how can you increase your stamina??

[C.Y.]

anyone have any tips or can anyone offer any training routines or advice to increase endurance and stamina?

is there anything you can eat that may help you while you're training?

and with these exercises how long before you see any results?


thanks all the advice is very much appreciated

[msagrain]

Yeh! Running. Simple.

[ScottDBA]

Running is the obvious. Not just long distance, but sprints and hills too.

Skipping - at the gym go by the round timer (ours is almost always on two minutes work, 30 seconds rest, maybe your gym uses three minutes rounds depending on the average level of fighters there). For the main 90 seonds of the round, skip at a brisk pace, for the last 30 seconds skip as fast as you can bringing your knees up high, for the rest period between rounds skip as fast as a you can without bringing your knees up. You don't get any actual "rest" when skipping, go straight through the rounds. Do 10-15 minutes of that, or as much as you can - it'll be hard at first.

Exercise Circuits. Two minute rounds. 30 seconds burpees, 30 seconds pushups, 30 seconds sprinting on the spot as fast as you can with knees up, 30 seconds thwoing 1's and 2's with one or two pound hand weights. Do three or four sets with 30 seconds to 1 minute rest in between. You can change up the exercises to whatever you want, just do them as hard as you can for the full 30 seconds.

Heavy bag intervals: 10 seconds punching as fast as you can, five seconds rest for three or four two minute rounds. Do one round only throwing straight punches, then one throwing hooks. This isn't an exercise for technique just throw fast and hard to burn out your muscles. Do this after you do your regular heavy bag sessions that are focusing on technique.

As for how long it takes, I'm not sure and it's probably different for everybody. I do know that after I injured my nose my cardio went to hell becasue I couldn't get enough air breathing normally when doing intense work. Took about a month to get my cardio back to normal.

[ScottDBA]

Also important to remember is that there is two parts to stamina/endurance. Cardiovasuclar and muscular.

Cardiovascular is about breathing and bloodflow. If when you get tired you are breathing really hard and you can feel your heart racing, you need to work more on drills that will get your heat rate up (I detailed some of them in the post above).

If when you get tired you can't hold your arms up, or your legs are burning, you need to do exercises that increase the strength of your muscles. Pushups, dips, bodyweight squats, wall sits etc.

The exercise circuits I explained above are great because you can change up the exercises to focus on whatever you need to improve on. If you need to improve cardiovascular endurance do exercises like skipping hard, sprinting on the spot, jumping jacks, mountain climbers.

If you need to improve muscular endurance do things like pushups, bodyweight squats, situps. If your arms are getting tired, do exercises that focus work your arms and shoulders. If your legs are burning out first, do ones that focus on the legs and hips.

Cardio work is that it shouldn't be easy. If you aren't tired and breathing hard when you are done the routine than there's no point in doing it because it's not going to help you. If you aren't working your body hard, stamina won't increase. Some of the exercises I explained will be very hard at first and you won't be able to get through the whole thing. But as you improve it will get easier which means you need to go even harder and faster, add more rounds to your routines, and reduce the amount of rest between sets.

Remember "the more you sweat in the gym, the less you bleed in the ring".

[Southpaw16BF]

Running can increase stamina, fruit and vegtables have got loads of vitamins in and some can even help the cardio vascular system.

[JulioCesaChavez]

Exercise - Running

Food - Fruits! They will boost your energy levels through the roof and help you increase your stamina but you must WORK hard. Load up on fruit for breakfast and then grze on it until lunch or after.

[Storamin]

My recommendation, and what we do at my gym:

3 Minutes round of normal skipping, followed by 30 seconds balls to the wall high knee skipping, followed by a 30 second rest where you do 10 push ups.

Rinse and repeat.

[Landon S]

Running is the obvious. Not just long distance, but sprints and hills too.

Skipping - at the gym go by the round timer (ours is almost always on two minutes work, 30 seconds rest, maybe your gym uses three minutes rounds depending on the average level of fighters there). For the main 90 seonds of the round, skip at a brisk pace, for the last 30 seconds skip as fast as you can bringing your knees up high, for the rest period between rounds skip as fast as a you can without bringing your knees up. You don't get any actual "rest" when skipping, go straight through the rounds. Do 10-15 minutes of that, or as much as you can - it'll be hard at first.

Exercise Circuits. Two minute rounds. 30 seconds burpees, 30 seconds pushups, 30 seconds sprinting on the spot as fast as you can with knees up, 30 seconds thwoing 1's and 2's with one or two pound hand weights. Do three or four sets with 30 seconds to 1 minute rest in between. You can change up the exercises to whatever you want, just do them as hard as you can for the full 30 seconds.

Heavy bag intervals: 10 seconds punching as fast as you can, five seconds rest for three or four two minute rounds. Do one round only throwing straight punches, then one throwing hooks. This isn't an exercise for technique just throw fast and hard to burn out your muscles. Do this after you do your regular heavy bag sessions that are focusing on technique.

As for how long it takes, I'm not sure and it's probably different for everybody. I do know that after I injured my nose my cardio went to hell becasue I couldn't get enough air breathing normally when doing intense work. Took about a month to get my cardio back to normal.

Good advice, a circuit I just did this morning was (30 seconds each) burpees, high knee dumbbell presses (fast), shadowboxing, up-downs. The shadowboxing was pretty tough after the high knees, by the 3rd round my arms felt heavy and they were pretty fatigued. Im working on being able to keep my form and still box as well fatigued as when Im fresh and keep my agility near the end of the round, the above circuit I think will really help me in that regard. The fifth round my punches were pretty slow.

[angus the bull]

go to www.rossboxing.com

[Uchi Deshi]

Running is the obvious. Not just long distance, but sprints and hills too.

Skipping - at the gym go by the round timer (ours is almost always on two minutes work, 30 seconds rest, maybe your gym uses three minutes rounds depending on the average level of fighters there). For the main 90 seonds of the round, skip at a brisk pace, for the last 30 seconds skip as fast as you can bringing your knees up high, for the rest period between rounds skip as fast as a you can without bringing your knees up. You don't get any actual "rest" when skipping, go straight through the rounds. Do 10-15 minutes of that, or as much as you can - it'll be hard at first.

Exercise Circuits. Two minute rounds. 30 seconds burpees, 30 seconds pushups, 30 seconds sprinting on the spot as fast as you can with knees up, 30 seconds thwoing 1's and 2's with one or two pound hand weights. Do three or four sets with 30 seconds to 1 minute rest in between. You can change up the exercises to whatever you want, just do them as hard as you can for the full 30 seconds.

Heavy bag intervals: 10 seconds punching as fast as you can, five seconds rest for three or four two minute rounds. Do one round only throwing straight punches, then one throwing hooks. This isn't an exercise for technique just throw fast and hard to burn out your muscles. Do this after you do your regular heavy bag sessions that are focusing on technique.

As for how long it takes, I'm not sure and it's probably different for everybody. I do know that after I injured my nose my cardio went to hell becasue I couldn't get enough air breathing normally when doing intense work. Took about a month to get my cardio back to normal.

Excellent advice all around!! This is definitely the way to go!! Good post, ScottDBA!!!!