We know that building cardio capacity first is a must when starting, for sports, for anything for that matter. This is just basic heart health. Assuming you’ve all been on that grind, it’s time to switch gears and throw some love at the Anaerobic Lactic and Alactic systems. If your athletes are already feeling more at home on the mats, rolling, drilling, or sparring, tell ’em to buckle up — we’re just getting started.

Ever seen a marathon runner gas out in a five-minute grappling session? Yeah, it happens. It’s not just about the miles; it’s about the fight in the miles. As the intensity cranks up, and the crew starts pushing harder, it may feel like a step back. It’s not. It’s the climb before the peak, and it’s about to get real interesting. Tell your athletes to dig deep and embrace the grind — it’s the only way to truly be a part of this wild tribe we call combat sports.

Prepare for the sessions to get tougher, the sparring to get more intense. Their nervous systems are gonna need to level up, especially if competing is in their sights. Trust me, the training floor is where the real battle happens; the competition is just showtime.

Remember, that first competition is alien territory — stress is through the roof. That’s why we train like beasts, so when it’s go-time, it feels like another day at the office. Your brain and body will be on high alert, but that’s what we want. That’s how you transform the unknown into your playground.

“The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat.” – That’s the gold right there.

Once your athletes hit that sweet spot between 115-145 bpm, that’s where the magic happens. Go beyond, and things start to get messy — complex moves and clear thinking take a hit. Hick’s law says it all: more choices, more time to decide. We want instinct and training to take the wheel.

Now, for those without fancy gym gadgets, no sweat. Sprints or burpees will do the trick just fine. Just remember to warm up those engines to avoid any unwanted pit stops.

We’re going to build on that anaerobic capacity and power. Combat sports ain’t a steady race; it’s a series of sprints. So we’ll tailor the training to match — pushing hard, resting, then going again. Think of it as a fun little dance between exertion and recovery.

For the home crew: start simple with sprints or burpees, following our Phase 1 blueprint. And for the sprinters, keep it safe with a solid warm-up to keep those muscles happy.

Fight sports are intermittent. To deconstruct some of it and as we saw in Part 1, we mostly see a work-to-rest ratio of 3 to 1 in judo and wrestling, and with striking arts, the work-to-rest ratio could vary between 2:3 and 1:6. Depending on the style of the fighter and the opponent, MMA is much more of a melting pot of some of these depending on the style of the fighters.

let’s focus on gradually increasing the intensity while improving lactic capacity. We will do so by slowly increasing high-intensity work times while slowly decreasing the time of rest in between high-intensity bouts. Use one of the pieces of equipment or methods mentioned previously. This will be a nice way to ease into high-intensity conditioning for those who never did before. 

Phase 1 (2x/week)

Week	High intensity	Low intensity	repetitions
1	15 sec	2 min 45 sec	4
2	15 sec	2 min 30 sec	5
3	30 sec	2 min 30 sec	5
4	30 sec	2:15	6
5	45 sec	2:15	6
6	X	20-30 min	1
7	45	2:00	6
8	60	2:00	7
9	60	1:45	7
10	60	1:30	8

For those who do not have access to gyms or this kind of equipment, this could be done with outdoor sprints, or if you don’t have the room for it outside, you could also do burpees in the comfort of your own home or apartment.

A little precautionary advice for those who want to try their hands at sprinting. A good 10-15 warmup is necessary to avoid injuries. I’ve seen so many pulled hamstrings and hip issues with outdoor sprinting that often can become nagging injuries that you will bring on to the mats.

After doing a few lower body mobility drills, you can do a few light sprints where you start at 50% of intensity and gradually go up. On the first week of the program, you have to do 4 sets of 15-second sprints with a 2:45 second active rest that would be a fast walk or very light jog, depending on your conditioning and experience. On those 4 sets, especially the first week, the last 2 sets would be near max effort.

For sprinting, following the logical progression of phase 1, you could also go train on a track. Working on Anaerobic Alactic power would be doing sprints of 30 meters, and for Alactic capacity, you would be doing distances like 100 to 150 meters, or anything under 20 seconds. Here is how you can work on AA power and capacity.

**	Intensity	Sets	reps	Rest/reps	Rest/sets
AA power #1	95-100%	3	5x30m	2min	8min
AA Power #2	95-100%	2	6×40	2min	6min
AA capacity #1	90-95%	3	3×100	3-4min	10min
AA capacity #2	90-95%	2	3×150	3-4min	8min

**Due to the high impact and intensity of sprints, you would need at least 48 to 72 hours between these sessions or else you increase your chances of injuries tremendously.

This is the groundwork, coaches. Next part? That’s where we get fancy with sport-specific drills and unorthodox methods. It’s all about building monsters on the mat, one round at a time.

Catch you in the next round,

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