Routines or Diets to Improve Cardio?

[Mr Sinister]

Originally Posted by Quoth

thanks Ill check that out, and that has to be the greatest sig ever

LOL
No Problem. Good Luck.

[Gold182]

Originally Posted by kenzo242

To answer the original question both are important components to achieve good overall conditioning. But I suspect nutrition is lacking because most people don't know what to eat nor when to eat it.
First you need to know how many calories to consume. Plug in the appropriate values in this equation:
Harris-Benedict Method for Calculating Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years) = BMR (un-adjusted for activity)

Then use this equation:

Activity Factor for Calculating Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)
· If you are sedentary: BMR x 1.2
· If you are lightly active: BMR x 1.375
· If you are moderately active (You exercise most days a week.): BMR x 1.55
· If you are very active (You exercise intensely on a daily basis or for prolonged periods.): BMR x 1.725
· If you are extra active (You do hard labor or are in athletic training.): BMR x 1.9

This value will be the amount of calories needed to maintain weight. You can cut that # by 500 cal/day to lose 1 lb/week.

Once you know how many calories to consume 60%/20%/20% should be from carbs/protein/fat, respectively. This will break down how many grams (4 cal/gram-carbs and protein and 9 cal/gram for fat) you'll need of each macronutrient.
Sample: Let's say you need 2000 calories. Take 60% of that (1200 cal) and divide by 4 and you get 300 grams of carbs needed/day. Do this for fat (9 cal) and protein (4cal) with their respective percentages and divide by their cal/gram to get grams/day.
Once you have this info make sure you eat clean and nutrient dense versions of each. For carbs, stay away from sugars in candy soda etc...lean cuts of protein or plant based proteins and the good fats found in nuts,avacados and olive oils. Eat lots of different colors of fruits and vegetables everyday and after all is said and done, your overall well being and energy will improve.

Your cardio sounds good so I didn't feel the need to address it.

Are you sure you are a personal trainer because that carb,protein,fat split seems totally crazy. 60% carbs really? 330g and only 100g of protein for someone eating 2k of calories a day sounds like crap.

30,40,30 or even 25,50,25 would seen like a much more sensible split carb, protein,fat wise.

[leftlegkicker]

Resting heart rate of 80 bpm is considered "normal", with the normal range being anywhere from 60-100. Well conditioned athletes should be in the 40-60 range (I read somewhere that Lance Armstrong has a resting heart rate in the mid-30s). So you're a little high for an athlete, but still well within normal range.

Most martial arts and fighting sports rely more on anaerobic conditioning that aerobic. So running/cycling/etc for long times/distances will help overall fitness, but won't necessarily help you last longer in the ring. As other's have suggested, HIIT will probably be of most help. I think the sprint intervals you are doing sound good. Since you're doing grappling and you want to increase muscular endurance, you might want to mix it up with some circuit training. You could try something like this:

sprint
push-ups/squats/light weightlifting for high reps
rest

Or you could do Tabata intervals (20 second max intensity, 10 seconds rest, for a total of four minutes).

[mego]

Originally Posted by Gold182

Are you sure you are a personal trainer because that carb,protein,fat split seems totally crazy. 60% carbs really? 330g and only 100g of protein for someone eating 2k of calories a day sounds like crap.

30,40,30 or even 25,50,25 would seen like a much more sensible split carb, protein,fat wise.

Yeah, the formula seems interesting for caloric rate in general, if anyone else can confirm that it sounds good to them, im 145, light activity, formula calls for 2200 calories, but id think id wasnt to eat whatever i feel is best for me at the time, with hopefully 120-150 grams of protein a day regardless of stated proportions

[kenzo242]

Originally Posted by Gold182

Are you sure you are a personal trainer because that carb,protein,fat split seems totally crazy. 60% carbs really? 330g and only 100g of protein for someone eating 2k of calories a day sounds like crap.

30,40,30 or even 25,50,25 would seen like a much more sensible split carb, protein,fat wise.

