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By Julian Forbes
Variety is the spice of life... There is no need to turn an inherantly repetetive process (training) into something that bores you to tears and makes you look for excuses to avoid it. In addition, as great as circuits are, there are other forms of training that have great benefits and round off your conditioning needs nicely while providing that variety in exercises. One of the best of these is Fartlek training.
Fartlek Training was developed by a Swede back in the 1930's. Although most commonly associated with running, with a little imagination its principles can be applied to many other forms of training. The circuits you have just reviewed use its principals when switching between regular Pattering, Over Drive Pattering, and Super Over Drive Pattering. Another name for this type of training is Interval Traning.
The concept is simple. In running, it is the practice of switching speeds suddenly for calculated intervals. From a warm up jogging speed, you pick two spots up ahead with a roughly calculated distance between them. Say two trees 5o meters apart.
When you reach the first marker (tree), explode into an all out sprint ending at the second marker (tree). When you reach this second point, don’t stop, but rather continue running at either the same pace as before the sprint, or an intermediate medium speed run. You will repeat this process alternating between regular running pace, recovery pace, and sprints. Vary the length of sprints but keep them reletively short - 3 to 10 secs long. As you get fitter your “intermediate” speed will increase and you will need less “recovery” speed intervals.
The entire run should take about 30 minutes and be 3 to 4 miles. If you can run further in that time, fine, however, what you don’t want to do is develop a long distance runner’s muscle type. That’s to say long stringy muscles built for endurance but with little explosive power. The sprints will help keep your muscles on track for what you’re going to need in the ring.
You’ll notice from the above diagram that the run ends in a sprint, not the traditional runner’s cool down jog. This is to make the most of your workout. You can, and should, cool down by stretching and walking around when your finished your run and wind down progressively.
Now, how does this type of training help me in the ring? Think about it. In a fight you are usually in perpetual motion (running pace) with sudden bursts pushing hard off your legs as you attack or move to block (the sprints), then you’ll either go back to animated motion or if you need it, you’ll back off and go into a recovery pace (jogging pace). You’re doing this for the entire fight. Fartlek training will condition your body for this, and help develop that explossiveness you need in the ring as well as increase your recovery rate and pace avoiding the “jogging pace” altogether.
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