Conditioning Part II

There are many aspects to programming the conditioning of athletes. You have to know when the season starts, what type of energy system they use, if they have any conditioning test they have to perform, and how good or bad of shape they are already in. These are crucial in developing a successful program.

Ideally you would want to do conditioning separate from the actual workout so that they can maximize growth from their workout with proper recovery and nutrition. After a workout their glycogen stores are depleted and they need to start generating the anabolic process by getting in the proper nutrition to start protein synthesis so their body can repair and regenerate. That is the purpose of the training to get bigger, stronger, and faster so why waste a second with conditioning when they should be focused on recovering.

That is the ideal situation, but if you are training athletes in your gym that will most likely never be the case. They want to get in and get out with out having to come another day or session to get conditioning in. If that is the case then you have to maximize their time with weight lifting and then conditioning to follow. We have our guys do conditioning that will complement their training. So if it is leg day we will have them either push the prowler or pull the sled.

If there season is 4 months away than do not even worry about conditioning, just focus on getting stronger and bigger. Once it hits two months before season then we start to incorporate conditioning unless they are extremely out of shape then we would start 3 or maybe even 4 months out. This just depends on the person and their situation.

Every sport requires certain energy systems. You have slow oxidative, fast glycolitic, and ATP-PC. Most of your athletes play in an ATP-PC and fast glycolitic sport, so you have to prepare them for that. The key to achieving this is to have as much capacity in both systems and to reduce the factors causing fatigue.

If the sport requires these two systems to be used during the game, than you must train your athletes to reach the highest levels possible in order to master their sport. You have to have the exercise mimic the actual sport in duration and intensity. The high intensity conditioning will increase the glycolitic enzymes in all fiber-types which will increase the amount of ATP that can be generated. It will also increase the speed at which PC can be degraded, so that faster ATP turnover is possible. If they play football have them do a conditioning exercise for 5-7 seconds and than rest. At the beginning of the conditioning program make sure you give them a good amount of rest and than the preceding weeks either lower the rest, increase the reps, or increase the weight. This will allow them to strive for something new every week when it comes to conditioning. It is just like ME days when you are trying to break records.