Aerobic Power and MMA

Aerobic Power & MMA
MMA is a sport that requires a very high rate of energy production because it's so fast paced
and unpredictable. Because of this, fighters often turn their attention to anaerobic
development without realizing the underlying importance of the aerobic system at all levels of
power. Aside from providing the majority of the ATP that your muscles need throughout a
typical fight, the aerobic system also serves the role of "refueling" the anaerobic systems.
As discussed earlier, the more you use your anaerobic systems, the more metabolic Lyproducts
you produce and the faster you fatigue. Once this happens, your body relies on aerobic
processes to clear out these byproducts and restock the mechanisms of anaerobic metabolism.
This means that without a well developed aerobic system, your body's anaerobic systems are
also limited because it takes much longer before they are capable of producing energy again.
In a fight, the faster your aerobic system can produce ATP, the less you have to rely on the
anaerobic systems and the better your conditioning becomes. Not only that, but more aerobic
power means that the anaerobic systems can recharge much faster so they can contribute
more power when you need them to. This is one of the real keys to developing the kind of
conditioning that wins fights and is an area where many fighters simply are lacking.
Although I'm sure that you recall that we've already discussed that the aerobic system isn't
capable of producing energy as fast as the anaerobic systems are, that doesn't mean that you
can't significantly improve how much power the aerobic system is capable of producing. In fig.
8, you can see a visual representation of what it looks like to increase your aerobic power.

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