Merab Dvalishvili recently made an appearance on an episode of The Simple Man Podcast and he was able to shed some light on how he’s achieved such fantastic cardio. There are plenty of MMA fighters out there with great cardio, particularly in the lighter weight classes, but Dvalishvili still manages to stand out even among them. Over the course of his UFC career he has managed to maintain an incredible pace in many fights and wear down a number of elite fighters. Although he also possesses some of the best grappling in the sport right now, his ability to break opponents down over the course of a fight has really made the difference in quite a lot of fights.
In fact, Dvalishvili’s last fight saw him outwork Sean O’Malley across five rounds to win the UFC bantamweight world championship. With his impressive cardio being such a big part of his success during his professional MMA career, naturally that’s something that any other grapplers might want to replicate. Nicky Rodriguez was the one to ask him what he does to maintain that high level of cardio, and Dvalishvili was honest that it wasn’t something that came naturally to him:
“I think it’s just training. Because I remember when I started training and when I wasn’t training, I was getting tired and it was normal, like nothing. Also in Judo it’s only a 5-minute match, there is breaks in between the match. Every time you try something and until you start again there is breaks, it’s not like a 5-minute go. There is breaks, when you try a takedown and before you get up and come back to the position again. But my stomach was hurting from (being) tired, you know?”
Instead Merab Dvalishvili credited his cardio to sustained efforts over the course of years, and he singled out one particular exercise outside of his regular combat sports training:
“Over the years I just keep pushing, training. Even when I’m travelling, even if I’m not able to (do) sparring or wrestling, or Jiu-Jitsu, at least I run.”
Running is an incredibly important part of developing cardio and Dvalishvili is clearly aware of that himself. He went on to explain what type of running he does and with the huge amount of hours he puts into it, it’s no surprise that his cardio is as good as it is:
“I’m very busy. If I run before I have meetings or if I have to go somewhere, even if I have like one hour and 45 minutes I will just try and like run at speed. If I finish the day and I have to run then I can run longer, I don’t measure distance. Sometimes I have short time and I try to run (at) speed, if I train later at night or whatever I enjoy long jogging and running. Sometimes also, like once in a while, I like to find hills and just go. If it’s short hills, up and down, up and down.”
The full interview with Merab Dvalishvili where he explains the secret behind his incredible cardio was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of The Simple Man Podcast:
