I'd sure like some help from the more seasoned members on the forum. I've left my run late in life. I'm having my first corporate fight at the age of 47. I'm 154 pounds (70kg) and 5'9". I am now training usually six days a week, three of those days involve sparring. I've been training at the boxing gym for six months. They're struggling to find a match up for me. I suspect I'll get matched up with a guy I train with who's 75kg ,20 years old, tall and huge reach. He's also super fit and fast. If that's the case I need to be the fittest I've ever been to keep the pressure on him the entire three rounds. My qusetion is instead of going for huge long runs, what do you guys recommend I do to have the stamina to keep up the intensity for me to win this fight? Thanks BTW Fight is on 3rd August
It depends on if your body is recovering from what you already are doing. If you are sparring 3 days a week at at least 80% intensity and then doing some bag/mitt work I would say that is plenty. You will get a lot of folks who will say do High intensity intervals in addition, end of story. The problem is they don't consider the toll this takes on your body if you are a)older b)already training intensely c)maybe do manual labor work for a living d)time you can put into nutrition, and so forth. However if you feel that the additional work is needed, then Tempo Intervals would probably be best I believe. At 47 years old the body does not recover as well as it did in the 20s, I'm in my mid 30s and already I know. You can do something other than running using this method and if you are training intensely do not negate the active recovery effects of LSD work or steady state cardio with HR remaining fairly low. Add tempo intervals on say Monday and Thursday or Tempo Intervals Monday and Friday and LSD work Wed. Or a day of tempo intervals and a day of LSD. By the way, tempo intervals are 12-15 seconds of 7-8 level intensity followed by 45-60 seconds of recovery with a 3-4 level intensity. Do this for 20-25 minutes. If you are training hard six days a week then that is probably already too much. Just my .02. Good luck:good
Yeah maybe you guys are right. Perhaps I need to fine tune my training program to suit the fight. I just did and hours sparring with a group of guys. My trainer suggested I go for it in the first three rounds to simulate the fight scenario. I tried but I couldn't keep up the intensity I'd like to have. Funny thing is the longer we sparred the more the other guys tired and the better I got. Thanks for the input. Hopefully this old dog can still learn new tricks :!:
What you say makes perfect sense. What weight exercises would you recommend? I'm interested in what more you suggest. Can you pm me with suggestions or put it up here? I love my training but the whole point is winning this first fight or it means nothing.
Shouldn't he already be doing intense training specific to the time intervals and pace of the event at his gym? At least that is the assumption. If he is training this way at the gym, is your suggestion then in addition to this to be doing HIIT for 2-3 addtl times per week? I suggested tempo intervals and LSD because they are good for active recovery if used properly. Anyways Johnino, I don't have the firsthand scientific knowledge on this that UKRkinetic does. My information comes from www.8weeksout.com and using his methods have been very helpful to me.
Make the majority of your conditioning as specific as possible. I would suggest the following, 2-3 times per week (depending on your current fitness) preferably with a day off between sessions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heavy bag, 2-3, intense 2-3 minute rounds where you aim to simulate fight conditions. Shadow Boxing, 2-3, intense 2-3 minute rounds where you aim to simulate fight conditions. You could change format to Tabata style intervals also. Lower Body sport specific drills, 2-3, intense 2-3 minute rounds where you simply focus on tiring the lower body using a series of movements that replicate boxing in a circuit type fashion. For example: 30 seconds moving forwards and backwards between to points at speed in boxing stance, 30 seconds of star jumps, 30 seconds of moving laterally, 30 seconds of scissor strides, 30 seconds of Head movement (obviously in boxing stance) ensuring you involve the lower body to move the head. 30 seconds of Jumping Jacks x 3, Tuck Jumps x 3, Pike Jumps x 3 Burpees x 3 as many times as you can in the last 30 seconds (probably twice max) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The above is just an example, you could mix in different exercises as you see fit. The above probably looks very easy on paper but if you work hard I can assure you it won't be. I'm not suggesting this is all you do each week. I'm suggesting that 2 or 3 times per week you need to replicate the demands of a contest in the most specific way possible, and this should take priority over the rest of your fitness training (I don't believe in using sparring sessions to work on improving fitness, especially with novices). This doesn't mean running yourself into the ground doing 15 hard rounds on the bag, a 10 mile run and an hour of circuit training etc. It's just a case of placing a demand on your body 2-3 times per week in the most specific way possible and allowing your body to recover and adapt. You will still be able to do your sparring, technique work, circuits etc at a lower intensity if you keep the volume of the intense sessions low. Good luck for you bout.
hey thanks all. I really appreciate y'all sharing your knowledge. I'm looking forward to feeling the results. Awesome.
