The Ultimate Guide to Running / Roadwork for Fight Sports

Transcription

1 The Ultimate Guide to Running / Roadwork for Fight Sports Roadwork is an important part of any fight sports strength and conditioning program. Generations of fighters have pounded the pavement, the process of lacing up your shoes & smelling the morning air is almost engrained in our DNA. Roadwork is a time to build fight endurance, manage your weight and also a time to think and relieve built up stress. What has changed over time is our intelligence and access to information, specifically in this case - understanding our bodies better. This helped us get smarter about our roadwork program, maximize our time & reduce the chance of running injuries. The goal with this guide is to help you add specificity & purpose to every run, and thus improve your performance come fight time.

2 The Intensity Scale: The best roadwork program includes a varied mix of intensity. Throw the age old no pain, no gain mentality in the trash. There s a time for pain, but if your entire training program is based on pain you will reach a plateau quick, often with injuries. On the flip side, if you re always running easy you may not improve. A careful balance of intensity is key. So how do you gauge intensity? You can do this two ways. A heart rate monitor or perceived exertion, RPE. Heart rate values in the chart below will be measured as a percentage of your personal maximum heart rate this makes the guide very personal & individual. If you are utilizing a heart rate monitor find your personal maximum heart rate now. ZONE BENEFIT HEART RATE % of Maximum 1 Active Recovery, Warm Up 50-60% 2 Basic Endurance, Fat Burn 60-70% 3 Aerobic Fitness 70-80% 4 Increases Max Performance Capacity 80-90% 5 Performance & Speed Work % HOW DOES IT FEEL? RPE Easy to breath Can hold a conversation easily Feels like you can sustain for hours Easy to breath Comfortable steady jog Can hold a conversation Light muscle load Slightly more difficult to breath but can sustain pace Conversations more difficult Moderate sweating Heavy breathing Muscle fatigue Cannot hold conversation Very exhausting Hard to breath Cannot sustain for long

3 Base Training One of the most important aspects of beginning a new running program is building a solid base. A good base builds up your endurance and your body s ability to work harder. If you ve already been running for more than 3 months you can skip this portion. If this is your first time incorporating road work into your plan it s important to complete this phase. Phase Duration Frequency Base Workout Basic 2 Weeks 3-4x Per Week Workout: 5 minute warm up Zone 1 10 minute Basic Zone 2 2 minute Work Zone 3 10 minute Basic Zone 2 5 minute Cool Down Zone 1

4 Workouts Once you ve completed the base building phase, you can start incorporating harder fight like efforts into your plan along with longer duration endurance building workouts. In this section we ll give you 3 Staple workouts. You should hit all 3 workouts during the week; you can add additional mileage with the Basic workout. Workout 1: Persistence This workout is designed to learn to push a tempo intensity. 1) 5 minute warm up Zone 1 2) 10 minute Basic Zone 2 3) 30 minute Work Zone 4 4) 5 minute cool down Zone 1 Workout 2: Evolve Workout 3: Greatness This workout is designed to increase your endurance and teach your body to react and recover. 1) 5 minute warm up Zone 1 2) 20 minute Basic Zone 2 3) 3 minute Work Zone 4 4) 20 minute Basic Zone 2 5) 3 minute Work Zone 4/5 6) 5 minute cool down Zone 1 Once a month add one interval to this workout to increase the duration Hit your local running track for this one! Purpose: Build speed and increase your ability to sustain sprints & hard efforts. This also mimics the stress and recovery times in fights. 1) 5 minute warm up Zone 1/2 2) 4 minute work Zone 4 3) 1 minute sprint Zone 5 4) 1 minute recovery sit down Repeat interval 2-4, 3 times. Cool down 5 minutes Zone 2

5 Scheduling & Building Making sure roadwork is scheduled with adequate recovery is an important part of the program. Also factor in your fight specific training into the overall plan to find the perfect balance of training and recovery. Here are some general rules to follow: Stagger the 3 staple runs. Example: Monday: Persistence, Wednesday: Greatness, Saturday: Evolve Complete Greatness on fresh legs. So no heavy workouts the day before. Balance your fight sport specificity. Example: Since Greatness will have a high training load, it s not best to do a hard leg heavy day the following day. So no hard wrestling workouts on Sunday if you ran hard on Saturday! Basic will have a low training load if the run is under an hour, but you can also add more work periods for a longer workout. Just keep in mind cumulative fatigue will kick in. Basic is your go to run for ANY run outside your Staple Runs. As you progress it s important to add work, but do it smart. You can bump up your Greatness set by one interval as you get more fit. Throw in a recovery week every 4 weeks, where you back off on the volume by 20% for the week. Be sure to taper for your event/fight. We find a 2 week taper works great. During taper you ll remove Greatness from your schedule, and start reducing total volume by 50% to make sure you re on fresh legs for the event!