I played football but was no where near good enough to go pro. I mean conditioning alone would be a bear. I get that from a conditioning standpoint football, relatively speaking, is not top of the heap but still to go from desk jocky to NFL would be tough.
http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/dish/201204/accountant-play-football-miami-dolphins
That gets me thinking what sport requires the best conditioning?
I’ve competed in high school wrestling, amateur boxing, tennis, basketball and football. Conditioning wise, boxing was by far the hardest for me.
Probably professional cycling or other endurance sports. Basically the whole thing is conditioning.
I’ve done varsity football, varsity soccer, college ice hockey, varsity track (sprinter), ultra running, amature boxing and skiing. My brothers both played college football. Honestly, I think the conditioning at the top levels of any of those sports is pretty much equally as intense. They’re each unique in the conditioning, but if you’re talking pro, I’d say they all require equal amounts of time, sweat and dedication. My brothers were training insane hours each day doing sprints, weights and other weird crap in college. One was a RB and one was an LB.
This. I love running and the other sports I’ve played, but boxing conditioning is tremendously difficult. Hitting a heavy bag for 3 minutes is exhausting, and then the additional fatigue and mental focus that are required to get in a ring with someone who’s doing their best to pummel you into submission…damn. It’s hard to compare other sports to that.
Yes, you can run an ultramarathon or bike a century or whatever, but boxing is just incredibly impressive to me in terms of the training that’s required and the hyperfocus that a couple rounds in the ring necessitates.
Conditioning is not a specific word. Conditioned for what? If a WR can run a 4.3 forty, then he is conditioned for the NFL. I doubt he’s going to be running sub-3 hour marathon though, so he is not conditioned for marathon running. Heck, even within the same sport that WR probably squats or deadlifts half of what a o-lineman can so he is not in any condition to be an o-lineman.
In terms of general conditioning (all-roundedness), fighting sports and track events like the decathlon are probably the best “conditioned”…although it feels like gynamstics stuff should be in there or something, whatever. It really depends what the end goal is.
The guy has a 4.43 40 time…which is faster than pretty much any tight end…39 inch vertical?
I think your right. Just thinking about the alpine climbs in the Tour de France. Some stages can have mutliple climbs with over 1000m each in elevation gain with grades of 4-7%. That and they are really hustling up these hills. Then they get up and do it again the next day.
For amateurs I only boxed 3 rounds of 2 minutes. It bewilders me that pros fight 10-12 rounds of 3 minutes, and in the old school days it would go as high as 50 rounds.
Besides earn a good living, what can’t you do brah?
Boxing/Muay Thai by far, other then soccer rugby and baseball my experIence with other sports is quite limited. But boxing and muay thai are my favourites and I have never had a work out as intense as those. In terms of endurance sports such as cycling your heart rate doesnt reach the same level of intensity. Essentially you are doing a differnt type of cardio and training your heart in a differnt way when you compare enduro sports to boxing. I dont know too much about the science behind it but I do know there is a difference between aerobic and anerobic excersive and at the heart rate levels of boxing you are doing anerobic excercise.
I could sprint/trail run for an hour and my heart rate will never reach the intensity of a five minute warm up followed by thirty minutes of sparring. Plus ADHD kicks in pretty quick and for some reason Ive never had a problem losing focus while doing striking martial arts.
I have done both competitive martial arts and cycling but neither anywhere near a pro level. I agree that boxing does push the hr up. But in my experience clycing was an overall more intense workout. At the pro level this may be differant but I have a hard time with your comment that cycling does not reach the same level of intensity. I mean climbing a 3000k foot mountain pass over 11 miles at 20MPH. They can burn 8000 calories in a single stage (though 4-6K is the norm)
Agree with martial arts – I finished in the top 3 in the state several years in a row in full contact sparring tae kwon do when I was younger and nothing else really compares to the level of exhaustion a three minute round brings. I imagine boxing is even more intense because you’re right in close slugging it out. TKD is the same way except at the higher levels where you can’t get close to anyone without getting knocked out.
Epic knock out video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paTnfOsaKFo
Side note on that – I’ve always wondered why there are no black belts in TKD in MMA. If you got a caught who was well trained in TKD and Brazilian ju jitsu in one of the lower weight divisions, that would be extremely difficult to beat. Most of the strikers in MMA are pretty weak IMO, but I doubt a lot of the ground guys would get in close enough with kicks like that (the video does not do the speed and power justice – anything that connects is an instant knock out). Wouldn’t work against Overeem (that guy is from another species apparently) but in a 160 or 180 pound division it would be a winning combo.
There are A LOT of TKD blackbelts in MMA. Most don’t really mention it since it doesn’t directly benefit a fighter in MMA. There are some blatantly obvious flaws of using TKD in MMA. Hands down, point fighting, competition without punches to the head, flashy kicks that end up falling down, etc.
Just off the top of my head, MMArtists with bb in TKD: Anderson Silva, GSP, Dan Hardy, Stephen Bonnar, Benson Henderson, Bas Rutten. A lot of the Pride guys also had bb in TKD.
You’re not supposed to have your hands down, that’s just sloppy work. I didn’t know there were that many – I haven’t ever really seen kicks like that in MMA. Strikers is usually some tool throwing wind maker punches that miss, which is why most of the fights end on the ground and the wrestling guys usually win. If you had some long range head kicks AND a ground game, you would be tough to beat, especially in the lower weight classes.
Meh.
You’re right I think thats a problem with alot of the traditional martial arts that focus on point fighting. Coming from that background alot of fighters pick up some bad habits that inhibit their ability in a full contact knock out competition. I think thats why alot of fighters switch to muay thai or revise their striking game, though I think GSP mentions his kyokushin karate background often.
Point fighting leads to a few outcomes; One, as you mentioned is droping hands. Also there is the habit of pulling punches before full extension, which reduces power, screws up range and footwork. I think the problem is that fighters are conditioned to think that landing a well exectuted single blow will end a fight. My experience is that you are going to get hit, alot, and most people can absorb damage from well executed strikes.
I see your TKD video and raise a Muay Thai video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8v9UKw-BUk
This guy has textbook MT kicks, I hope you enjoy this. If you’re ever in Thailand you should check out some of these fights, they even have 8 year old kids fighting in the ring. Just watch out for the ladyboys, lol.
I just had a visit with some friends who live in Thailand. I had not seen them for nearly 2 years and wanted to ask them about this. I thought the culture around MT was very interesting. They live in the north (Chang Mai) not sure if there are regional differnces in MT.
hmmm cycling is pushing yourself harder and harder in a constant and rhythmic way. Constant and increasing pain/endurance is a lot easier than engaging your fast twitch muscles to the point of fatigue (as in boxing/MMA) and forcing yourself to constantly push past these points of fatigue (unexpectedly) in varying muscles. Add in the requirement that spontaneity is key in boxing/MMA and you have raised the bar another grueling notch. Triathlons are definitely harder than pure cycling IMO, but MMA is by far the toughest.