The Cardio Myth 

Cardio isn't fighting. but fatigue makes cowards of us all.

Ramsey: "Do sport-specific training." Me: *Opens pickle jars for 5 hours*

So 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups and 10 miles a day won't help me beat people in one punch?

Running doesn't always engage the same muscles u need to use in a fight, but it's good training for running away in a self defense situation

I have said this for a long time. Me and my cousin sparred, he's a fitness freak, cardio monster at the gym. I had him gassing inside 4 minutes and I have asthma and never run lol. Because he was trying to make movements that were new to him and you get the idea. This was above 10 years ago but it still brings me joy that it happened.

"I've spent most of the day on video editing" We noticed haha. Look at that beautiful sparring background while you talk. *Chef's kiss very well deserved

The cardiovascular adaption sure does help in other activities.

To me, running helps with boxing but it's not really about cardio. It's mostly about digging deeper into myself. Like "Yeah if you can't even run that last kilometer how tf do u think you can handle thoses last rounds in the ring ?" To me it's more about mental toughness/discipline. Your thoughts?

If you're a lazy bum like me every workout is a cardio workout. Last week I dropped to do calf raises right after pull ups and it almost made me puke.

I tried boxing after years of running. I could barely last on the bags, and jump squats killed me. The only benefit from running was that I didn't puke or fade where some people did. But I had zero upper body endurance, you really need to train everything.

Ramsey for James Bond in 2021 👍🏼

I recall Fedor mentioning how he eventually fine tuned most of his training to only do fight related training, replacing cardio and weightlifting with wrestling, sparring, and drills.

any kind of exertion at close to aearobic thresh hold with cause your heart to stretch allowing more efficient blood circulation, which is what “cardio” means... makes your heart more effective, this will carry over to most sports positively. The thing that kills you in fights is the anaerobic part, muscles running out of sugar and lactic acid build up, your heart can’t fix that problem. Your muscles have to learn to be more efficient. Like Ramsey said.

VO2, increasing the size of your heart, removing lactic acid efficiently... things I don't think people think about when they say cardio. If you want to increase stamina in a fight than fight more. If you want increase any of the above, you're best route is keep you heart at a consistent high rhythm such as running. Cardio is still very important in it's own.

I was up to 1am rolling in bed wondering about conditioning im fights trainning... Wake up, see this vídeo... Ramsey is awesome

No drive for 12 years. That pretty much explains in part that super calmed and happy estate 😁

I like to run as a way to exercise without having to invest extra time "I gotta walk there anyway, so might as well"

Surely Ramsey has pass the 100 pushups 100 sit-ups 100 squads level. Look at him.

So the idea of "the myth of cardio" is not just that running/biking/etc makes you more athletic, which makes you more prepared for a combat sport, but that your performance at running directly equates to your performance at a combat sport? With the first one being correct, and the second one not?

I've noticed the same phenomenon of really quickly starting to feel like crap if I don't train. I don't train every day though, I usually do 4 training sessions a week, but if I have to skip a couple of those so that I get four inactive days I start feeling myself wither and get restless, wanting to go train.

Running will only cause joint problems if you're doing it wrong: landing on your heel like most people. You need a midfoot strike or land on the balls of you're feet especially if you run barefoot. This will actually HELP your joints and you'll be better off than people who don't run at all.

It's not about muscular adaptation, cardio increases your atp, oxygen saturation, etc...as well as mental toughness of a certain type.

Ramsey just explained SAID ( specific adaptation to imposed demands) in a very accessible way.

Running is good for running. Biking is good for biking. 5:30 I have really good muscular adaptation for the activities I have invested my time in. 8:30 Marcelo Garcia - what do I do for cardio for Jiu Jitsu, I do more Ju Jitsu.

