When training do you find yourself struggling after just a few minutes on the pads or sparring?

You might be an absolute gym god with muscles from brussels, but if your cardio sucks you're gonna struggle keeping up in a fight.

So here's a few tips on how to improve your cardio and keep fighting fit.

Heart Rate Running

Yes I said the dreaded word…

Running.

But as much as we all want to avoid it, it's crucial to develop your cardio engine helping you stay in the fight for longer.

And most of you guys probably don't run regularly so here's a method that helped me ease into running.

Running at different heart rate zones.

We all have different heart rate zones depending on age and fitness, so first we will have to identify these.

‍

To calculate your heart rate bands based on age and fitness, follow these steps:

1. Find Maximum Heart Rate (MHR):
   • Use the formula: 220 - your age. This gives you an estimate of your MHR. (Maximum Heart Rate)
2. Determine Heart Rate Zones:
   • Each zone is a percentage of your MHR:
     • Zone 1 (Very Light): 50–60% of MHR
     • Zone 2 (Light): 60–70% of MHR
     • Zone 3 (Moderate): 70–80% of MHR
     • Zone 4 (Hard): 80–90% of MHR
     • Zone 5 (Maximum): 90–100% of MHR

‍

These zones help tailor your workout intensity to your fitness goals.

To do this easily open up your calculator and type in 220 x your age  = your maximum heart rate.

Then take this number and if you want to find zone two the bottom threshold would be your maximum heart rate times 0.6 and the top threshold would be your MHR times 0.7.

When doing zone 2 runs for example aim to stay within these two thresholds.

The Plan

Here’s a simple weekly running plan to build endurance, incorporating Zone 2 and Zone 3 runs. Running once or twice a week will allow recovery while gradually improving your stamina.

(1–2 Runs Per Week)

Day 1: Long Slow Distance (Zone 2)

• Duration: 45-60 minutes (start with 30 if you're new)
• Intensity: Keep your heart rate in Zone 2 (60-70% of MHR). This should feel comfortable, like you can carry on a conversation.
• Purpose: Build aerobic base and endurance.

Day 2: Tempo Run (Zone 3)

• Duration: 30-45 minutes (includes warm-up and cool-down)
• Structure:
  • Warm-up: 10 minutes in Zone 2 (light pace)
  • Main effort: 20-25 minutes in Zone 3 (moderate intensity; hard to talk)
  • Cool-down: 5-10 minutes in Zone 2
• Purpose: Improve your cardiovascular strength and stamina for faster, sustained running.

Rest/Recovery:

• Make sure to take rest days or cross-train with low-impact activities (like cycling or swimming) between runs to aid recovery.

This plan balances endurance-building with moderate intensity work to gradually enhance your stamina without overtraining.

I guarantee if you incorporate this into your training you will start to see the benefit in class when we do things like sparring, padwork and jiu jitsu.

We all only have one body and need to rely on it to get us out of bad situations.

Train hard, fight easy.

If you have any more questions about training just ask in class and I’ll be happy to help.

We even have a small fitness group that runs at 10am just before the adults class on Sundays just in case you would like to train with others.

Talk soon,

Cameron

‍