Gold182 and mego,

I work with registered dieticians and that is the standard they suggest for healthy eating. The number you get from the equation x activity = calories needed to maintain weight. If you're looking to gain weight, eat more calories than you burn. Remember this is not an end all cure all. It gives you an idea of where you need to be.

Most of our movements are supported by carbs (glycogen). They fuel movements lasting 30 seconds to 3 minutes. Less than 30 seconds is ATP, greater than 3 minutes is oxygen (aerobic). Carbs are the chief source of energy we use on a daily basis and that's why they make up around 60% of total calories consumed.

Kenzo

[pliftkl]

Originally Posted by kenzo242

Gold182 and mego,

I work with registered dieticians and that is the standard they suggest for healthy eating. The number you get from the equation x activity = calories needed to maintain weight. If you're looking to gain weight, eat more calories than you burn. Remember this is not an end all cure all. It gives you an idea of where you need to be.

Those dieticians do not work with athletes. They are advocating something similar to the USDA food pyramid, which is NOT something that most sports centric dieticians are going to advocate.

Most of our movements are supported by carbs (glycogen). They fuel movements lasting 30 seconds to 3 minutes. Less than 30 seconds is ATP, greater than 3 minutes is oxygen (aerobic). Carbs are the chief source of energy we use on a daily basis and that's why they make up around 60% of total calories consumed.

Your body will burn whatever calories you give it. If you ate a diet that was 100% protein and fat (no carbs), you would still be able to perform aerobic activities.

The same is NOT true for building and repairing muscles. If you don't get enough protein, you are not going to repair the damage to your muscles that occurs during hard training. An MMA athlete who is doing cardio, strength training, and another 10 hours of MMA training is going to have substantially elevated protein requirements.

It's not that any of the advice that you are giving is bad, exactly (in this thread or your other). It would be reasonable advice if you were working with the general public. But there are some fairly serious athletes on this board who are going to pick apart your advice and compare it with what other athletically centered trainers and dieticians are advocating. There are some really smart people out there (and you might be one of them!) who can produce well researched programs that have a basis in real world athletic training experience. If you read Lyle McDonald's blog, you'll get a sense for what else is out there.

[Gold182]

Originally Posted by kenzo242

Gold182 and mego,

I work with registered dieticians and that is the standard they suggest for healthy eating. The number you get from the equation x activity = calories needed to maintain weight. If you're looking to gain weight, eat more calories than you burn. Remember this is not an end all cure all. It gives you an idea of where you need to be.

Most of our movements are supported by carbs (glycogen). They fuel movements lasting 30 seconds to 3 minutes. Less than 30 seconds is ATP, greater than 3 minutes is oxygen (aerobic). Carbs are the chief source of energy we use on a daily basis and that's why they make up around 60% of total calories consumed.

Kenzo

As stated above most dieticians dont work with altheletes or people who weight train heavily. The split you described above sounds like the crappy food pryamid the goverments tries to push. If you bother to read the diet and supplement forums and strength and power forum you will see most the most knowledgable people Ascedant/Devilson/Madmike/Monger/Vedic etc advise diet high in protein and fats and keep carbs down to mainly fruit and veggie sources.

If you doing alot of cardio type work, running/swimming/sparring/rolling etc you will need more carbs but not in the % your describing. Most people would recommended 1g to 1.5g of protein per lb of BW and your % split doesnt give that much. Also if your mainly weight lifting your body will happily function on mainly protein/fats with carbs just from fruit and veggie.

If people like Ascedant/Devilson/Madmike/Monger/Vedic etc saw the advice you were offering they would have some interesting words to say about it i reckon.

[kenzo242]

Originally Posted by pliftkl

Those dieticians do not work with athletes. They are advocating something similar to the USDA food pyramid, which is NOT something that most sports centric dieticians are going to advocate.



Your body will burn whatever calories you give it. If you ate a diet that was 100% protein and fat (no carbs), you would still be able to perform aerobic activities.