I think this stuff is largely perpetuated by gym trainers who've started bleeding into martial arts since there's more and more crossover with gyms offering some kind of combat sports or mma gyms serving as more generalized fitness gyms in some cases. They're well meaning but they tend to see everything through the lens of specific programs and seem to have a knee jerk impulse to make programs for everything. Also you obvs don't want clients getting hurt, which is so easy with live practice in combat sports so there's some market incentive in there as well to guide them on the road that's safer for the business. I'm always surprised how complicated the explanations of any given fitness/lifting/strength/conditioning coach will be on even basic things like throwing a punch. At some point you gotta just *DO THE THING*. No modifications, no bands, no weights, no circuits or weird intervals and your opponent doesn't care what your heart rate is. * [EDIT for additional context] * I'm not saying "don't do conditioning and other training". It's just lower in the hierarchy than doing more rounds. I'm talking about practical outcomes for the majority of practitioners. Who are mostly non competitive and non professional. Where students start doing supplementary exercises LONG before they're nearing any kind of limit of benefits from just doing the activity more. If you train 2-3 times a week, you will get more from training 2 or 3 MORE times a week than you will from 2-3 days of other training. Competitive fighters do supplementary training because the time they're logging in applied training 2x a day, 6 days a week is DEEP into the territory of reduced returns. Is it going to help if you run for 20min before a training session? Yes, obviously. But if you train less than 5x a week you will generally get far more relevant adaptation from adding 20min more of sparring or other live drills.

This is so true and people really need to take note. For example, I'm generally more fitter and active than my older brother but when it came to basketball he could perform better than me because he played more basketball than me. On a similar note, what are your views on walking and whether athletes should do daily walks or if its better to not include it in their routine? Walking has so much health benefits to the average joe but would they become lost or null on an athlete?

Long distance running and cycling are aerobic. Sprinting and fighting are anaerobic. Running can benefit your fighting cardio, but it has to be sprints. The only time fighting is aerobic is during opening rounds when people are sizing up each other - this doesn't happen outside of combat sports and also doesn't always happen in sports. Cycling and distance running can help you be a better fighter by improving muscular endurance, leg strength, and of course, willpower, but cardio is just different.

1985, Fort Knox Kentucky, the first day of US Army boot camp my drill sergeant told us that the closest you can come to dying, without it actually happening, was running. He said he would prove it to us, and he did. Many times. Up and down Agony and Misery, two hills in the mountains there. He even proved it on flat ground with a running drill called the Caboose Runs. My lungs are still burning drill sergeant✌️🏃✌️

Only run like activity I felt helped me get ready for fights and tornaments was sets of short sprints, hills and stairs, (running up, climbing down), my teacher used to tell me those are better than just running, I felt like they worked for me, maybe coz I suck at running and I do t enjoy it very much

Running doesn’t cause joint problems. It can help joints for your longevity. Dose makes the poison.

I’m only running because I need to drop weight! I have a bad BMI so running helps me loose weight! Once I’m at fight weight then I’ll stop running! Training by day Watching Ramsey Dewey at night! All Day!!

Sit on a couch or office chair and feel like crap. You nailed it! I've had good years and bad years in regards to exercise and martial arts training. Now I try to have dumbbells and some equipment around me for quick exercise, and if I don't have any other way to train I will go for a walk or a short run. But I don't want to be a runner. It's just a way to keep from feeling like crap!

I found cutting down on running and adding more bag work improved my cardio in sparring.

This is actually pretty accurate, I used to run a lot when I was younger and would get gassed easily during a fight, lately I've been focusing way more on shadowboxing as my form of cardio and I can easily handle about 12 3 minutes rounds of it

I don’t like to run myself but there is too much of a benefit in skipping rope and running. If all done upon your capabilities you’ll surely become a different athlete. That’s surprising not many realise that even those at the professional level but again everyone is different.

I’m a distance runner. New to taekwondo. Just a green belt. Coach is right. Two min rounds kicking and punching. A whole different animal. If you want to be a good fighter, you gotta fight. No short cuts.

