ARTICLE: Cardio Training - Part 1

Cardio Training
By Alex Gold
Part One: Building The Foundation

Want to get into shape, but not sure where to start? Over the next few months, this new series of articles from Alex Gold will take you from marshmallow to machine!

Cardio training is an often misunderstood part of a fighter’s training – with many different ways to get the job done, which is the best? Different people will give different answers, and throughout this series of articles I will give my opinion on the best way to get in great shape for MMA.

The articles will start at the very beginning and work up in intensity and specificity, so this article is not for you if you are a pro fighter looking for the extra edge. If, however, you have done very little recently, read on!

What is cardio?
Cardio is defined as any activity that taxes the heart and lungs. This alone might give you some ideas of things that you can do that count as cardio but aren’t as boring as walking on a treadmill! The intensity of cardio is generally measured as a percentage of your maximum heart rate, which is roughly 220 minus your age, although that is a very rough guide. Working at high intensities is recommended for fighters, but what if you can’t walk up a flight of stairs without being winded? You probably need to do a few weeks of basic general physical preparation (GPP) before being able to effectively perform higher intensity work.

Starting cardio
To increase GPP, the goal is simply to elevate the heart rate for long enough to tax the aerobic system. Here are some methods you can use to achieve this:-

• Treadmill
• Bike
• Rower
• Elliptical
• Stepper
• Light continuous sled dragging
• Light circuit training with weights
• Easy bodyweight exercises
• Digging the garden
• Walking to work!

This base-building work doesn’t have to be super-intense, in fact it may be best to hold back a little at the start and focus on achieving a specific duration rather than going flat-out. Any of the methods above are fine, and the minor differences between them are not large enough to worry about, so feel free to use a different method each time. Remember, this phase is only a short period to get a base of fitness before going on to more exciting and difficult stuff!

If you are having problems with motivation to start out, the answer is simple. It is just a case of deciding whether it is important enough to you to do. If you watch any soaps (or any television really) on a regular basis, congratulations – you now have NO chance of using the “I haven’t got time” excuse with me! If you are actually doing something productive for every hour you are awake (hint: you’re not) and still want to add in some training, well you’ll just have to get up earlier then. Not willing to make this sacrifice? That’s fine, but don’t use any excuses apart from “I didn’t want to do it enough”. This may sound harsh, but it is a simple case of making your behaviours match your goals – if you want to get fitter, you have to do the work! Very few people like training all the time, and I’m sure all professional athletes have days when they feel like staying in bed that extra half hour. The difference between them and the people that don’t succeed is that they do what is required regardless of they are feeling. A wise man once said “the reason most people fail is because they trade what they want most for what they want now”.

How long and how often?
To start getting into shape, perform some kind of GPP work at least three times a week for twenty minutes. If you are in bad shape, this might be taxing in itself, but you can and should fairly quickly build up to three or four thirty minute sessions. First thing in the morning is the perfect time for this, and a good start to the day! Remember, to work hard enough you will have to increase difficulty as you get fitter.

Here are some basic ways to progress with cardio or aerobic training. If, for instance, you are running for thirty minutes twice a week, you have a few options to progress. You can do the same work in less time (run faster), do more work in the same time (run further) or do more sessions per week (run more frequently). I like to set upper and lower limits on each variable and adjust within these limits. For instance, you might run your thirty minute distance until you can do it in twenty minutes, then try and increase the distance up to a set point before finally adding in a session per week. When adding in extra sessions I will normally drop the intensity and/or volume to avoid making huge changes to the overall stress imposed over the week and reduce the likelihood of overtraining.

Also, remember that despite the fact it has not been mentioned in this article, it is important that you continue doing weight training alongside the cardio sessions. Weight training will help you get fitter more quickly and minimise any loss of muscle that may occur if you are only performing aerobic work in your training.