How To Improve Your Conditioning

One of the biggest issues people have when trying to improve their conditioning is they look at it through a different lens than strength training.


Most people understand that you can progress strength training by increasing weight, increasing reps or increasing the number of sets of a given exercise.


When it comes to conditioning though, most people take the approach of just working really hard until they get tired.


How do you improve that? Say it with me…work harder and longer!


Except that’s completely wrong.


The problem with that way of thinking is that it WILL make you more tired…but it rarely improves your conditioning.


We can effectively improve conditioning by taking the same approach as we typically do with strength training.


Here are the top 3 ways to improve your conditioning:


Increasing Conditioning Volume

When you increase the volume of your conditioning training, you are in fact increasing the training stress on your body. Gradual increases in stress on the body is what stimulates the positive changes you’re working towards.

You can increase your conditioning volume by:

  • Increasing the time of your conditioning sessions each week
  • Increasing the sets of your conditioning exercises each week

It’s important to increase your conditioning volume gradually over the course of your training block (typically 4 to 6 weeks). This allows your body to effectively recover to an increased workload without injury.


For example, let’s say you’ve decided to begin walking at a brisk pace. Ideally you want to find a pace (above 3.5 mph) where you can keep your heart rate between 120 and 130 beats per minute. In week 1, you would take a brisk walk 3 times per week for 20 minutes at your targeted pace. In week 2, you would increase your walk time to 25 minutes for your 3 sessions. In week 3, your time would again increase to 30 minutes and in week 4 you’re bumping your walk time to 35 minutes.

Now that you’ve increased your conditioning volume, you can begin increasing the intensity of your conditioning. Increasing intensity before you have established consistency with conditioning volume is building on a poor foundation.

Increase Conditioning Intensity


Just train harder…that’s all you have to do right?


Unfortunately this is the most common approach but it’s relatively subjective and hard to evaluate perceived effort from week to week.


Training at a higher percentage of your max heart rate is the most reliable and effective way to increase the intensity of your conditioning.


However, you will need to have some idea of what your max heart rate actually is…the formula of 220 minus your age isn’t reliable.


That formula lumps every 40 year old into the same category regardless of their fitness level and health history…not exactly a reliable formula. Every car and every person simply doesn’t have the same motor.


To help determine your max heart rate, you’ll need to perform a fast, full-body exercise such as a 400 meter sprint. If running isn’t an option for you, you could also use a rower or an assault bike.


Heart rate monitors (such as Morpheus, Polar or Garmin) allow you to effectively track your heart rate during your conditioning training. This makes tracking increases in the intensity of your conditioning convenient.


Gradually decreasing your rest intervals or increasing your work intervals on a weekly basis will also allow you to increase the intensity of your conditioning training.

Let’s assume you’re doing conditioning work on a rower.


In weeks 1 and 2, you would increase your intensity for 10 seconds which would drive your heart rate between 130 to 145. Then you would reduce your intensity (still actively training…not resting) for the next 50 seconds bringing your heart rate back between 120 and 130. (Please note that the specific heart rate ranges vary by individual.)


In weeks 3 and 4, you would increase your intensity for 15 seconds with your targeted heart rate between 130 and 145. The next 75 seconds you would reduce your intensity bringing your heart rate back between 120 and 130 beats per minute.


When you are increasing conditioning intensity, you do NOT need to increase the higher intensity interval AND decrease the lower intensity interval at the same time.

 

In the previous example, the goal is to maintain a 1:5 high intensity to low intensity work ratio to help develop dynamic energy control. This is your ability to regulate the amount of energy expenditure needed to perform. Far too often people begin reducing the ratio of higher intensity work to lower intensity work (or rest) without developing their dynamic energy control.

This is exactly why simply working harder and longer to make yourself more tired doesn’t make you better.


If we are following that same 1:5 high intensity to low intensity ratio and we increased the higher intensity work interval to 30 seconds, we would also need to increase the lower intensity work interval to 2.5 minutes or 150 seconds.


Increase Conditioning Frequency

The 3rd way to improve your conditioning is similar to the 1st. Instead of increasing time, sets or reps, you’ll add in another training session during your week.


When you increase your training frequency, you’ll most likely increase your total volume AND intensity as well. That is why this should be the 3rd lever you pull to improve your conditioning.


You’ll want to improve the capacity of your conditioning by first increasing volume and then intensity. This will give you room to continue your improvement without sustaining injuries when you increase your training frequency.


It can be incredibly tempting to want to increase volume, intensity and frequency all at the same time…this is a great recipe for injuries and overtraining. If you get hurt, you can’t train. If you can’t train, you can’t keep improving.


By gradually increasing the volume, intensity and then frequency of your conditioning training, you are employing the same Minimum Effective Dose strategy that works wonders for strength training.


The Minimum Effective Dose strategy uses the least amount of training necessary to improve, progress or elicit the desired response. If you had a headache, you can take 2 aspirin…you don’t need to take the whole bottle.


If you’re just getting started trying to improve your conditioning, take 4 to 8 weeks to increase the volume of your training.


Once your performance starts to plateau, you can begin to increase the intensity of your training over the next 4 to 8 weeks.


Again, once performance stalls, you can then ramp up the frequency of your training to continually improve your conditioning.



Hopefully these strategies help you take a smarter approach as you work to improve your conditioning.


About No Limits

No Limits Fitness provides step-by-step programs to help busy adults get the body they’ve always wanted, without restrictive diets or time-consuming workouts, so they can lead more fulfilling lives. Life is a much better experience in a strong, healthy body!

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