Gassing out during cardio drills

[dongjinkim]

A bit of background on myself:

I'm currently an older member of a local Tae Kwon Do club.

I enjoy jogging (I can do 2km easy, 5km with effort, and 10km with a few weeks training). So I don't have problems as long as it's a slow continuous pace.

The problem I have right now is that our cardio classes are "go full out for a few minutes", then rest for 1 min, repeat ad nauseum. The younger guys in the club seem to have no problem with this.. and my face is almost purple after 20 minutes of drills (not to mention my sloppier techniques). I suspect it's more of a getting enough oxygen than it is a muscle issue right now.

Are there any exercises I can do to improve my cardio in this type of "sudden burst, pause, sudden burst etc" exercise drill?

[spartanMMAn]

tabatas are like that but if your begining then just do the drills you'll get better eventually.

[James Fuller]

yeah, I have a tip, its called do exactly what your doing for alot longer than how long you have been doing it, oh and stop going to TKD unless you are close to your camo belt. Cardio sessions are SUPPOSED to blow you out, if they are not then they are not hard enough or your not pushing yourself hard enough so its a GOOD thing not a bad thing you feel wasted after them. I know alot of guys around my gym that look like they are in great shape because they make it through whatever conditioning we are doing but come fight time or even sparring they totally gas because they are not use to pushing themselves to the very limit during those "drills" so its obvious you are working hard in the drills just keep it up!

oh and real quickly the amount you can jog has NOTHING to do with fight shape. That is a aerobic energy system not a anaerobic one like you use for fighting. Its an outdated belief that being able to run at 30% for an hour is going to be any help when you really need to be able to go 100% for 5 minutes than be able to rest and be 100% within a minute. Thats fight shape.

[Fresh Biscuits]

If you want to improve your cardio, you need to get your heart rate to at least 80% of your maximum BPM for at least 20 minutes (be careful though, if you're like 60 it will be pretty low).

It doesn't sound like you're experiencing muscle failure - you just want to improve cardio. I'd recommend just pushing yourself hard, and you'll get better. Do some extra cardio on your own time.

[ChachiKiller]

You might be "jogging" (that word is very suspect as most people call it running) and thinking it is cardio but you may not be operating at the levels that will deliver improved conditioning in comparison to your class. LSD is a good answer to your problem but you may be tensing up too much with techniques.

Pick up your mile pace, relax while throwing techniques (throw hard but only at last split second do you contract) and practice these drills on your off days. Also if you sit all day and expect great lung expansion and operation, you will have an issue. On days of your class try to do something that expands your lungs. Maybe a couple minutes of jumping rope or some of these drills. Sitting still all day requires that you exercise more frequently.

[Scarymonster]

Tabatas with burpees probably would help. Or Tabatas with sprinting if you like to run. Or keep doing the TKD drills till you get better... btw how long have you been doing that?

[DiscipleOfPog]

If something is gassing you out, keep doing it, it's bound to improve. If you enjoy running add a lot of sprints, they will help a lot more than just jogging.

[dongjinkim]

Thanks for the replies.
My jogging is not too fast. (I usually pace myself at 10km/hour) so it makes sense that I need to focus more on my anaerobic conditioning.
I'll definitely look more into tabatas.

[pliftkl]

Originally Posted by dongjinkim

I enjoy jogging (I can do 2km easy, 5km with effort, and 10km with a few weeks training). So I don't have problems as long as it's a slow continuous pace.

You don't have problems in what sense? You clearly have problems. If you can't run for an hour, you aren't good at long slow distance running. A 2km run is something that might warm you up, but isn't going to produce a lot of adaptation in your cardio system.

If you are serious about fixing this problem, get a heart rate monitor, and figure out the following:

1. What your resting heart rate is
2. What your heart rate is when you are jogging
3. How long it takes for your heart rate to return to near-resting heart rate after the above run.
4. What your heart rate is at the end of the conditioning rounds that you do
5. How much your heart rate has gone down after a minute

If your resting heart rate is already great, then I agree with the advice that you should focus on anaerobic activity. However, from your description of your running, I'd guess that your cardiac output is poor, and you should fix this first.

[ChachiKiller]

Originally Posted by dongjinkim

Thanks for the replies.
My jogging is not too fast. (I usually pace myself at 10km/hour) so it makes sense that I need to focus more on my anaerobic conditioning.
I'll definitely look more into tabatas.

There are definite correlations between aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. My anaerobic program is brutal. I was not making progress becaue I do not have time to train a lot and I figured that would be the better of the two options. I had more time, added running and my anaerobic capacity shot up dramatically. Good luck anyways.