Dont know about other martial arts but for boxing roadwork is essential, nothing really can replace it properly. Its purely for stamina purposes, also can act as a gut check.

My "road work" for Jiu-Jitsu is a weighted backpack hike up and down a hill by my house. Got me used to engaging my leg muscles for an extension and repeditive period if time. It helped.

From personal experience, for my grappling conditioning, if I’m doing a lot of swimming, I feel it’s the thing that helps keeping me from gassing mid roll. And for stand up, I’ve always had positive results with sprint intervals. But nothing compares with the actual training

If you can knock out 500 Hindu squats below 15 mins (1 squat every 1.8 seconds) and do a ‘Gotch Bible’ workout easily, you will feel the benefit in any physical endeavour - from fighting to walking... P.S. I can’t do either right now at 51 years young - but I have frequently in the recent past. Work to do I guess! Edited for auto spelling.

Ramsey really look forward to meet and train with you one day :)...ps would love to see you do a review on the karate combat show :)

I was thinking like i already know that video why do i get a notification but there it is in new !

I used to hate running, until I learned how to run, now it’s awesome training. Springing of with the glutes and the calves on the ball of the feet. It’s very good for that in out aspect of fighting and good for calf and glutes. But you have to put oomph spring and zest into every stride, if your just gonna plod along for a while, probably not worth it.

7:11 I finally don’t feel alone on that. I bike everywhere as well. And I’m digging all the superhero inspired compression shirts.

No but wouldnt doing long distance steady cardio have a positive effect on your heart cardio? Pavel Tsatsouline says central endurance (the ability of the heart to pump more and more blood efficiently) can be built with steady cardio.

Cycling could cause joint (knees) problems as well if you are not hydrating constantly and your seat is not properly leveled. And you should also observe your heart rate and not red zone your heart - in my opinion it is much easier to do this on a bicycle.

Ramsey, your movements show your depth of knowledge I would love to train with you.

at 4:46 you hit the bag so hard that made something on my office to fell down

1:09 very cheeky ramsey

Running and cycling definitely help cardio, when I came back after the gyms were closed when I was doing those exercises in between i definitely felt better than when I did nothing in between

Love your videos BTW. I love your ability to articulate the different styles. As a former practitioner of Wing Chung in the 70’s, I’m overwhelmed at the pace of MMA and the speed at which you guys fight today.

Incorporating these things into your training may help but as a trainer for many years (32) Coach Ramsey is 100% correct!! Again another great video!!

Beautiful to watch you both play and progress in the ring, poetry in motion

I've been running a lot over the past few months because I have a dog who refuses to walk. At the same time, my fight endurance has actually gotten worse because I haven't been able to train as much.

This is why my warm ups mostly consist of combat related movements such as footwork or form along with some other exercises and stretches. I just up the intensity with faster movements. I think squat jumps are very useful. Painful, but your lower body will be a tree trunk and your judo throws will be killers.

Ramsey you are very logical in all your aspects of physical and mental observations . You are a very logical person.

I wish I lived in a area that had good reliable public transportation and wasn't so spread out so that having a bike was a idea way to travel. We could solve so many environmental issues if we just walked and biked a few days a week, instead of having to drive everywhere.

I speed walk 4 miles everyday, and it's made my kicks much harder and more coordinated. Prior to that, the only leg workouts I did were practicing kicks, and they weren't bad, but there was definitely a lot of room for improvement. I'm just saying I would have made it clearer that there is a certain level of bleedover amongst different physical activities. However, you ARE definitely right about it not being 100%. But the walking still, without a doubt, significantly improved the strength, balance, control, and Agility in my legs over all.

