Ideas to work on stamina

[bigsam]

Hi

Any ideas to improve stamina.

I'm looking for workouts, circuit training, core training, methods and etc.

I do the usual jogging-running but struggle with that too.

[iron_leg_dave]

Hi

Any ideas to improve stamina.

I'm looking for workouts, circuit training, core training, methods and etc.

I do the usual jogging-running but struggle with that too.

The best way to achieve physical stamina is to work on mental endurance I think.

In traditional gong fu, there are lot's of ways we work on improving our mental endurance. The most common is standing postures, and repative training of techniques. These methods naturally build mental endurance, particularly if your intention is to do so.

When you run, if your doing standing post, you should feel like even though your body is giving out, you have this invisible mental strength that allows you, even encourages you to carry on as long as you will.

I know that I could run long enough to really hurt myself, and keep running. When I have a hard labor day of work, I really have to watch myself. I would definately attribute this quality to standing post.

[bigsam]

The best way to achieve physical stamina is to work on mental endurance I think.

How would you advice to do this....

I suppose i do have a big pain barrier that i need to overcome

[iron_leg_dave]

If your going to do gong fu, you should get used to pain. Atleast used to not being used to it, and being able to cause it to yourself.

You don't even need deep stances to train endurance though. It is mental. Tree holding in tai ji, isn't painful, but if it is done in the right frame of mind every single day will greatly enhance your endurace. Doing your gong fu, atleast an hour a day everyday, especially when you don't want to, will increase your endurance.

Keep thinking of ways to improve your endurance, and focus on training it.

The way I started doing internal work like that, was by focusing on will power, then endurance, then honesty, then courage, etc.

Just doing my kung fu every day, thinking of what I was working on. Throughout the day, I would be thinking about will, or endurance or whatever. Until I was ready to move on to the next thing.

A big part of gong fu is wu de etc. And training forms, drills etc, with the right ideas in mind will build the mental components of kung fu.

Later, I could muster courage, or summon will.

Now, if I need some endurance etc. it manifests itself.

[MasterKiller]

That's a hokey answer, Iron Leg.

We use different variations of Tabata (20 second on, 10 second off) intervals. For example:

1st set (20 secs): Jumping jacks

break 10 secs

2nd set (20 secs): Punch heavy bag

break 10 secs

3rd set (20 secs): Kettlebell cleans

break 10 secs

4th set (20 secs): Punch and sprawl

break 10 secs

5th set (20 secs): Knees on Heavy bag

break 10 secs

Repeat this 3 times.

[Mr Punch]

That's a mean looking workout MK.

And not that it matters but it isn't technically Tabatas. The Tabata Protocol works eight repetitions of the same exercise - that's what makes it special, otherwise it's just another interval.

He designed it so you couldn't do more than 15-20 reps each time. I've had this debate before, in that if the exercise is very similar (i.e. different kinds of push-up) is it still Tabata, because it means I can do way more reps. The answer appears to be yes and no! For example normal and wide spread push-ups are probably close enough to the same range of movement, as are normal and narrow, but wide, narrow and normal are working too many different muscle groups... probably... well, that's my interpretation anyway, but pure Tabatas are the same exercise.

The other thing to remember about Tabatas is that even top athletes shouldn't do them more than three times a week because the specific taxing effect on the nervous system of working essentially through failure six or seven times in four minutes is not good for your head or body.

But that's enough about Tabatas: I agree with you that any programme of HIIT (Tabatas or otherwise) is going to be good for stamina.

[SDJerry]

That's a hokey answer, Iron Leg.

We use different variations of Tabata (20 second on, 10 second off) intervals. For example:

1st set (20 secs): Jumping jacks

break 10 secs

2nd set (20 secs): Punch heavy bag

break 10 secs

3rd set (20 secs): Kettlebell cleans

break 10 secs

4th set (20 secs): Punch and sprawl

break 10 secs

5th set (20 secs): Knees on Heavy bag

break 10 secs

Repeat this 3 times.

I agree 100%! I'm definitely a kettlebell advocate myself. We switch things up alot too... sometimes we do the circuit training similar to above, sometimes we focus on doing a certain task for time. Say snatching a kettlebell for 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and even 10 on occasion. One teaches you explosiveness while the other teaches you to pace yourself.

Jumping rope is a great exercise! You can also work your footwork from a fighting posture while holding a 5lb dumb bell in each hand. Don't worry about shadow boxing just try to keep your hands up. It will help condition your shoulders.

[iron_leg_dave]

That's a hokey answer, Iron Leg.

