The influence of aerobic capacity on the loads and intensities of mixed martial arts sparring bouts

Kirk, C, Clark, D and Langan-Evans, C ORCID: 0000-0003-1120-6592 (2024) The influence of aerobic capacity on the loads and intensities of mixed martial arts sparring bouts. Journal of Sports Sciences. pp. 1-10. ISSN 0264-0414

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Abstract

The influence of aerobic variables on mixed martial arts (MMA) performance is currently unknown. This study aimed to compare the laboratory-measured aerobic variables of MMA participants to the external load and intensity of MMA sparring bouts to determine the effect of aerobic capacity on performance. Ten participants (age = 24 ± 2.8 years; mass = 74.3 ± 8.2 kg; stature = 176.8 ± 7.9 cm) completed the following: a treadmill-graded exercise test to measure V̇O2max, VT1 and VT2; 3 × 5 mins sparring bout equipped with a Catapult Optimeye S5 accelerometer recording Playerload (PLdACC) and Playerload per minute (PLdACC∙min−1), with a sessional rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) recorded as internal intensity. Median V̇O2max (53.3 ml∙kg∙min−1) was used to split the cohort into the top 50% and bottom 50%. Pearson’s r correlations (BF10 ≥ 3) were calculated between GXT and sparring variables. V̇O2max (53.1 ± 5.9 ml∙kg∙min−1) was found to have very large (r ≥ .70) linear relationships with PLdACC (161.4 ± 27.2 AU) and PLdACC∙min−1 (10.7 ± 1.8AU). The top 50% group maintained moderate sRPE (4-6AU) and greater PLdACC∙min−1 throughout the bout, with the bottom 50% group’s sRPE moving from moderate to high (>7AU) indicating V̇O2max <53 ml∙kg∙min−1 is related to increased internal intensity. These data support the aerobic nature of MMA and may provide aerobic capacity targets for athletes and coaches to aim for during competition preparatio

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Journal of Sports Sciences. Kirk, C., Clark, D., & Langan-Evans, C. (2024). The influence of aerobic capacity on the loads and intensities of mixed martial arts sparring bouts. Journal of Sports Sciences, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2024.2419239. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International - Creative Commons ), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Playerload; V O2max; combat sports; training intensity; training load; ventilatory thresholds; 1106 Human Movement and Sports Sciences; 1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy; Sport Sciences
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC1200 Sports Medicine
Divisions:	Sport and Exercise Sciences
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis Group
Date of acceptance:	14 October 2024
Date Deposited:	21 Nov 2024 16:19
Last Modified:	03 Jul 2025 17:45
DOI or ID number:	10.1080/02640414.2024.2419239
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/24832

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