Photo by Kyle Johnson on Unsplash
Muscle mass and heart health are two of the best predictors of longevity and quality of life as you age. And both of them can be improved with exercise, but often we think of them as separate: do cardio like running or cycling for your heart, and lift some weights for muscle mass.
But what if I told you that you could do both at the same time?
Conditioning is one of those fitness terms that often doesnât have a clear definition. Called âGeneral Physical Preparation (GPP)â by some, âMetabolic Conditioning (MetCon)â by others, or simply working on âWork Capacityâ, conditioning is training that seeks to fatigue your respiratory, cardiovascular, and muscular systems all at once. Unlike traditional cardio, conditioning focuses on manipulating resistance while your heart and lungs are telling you to stop, and doing that until you canât anymore.
What I call âheavy conditioningâ is the type of conditioning that uses decently heavy external loads with a focus on increasing how much weight youâre usingâââand as a side effect it improves your strength and cardiovascular fitness with one big bang-for-your-buck session.
Heavy Conditioning
Now that we know about what conditioning is and why weâd do it, letâs take a look at some specifics. Iâve already covered two methods of heavy conditioning here at Medium:
Complexes are a way to convert basic gym lifts into conditioning exercises, by doing things back to back and minimizing rest. Typical complexes use only a single barbell, one or two dumbbells or kettlebells, or an odd object like a sandbag or keg. If you want to get a lot of work done with only a single implement, this is where you want to be.
Density Training is another method to convert typical gym work into conditioning workâââthis time by doing only one or two exercises on a clock, aiming to get more work in the same time period (or the same work done in less time).
The above two are tried and true methods to cover whole body conditioning work without drifting too far away from what you may already be doing in the gym. But what else is there?
Carries and Sleds
The simplest and probably best form of heavy conditioning is the easiest to explain: you take some heavy thing and pick it up, push it, or drag it over there, then repeat a few times. There are many ways to carry things, and just as many ways to push or pull things, but the idea is always the same.
The most obvious questions people ask, then, are âhow far?â or âhow long?â. Thereâs no real answer to thisâââdistance will be based on the space you have available. Begin with something of moderate weight and just go âdown and backâ to get a feel for things. You can change the type of carry youâre doing at either end of your route. Work on increasing this load from session to session.
Tip: Use Density Training methods with carries and sled work, focusing on doing as much work as you can in a set time, then working to increase it from session to session before increasing load.
Hill or Stair Sprints
Running, even sprinting, tends to fall into the realm of traditional cardio more than conditioning. Sprinting on its own is a great exercise and can do a lot for you. But thereâs this one weird trick we can apply to move it into the realm of heavy conditioning: sprint up a hill or long run of stairs.
Hill and stair sprints are interesting in that they limit your maximum accelerationâââwhich serves to reduce sprinting injuryâââand force you into a forward leaning posture to help with general sprinting technique. They literally force you to be a better sprinter.
Performing hill or stair sprints is easyâââfind a hill or long straight run of stairs, like at a stadium. Taking it easy for the first few trips, run up to the top, then walk down. After two or three slower trips, begin sprinting as hard as you can each trip. Use the walk down to recover, and run back up as soon as youâre able.
Tip: You donât need a lot of this form of sprinting to get benefits from it. 3â10 sprints is probably sufficient. Itâs exhausting, though, so do these at the end of a longer workout if youâre combining it with other things.
Rucking
Rucking is the term military-like folks use for walking with a bunch of heavy gear in a backpack (or ârucksackâ). For us recreational folks, it means getting a decent pack that wonât tear, and filling it with heavy stuff (bags of sand or cement from a home improvement store work great).
Most people will want to start with around 15â30% of their bodyweight in a pack, and walk for 15â30 minutes. If youâre not used to this much walking, start on the low end. Regardless of how many times you ruck over a week, you will increase either the load by 5% or the time by 5 minutes each week. Iâd probably set the limit at 60% bodyweight and 60 minutes, but you might prefer longer or heavier walks. Each ruck should be brisk, without running.
Tip: Rucking is somewhat passive. Itâs a great activity for off days or recovery. Throwing on a backpack for an after dinner walk is a great way to get some heavy conditioning work in without it feeling as intensive as the other options here.
tl;dr
Cardiovascular health and muscle mass are two of the most important cornerstones of physical health and fitness. Most folks that train focus on one of these, and those that focus on both usually seem to separate them into separate things. But eventually this training can get stagnant âwhether you run or lift, it eventually becomes something commonplace you âjust doâ. Replacing these things with some sessions of heavy conditioning is a way to embrace what sucks and become a better you.
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