Should I do cardio for Judo?

If there is some thing wrong with your knees you not going to be able to do squats, running, sprinting, jogging, jumping or skipping.

And if your knees are really bad even going up the stairs in a building would be problem or going on a bicycle. Find an office building and go up to 80 floor taking the stairs. But if your knees are really bad you probably will not be able to do that.

I don’t know what else you can do as push ups and sit ups are more light cardio. You want medium to high cardio.

Oh gosh. No sir. No sir. My knees are fine. All I'm saying is that it is common knowledge in the fitness world that jogging when you're heavy like me is bad for the knees.

Gosh... I can't believe I actually have to clarify that to anybody. So annoying.
 
With bad knees, MA may not be for you. One of my guys had knee operation twice. Finally he had to quite MA.

There is nothing more important than to protect your own body. Whatever you do, try to protect your spin, knee joint, hip joint, ... You will need mobility when you get older.

Life is too short. We should live happy and healthy.

See my previous post, sir.
 
I’ve been training in a judo dojo once a week for the past three weeks now. I was recommended to do cardio as part of my gym (not in dojo) training.

A lot of my dojo mates probably don’t even go to the gym. The Judo training itself that I do weekly is rigorous and cardio-intensive. I’m thinking maybe that by itself can be the cardio I do. But do you think I should do extra?

I’ve been lifting far longer than I’ve been Judo training. Twice a week full-body. I’ve been steadily getting stronger despite not gaining weight. That’s what I’ve been doing for what it’s worth.
You should do more cardio as a part of your dojo training, it builds strength, endurance, and more. The benefits are endless, so yes you should do cardio as a part of your dojo training.
 
Who recommended that you do extra cardio, and what was their reasoning behind it? Are you experiencing difficulties catching your breath during judo class? While it's true that judo can be cardio-intensive, if someone, possibly the sensei, suggests that you need additional cardio, it indicates that your once-a-week judo class might not be providing enough cardiovascular exercise for your fitness goals.
 
Specificity counts. Judo requires strength and stamina. But you need to maintain your focus on the game at hand. You are already doing full-body strength workouts twice a week with the weights. This will build overall strength especially if you are working on the posterior-chain. Deadlifts, Squats etc.

Again, it is worth thinking about sport specific exercises. Lifting a barbell is much easier than lifting a person. Have you considered training with sandbags instead of traditional weights? You can build phenomenal stamina, strength and endurance without needing to starting running on treadmills etc.

The rowing machines are a great choice - especially, the Concept-2s you find in most gyms and fitness centers. These will benefit you greatly if you use them correctly.

Steady-state cardio is okay if you are training for events which require the energy to be used over a long period of time and distance (i.e a marathon ) but Judo requires explosive-strength and a uses a different kind of energy system than a long-distance event does.

Check out Martin Rooney's works on fitness for fighters for more ideas - somebody here has probably read them, or you could also check his online videos. It is the 21st century after all, so he must have some media content out there by now :D
 
I’ve been training in a judo dojo once a week for the past three weeks now. I was recommended to do cardio as part of my gym (not in dojo) training.

A lot of my dojo mates probably don’t even go to the gym. The Judo training itself that I do weekly is rigorous and cardio-intensive. I’m thinking maybe that by itself can be the cardio I do. But do you think I should do extra?

I’ve been lifting far longer than I’ve been Judo training. Twice a week full-body. I’ve been steadily getting stronger despite not gaining weight. That’s what I’ve been doing for what it’s worth.
I would personally say cardio is only important if you want to compete, or if you feel that your Judo randori is being severely held back by your cardio. It really depends on your goals. Personally, I don't train cardio on the side. However, I train BJJ more than the average hobbyist, and my competition classes are just 1.5 hours of hard and intense sparring, so I don't really need to. Before I had competition classes available to me, I had a routine to develop my cardio for competition. I used this routine because running was causing me knee pain.

I started off like this:
5 minutes of 5 burpees, 10 pushups, 15 squats. Keep repeating these exercises in this order until time runs out.

Eventually, I started doing:
10 minutes of 5 burpees with pushups at the bottom, 10 clap pushups, and 15 jump squats. At some point, I would get too exhausted from pushups and my chest muscles were burning too much to keep going, so I'd stop doing pushups on the burpees, and I'd do pushups on my knees until the end.

I would do this routine daily for a few weeks leading up to my competitions. This routine is perfect in my opinion because it is easy to track how well your cardio is developing, and also easy to make it more difficult by using harder exercises or doing it for more time. It will not only increase cardio for your judo but also help your body get used to lactic acid build-up and help your muscular endurance. Maximum power and strength are great for combat sports and I know that you have always believed it to be the most important factor. But over long rounds of sparring or fighting, you need muscular endurance and cardio to maintain your strength/power output. This routine should help with this.

Lastly, I would highly suggest against running for cardio, regardless of weight. Unless you want to go for a run once or twice a week, maybe three times, out of enjoyment, I think it is an outdated form of cardio for combat sports. The only time I would see it justifiable is HIIT sprints, such as 20 rounds of 10 seconds sprints, and a 5-second jog, which was part of my boxing conditioning a few years ago. However, running places a lot of stress on your joints. Furthermore, swimming can help you burn twice the amount of calories for the same amount of time and is easier for the joints. It also has benefits for muscle recovery and therapy.
 
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