Why do you need it? What is it? Why and how does it help you?
Conditioning is training to improve your body’s ability to produce longer work efforts, or more repetitions of shorter efforts. It is commonly associated with going on long runs, like Muhammad Ali was known to do before sunrise. People think of conditioning as long, monotonous training - sitting on a bike for an hour, or running that 10km loop.
At Pinnacle Performance we break conditioning down into 2 separate sessions during your training week: Met-L and CON, which have separate purposes—central and peripheral adaptations.
Central adaptations are where the session targets your heart: how much blood can your heart pump with each beat, and how many beats per minute can it pump?
Peripheral adaptations are where the session targets the muscles receiving the blood: how much can it actually use?
One without the other leads to a stall in your progress. If your muscles can cope with more blood and utilise it, but there is not a higher rate coming to it, then you will be limited to the work rate that you’re currently at. If your heart can pump a higher rate of blood out to the working muscles, but the working muscles can’t utilise it then it is wasted, again limiting you to the work rate that you’re currently at. That is why both central and peripheral adaptations are required.
Why do your muscles need blood? The blood is a delivery mechanism. The oxygen and nutrients that your muscles require to work are carried in the blood. The more of this that they can get into the muscle, the better your performance will be as the harder they can work.
So which session targets which adaptation?
The purpose of a Met-L is peripheral adaptations. In these sessions a large amount of your muscles is worked, and worked hard. With small rest periods before you have to go again, this creates the environment where to keep going or go at a faster pace you need to be very efficient at using the blood that is arriving at your muscles. Therefore, your body is forced into adapting the muscles to have this efficiency. As well as this, the muscles adapt by being able to receive more blood.
The purpose of CON (‘conditioning’) is central adaptations. These are longer intervals, usually on one modality (ie. a bike or a rowing machine). Your heart rate will be in a certain zone (roughly 60- 70% of your maximum heart rate), much lower than in a Met-L. Having your heart rate in the desired zone is what will give you those adaptations that we are looking for. Working at that heart rate stresses the heart (in a good way), forcing it to adapt and become stronger, so that it can pump more blood out to your working muscles.
What if you don’t compete in a sport? How does improved conditioning help you?
Well, there are a host of other benefits to improved conditioning. Health benefits include: lowered blood pressure, improved blood sugar regulation, improved cardiovascular health, boosted immune system, and improved mood and sleep.
As well as this, the way that conditioning training taxes your body is different from how lifting heavy weights does. This means that you can do conditioning sessions (Met-L or CON) in the days between each heavy lifting session as your body is still able to recover from each lifting session. Not only does this mean that you get the most out of your training week, but it also means that you’re able to get more sessions in, helping you stay consistent with the good habit of almost daily exercise. Additionally, improved conditioning increases your ability to recover quicker from training. For example, 10x10 deadlift becomes easier as you can focus on lifting the weights, rather than trying to catch your breath so much in between sets. This improved ability to recover means that you can get more training in over each week and cycle, which in turn allows you to become an even stronger and more powerful athlete.
About the author
Coach Max is a Senior Strength and Conditioning Coach in Pinnacle Performance. He is a graduate of BA Sport, Exercise and Physical Activity from the University of Durham, and a MSc Strength and Conditioning from the University of Edinburgh. As a coach, he’s been involved with Rugby, Hockey, Netball and Golf. He’s currently the Facility Manager at Performance, and is in-charge of HKGA (golf).
