I've got a fight-HELP!

[madhusudan]

Thesedays I'm in Korea doing Kyokushin and have an oppotunity to fight this coming October in the Korean Open Championships. I think I'll pass on the World Championships as they are in August and there's probably just not enough time to get in shape. I'm about 5'11 and 192#. Ya, I'm fairly out of shape....haha...

A couple years back I went through basic at Fort Knox, so I think I still have the discipline to do this. Anyways, I know some of you fight or train fighters and was really hoping you could take like 5 or 10 mins and type me up a basic training regimen. I have no access to weights, but will join a gym if it's the best idea. Let me tell you what I do have available:

A track near my house
A hill
A jumprope
ummm.....thant's about it besides my will.

Ok, thanks for any help and if you give me some tips I will certainly let you know how it goes. I'm just looking for an idea of frequency, distance (or time as I don't know the distance of this track) and rest mostly.

[Pork Chop]

What's the duration (rounds) of the event you'll be competing in?

First off, start slow. Your first couple weeks of training leave a lil left in the tank after your workouts. Don't try to jump straight into the "goal" of duration or intensity right away- it's a clear path to injury and burnout if you don't give your body time to adapt.

I would say:

jump rope - the duration of each "round" 1 to 2 times the number of rounds you'll be competing 3 to 5 times a week.

hill -
2 times a week: sprinting up the hill for 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest, for 8 repetitions (build up to 20 if you can).

2 other times a week: jog up the hill at a medium-fast pace for the duration of a "round", break for the duration of the rest between rounds that you'll be competing, do this 1 to 2 times the number of rounds you'll be competing.

shadow fighting - start slow to loosen up, build up intensity by the end. Duration should be the length of the round for 1 to 2 times the number of rounds of the event. You need to shadow every day.

jogging - if you like to jog, a light jog for 30 minutes 2 or 3 times a week can help with weight management- but the sprints are more important.


This is just a starter program to get your endurance to where it needs to be. You should still be doing your normal kyokushin training on top of this. If you want to lift weights, big compound movements (squat, deadlift, dip, pullup, and olympic lifts) are your friends, but lifting more than twice a week is begging for burnout.

Make sure you eat lots of veggies & protein. Don't forget to stretch!

[Chief Fox]

Ok, I'm not a professional fight trainer so take this for what it's worth.

If I was training for a fight, in addition to my actual combat and skills training, I would do as much cardio vascular conditioning as I possibly could.

The idea is, you may not be the best fighter there but you could be the best conditioned fighter there. Many times a well conditioned fighter will outlast a fighter with better skills who's in worse condition.

The first thing I would do is try to build a solid fitness base. Running is a great way to do this. In addition to running, circuit training is also a great idea and is probably the next step up from just plain running. After circuit training, I would add circuits with weight.

Running program:
Going through basic at Fort Knox, I'm sure you've done plenty of running. There are tons of running resources out there, maybe find just a basic 5K running program and follow that. The idea here would be to cut some weight and build base fitness.

Cirucuit training:
There's tons of ways to do this but I would try to emulate the demands of fighting. Lets say your fight is 3 Five minute rounds. I would train for 5 Five minute rounds. Choose a group of exercises that you can do for 5 minutes then rest for a minute the do another round.

For example: (you can use any exercises you want but try to make it well rounded)
sprint for 1 minute
squats with no wieght for a minute
pushups for a minute
situps for a minute
burpees for a minute
rest for a minute

Start out with three rounds of this and work your way up to 5 rounds. Keep track of all your reps as a way to measure your fitness level.

After you feel pretty good at this level you can add some weighted exercises. Or you could do the whole thing wearing a weight vest. Experiment but keep it in the rounds format.

So a typical week may look like:
-Run 3 to for days a week for a total of 12 miles or so.
-Circuit train 2 or 3 days a week
-I would do some kind of skills training everyday and try to spar in the same format as the upcoming fight at least twice a week.

That's all I've got. I hope this helps. Good luck.

[madhusudan]

Hey guys, thanks for what you've laid down. Your advice was definitely what I was looking for, so now all I have to do is get up early and do what I've got to do. I'm just now finishing my last beer until after the fight, and I've gotta say it tastes fine. Will get up tomorrow to begin serious training.

My only goal is to fight well. Oh, and I really don't know about the rounds, just that we'll fight until someone goes down.

