training legs with weights before a fight
- Thread starter Nastycrow
- Start date
A lot of it also depends on how much you are cutting. If you are cutting a lot of weight to fight and you aren't intaking enough calories and protein to feed the muscle then you shouldn't be lifting heavy because you will be breaking down the muscle and not doing anything to rebuild them. I usually stop weight lifting 2 weeks out, but I stop with any heavy lifting about 3 weeks out because I am concentrating more on muscle endurance, cardio, and tightening up my technique/fine tuning the gameplan.
mtaylor091 said:
About a month before the fight your cardio should take precedence
Click to expand...
What do you do to get your cardio up besides running miles?
Click to expand...
No offense, but if your at a gym and training, theres nothing better than that! Are you taking a fight independently?
The best way to build fighting and rolling cardio is...to fight and roll. But since you can't do that currently, try to do some cardio activities that somehow simulate fight activities, since you can't fight. Heavy bag is a good one, set a timer (Everlast makes a great cheap round timer found in most sports stores, it is yellow and black) and do some drills. Go at it nonstop so you are working muscle fatigue and cardio, add some rhythm and some kicks, it's a nice little workout.
A recent issue of Fight! magazing (the one with Wanderlei on the cover) had a small article about five-round cardio in 15-minutes a day:
5 ROUND CARDIO In 15 minutes a day!
1. Rope skipping, 5mins fast as possible
2. "Tabata Protocol" 20 sec. max total body pushing effort, ten seconds rest. Repeat 10 cycles.
3. Squat thrust, with 2 light dumbells. As many as possible in 5 min.
This may not sound like much, but note the "as fast as possible" part. If you dog it and pace yourself through the rope or squat thrusts, that's not it. Tabata Protocal means taking a spare heavy bag or something, putting it on the floor, and pushing it (not rolling -- place it long-ways so you are pushing and end) back and forth across the floor. The article recommends a 130 pound bag, but I tried it with a 80 pounder on a carpeted surface which presented much more resistance than mats or a wood floor, and it worked great.
If you've got the equipment, also some circuit training can be great for cardio. Set the timer for three-minute drills, maybe a minute (or 30 seconds once you get good at it) rest for 10 rounds and start. Do one round of brisk medicine ball, rest. Hit the speed bag, rest. Hit the heavy bag, rest. Do some ab work (an ab roller is must, those things are great), pull ups, jumping jacks, burpies, etc. Simulate a round of very hard activity with a brief rest period in between to recover -- just like a fight.
mtaylor091 said:
Ok I will try that out and when you say
Do one round of brisk medicine ball
Click to expand...
what excersize should I do with that or just any will work?
Click to expand...
There are dozens you can do, too many to describe here. I'd recommend searching medicine ball workout on youtube or google or something and you can get some ideas. If you have three minutes you can probably do 5-7 different excercises, 12-15 reps each, alternative various muscle groups.
BTW I did my home circuit training last night, 12 rounds, and finished with the Tapata Protocol. It sucked. Which, in training language, means it was awesome.