Efficiency of Energy Expenditure

 Efficiency of Energy Expenditure

Although this is not a book about improving your MMA skills, it is important to acknowledge
that skill and technique play a distinct role in your conditioning. This can be seen in the
efficiency of energy expenditure component. Your body works hard to generate the ATP your
muscles need, but how effectively and economically your muscles utilize this energy to punch,
knee, takedown, elbow, etc., largely comes down to your MMA technique and skill.
This principle is especially important for fighters with less experience who tend to try to
overcompensate for a lack of skill by throwing as hard and as fast as possible until they
ultimately end up gassing out —which typicaily is right around the end of the first round. If
you've ever rolled or sparred against a very experienced fighter, you've no doubt seen just how
much of a difference technique and skill can make when it comes to conditioning. It can often
seem like you're working your as off while they are barely breaking a sweat and yet somehow
you're the one who keeps tapping out or getting punched in the face.
Part of improving your conditioning needs to come from learning how to utilize the energy you
produce as effectively as possible through efficient technique. Fighters who are always tense
and try to throw everything they have into every punch or kick are also the same ones who
typically have conditioning problems.
In other words, all the conditioning in the world isn't going to help you much if you waste it
with poor technique and strategy. Fortunately, as you become a more experienced fighter you
will inevitably get better at utilizing the energy you're able to create. Just like everything else,
this is an area you must spend conscious effort and work for it to dramatically improve.
Muscle Contractility
The specific contractile properties of your muscle are another important area of energy
utilization and they also play a role on the energy production side of the equation as well. The
property of contractility basically just describes how fast your muscles are capable of
contracting and relaxing. When people typically think of power, they often only consider the
contraction speed without realizing the importance of the relaxation speed as well.
What's important to know is that these mechanical properties are intimately tied to the
metabolic properties of the muscle, but they can also be improved and changed independently
of one another to a certain extent as well. For example, your fast twitch fibers will always be
capable of contracting and relaxing faster and will require a higher rate of energy production to
sustain their power output than slow twitch fibers, but it is also possible to improve their
endurance without slowing them down.
The goal of training is to increase how fast your muscles can contract and relax (power) while
also simultaneously improving their ability to do so for prolonged periods of time. Contractility
plays a big role in determining how much external power results from your energy production.

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