Sports Nutrition -
Answer To Question #2
Question #2:
As a strength coach to a number of combat sport athletes, I’m hearing a lot about the evils of “cardio” and longer distance running for my athletes. However, conventionally, these athletes have done a lot of cardio/running to condition the aerobic system. Which approach is best?
Answer by Dr. John Berardi:
This is a topic that can get heated. And sometimes it feels like it’ll only be solved through combat. But as far as I am concerned here is the knockout punch to this debate.
No one should question the fact that the aerobic system is an important energy contributor in events 1-2 minutes in length or greater. It has even been shown that in a 200m sprint, which only last around 20 seconds (depending on your skill level), 29% of the energy used is derived from the aerobic system. And for each second of duration beyond that, the aerobic system contribution increases in a big way.
So, the aerobic system is important for most athletes. But, it’s a mistake to think that since the aerobic system is providing energy, the only way to train the aerobic system is with long duration, low intensity, steady state “aerobics”!
Dr. Marty Gibala, from McMaster University has performed a number of very interesting studies showing that high intensity interval work can have a dramatic impact on BOTH the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. In his work it's clear that short duration, very high intensity work leads to staggering increases in aerobic & anaerobic enzyme capacities as well as marked improvements in performance (both short duration, high intensity performance and even longer duration performance) - and these occur in as little as 2 weeks. That’s right – 2 weeks!
Since these sessions are short (but brutal), they often fit better into a complete athlete’s training plan since an athlete has to train multiple skills and qualities simultaneously and can’t budget a ton of time for long, slow jogs – this would simply take time away from the other types of training required for optimal development.
The other advantage to high intensity work is this – it doesn’t cause the typical muscle fiber shifts seen when an athlete starts doing long duration, lower intensity, steady state cardio. In other words, long duration slow cardio can teach the muscles to be slow by causing shifts toward slow-twitch fiber architecture. High intensity work doesn’t do this – and may actually cause shifts toward fast twitch fiber architecture. So what happens when an athlete trains this way is that they end up in "bad-ass" condition while preserving fast twitch fiber architecture, muscle explosiveness, strength, and quick reaction times.
So the take home point is that fighting/grappling isn't a steady state aerobic sport - it's an intermittent sport that requires energy contribution from all the energy systems. Grapplers and fighters shouldn’t be using 30, 60, 90 min steady state runs, biking, etc alone when trying to improve conditioning. They would be much better served performing very high intensity interval work if high level conditioning is the goal.
However, this doesn’t mean that MMA or grappling athletes should NEVER do low intensity cardio. There actually is some utility to lower intensity work! First, low intensity, steady state cardio can be a great recuperative tool when much of the rest of the exercise program is high intensity work and the athlete would likely dip into overtraining if more high intensity work is added. Therefore low intensity work – if the intensity is kept in check – can lead to better recovery.
Further, lower intensity work can be a decent pre-season training modality if an athlete is trying to work their way back into shape and isn’t ready for super-high intensity sessions.
But again, as the sole means of improving aerobic conditioning, steady state “aerobic” exercise (long runs, biking, etc) leaves a lot to be desired. So save it for recovery and for building up fitness after a layoff – and stick with higher intensity work when real bad-ass conditioning is needed.
About Dr. John Berardi:
Dr. Berardi has a PhD in the area of Kinesiology (with a specialization in Exercise and Nutritional Biochemistry) and is a consultant to 10 Olympic Programs and numerous NCAA and professional sports teams. Dr. Berardi and his company, Science Link, Inc. have one purpose: to take the latest in advanced nutrition research and teach it to others in a way that doesn't take an advanced degree to figure out. In this Q&A column, Dr Berardi will be answering performance related questions on the topics of training, recovery, nutrition, supplementation, and more.
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