Issue 085

February 2012

Jogging? No thanks, we’re mixed martial artists. Really amp your cardio with these interval training ideas

TUF 14 cast member Paul McVeigh is a sports scientist and a pro fighter, ranked as the number-one bantamweight in Europe

I remember the day my heart was broken. I was watching a UFC promo featuring the poster boy for awesome MMA strength and conditioning, Georges St Pierre. Thanks to his coaches he is constantly on the cutting edge of training and doing things the right way. To my horror I was watching him slowly jogging down a Montreal street in the snow. I was aghast that such a great and knowledgeable athlete would include long, slow distance running in their training schedule.

Fortunately, a few months later I read an interview where George said the director of that spot had requested the slow-motion running scene. No harm done, the balance in the universe is restored. Unfortunately, long, slow distance stuff is still ingrained in combat sport’s culture, despite its potentially negative effect on athletic abilities.

The Problem with Long Slow Distance

Your body responds to the demands you place on it. If you pick up heavy stuff you get stronger, if you jump a lot you develop more reactive ability and if you go jogging for long distances you get better at running for long distances. Unfortunately, for those who use distance running the adaption of muscle fibers to this training is directly opposed to the needs of the combat sports athlete.

With conditioning being of such importance in MMA it may seem that I am ignoring the benefits of an athlete being aerobically well conditioned, but a good coach can get an explosive guy in fight shape in between six or eight weeks. It may take several years to get an aerobically fit athlete impressively strong and that’s if you can get them to stop running so much.

The Answer: Interval training

Interval training is a method of exercise that uses alternating periods of work and rest. This form of training produces everything you hoped to achieve from distance running but with the added benefit of not screwing up your hard-earned athleticism. If you are into hitting the internet for studies you will find interval training to be superior to distance exercise when it comes to body composition, fat loss, time taken, anaerobic improvement and surprisingly aerobic improvements. 

So when comparing a group who trained by running distance and a group who ran intervals the latter group could expect to be fitter anaerobically and aerobically, more jacked and home earlier watching TV. It makes you wonder why anyone still trains with long distance running.

Heart Rate Intervals

The traditional way to do intervals is pick a modality – running, bike etc. – prescribe the work and rest durations and decide on the number of times you will be doing it. That’s cool but it does not take into account what is happening within your body on a physiological level. By using heart rate monitors we ensure that you are not coasting nor being over worked. 

A simple way to implement this method is to complete your first interval then rest until your heart rate has dropped by a predetermined number of beats (between 30–50) before completing interval two. The time resting will increase as the intervals progress in a way that mirrors the accumulating fatigue. This method of interval training insures that you are always working at optimal intensity. With arbitrarily timed rest periods you tend to rest too long on early intervals and not long enough in the later intervals.

Intervals can be done in many different ways. Treadmills, body weight circuits and bikes are all really good. But for sheer

total body disgustingness Airdynes are hard to beat.

Maybe the reason intervals are not standard operating procedure for everyone is that they are hard. Aerobic training may take a long time and be exceptionally boring but it does not leave you wondering where you misplaced one of your lungs.

Personally, I really like something I can go hard at and not have to keep my brain switched on. There is no better conditioning tool than sparring but concentration must be maintained throughout. With intervals I do not need to worry about getting killed, it is just go hard, rest and repeat.