The same is NOT true for building and repairing muscles. If you don't get enough protein, you are not going to repair the damage to your muscles that occurs during hard training. An MMA athlete who is doing cardio, strength training, and another 10 hours of MMA training is going to have substantially elevated protein requirements.

It's not that any of the advice that you are giving is bad, exactly (in this thread or your other). It would be reasonable advice if you were working with the general public. But there are some fairly serious athletes on this board who are going to pick apart your advice and compare it with what other athletically centered trainers and dieticians are advocating. There are some really smart people out there (and you might be one of them!) who can produce well researched programs that have a basis in real world athletic training experience. If you read Lyle McDonald's blog, you'll get a sense for what else is out there.

I've trained many athletes and my suggestions have worked well with them. The body doesn't need much more than 2g/kg of bodyweight. More than that does not guarantee more muscle growth.

I will read Lyle McDonald's blog. Thank you for the input.

[PowerHungry]

I'm a newb but my limited reading supports what kenzo is saying NSCA recommends between 1.5 and 2 g of protein per kg of body weight. This assumes sufficient caloric intake and protein quality (i. e. proteins from animals that have high biological quality). Certain factors adjust this such as if you are vegan, then you need to increase your protein intake because the quality is lower. Also as there is an inverse relationship between caloric intake and protein requirements, as your total caloric intake your need for protein as a high percentage of your daily calories decreases. But if you are trying to lose weigh and want a negative caloric balance, then you need to increase your protein intake.

Carbohydrates are a much larger part of your diet. Being around 50-60% of your intended daily caloric intake. The range recommended is 5-6 g/kg of body weight. Unless you are doing aerobic training sessions in excess of an hour regularly, this should be sufficient. If you are training for endurance and undergo those rigorous sessions, they recommend between 8-10g/kg.

Fats are also in the 20% range, although that's a minimum baseline. NSCA also recommends higher requirements for athletes. Diets with low dietary fat (<15%) can negatively affect plasma lipids and decrease testerone and inhibit muscular development. Using the example of aerobic training endurance athletes again, they sometimes have fat intakes that account for up to 50% of their diets. 30% is a common fat level.

So, 60/20/20 is correct based on my reading, yet I will openly admit to taking really shooting for a lot of protein in my diet (>175g daily) and very low fat intake (<50g daily) and it doesn't seem to adversely affect my performance. And the NSCA makes these recommendations for all kinds of people: athletes, sedentary, those doing aerobic training, those doing resistance training. The levels adjust but it doesn't completely overwrite the standard.

[kenzo242]

Originally Posted by pliftkl

Those dieticians do not work with athletes. They are advocating something similar to the USDA food pyramid, which is NOT something that most sports centric dieticians are going to advocate.



Your body will burn whatever calories you give it. If you ate a diet that was 100% protein and fat (no carbs), you would still be able to perform aerobic activities.

The same is NOT true for building and repairing muscles. If you don't get enough protein, you are not going to repair the damage to your muscles that occurs during hard training. An MMA athlete who is doing cardio, strength training, and another 10 hours of MMA training is going to have substantially elevated protein requirements.

It's not that any of the advice that you are giving is bad, exactly (in this thread or your other). It would be reasonable advice if you were working with the general public. But there are some fairly serious athletes on this board who are going to pick apart your advice and compare it with what other athletically centered trainers and dieticians are advocating. There are some really smart people out there (and you might be one of them!) who can produce well researched programs that have a basis in real world athletic training experience. If you read Lyle McDonald's blog, you'll get a sense for what else is out there.

I mentioned in an earlier thread that those recommendations were general guidelines and could/should be tweaked how the user sees fit. Most people don't know how many calories they need to consume and how many grams of macronutrients to eat and I wanted to simply give a general direction for them to go.

The original post asked if nutrition played a part in crashing and I truly beleive it does. I know from lots of years of experience that one size doesn't fit all. So the recommendations were meant to point you guys in a general direction.

Thanks for the post!