We use different variations of Tabata (20 second on, 10 second off) intervals. For example:

1st set (20 secs): Jumping jacks

break 10 secs

2nd set (20 secs): Punch heavy bag

break 10 secs

3rd set (20 secs): Kettlebell cleans

break 10 secs

4th set (20 secs): Punch and sprawl

break 10 secs

5th set (20 secs): Knees on Heavy bag

break 10 secs

Repeat this 3 times.

Lol hokey?

What is hokey?

You can't gain stamina without training mental endurance. Most atheletes train the two simultaneously and the latter quite incidentally.

When it comes to gong fu, for centuries atleast, it has been concidered important to have more mental endurance than you should need.

It's not hokey, it's one approach.

[SevenStar]

The best way to achieve physical stamina is to work on mental endurance I think.

In traditional gong fu, there are lot's of ways we work on improving our mental endurance. The most common is standing postures, and repative training of techniques. These methods naturally build mental endurance, particularly if your intention is to do so.

When you run, if your doing standing post, you should feel like even though your body is giving out, you have this invisible mental strength that allows you, even encourages you to carry on as long as you will.

I know that I could run long enough to really hurt myself, and keep running. When I have a hard labor day of work, I really have to watch myself. I would definately attribute this quality to standing post.

dude... really? ummm.... no.

Don't get me wrong, visualization is a powerful tool, so is mental training. I think it is a necessity in conjunction with physical training, however by itself, it is not sufficient for endurance gains, especially from the perspective of an athlete.

We can easily test that though... keep doing your standing post every day. keep doing kung fu for an hour per day. enter a marathon and see how many of those 26 miles you last. Anyone can run past the point of pain - I don't really attribute that to any special mental training, it's called heart. plenty of people have that with no training at all. But that only goes so far.

[JGTevo]

Take frank shamrock, for example. he doesn't run anymore, I hear; he uses an eliptical machine.

Look at Frank Shamrock's last fight, against Cung Le. Thats why he doesn't run anymore. The guy has a bad knee, or maybe bad knees. He's no doubt suffered knee injuries in the past. I'm in a similar boat. After my first knee injury I couldn't run for an entire year.

As iron stated, it's not specific. biking increases endurance, but marathoners don't train by biking. Why not?

Because they're already doing an intensive aerobic exercise(running). Biking won't increase it any more than running. It's not like biking gives them some kind of seperate endurance gain that they can only gain from that.

On the other hand, anaerobic endurance is supplemented by aerobic endurance. Aerobic endurance is also very useful when moving, feinting, slipping/weaving, blocking/deflecting(in some cases its anaerobic), and in training when you are drilling these things thousands of times.

[IronFist]

I didn't read any replies in this thread so maybe this has been said already.

If you want increased endurance in an event, you should train in ways that simulate that event.

For example, if you want more endurance for fighting, don't train to run 10 miles, because fighting takes way more energy than running does. You'll increase the amount you can run, but you won't have any more endurance in your fight.

Similarly, if someone could run 5 miles but wanted to run 10, they wouldn't train by sprinting and jumping rope, because those don't approximate distance running.

If you want more endurance for fighting, train by fighting/sparring or if you can't, train buy jumping rope or doing Kettlebell snatches or something that approximates the energy usage that you find in fighting.

Not trying to tell you what to do, just trying to save you from wasting your time.

[sanjuro_ronin]

I didn't read any replies in this thread so maybe this has been said already.

If you want increased endurance in an event, you should train in ways that simulate that event.

For example, if you want more endurance for fighting, don't train to run 10 miles, because fighting takes way more energy than running does. You'll increase the amount you can run, but you won't have any more endurance in your fight.

Similarly, if someone could run 5 miles but wanted to run 10, they wouldn't train by sprinting and jumping rope, because those don't approximate distance running.

If you want more endurance for fighting, train by fighting/sparring or if you can't, train buy jumping rope or doing Kettlebell snatches or something that approximates the energy usage that you find in fighting.

Not trying to tell you what to do, just trying to save you from wasting your time.

The Law of Specificty rules, quite correct.

[JGTevo]

You'll increase the amount you can run, but you won't have any more endurance in your fight.

That's actually not entirely correct. If you go back through the threda, bakxierboxer posted a quote explaining that aerobic endurance contributes to anaerobic endurance as well.

[sanjuro_ronin]

That's actually not entirely correct. If you go back through the threda, bakxierboxer posted a quote explaining that aerobic endurance contributes to anaerobic endurance as well.

There is always some cross over, form one way or another, it just depends on what you think is acceptable for the time put in.

[SevenStar]

That's actually not entirely correct. If you go back through the threda, bakxierboxer posted a quote explaining that aerobic endurance contributes to anaerobic endurance as well.

As iron stated, it's not specific. biking increases endurance, but marathoners don't train by biking. Why not?