Strength and conditioning has a jargon problem.
Often, coaches use the most technical language possible to make themselves sound smart, regardless of whether or not the total audience of athletes or fighters understands what they mean. This is especially true in terms of conditioning and can lead to a lot of confusion. You’ll often see coaches post lactic power workouts or lactic capacity workouts with no actual explanation of what these words mean.
This can lead to a lot of confusion for fighters. I’ve seen first-hand many fighters doing “alactic capacity workouts” and so on with no real understanding of what that means, whether that would be appropriate for them to do at all, and whether the workout they’re doing actually helps develop that particular thing.
So over the next two articles, I’m going to demystify these terms specifically. In the first article, we’ll start with the three energy systems: aerobic, lactic and alactic. In the next one, we’ll explain what power and capacity mean. Let’s dive in.
What Are The 3 Energy Systems
Your body is versatile for mixed martial arts, it has to be versatile and it’s capable of performing a wide range of different things, from simple tasks like walking to incredibly powerful and explosive tasks like long jump or shot put or Olympic weightlifting. These different things your body can do vary a lot in terms of how long they last and how intense they are. Our body uses different fuel sources for different tasks, with some fuel sources providing energy more quickly in short bursts, and other producing energy more sustained and slowly.
These are the aerobic system, the anaerobic lactic system and the anaerobic alactic system. You can think of these as your base system or main fuel tanks, your mid intensity system, and your high intensity nitrous tank. These systems have a lot of overlap and often work in sync to produce the energy you need to power the movements you do. This is especially true in mixed martial arts, where there’s lots of mixed demands, from short bursts of high-intensity to longer low-intensity work. So let’s look at these, one at a time,
The Aerobic System – Your Base/Gas Tank
The aerobic system is the most important energy system you have. It’s responsible for producing energy for all sustained activity longer than a minute. And it’s also the buffer that helps you recover and refuel the other two systems This system is often thought of as the low-intensity intensity system, because it produces energy more slowly than the other two, but in a well-trained person, you can still have a pretty high level of output from it.
The longer an activity lasts, the more likely it is that you’re using your aerobic system. In something like mixed martial arts, where a round never lasts less than three minutes (and usually five at pro), you will be using your aerobic system, whether you like it or not.
Key facts about the aerobic system
- Depends on oxygen produces a slow, sustainable form of energy
- Fuels low to mid output for long periods of time.
- It takes over from the other systems after 60+ seconds, like it or not
- Technically capable of producing energy forever provided as energy.
- Think: Footwork, distance control, light exchanges, recovery
The Anaerobic Lactic (Mid Intensity Grind System)
This system is the next notch up when your demand for energy is higher than what the aerobic system can give you. During short, high-intensity bursts, the anaerobic, lactic system usually kicks in. This system is not powered by oxygen. It is powered by glucose and glycogen stored in your muscles. This lets it produce energy at a faster rate than the aerobic system, but it fatigues much more rapidly.
Most people believe that lactate or lactic acid a byproduct of this system causes that fatigue, but that’s actually not true. Lactate itself is a valuable fuel source for this system.
Key points to now,
- Also called the Lactic or Glycolytic System
- Fuelled by glucose, not by oxygen
- A fast but unsustainable source of energy.
- Can fuel high-intensity activity for short periods from 10 seconds up to just over a minute,
- More adaptable than the alactic system, but less adaptable than the aerobic system,
- Think: Clinching, cage wrestling etc
The Anaerobic Alactic System – High Intensity Nitrous Tank
The anaerobic lactic system, sometimes called the creatine phosphate system, produces the energy for extremely short bursts of High Intensity movement. This is our energy system for heavy weight lifting, sprints, powerful punches and so on.
This system is fuelled by a molecule stored in your muscles called phosphocreatine. (think of this more as trivia, you don’t need to worry about the biochemistry)
This system can produce energy far faster than the other two, but also rapidly runs out of gas. You use it for maximum-intensity work, but it can only last for 10 to 12 seconds.
It’s also the hardest to adapt – a large part of your ability with this system is genetic. However, it’s worth knowing that he aerobic and a lactic system work in tandem. In between high-intensity bursts, it’s the aerobic system there will be refuelling that phosphocreatine ready for you to go again. For sports like fighting where you need high-intensity work over and over again, often the best way to improve it is by working on your aerobic base
Key facts,
- Fuel source: phosphocreatine, not oxygen.
- Rate of energy production: very high,
- Low capacity: only produces power for 10 to 12 seconds.
- No fatiguing by-products like the lactic system.
- The least adaptable system
- Refuelled by the aerobic system
- Think: Takedowns, high intensity striking exchanges etc.
Capacity & Power
Capacity in conditioning terms is, essentially, how long you can sustain using a system for. It can mean different physical things depending on the system, but for each one it essentially means how big your gas tank is; how long you can keep using that system before burning out or switching to another. Power on the other hand is the rate of output you have using that system – its horsepower.
This is easier to understand with examples of what each means.
If before a block of training, you can maintain a max speed sprint for 10 seconds, and afterwards, you can maintain it for 12 seconds, that means you’ve improved your capacity.
If before a training block, you can cover 90 metres, and after the block, you can cover 120 metres in the same amount of time, you’ve improved your power
So when you hear “Lactic Power Workout” for example, that means a workout that improves your output rate with the mid-intensity system. Or when you hear “aerobic capacity workout” that’s a workout to improve the time you can sustain output with the base aerobic system.
Hopefully, that should clear a few things up. Keep an eye open for other articles going into the different systems in depth and how to train them.
