"Let's Talk Muscular Endurance"
(originally published at workingclassfitness.blogspot.com)

If you peruse my blog now and then, you probably know that if I get into good discussions at forums, I like to cut and paste some of the discussion(s) here. Well, recently, there was a great discussion about Muscular Endurance and how it applies to MMA over at mma.tv. Here is some of what I posted:

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-In regards to sports specific skill, is there a difference between learning to control fatigue/tension/force exerted and muscular endurance? Yes and no. Yes in that I don't believe the two are the same thing. No, in that the net result ends up being the same.

Slightly different viewpoint - a baseball player is taking batting practice. His hitting coach comes over and has him slightly adjust is swing. He now gets more power on the ball, and can hit further. Can he hit further? Yes. Is he a more powerful hitter? Not necessarily. He's just as powerful as he was when he stepped into the batting cage - he's just now better at harnessing said power. He's a more efficient hitter.

Now let's say the same hitter, instead of tweaking his swing like his coach says, keeps his swing the same. But this time, it's the off-season, and he hits the weights real hard (and knowing MLB, probably the 'roids, too LOL). He come back in a couple months with the same exact swing. However, b/c he's put on 25 lbs. of muscle, and the increased strength/power to go with it, he's hitting the ball further. He has extended his limits b/c of his newfound strength/power. Balls that were fly-outs to left-center now fly over the left field fence. Can he hit the ball further? yes. Is he a more powerful hitter? Yes. Is he a "better" hitter? Not necessarily. He can just "muscle it" further.

The same principle (IMO) applies to muscular endurance and comparing it to improving technique. Say a fighter works on his mental game, staying more relaxed on the mat. Therefore, he conserves energy. Does that give him more endurance? No. But it does allow him to work longer.

Same result. Different paths.

So, the next question that brings up is which is more important to work on? Muscular endurance or managing technique? And of course, there is no hard and fast answer. It depends on the fighter, how he fights (style-wise), and his current abilities (in both technique and S&C). After a thorough assessment of everything, those kinds of questions can be answered. Why do you have to pick one over the other? Why not learn to manage technique AND increase muscular endurance? Well, that would be one of the most optimal choices for this situation, but given the trainee can only do so much (and given that MMA is probably one of, if not THE most demanding sports from such a wide variety of skills necessary perspective), he has to pick and choose his battles (so to speak).
Shifting gears...

In the 1st thread, it was mentioned (more or less) that complexes don't get the heart going like sprinting can. I agree (and Chad and I have traded emails about this) that running as fast as you can for as long as you can will keep your heart beating as fast as possible. However, many people don't have the lower body muscular endurance (i.e. the ability to keep contracting the musculature of the hips/legs) to keep up the kind of pace necessary. Something like complexes, however, can allow the trainee to keep working, allowing some muscle groups to actively rest while others work, all the while the cardiovascular system keeps getting taxed.

And for many, this is all they'll need. However, I do believe that once a trainee gets themselves in pretty good shape, and has a good amount of work capacity built up, complexes will then start to diminish in ability to keep heart-rate up. To do so, it's been my experience, the trainee has to significantly increase the weight, making the amount of force that has to be exerted that much more. But if you start to go too heavy, you start running into the area of strength development, as well as what I call strength-endurance (the ability to perform a given activity with a given percentage of one's 1RM - not just the ability to contract repeatedly...I think it was said before that this was Relative Endurance).

Now, this isn't necessarily a *bad* thing, as I believe having higher Relative Endurance (w/higher % of 1RM in both the strength and power depts.) is a good thing. IMO, fighters need to be strong at the end of the fight - not just at the beginning. (And as RIPLEY pointed out, many are weak then, too.) But it's a different question.

There's also the idea that efficiency and maximum ability and/or capacity aren't necessarily the same thing.

One of the things that I see/hear over at Crossfit (I'm not trying to bash these guys - just making a point) is that they want to find more efficient ways of doing movements, so that more work can be done. I don't necessarily agree with this.
Think of it this way - say as a part of a Crossfit metcon circuit, you had to jump over a cone X number of times, and this cone was 12 inches high. In Crossfit fashion, you take the most efficient route, and jump just high enough to get over the cone - say 12.25 inches. Your work output is high, in that you're moving your bodyweight X number of reps over the requisite 12 inch cone, and since you're going *just* high enough to clear the cone, your time is as fast as it can be. IMO, this would be a case of maximizing efficiency.

Now let's say that instead of jumping just high enough to clear the cone (12.25 inches), you jump a full 20 inches over the cone, clearing it by 8 inches with each jump. IMO, this would b a case of maximizing ability/capacity.

Now the question that gets raised in my mind, is which of the two have more carryover? The increase in efficiency, or the increase in ability/capacity? It depends on what the test is. If the test is the workout itself (as is the case w/Crossfit most times), it's the first. However, if the test is a totally unrelated activity (say barbell complexes or sprinting and wrestling), then I'd say the second.

In this sort of instance, you'd learn how to maximize efficiency with your skills training. Maximize your ability/capacity with your S&C training.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.