I'll just point out that swimming is also a harder activity than sparring lol; they're both full body but water provides constant resistance

Agree 100% coach. You don't see a basketball player kicking a football 🤔. I haven't run for any of my fights. I personally think fighting is mental, physical & good technique; the greatest of these is mental. I have trained with very strong/muscular guys & while they would be stronger for the first, their bad technique & cardio for combat fades quickly.

your right we spared some light rounds with the olympic rowers now i am not on that level for sure but they couldn't do many rounds before they where done i was pretty surprised

I guess shadow-boxing would be the most ideal "transfer" cardio towards combat sports training, but I'm also keen on jumping rope and swimming. I feel like they cover a lot of bases in tandem.

My best cardio improvement happened about 6 months after I stopped smoking. Dont waste time folks, quit smoking now!

Hey Ramsey, could you do a video on blocks and guards

I think context matters - cardio isn't going to win you a fight but if you're just starting out it can help you get into shape to start training. I was close to 46 when I started at a gym (first proper exercise since school!) and it was the cardio - mainly running - that had the most dramatic impact. I lost around 35lb in 4 months and then started a martial arts class with my daughter. My point for writing this is that some people might watch the video and dismiss cardio entirely. It can be a useful tool. It was for my fat a**!

I’ve found that doing “cardio/conditioning” for other/better reasons is best done through exercises that do not tax your sport-taxed muscles; and to train one’s sport-antagonistic muscles. Good techniques are either efficient movements or contrary movements for the reason of more efficiency.

I agree to some extent. For years I've been doing kettlebell circuit training and it has always helped me a lot for endurance and cardio during the jiu-jitsu classes. Also when I had to stop kettlebell exercising for a few weeks or didn't feel like it for a while, I can honestly say that my cardio during class was not as good anymore. Some cardio workouts are nothing more then healthy but indeed pretty useless for functional purposes, but others can be very useful.

the great boxer shoulder roll master james toney didnt even run towards end of his career just spared for cardio.

I do a lot of running purely for the sake of building up endurance. Not physical endurance, but making it easier to shut down the voice inside my head telling me to stop. Long, drawn-out, menial tasks like that are really helpful for letting you access a bit of the gas you're not comfortable using

Its just that, muscle memory, body gets used to certain ways of the most movement, cardio fighting capacity ive called it, just different types of fitness.

Ropeskipping for Boxing and Kickboxing is the same myth in my opinion. I prefer shadow(kick)boxing with jumping step shifting from one feet to another, instead of ropeskipping. Works also on the footworkskills and coordinating it with kicks and punches.

Right on point man. I can spar for long rounds but I hate running.

Ramsey, can you do a video of "how to fight like Ramsey Dewey"?

Running, cycling, tennis, etc are great for some cardio cross-training to martial arts but another thing not factored into in this video is that the best cardio for martial ANY sport is swimming. That is because swimming does something the aforementioned do not; it uses the full range of motion of almost the whole body. The aforementioned will tighten you up and need extra stretching to increase or keep your ROM for martial arts, so they should be done sparingly.

I used to spar 10x(10-20min) a training after isolated striking/basic grappling and fundamental fitness training for 1 hr to 1 & 1/2. I do pretty well considering I have asthma, but if I run, I would die affer 20 secs.

SPECIFICITY is king! Great video coach.

I'm gonna have to disagree with this. The purpose of ardio activities for fighting isn't for muscle adaptation but for cardiovascular endurance.

Watching your training. You have really good economy of movement. Looks like zero wasted energy.

some days in jiu jitsu my “cardio” will be struggling during warmups but fine during hard rolling

Like you said with your experience swimming, cross-training "shocks" the body and makes your muscles work differently. I think it helps get through a plateau in training and helps with repetitive motion stress... but it doesn't replace actually doing what you are training to do (boxing, sparring, grappling, etc.).

one thing i noticed when i started working out, i was REALLY out of shape, not from the difficulty working out, but from HOW MUCH MORE energy i had a month or two in than I had before I was working out, something as simple as a diet can change EVERYTHING about how you feel on a daily basis, you move faster, you think faster, you feel smarter, i'm not sedentary people are stupid, thier not, but you think faster and grasp concept much more clearly and much more quickly when you have better bloodflow to the head, it's insane really the level of difference, you don't know theirs something wrong with you if you've never been better

