The Famous Tempo Intervals

The Tempo Interval Method

At first, I mostly just had the guys start doing tempo runs, just as Francis popularized. This generally consisted of a 12-15 second run at about 70-75% speed and about 60s rest in between reps. I mostly used the Woodway Force for these as you can measure speed/distance/load easily on it and the weather in Seattle has been terrible the last few months so we needed to stay indoors.

I quickly found these intervals to be a good form of active recovery and HRV measures would be noticeably improved on days following tempo runs compared to rest days where nothing at all was done. A lot of this simply has to do with activation of the body’s aerobic and adaptive mechanisms combined with a minimum of residual fatigue from the loading.

This is really what active recovery does in general, it activates the body’s adaptive biological systems and “jump starts” them if you will, while keeping fatigue to a minimum. The result is improved recovery and when performed at low to moderate volumes, tempo runs are an effective form of this.

Aerobic Fitness

Next, I began having fighters performing tempo intervals in higher volumes to see how they would impact aerobic fitness and I also began having them use the intervals with more specific MMA type drills like bag and pad work, shadowboxing, etc. I incorporated the tempo method 1-3 times a week with most fighters and typically had them do them on off days or at the end of other training sessions.

When I used higher volumes, somewhere between 20-30 minutes of the intervals per session, began to see noticeable improvements in aerobic fitness as well as increased work capacity. Aerobic fitness increases were measured with both direct and indirect measurements and I would venture that they likely stimulate some increased vascularization along with possibly some mitochondrial increases as well. For this purpose, I also think it’s better to keep moving during the “rest” interval rather than doing nothing, the pace is just slowed dramatically.

Recommendations

It’s still a bit early in my use of this form of interval to give definitive recommendations as for their most effective use in combat sports, but if you’re looking for a good form of active recovery and to build some work capacity – I’ll be doing an article soon on what work capacity is exactly – then try using tempo intervals at a low to moderate volume on your off days. Something like 15-20 minutes generally seems to be about right and for this purpose, I think more generalized training like running can be used.

If you’re working on improving aeobic fitness, try increasing the volume to 20-30 minutes and get in at least two sessions per week. In this case, it’s generally better that at least one of these is done using some combat specific drill like bag and pad work. It’s not very easy to do this type of interval using grappling drills unfortunately.

Also, for this purpose I suggest keeping moving during the rest interval. A good example would be to hit the bag or some pads at about a 70% intensity for 12-15 seconds and then shadow boxing or jumping rope for 60s or so. You can then simply repeat this for however long you want.

One of the keys to doing tempo intervals is using the right training intensity. You shouldn’t feel exhausted or worn out when you’re done with this type of work. You should feel like you worked, but not anything like after a heavy sparring or grappling session. This type of training should be around a 5 or 6 on a 1-10 scale of overall intensity.

Give them a shot and feel free to post your comments to let me know how they work.

Joel Jamieson