subject: Ideas On Improving Your Stamina [print this page] Fitness is the main issue for anybody wanting to go ahead with the training of MMA. Any successful fighter will confirm you that fitness is essentially required if you want to succeed. Maintaining fitness at its peak level helps any fighter to have a successful career. The criteria for deciding fitness is not determined by your capacity to perform any activity. It is decided by how long you can continue that and with what intensity. Fitness demands a lot of patience and energy.
One vital factor for fitness is to develop a very strong cardio-respiratory stamina. If you get out of breath too soon or get tired, you need to improve on this aspect first before thinking of having a fight. Cardio respiratory stamina (endurance) is a term used to define the capacity of one's lungs and heart to provide oxygen during prolonged periods of physical activity.
Anytime a human body undergoes a demanding physical activity, the heart is required to pump more oxygen by increased supply of blood to the muscles. Unless the body gets the needed supply of oxygen, it can't perform any activity to the expected level. The purpose of having improved cardio respiratory stamina is to increase the capacity of every muscle, enabling it to perform at higher levels of efficiency and to recover faster as the supply of oxygen lowers.
As you exercise vigorously, the heart begins to beat faster because it needs to supply increased amount of blood to provide more oxygen. But there is a safe limit to which it can supply and maintain increased flow of blood. This safe limit varies with the individual. As you stop exercising, the heart also slows down and in the process muscles also begin to take rest and the waste is thrown out. In due course of time you heart and muscles get used to quickly adapting themselves to the kind of hard work. Simultaneously, the two also learn to recover faster while at rest.
The American College of Sport Medicine has provided guidelines for building of cardio respiratory stamina. It suggests that any person can undertake aerobic exercises for ten to sixteen minutes a day for three to five times a week. They say key to successful program is to make a slow start. Further, they strongly recommend attaining the training heart rate in the course of exercising.
You can determine the training heart rate this way: 220 minus your age=maximum heart rate. 60% of the number thus arrived equals your lower heart rate, whereas 80% of that number represents your upper hear rate. You should try maintaining it in the middle while exercising. If under any circumstances the heart rate crosses these limits, upper or lower, you should stop exercising. Continued practice while keeping the hear rate in the middle.
The simplest way to keep a check on your heart rate is to learn measuring your pulse rate on your wrist. Otherwise, many easy to use instruments are available for measuring your pulse.
You may opt to go for cycling, jogging, walking, sprinting or any such activity that you prefer. All such activities help to build cardio respiratory stamina.
