Cardio Training for the UFC Championship Belt

[rockdawg21]

I've been doing a fat loss for the past few months and decided to see where I am fitness/cardio/mental-wise and go for the UFC Championship belt. We're talking 5 5-minute rounds, with 1 minute rest periods. I don't have a fancy gym like Sherk or Brock has for Caveman Training, but I do hill sprints for my difficult cardio so I figured I'd give it a shot to see if I can go all-out for a fight. I know it's different since there's no grappling, punching, etc. involved, but it's still a heck of a test since it's still a very high intensity cardio session.

I'll probably set this as a once-a-week log because I always push myself harder each time I do cardio, so if I can get more hills, increase my avg. heart rate, max heart rate, go 5+ rounds, etc., I feel a sense of accomplishment.

About Me:
Age: 29
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 159 pounds

Set Criteria:
Warmup: Light jog around 400m track (approx. 5-6 minutes)
Hills: Grass hills, approx. 40 yards uphill, approx. 40 degree grade, hill faces due north
Method: Uphill - 90% effort sprints, Downhill - fast walk
Cooldown: 1 lap walk around 400m track
Heart Rate Monitor: Polar F6

Today's Criteria (7/5/09):
Temperature: 69 degrees F
Humidity: 64%
Wind: From NNE at 10mph (I had to fight the wind uphill today )
Time: Around 9:30am
Food: 1.5 scoops of whey protein prior to cardio (keep in mind, I'm doing this only for fat loss. If I were really going for the belt, I'd have a nice blend of simple/complex carbs and a small amount of lipids [fats] prior to a fight).

Cardio:
Warmup
Round 1: HR* Start - 130, HR End - 181, Hills - 10
Round 2: HR Start - 148, HR End - 188, Hills - 11
Round 3: HR Start - 160, HR End - 189, Hills - 11
Round 4: HR Start - 167, HR End - 188, Hills - 10
Round 5: N/A
Cooldown
*Heart Rate in BPM (Beats Per Minute)

Totals for workout:
Duration (including warmup & cooldown): 39:44**
Max Heart Rate: 191
Avg Heart Rate 163
Calories Burned: 516 (I never pay attention to this, but thought some members might be interested)
**I made a mistake and didn't turn off my heart rate monitor for my first 4 stretches, but my HR was still 144 when I shut it off. Stretching still keeps the HR up if you're stretching hard.

Overall, I think if I'd of had some carbs in my system to give my muscles some glycogen, I could have handled 5 rounds, remember, I only had some whey protein prior to this. By hill #7 on the 4th round, I bent over to catch myself, then told myself "get up pu***!" (literally did that, lol). Plus, I had to fight 10mph of wind in my face today.

Next week, I'll give it a shot with a nice simple/complex carb mixture about 30-60 minutes before my cardio to give my muscles some glycogen for fuel; I really felt that was the problem as I was fine mentally and could still breathe pretty good, but my legs tired too much near the end of the 4th round, so I felt it was just best to "fight another day"

Great workout, that was a lot of fun!

[rockdawg21]

Just curious, anybody else do the caveman training?

Originally Posted by rockdawg21

Just curious, anybody else do the caveman training?

for wrestling we do something like that and it BLOWS

[VCURamFan]

Originally Posted by rockdawg21

I've been doing a fat loss for the past few months and decided to see where I am fitness/cardio/mental-wise and go for the UFC Championship belt. We're talking 5 5-minute rounds, with 1 minute rest periods. I don't have a fancy gym like Sherk or Brock has for Caveman Training, but I do hill sprints for my difficult cardio so I figured I'd give it a shot to see if I can go all-out for a fight. I know it's different since there's no grappling, punching, etc. involved, but it's still a heck of a test since it's still a very high intensity cardio session.

I'll probably set this as a once-a-week log because I always push myself harder each time I do cardio, so if I can get more hills, increase my avg. heart rate, max heart rate, go 5+ rounds, etc., I feel a sense of accomplishment.

About Me:
Age: 29
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 159 pounds

Set Criteria:
Warmup: Light jog around 400m track (approx. 5-6 minutes)
Hills: Grass hills, approx. 40 yards uphill, approx. 40 degree grade, hill faces due north
Method: Uphill - 90% effort sprints, Downhill - fast walk
Cooldown: 1 lap walk around 400m track
Heart Rate Monitor: Polar F6

Today's Criteria (7/5/09):
Temperature: 69 degrees F
Humidity: 64%
Wind: From NNE at 10mph (I had to fight the wind uphill today )
Time: Around 9:30am
Food: 1.5 scoops of whey protein prior to cardio (keep in mind, I'm doing this only for fat loss. If I were really going for the belt, I'd have a nice blend of simple/complex carbs and a small amount of lipids [fats] prior to a fight).

Cardio:
Warmup
Round 1: HR* Start - 130, HR End - 181, Hills - 10
Round 2: HR Start - 148, HR End - 188, Hills - 11
Round 3: HR Start - 160, HR End - 189, Hills - 11
Round 4: HR Start - 167, HR End - 188, Hills - 10
Round 5: N/A
Cooldown
*Heart Rate in BPM (Beats Per Minute)

Totals for workout:
Duration (including warmup & cooldown): 39:44**
Max Heart Rate: 191
Avg Heart Rate 163
Calories Burned: 516 (I never pay attention to this, but thought some members might be interested)
**I made a mistake and didn't turn off my heart rate monitor for my first 4 stretches, but my HR was still 144 when I shut it off. Stretching still keeps the HR up if you're stretching hard.

Overall, I think if I'd of had some carbs in my system to give my muscles some glycogen, I could have handled 5 rounds, remember, I only had some whey protein prior to this. By hill #7 on the 4th round, I bent over to catch myself, then told myself "get up pu***!" (literally did that, lol). Plus, I had to fight 10mph of wind in my face today.

Next week, I'll give it a shot with a nice simple/complex carb mixture about 30-60 minutes before my cardio to give my muscles some glycogen for fuel; I really felt that was the problem as I was fine mentally and could still breathe pretty good, but my legs tired too much near the end of the 4th round, so I felt it was just best to "fight another day"

Great workout, that was a lot of fun!

Dude, that's ridiculous! I'm trying to trim some fat, but there's no way I'm going that far. You're not right in the head!

[rockdawg21]

Originally Posted by VCURamFan

Dude, that's ridiculous! I'm trying to trim some fat, but there's no way I'm going that far. You're not right in the head!

I've just always treated cardio/losing fat the same as lifting weights - every time you do it, it should be more difficult.

I'm tellin' ya, that made me feel awesome to know that I'm in that good of shape only getting a few hours a week to lift weights and do some cardio.

You call yourself names too? lol.

Sometimes when I use to hit the bag or spar I'd say to myself "Do you wanna be a F***ing fighter!?!"

It's actually pretty motivating.

[rockdawg21]

Oh yeah, when I'm doing hill sprints at 100% effort (complete sprint up and down with a 30 second rest), usually after the 4 to 5 minute range, I'm telling myself not to be a ***** and get 8, then get 9, then get 10, etc. I've never made it past 12 on that, I'm usually around 192 or so even after a 30 second rest so it's tough to convince myself that I need to continue, lol.

You're right, it's amazing how doing something like that can be so motivating!