Health & Wellness: Combat Training for Fitness? Yes Please!

Welcome back #fitfam, thank you for reading! As you can tell by the title, today we will discuss combat training for fitness purposes. As some of my readers may be aware, combat athletes are some of the most fit people on the planet, especially when compared to the most popular sports such as basketball, football, and soccer. The reason for this is their intense training regimens that often come with no true offseason as fight dates are not fixed to a calendar like a seasonal sport. The most dedicated combat athletes are in-shape or close to their competitive weight all year. In order to maintain such a high level of fitness without killing themselves to drop ridiculous amounts of weight in short time, they use important tools such as dietitians or nutritionists to feed themselves exactly what is needed to fuel their workouts, in addition, their training regimen is packed with cardio, mobility and flexibility drills. In short, they live to be successful. One caveat, sometimes there are exceptional athletes who were simply born with great genetics and feed themselves anything and lead a loose lifestyle while still being successful. Unfortunately, their reign at the top is most often short-lived because none of us can outrun poor habits.

For those who have followed this column for some time, you remember that I have been participating in combat training for both fitness and amateur competition. Due to my age, 42 when I started, state licensing commissions will not issue a license for professional boxing so I chose the Master’s boxing route (36 years old and above). At the urging of a Texas state boxing champ with whom I’ve been friends for several years, I took the leap to get into ‘fighting shape’ and prepared to compete. I share this because there is a fork in the path of people who plan to compete and people who want to get and stay fighter fit.

I’ll share the differences:

Competitive combat training is comprised of cardio and endurance conditioning, lifting weights, doing intervals, and working the bags and mitts and limited sparring between fights with an increase closer to fight night and once an opponent has been selected. The sparring can be the most taxing because not only are you working to hit someone, you are also working to not be hit. Fortunately, every time you spar or compete as a Master’s boxer, you will be wearing headgear, a mouthpiece, groin protector, hand wraps, and 16 oz boxing gloves (gloves range from 8 oz to 16 oz in general; the bigger the number the more padding the glove has equaling less devastating impacts). Professionals spar in the same gear as amateurs but enter the ring on fight night in 10 oz gloves and sans headgear. The training to compete is grueling and creates some anxiety as an opponent is approaching me with bad intentions, but I have those same intentions, so its on!

Non-competitive combat training, eliminates all person to person contact and instead focuses on the fundamentals of footwork, hand-eye coordination and readiness for situations when self-defense is needed. The conditioning, lifting, intervals, bag and mitt work are the same but because there is no sparring, the intensity can be ratcheted up because over-training (common when fighters overdo camp leading into a fight) is not a concern as there is no end date to training. Another difference is a slower ramp up period in non-competitive because there is no rush to get to a certain level.

To bring this home for you all, I will say that my biggest takeaways from combat training have been a boost in self-confidence, exceptional conditioning (no matter if I’m at weight or slightly over), improved coordination, and my abdominal area is nice for a 40+ guy who still enjoys Heineken, lol. I encourage everyone to take a few boxing classes, not just one, and you’ll be surprised how much fun you will have. And the results on the backend are also pretty amazing.

Lastly, I have training programs as low as $75/month that will supplement and guide you to your goals.