HATE GASSING OUT? GET YOUR AEROBIC ON!

Previously on the Free Roll radio show hosted by MMA Madness, I was asked by Keith Florian about the apparent lack of fitness among the number of ex-football players who made this season’s heavyweight Ultimate Fighter show. Keith pointed out how quickly the football players gassed compared with the pure MMA guys and asked why this was the case.

Football players are supposed to be in great shape, right? Why are they having so much trouble in the cage? Part of the obvious answer is that it takes more than being big and strong to be a fighter.

The other part of the answer is that the energy systems used in MMA are vastly different from football. One way to tell is by the duration of activity of each sport – with football, there are very short, explosive bursts of activity for about 5 to 10 seconds with a rest of at least 40 seconds between plays, then even longer rests between drives and during time outs. Here you have lots of explosiveness and lots of time to rest with a ratio of rest to activity of at least 4 to 1 = 4.0.

Fighting is totally different. Here you have five minutes of non-stop movement using a wide range of intensities, which include several explosive bursts – a recipe for exhaustion. Using the same formula to look at how much of the sport is on vs. off, the MMA rest to activity ratio is 1:5 = 0.2.

That represents a 2,000% difference in the amount of rest to activity that a football player gets compared with an MMA fighter. This is an important figure to look at because it indicates the type of energy each type of athlete depends on to master his sport. Football players’ energy systems are fine tuned for all-out, max output that is very short lived – they are what we call “anaerobes” or athletes that use very little oxygen to perform their activity. They depend highly on the creatine-phosphate and anaerobic glycolysis pathways, with almost no contribution from aerobic pathways. Sport-specific training would dictate that football players spend very little, if any time at all, doing aerobic training (unless they needed to lose fat mass).

The energy profile of an MMA fighter is much different. They depend heavily on their aerobic system to do two things:

1. Provide energy for the wide range of intensities required

2. Facilitate recovery between explosive bursts of activity

Both of these attributes are important, but number two is likely the most noticeable when a fighter improves their cardio ability by performing aerobic training. It is the ability to explode hard, re-energize, then go hard again and again with short periods of recovery in between. If your cardio is superior to your opponent in this sense, you have a significant advantage and while he/she is gassing out, you are executing your skills and finishing the fight. Metabolically, both of the attributes listed above are achieved by, a) training your body to switch to perform at higher intensities using aerobic pathways and, b) improving oxygen transport and uptake so that between hard efforts you are able to replenish stores of ATP and creatine-phosphate quicker, enabling you to repeat another explosive burst of energy.

What does this mean for you as an MMA fighter?

- Cardio training is VERY important. It is the foundation that all of your training is built upon.

- You can’t get away with doing only short, easy runs NOR can you just get away with doing hard intervals. You need to incorporate BOTH into your cardio regimen!

- Hopefully your next opponent will be an ex-football player!

About David Nader, MS, MBA

David is an exercise physiologist and biopharmaceutical industry veteran. David started AdapTx Labs to apply the science of exercise physiology to the sport of MMA to help fighters maximize their performance. David is also a competitive bicycle racer.

About AdapTx Labs

AdapTx Labs works with fighters to maximize performance through a scientific approach to training. AdapTx Labs is the first company to develop proprietary cardio and energy boosting supplements for MMA fighters. Their flagship products, CardioFactor™ and PreFight™, when used together, give fighters a complete cardiovascular edge. CardioFactor™ is a daily supplement designed to help fighters not gas out, while PreFight™ delivers a boost just prior to training and competing.

To get information and to purchase, go to AdapTxLabs

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(thanks to mmaweekly)