was running/jogging 3 miles and not producing much results. Since she's switched to 12 minutes of sprint/jog shes dropped quite a bit of weight.

I usually do HIIT intervals on the treadmill, stationary bike and with kettlebell/body weight exercises. Usually 15 minute workout is enough to really exhaust me. Something like 55 seconds on 20 seconds off is my interval now. I have a Gymboss timer that I use to set the times (Get one of these things, cheap and useful).

Nearly all of the UFC/MMA fighters use HIIT training to increase their endurance which speaks for something. Even if you don't have weights or kettlebells you can find that just body weight stuff will work. ie sit-ups full strength for 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds. Then push-ups as many as you can do in 30 second, rest 30 seconds. "Air squats" for 30 seconds etc. You can buy a jumprope and this can be pretty intense depending how coordinated and fast you can go.

MG
 
Thank you for the replies - this is very interesting indeed. Is the consensus that interval training is superior to 'standard' training then?

For example, how long should I interval train compared to 'standard' training for the two to be equivalent in endurance gains? I read somewhere that it takes at least 20 minutes of cardio 4x a week to see some cardio-vascular endurance improvements... how does that translate in interval training?


PS: I'm not looking to lose weight, just improve endurance :)
 
My grappling peers and I agree that crossfit type workouts are superior methods to train strength endurance.
 
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