Ramsey, the way you talk is so epic. it's so dramatic lol

Not gonna lie, the guys going for that double armbar looked mad funny

I concur. I'm a boxer and tried to become a Pro Wrestler (WWE). I could not make it through training. Had to stick with boxing. See, boxers and most athletes move in horizontal directions. Pro wrestling is verticle movement. Getting slammed, getting back up. Powerlifting guys slamming them, and getting back up. So, up and down up and down. Completely different worlds in my experience.

The same heart that adapts to pump more blood volume for running can pump more blood for fighting. The glutes and other major and minor muscle groups that adapt for increased capillary action and clearing lactic acid and other metabolites for running will do the same when they're hit from fighting. Obviously running won't fix all of your gassing issues (efficiency of movement and targeting key muscle groups), but many can testify that if you DO make cardio gains from running, it WILL transfer to your fighting. Whether that's the most efficient way to go about it is another question.

Alot of what you are saying is true because muscular endurance is important but just as you need a strong leg to kick or strong arms to punch you need a strong heart to pump blood to limbs quickly so any cardio does increase this although specific training will increase both

Hey Ramsey, my knees hurt while running/skipping rope, and as I'm stuck in quarantine, I don't know what to do for cardio. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks Coach, informative as always!

Bike definitely gives you endurance during your daily routines: Legs, Liver and Lungs with the heart adapts to long term workout. Started cycling - don't "gas out".

I think people mix cardio up with muscular endurance. Cardio is how about how well your heart and lungs can deliver oxygenated blood to your muscles. Muscular endurance is how long your muscles can repeat a particular movement without failing. They are linked but separate. When you run you train your heart and lungs plus build muscular endurance suitable for running. When you swim you train your heart and lungs plus build muscular endurance suitable for swimming. The heart and lungs stuff translates quite well between activities but the muscular endurance bit is more activity specific.

Nick and Nate Diaz both have insane endurance during fights and they both do triathlons on their off time in addition to MMA training. There's something to be said for optimal lung and heart endurance in a battle.

Ramsey bout to go full on businessman. NOGIBJJ and hot mix tape music. Start selling those albums when you drop them.

Well how much energy use you can sustain is seperate from how efficient you are at any particular activity. If you want to be able to last longer at boxing (for example) both are going to be relevant

ive done a lot of hiking trying to bow hunt. the hills are like 25 plus degrees. i went running the other day and it translated to decent running despite not running for a while

I met a guy who got gold medal in boxing and TKD tournaments who is teaching me. He said, there is no need for running to improve my cardio when he has 2 hours a days beating me.

Never heard anyone say 0-60. I always hear 0-100. Love it

I haven't drove a car for 6 years i tend to walk everywhere and im in the gym twice a day and i intermittently fast i eat about 1900 hours after my second session in the gym.

Nothing prepares you better for fighting than fighting.

What is your standing heart rate? That will tell you what you’re capable of in cardio situations. The lower the heart rate the faster you recover. You’re never going to gas if you have a low heart rate. Nate Diaz never gases, due to his cardio exercise.

I actually like the new club better than the Old Coach although the old one was nice but I like the your new one much better

Running/cycling/swimming may not cause much muscular adaptation that is helpful for fighting, but if you train those things properly (low intensity, high volume, keeping heart rate under control to stay in your purely aerobic zone) then you *can* literally make your heart muscle stronger and more efficient (lower resting heart rate is always nice). And that's more on the long-distance side, but doing more speed-based workouts can improve things like your VO2 max and lactate threshold, which again carry over on some level to pretty much any athletic activity. Definitely agree though that if your goal is to get fitter for fighting specifically then obviously your main form of exercise should be fighting/sparring. But it might still be good to accessorize with some cross-training designed to improve your general aerobic attributes.