We have a guest contribution from Team Harris MMA today. Tea, Harris is currently based in Abu Dhabi with branches in The UK and Thailand. CARDIO FOR FIGHTING Let’s face it if you are a fighter you have terrible cardio. The workouts you do would barely get cyclists, cross country skiers or football players (or any other sports where cardio is important) into a sweat. But l before I go on we need to ask ourselves the question what is ‘cardio’? Well it is a combing form which comes before another word to indicate the heart. So when fighters are talking about good cardio and bad cardio are they discussing whether someone has a good combing form which comes before another word to indicate the heart or a bad combing form which comes before another word to indicate the heart? Obviously not, most fighters get hit in the head too often or are asphyxiated too regularly to have the requisite number of brain cells to form such long worded and nonsensical questions. So what is the core issue of contention when fighters are talking about ‘cardio’. They are probably referring the cardio-vascular systems ability to deliver oxygen effectively to cells in your muscles in order to perform a certain set of skills required to become the victor of a fight. This then leads us neatly into the discussion as to how fighters can develop their cardio-vascular systems ability to deliver oxygen effectively to cells in your muscles in order to maximize their chances of victory. Well, the truth is they cannot. Fighting does not tax you heart’s functionality sufficiently for your body to deem it necessary to improve your cardio-vascular efficiency. Some might ask whether doing other sports which do develop cardio-vascular efficiency might be helpful in improving fight winning capabilities. The answer is no. Cardio-vascular efficiency, (or sometimes referred to as ‘fitness’) is sports specific. Did you ever see a triathlete only practicing one of the three sports of triathlon? Of course not. They would not be fit for swimming or cycling just by running. Similarly doing some sort of interval training on the rower, cycling machine or on the track is going to do nothing for your fighting. The logical conclusion from this would therefore be this. If you want good ‘cardio’, cardio-vascular efficiency or fitness or whatever don’t be a fighter, do something else. Running or cycling gets my vote as they require not only high levels of heart functionality but also extreme levels of mental toughness. If you want to be a good fighter don’t do any ‘cardio’, cardio-vascular efficiency or fitness training, just throw down as often as you can. Team Harris
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 20:33:19 +0000
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