Well, we’ve talked about Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) use with regard to the rate of energy production as well as ATP use over extended time. However, we still have not talked about how effectively and efficiently your body utilizes ATP. The efficient use of ATP comes from training your skills, techniques, nervous system and most importantly to understand when and how to put you foot on the gas.

Many trainers in the world of mixed martial arts completely ignore this concept and when they see a fighter gas out in competition, they believe that the fighter didn’t train hard enough or the fighter had a bad work ethic. The reality is that the fighter prepared in an inadequate manner. I’ll give 2 examples: 1) Kimbo Slice, 2) Connor McGregor.

Kimbo Slice started off as a bare knuckle brawler in Florida. This is very different from MMA. Bare knuckle brawling often requires that one pick punches carefully (targeting the soft tissue areas of the face). There are no wrestling, ground game or takedowns in bare knuckle competitions. This is very different energy requirements necessary for an MMA fight. In the fight below. Kimbo does not gas while destroying his opponent.

However, in his recent fight with Dada 5000, he literally begins to gas after his first takedown. It’s obvious how the energy demands of an MMA fight differ from that of a bare knuckle brawl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSEJA6W-C_M

More importantly, a fighter must be able to accurately measure the energy output required to either knock his opponent out or batter his opponent over a period of time. Connor McGregor’s fight with Nate Diaz is a good example of this. Because, Nate Diaz, who was much bigger than the other fighters that Connor had faced, had a great chin, Connor under-estimated the ability of Nate to take his hard shots. McGregor himself even said so after his loss to Diaz. The energy expenditure of trying to knock Diaz out left McGregor virtually exhausted. It was at that point that McGregor panicked, blew his wad and lost.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4szOe7GRGo

In conclusion, there is a lot more to cardio than jumping on a treadmill and running hard. Moreover, you can have good conditioning and still gas out in a fight.