Conditioning Progression

Training
1

I amean at a stage now where I am comfortable with my strength level and want to focus on conditioning/strength-endurance while maintaining my current levels.

I would prefer to condition using strongman implements, as I have access to everything (thick bars, atlas stones, farmers bars, tires, odd objects,sleds, etc) and I fund it fun!

I am posting in the beginners forum for this subject because I have no idea of what type of progression schemes to use for this type of training. I have a few ideas, but it doesn’t mean they are most effective haha.

My primary concern is improving cardiovascular heslth, but maintain strength. I did 5 sets of the sled Tuesday and realized how out of shape I am.

2

Damn Phone AND Its sutocorrect… Sorry

3

Take a sled or prowler, load it with a weight that still allows you to push the speed and do ten all-out trips. Once you feel like it, do eleven, then up to twenty. Your main progression will come from your speed and from decreasing your rest periods; this won’t be linear. Just go at it as hard as you can and you’ll get better, but this will be difficult to track (but does it have to be tracked?).

4

Why do you need to have a progression scheme? This isn’t a strength building plan, you’re not “leaving some in the tank”. Find something you enjoy and go at it as hard as you can. If I had access to all that equipment, I’d be inventing new workouts pretty much every session.

If you really feel the need to track progress, pick one standardised workout that you can measure or time somehow and do that every few weeks/every month/whenever and compare times. Yes it does sound like Crossfit, yes it will work.

5

[quote]dagill2 wrote:
Why do you need to have a progression scheme? This isn’t a strength building plan, you’re not “leaving some in the tank”. Find something you enjoy and go at it as hard as you can. If I had access to all that equipment, I’d be inventing new workouts pretty much every session.

If you really feel the need to track progress, pick one standardised workout that you can measure or time somehow and do that every few weeks/every month/whenever and compare times. Yes it does sound like Crossfit, yes it will work.[/quote]

I’m beginning to like you.

6

Good info so far that covered most of it. My two cents:

[quote]Aero51 wrote:
My primary concern is improving cardiovascular heslth, but maintain strength.[/quote]
If this is the goal, then I’d focus on either doing longer trips each “set”, more sets each session or week, and/or less rest between sets.

If you have a bunch of different implements, I’d also get around to using all of them either individually (switching every few weeks), in medleys (a.k.a circuits), or combined (like a Dan John favorite - hug an atlas stone or use farmer’s handles while pulling a sled).

EDIT: I will say, though, I never could really get on board with not tracking training progress, even if it’s “just” cardio or “just” accessory work. I understand that not everyone needs to know what they hammer curled five weeks ago or what percent incline the treadmill was set at when they started cutting fat, but a variable that can change is a variable that’s worth watching.

Maybe you don’t overly-focus on improving it, but if I’m trying to drop fat, I want to know if I did 30 minutes at 3.3 speed and 12% last week because I’ll probably want to shoot for 30 minutes at 3.3 and 14% this week. It drives me a little nutty when I see people write “I benched the bar x eleventy hundred then 135 x some then 185x a few…” or “pressdowns 6 plates x lots.”

I kinda understand the mindset of “only the biggest set of the biggest lift really matters”, but all that little stuff adds up too, and tracking it lets you refer back to see what helped you end up where you are or, sometimes more importantly, let’s you see what you haven’t been doing (very useful if/when injuries pop up to look for overuse or imbalanced movements patterns).

The only thing I don’t track in my log is my general warm-up (which is always the same bodyweight exercises for the same number of reps for the same number of sets) and, recently, chin-ups which I’m doing through the day on a type of “auto-regulated grease the groove” plan (basically playing the reps by feel each time I pass by the bar, usually in the 4-8 range depending on grip and tempo). And even that I’m pretty sure I’ll start at least tracking total daily volume.

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I know nothing of using strongman stuff for conditioning.

I do think that doing all these higher-rep shit in the last month has improved my conditioning in ways that I didn’t really expect. I’m no longer tired after judo practice. I sweat a shit-ton but I ain’t tired.

8

Aero51,

Didn’t you recently post about some strength goals you wanted to hit? Did you hit them? You seemed really fired up about your recent strength PR’s, which I thought was great. Why not build on that momentum instead of shifting gears to another goal?

Your goals are your business, of course. If you want to pursue conditioning, by all means, go get yourself in killer shape.

I’m just challenging you on your thought process here.

9

[quote]dagill2 wrote:
Why do you need to have a progression scheme? This isn’t a strength building plan, you’re not “leaving some in the tank”. Find something you enjoy and go at it as hard as you can. If I had access to all that equipment, I’d be inventing new workouts pretty much every session.

If you really feel the need to track progress, pick one standardised workout that you can measure or time somehow and do that every few weeks/every month/whenever and compare times. Yes it does sound like Crossfit, yes it will work.[/quote]

I agree there isn’t a need to over-complicate this stuff BUT…

“Go as hard as you can” (for XYZ distance/time/weight) gets thrown around a lot, however I think we can train smarter that. We don’t necessarily need to make everything based off of percentage progressions and develop complicated meso and macrocycles, but “all out” is (1) ambiguous and leaves room for interpretation (2) seems likely that it may condition the individual well but won’t develop skill proficiency and attributes like power/speed as much as were possible if it weren’t performed all out. If the person is a proficient athlete and someone who learns with their body quickly then (2) may not be as important, but I doubt the OP and the type of people who would ask about this are elite athletes.

Aero, maybe if you gave some more specifics (when you are doing the conditioning, how often, the general template of your weight programming) people could give more specific advice. Besides that:

  • Progress difficulty in a way that you like and is tangible to you
  • Try setting some specific goals besides “general cardiovascular health”
  • Doesn’t have to be all out. Frequency and intensity are each another variable to change.
  • Don’t turn it into a P90X circuit marathon unless you just want to lose your breath and suck at a lot of things.
10

[quote]Sutebun wrote:

“Go as hard as you can” (for XYZ distance/time/weight) gets thrown around a lot, however I think we can train smarter that. We don’t necessarily need to make everything based off of percentage progressions and develop complicated meso and macrocycles, but “all out” is (1) ambiguous and leaves room for interpretation (2) seems likely that it may condition the individual well but won’t develop skill proficiency and attributes like power/speed as much as were possible if it weren’t performed all out.
[/quote]

I absolutely agree with you on point 2 but the OP didn’t ask for anything that would develop skill proficiency or power/speed. On point 1, I don’t think it is that open to interpretation. We all know what it means, we just choose not to do it sometimes.

11

I’ve decided I am going to use volume progression on my conditioning. Start out with 3 sets of an exercise, if 3 sets are achieved, go to 4, if 4 achieved, etc…

While I want to gain strength, the reality of the situation is that I am out of shape and my cardiovascular health needs to improve.

12

Another reason to progress is to avoid injuries. For example, if you haven’t run in a couple years and go out for a 6 mile run, there’s a good possibility you’ll end up w/ shin splints/runner’s knee, or whatever.

You can try this if nothing else: Get Ripped. Get Walking.
You’ll notice how the inclined resets a little every week, but the time tends to keep going up.

I also find my conditioning sessions tend to go long without a plan. I hit up the local ROTC grounds recently to throw tires and do pullups. I ended up there for 45 minutes and still hadn’t recovered 3 days later.