We asked strength and conditioning coach Krool for some tips on how to improve your stamina:
RUNNING
The old method of going running and plodding along, if you take sports specific training and apply it to what a fighter would use in a fight, I donโt think itโs really that effective, if you really look at it. If you think of running a 5k, unless on your 5k route youโre doing sprints and thereโs different exercises youโre going to bring, then thatโs not really functional enough.
Itโs just boring going on the road and running, the old school boxing idea of going on a run. In this day and age everything has to change a bit. You could be running for four minutes and then picking up the pace for two minutes on your run, then half pace, picking it up to three quarter pace. Doing a full sprint for 30 seconds or a minute, then recovering. Runs will be more effective if you have the coach, the coach is interactive with the fighters and the coach is on a bike and the coach picks up the pace of the fighters. It brings a different element.
If itโs plodding along, itโs just conducive to injuries eventually. You donโt need to do 10k runs. 5k, with all the other training theyโre doing is perfect.
EXPLOSIVE
Iโll do lots of explosive exercises with either a tornado ball or Iโll use a medicine ball. Iโll do lots of explosive throwing. So imagine him throwing punches but not in a boxing gym, Iโm taking him out of the boxing environment so we might do that in the park.
With a medicine ball, Iโll have him crouching down, getting up and exploding, twisting maybe from your left to your right, so thatโs making sure heโs getting enough leverage in his punches. He has to extend to his right side and throw the medicine ball either against a wall, throw it to me and wait for me to get it back to him. Heโll keep on twisting from left to right or from right to left. Weโll do a minute on each side, so his obliques really get strong.
Again if you just have someone lying on the floor doing a sit up, or doing sit ups with oblique twists, itโs not really functional and itโs not really sports specific because heโs not really going to lie down on the floor and fight on the floor, heโs going to be standing up and throwing punches. Again you have to relate the sport that youโre involved in to the exercises that youโre doing.
KETTLEBELLS
Knees slightly bent so youโre getting a lot of work out of your core and lower back, because thatโs where the power comes from. We have them swinging the kettlebell between the legs, doing two swings basically (imagine them throwing two punches) going half [way up first], then the full American Swing all the way up and have the biceps and the ears in one straight line. So you first go half [way up] then you go full.
Sometimes I have people doing them for a minute. Boxers especially, when you take them out of their comfort zone, mostly itโs when theyโreworking on minutes and theyโre working on time. Itโs mind over matter working through your exercises.
When I do a kettlebell work out, Iโll have them doing those kettlebell swings for a minute then [with 30 seconds rest inbetween], upright rows with the kettlebell, then single kettlebell swings with one arm, so itโs building up the power individually with each arm, youโll swap arms obviously. For single arm movements Iโll do that for 40 seconds or 45 seconds. Once they start improving you can take it further. Then you can have them changing direction with a kettlebell. Itโs working on foot movement, how they pivot in the ring. You bring that dimension into it, where youโre pivoting on the right leg, turning to the left and pivoting on the left leg and turning to the right. As you go up you pivot and when you come down youโve changed direction, itโs part of the kettlebell swing. You can have them squatting and pressing with single arms again. Instead of swinging now youโre going into a full press. So you go from a full squat, getting as low as possible, and then extending your arm above your head into a shoulder press, using that as a punch. Youโre not punching forward youโre punching straight up. Off that, once youโre getting that, you can then add a lunge forward, throwing the punch, then stepping back into the squat again. You bring the footwork into it.
YOU CAN TRY
KETTLEBELL CIRCUIT
- KETTLEBELL swings 1 min, rest 30 seconds
- UPRIGHT row 1 min, rest 30 seconds
- SINGLE arm swings, 40 seconds each arm,rest 30 seconds
- KETTLEBELL Swing with pivot, 1 min, rest 30 seconds
- SQUAT and press, 40 seconds each arm
YOGA
YOGA helps your mental focus. Because itโs Bikram and itโs done in a hot room it also helps stretch out the muscles. Boxers put a lot of stress on the muscles so heโs doing two hits in one, the mental focus, having to stay in that room for almost two hours or an hour and a half, heโs controlling his respiratory system and heโs also working out a lot of the lactic acid in the stretches and in the hot room itself.