On a side note, I'm so happy this is happening.....there's nothing like the imminent threat of getting beat badly to motivate to get in shape.

[Hard Fists]

hill -
2 times a week: sprinting up the hill for 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest, for 8 repetitions (build up to 20 if you can).

D@mn. I just tried the hill sprint thing on a treadmill-perhaps not the greatest idea, especially cause I have taken about a four month break from running.

I almost killed myself at least three times. I started out at a full incline sprint and almost busted my a$$ twice...I think that by rep 9 I started getting the hang of it. Those treadmills can be dangerous though, I think I'll bring a digital cam with me next time.

If I bang myself up I can always submit a copy of the vid to America's Funniest Home A$$holes

[Pork Chop]

Treadmills are a bad idea for sprinting coz you have to program them and wait for them to reach sprinting speed.

A better idea for sprinting, as far as exercise equipment is either a Versaclimber or an elliptical crosstrainer (with the arms). On those, you move the machine, not the machine moving first and you responding.

I like versaclimber and elliptical crosstrainers more than outdoor sprinting but outdoor sprinting is definitely better than a treadmill. Heck, running stairs is an even better replacement.

[_William_]

Be sure to really warm up before the sprints. Walking lunges, squats, leg swings, side lunges, and one leg RDL(stand on one leg, and push your hip backwards. You should look like a "T" at the bottom position) all work well. I would warm up for at least 15 minutes before sprinting. Not worth the injury risk to skip the warmup, especially this close to competition.

Something that really helps with sprinting for conditioning purposes, is to keep the sprinting intensity to at most 70% of maximum volitional effort. This is to avoid overtaxing the nervous system while still providing a conditioning effect. Leaving you with more energy to train kyokushin...

[madhusudan]

yesterday was pretty good. one great thing about korea is that most of the hiking trails have exercise equipment stationed along the path. after a short uphill i did three sets of dips on the parallel bars, then three sets of pushups on my fists. then i jogged up the first part of the trail. it leveled off and i walked for a bit until i got to the final ascent, which is the steepest part. there i sprinted to the top and came down a bit and sprinted up two more times. i thought that would be it for the day, but at the top i started talking to an older gentleman ( in really good shape) who offered to show me this other part of the trails. we jogged for about 2K through the hills until we reached a big track with all kinds of outdoor exercise equipment and a basketball court. it was getting dark so i thanked him and started heading home. it felt really good to have pushed myself ****her than i had planned.

one question is i remember hearing that we can work the stomach and forearms everyday. is that true, or should i rest those muscles for a day?

also, just to say, i know this is a kung fu/CMA board. i have a lot of love for kung fu and want to come back to it someday. just that i am training what's available, i have a great wongjangnim (teacher) and feel like i'm working on my basics for when i do get back into kung fu. i do really like kyokushin too for the intensity and real contact. ok, take care, train hard.

[dougadam]

Find an area outside that has at least 30 steps. Get up real early when the air is still fresh. Run up those stairs as fast as you can. Check you're pulse. Wait until it goes down to normal. Then run down the stairs as fast as you can. Check you're pulse again. Do this at least 20 times.

The faster you're heart rate normalizes the better condition you are getting in.

Of course this is just the first step in you're quest.

[Water Dragon]

shadow box


a lot



in front of a mirror

[SevenStar]

the good news is that october is far enough away that you can train properly.

1. find out the duration of the matches
2. let us know

fighting is largely anaerobic, so you want your focus to be on anaerobic conditioning and strength / explosiveness training, with a lesser concentration on aerobic and endurance conditioning. This far out from the fight, you can break your training up into 3 - 4 week cycles. Spend the first several weeks esablishing your base - getting yourself back into shape. Spend the second cycle on increasing your maximum strength and spend the last cycle on combining strength and explosiveness exercises.

jump rope and shadow box every day. Tailor these activities to the duration of the matches. How many rounds are the fights? shadow box two more rounds than that.

Sprint on the track and sprint up the hill three days per week.

3 - 4 mile jog twice per week.

calesthenics everyday. Pushups, pullups, squats, lunges, burpees, dips, etc.

plyometrics twice per week.

As for your question - some say you can work your calves, forearms and abs daily - I personally have no aversion to doing those daily unless you are using weights to train said body parts.