Conditioning is More Than Just Cardio

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"Conditioning is More Than Just Cardio"

Conditioning is one of those words that gets tossed around a lot to mean one thing, but in reality, it means so much more.

For many people, when they think "conditioning," they think cardio. This could be in the form of LSD (Long Slow Distance) jogging, interval training/sprints, skipping rope, etc - activities that get you breathing hard and sucking wind.

"Cardio" entails cardiovascular and cardio-respiratory conditioning, or, in other words, the ability of the heart to efficiently pump blood through the body, and the lungs to efficiently take in oxygen and discard carbon dioxide. If you're not sure what this is, go outside and sprint to the end of the block and back as hard as you can. Go ahead - I'll wait...Great, you're back. Are you breathing hard? Thought so. This is cardio.

However, that is only one element of overall conditioning.

Next, there's muscular conditioning. This is the ability of a muscle (or group of muscles) to contract repeatedly over a given period of time. If you're not sure what that means, hit the floor and do as many pushups as you can. Go ahead - I'll wait again...how was that? Likely you're not breathing as hard as you were from the run, but your arms and chest are probably burning pretty bad - much more so than your legs were from the sprint. That's muscular conditioning.

Then there is strength/power conditioning. This is sort of the next step after muscular conditioning. Now, instead of your muscles just having to contract repeatedly (were the amount of force they have to produce isn't an issue), they'll have to contract at near maximal force repeatedly. Or, in other words, how many times (within a given period of time) can you lift a weight that's really close to your maximum?

So, if repping out on pushups was muscular conditioning, loading the most you can bench press onto the bar minus 15% or so and doing as many reps as you can with that would be a measure of strength conditioning.

So, how to train these different modes of conditioning?

There are several different ways you could train each of these qualities individually, but there is a good way that you can get a better "bang for your training buck".

Circuits (also called “complexes”) can do train all three at once. Circuits are pretty simple - just perform several exercises back to back with no rest. Now, when you hear the word "circuits" you might conjure up ideas of somebody doing endless reps on an old chrome universal weight machine, wearing some sort of '70 jumpsuit. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The types of circuits I'm talking about are done with barbells, dumbbells, medicine balls, and/or bodyweight exercises. These circuits can either be done very high volume with several exercises, lighter weight, and higher reps to tax muscular conditioning. Or, they can be done with a medium number of exercises (say 4-6), heavier weights, and medium reps (say 6-8). This will tax not only muscular conditioning, but will tax strength/power conditioning more. Both will greatly tax cardio conditioning simply because you're doing so much work without resting.

Another way is to do single, alternating-limb exercises. These are best done with full-body exercises, and, because of the nature of the method, heavier weights can be used, with higher reps. For example, take the Dumbbell (DB) Clean & Press. Grab a heavy DB, and Clean & Press it with your left arm. Set it down, and grab it with your right hand. Clean and Press. Set it down and grab with your left. Keep repeating until you do 20-30 reps per side. This allows you to keep your form tight, use high volume, and use a much heavier weight that if you were doing 20-30 reps consecutively. This method will tax not only strength/power conditioning, but muscular and cardio conditioning as well.

Probably the most beneficial aspect to these types of circuits is that they are such great cardio workouts. You get as much - or more - cardio benefit as you would any sort of "traditional" cardio (jogging, various machines, interval training, etc.), but you never have to do any direct cardio workouts. All the extra cardio you get is simply a by-product of all the work you're doing.

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.

If You're Looking for Cardio Workouts, Then Check out the 'Working Class Cardio Workout'. These Workout Plans Will Help You to Improve Your Cardio, Blast Fat Off Your Body, and Build That Chiseled Body You've Always Wanted! Jump into the Cardio Workout, That Will Catapult Your Physique, Endurance, Health, and Self-Confidence to That Next Level!!

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"First thing that I've got to say is that I lost 5 pounds in the first 1.5 weeks of your program...that's definately the workout I would follow before my official fight...the combination of posterior and anterior chain exercises various other sportsmen would find useful because of the amount of cleans and pushes combined with anaerobic circuits."
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Ukraine

eklof cardio workout picture "...after 2 weeks of the cardio program, the biggest thing that I’ve noticed is that my resting heartbeat is down about 3 beats per minutes. I’m down a couple of pounds as well. My energy level appears to be higher (I’ve got twin 4 year olds, so keeping my energy level high is very important)...At 43 years old I’m not concerned with being the biggest or the strongest, just being in the best overall athlete I can be."
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