Hey everyone wanted some input/advice on what cardio methods do you recommend to improve stamina/conditioning? during sparring I find myself far more out of breath than my opponent’s. Recently I’ve started focusing on my breathing and not winding myself out early on. however when I’m training at the gym or home I’d like to work and improve my conditioning. Any ideas? Thanks guys!
Roadwork is always a good one imo and also the boxing specific training I.e bags, pads and skipping. Make sure you are utilising these correctly as most people i see on the bags and skipping are going at a slow pace which isn't good for much. Also Ladder drills and circuit training. In the circuit u want a mixture of body weight and resistance exercises. I.e burpees, sit ups, press ups mixed in with tyre flips, sledgehammer, medicine ball throws. You can mix up the circuits programme between a set of exercises and reps and sets done as quick as possible but no less than 8 min or 3 min on 3/6 exercises and a min rest. 4-12 sets. All the above will help with your stanima, fitness and muscle conditioning.
Running. If you are not already doing it I would advise going for a long run 5 days a week and you will soon see the difference. Do at least an hour everyday and change it up. Make sure some hills are involved. At my old amateur club the newbies would get taken on a run for the first hour which usually included ‘lampposts’ jog to the first then sprint to the next and repeat. Some of the really unfit guys would stop to throw up even but well worth it in the long run. Be sure to push yourself
In track, 800m guys are insane. They treat it more like a sprint than a distance run … they may not break out like a 100m guy but they hit a hard stride and don’t really let up. it’s jaw-dropping to watch at the top collegiate or Olympic (or even Olympic Trials) level.
Agreed. I did an 800 once. I genuinely got worried when my heart-rate wasn't coming down how I wanted it too. Absolutely brutal stuff.
I had a fighter that was running, and winning, 5k races. I took him out to run rounds, where I would randomly have him run, jog or sprint (like you would be exerting yourself in a fight), and jog during the one minute between rounds. He threw up after the 3rd round.
Man those crazy foos in MMA: they tape snorkels to their face so they only breath in and out of the snorkel, border line drowning or choking doing the full workout. This is cardio hell. But they seem to like it
How often do you train at gym per week? As other people have said you can’t beat running for getting you fit for boxing, I liked to mix it up couple of longer steady state ones, couple of sprint sessions and couple of stair runs (had a waterfall near me with loads of stone stairs, went up and down it 12 times). If your training at your gym say 4/5 times a week and running I wouldn’t say you need to do more than that, if your gym trains hard should be fit enough, and could be more about relaxing and pacing yourself during sparring (realise you’ve already mentioned that). When I did train at home I’d do something like skip to warm up, ten x 3min shadow with core exercises in the breaks, then do burpees, sit ups, press ups, box jumps 21 times each then 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3, then I’d either do sprint skipping for ten mins or run a mile fast then slow. I realise none of this is revolutionary like but I think it’s best to keep it simple with boxing
running,different distances,speed,intervals; 800m dashes long distance running,adjust distance to your fitness level and something I personally really found helpful is jogging for 15 seconds then sprinting for 15 secs and then repeating that for 10 times (you can also adjust this to your fitness level)
running < jumping rope 100% you can be good at running and jumping rope will still kick your ass and you will still suck at it at first if you haven't been doing it, it's really a nice obstacle to overcome and just how much better than running is it? when I was in highschool we had to do this fitness measurement thing called "the pacer", there was a tape that would say "go" and we would have to run from one side of the gym to the other, it repeated with the time between "goes" gradually decreasing as it progressed, last man standing type of situation and I had not been running at all only jumping rope, in my class I was 1 of 2 kids to make it to the end of the tape the other was a girl that was the star cross country runner of the school
It's a different form of cardio that puts different stresses on the body. So of course it would be tough at first. So, in your eyes, jumping rope is better than running because in school you done well in a fitness test? Okay. Over here in the UK that test is called the "bleep test". I was a few rounds off finishing without doing any training. You can't judge a training method based on a random test you did as a kid.
it's because I never ran at all, not even jogged, and the only other person that finished the tape with me was setting the school's new cross country running records it's also too easy to cheat while running like taking it easy and not really pushing yourself as hard as you should I got pretty good at running where I would complete 5 miles in 40-45 minutes in 90+F degree heat and jumping rope was still harder I started doing wrestling later in highschool and did korean jujitsu for a number of years, I've been exposed to all kinds of training methods, now I base my workout off of Mike Tyson's using some of the things I picked up along the way, for example Tyson didn't do pull ups but I do them with the bench dips because of Schwarzenegger's push/pull philosophy I alternate running and jumping rope now, but if you have to pick just one jumping rope definitely builds cardio and burns fat faster my routine is as follows warm up; stretching, push ups, sit ups, neck bridges 5 sets, pull ups and bench dips 3 sets the main course; 3-4 mile run or 10 minutes jumping rope followed by sprints, then a 20-40 minute Cus heavy bag workout the finishing touches; 2 sets of push ups, squats, pull ups, and bench dips I would also put swimming above running which I dabbled in when I started to get in shape from jumping rope, especially when you alternate laps underwater/holding your breath