Weightlifting

[SSS]

I know you all are tired of the age old discussion of weightlifting, but here is someone who has actually experimented with both and this is what i found.
1.) I lifted for three years doing only compound and explosive exercises some days only 1-3 reps other days 20-25 still only compound and explosive exercises
2.) I still ran about 2 miles 3 days a week
3.) I circuit trained alternating between explosive bag work 2minutes bag 1 minute burpees 1 minute other stuff like sledge hammer etc.. for 5 rounds of 4 minutes
4.) I still gassed by three rounds in sparring

I watch my diet and do plenty of cardio

I then switched to this:
1.) two and a half mile runs in army boots 4 days a week
2.) bag work alternating dips and pushups totaling 4minute rounds for 5
3.) lots of pull-ups 20 at a time times 3 sets
4.) hill runs included in my roadwork
I can now spar 5 rounds and still some, and I still keep my power.

so for me its old school training all the way no more weights, that eliminates an hour and a half from my training and now I only keep my protein at 70 grams a day and the carbs havent changed

[Ghost]

You upped your cardio though.
To be fair you are mixing up weights and cardio.

You said you did weights and you were still gassed in sparring. Weights doesnt improve your cardio ability. You need to increase your cardio to improve your cardio ability.

In my opinion 2 miles is very short. I run 6 miles minimum every day other than sundays when i do nothing at all, all day lol.

You can do well without weights, i think you can do better with them. I dont like this idea that weights are suddenly bad somehow. In martial arts they have this stigma attached to them, they are only lumps of metal though.
You should mix it up, bodyweight and weights.

so to conclude i think you werent being realistic in your expectations. I dont see how weights can improve your cardio yet you seemed to expect it to, then you did more cardio and you got better at sparring and you concluded it was because of the weights. I think its bad science mate and you should have another think about.

Best of luck to you either way.

[Tom Yum]

Originally Posted by SSS

I know you all are tired of the age old discussion of weightlifting, but here is someone who has actually experimented with both and this is what i found.
1.) I lifted for three years doing only compound and explosive exercises some days only 1-3 reps other days 20-25 still only compound and explosive exercises
2.) I still ran about 2 miles 3 days a week
3.) I circuit trained alternating between explosive bag work 2minutes bag 1 minute burpees 1 minute other stuff like sledge hammer etc.. for 5 rounds of 4 minutes
4.) I still gassed by three rounds in sparring

I watch my diet and do plenty of cardio

I then switched to this:
1.) two and a half mile runs in army boots 4 days a week
2.) bag work alternating dips and pushups totaling 4minute rounds for 5
3.) lots of pull-ups 20 at a time times 3 sets
4.) hill runs included in my roadwork
I can now spar 5 rounds and still some, and I still keep my power.

so for me its old school training all the way no more weights, that eliminates an hour and a half from my training and now I only keep my protein at 70 grams a day and the carbs havent changed

What's up SSS.

Yeah about the weight training you did, that's great for tuning up for a month or two, but nothing beats running and bag work for functional conditioning.

Ideally, you'd phase your training.

Let's say you've got a smoker or some type of fight coming up in 6 months. You might start of lifting for the first month with your other basic conditioning (bag work, rope skipping, pads) to build your base strength, then start getting more sport specific in month 2, drop the weight training in month 3 and so on.

You know what will build your fight stamina?

Round Robbins.

Sparring one of your guys for one 2:00 or 3:00 round. Sparring a fresh guy for the next one. And another fresh guy for the next one...etc.

When you start showing signs of fatigue, your opponents will push you into the deep, without knocking you flat on your ass, but making you work just a little bit harder.

You might find yourself sucking wind and or throwing up if you push it 110% through the end.