Valour Fitness Guernsey

Conditioning for many still feels like an afterthought. I used to be one of the many, but as I’ve got older (and a little bit) smarter, I now recognise how conditioning should form a much larger portion of everyone's training volume.

◾ What is conditioning?

Conditioning isn’t just cardio. It’s the ability to reproduce the demands of a sport or task repetitively so that you can work for a given amount of time rather than just a single expression. Sports, or more pertinent now, fitness competitions, blend variation work durations and skills that force us to be conditioned if we want to be succesfull

◾ Why include conditioning?

Our aim should be to train and challenge the energy pathways that relate to our chosen sport or activity, therefore giving us an advantage that we wouldn’t have had, had they not been trained efficiently.
Don’t think of conditioning of always directly mirroring your sport, but rather something that serves to prepare you for the demands that it will throw at you.

By working through a structured conditioning plan you’re training your body to improve energy production and the ability to actually utilize that energy in a consistent, and repeatable, manner.

Not only will conditioning improve specific performance within your sport it also serves to improve other qualities linked to general health.

It will aid in:

✅ Improving recovery from strength training sessions
✅ Stress balance
✅ Reducing inflammation
✅ Developing resilience and mental toughness
✅ Preventing certain chronic conditions linked to poor cardiocascular health

The attached video shows one of my 3 weekly sessions

A) Alactic power bike sprint – 10x5 secs work and 55 secs recovery
B) D-Ball ball clean and toss – 5x3 (10 secs) with 80 secs recovery
C) Farmers walk – 4x120 meters (75 secs work)
D1) Banded hamstring curls – 2x40
D2) Backwards sled push – 2x40 meters
D3) Split stance banded rotations -3x15 reps e/s

Weekly sessions

A) Alactic Power + Accessory movements with concentric only focus

B) Cardiac output – 60 mins at a heart rate in zone 2

C) Cardiac Power – 5 x 60 secs with HR dropping to 105-110 between each rep

When we talk about training the lower body the quads, hamstrings and glutes are all muscles we hear talked about extensively. The adductors on the other hand rarely get mentioned.

Strong, properly functioning adductors contribute to hip flexion and hip extension during sprinting, lateral change of direction, and total hip stabilisation. This shouldn’t just be a consideration for athletes.

With the dramatic rise of the average gym goer migrating from purely existing inside a gym to taking part in demanding fitness competitions, the adductors need to be able to handle the demands that these multifaceted events throw at them. The sequencing of things like wall balls, burpee broad jumps and walking lunges one after the other mean that hip stability in these deep ranges is important not only for performance but as much for injury prevention.

As they're often comprised of a large portion of slower twitch fibers the adductors won’t be sufficiently stimulated with heavier low rep quad work, therefore slightly higher rep unilateral work should be included to get the greatest benefit, again from both the angles of performance, and prevention (of injuries)

Add in this tri-set to a lower body (or full body) training day once a week. I’ve even put a three week progression to get you started.

A) Slider lateral lunge 1 + ½ rep – Week 1 – 2x10 e/s Week 2 – 2x10 (increase load) e/s – Week 3 – 3x8 (increase load)
B) Copenhagen weighted side plank – Week – 2x30 secs e/s – Week 2 – 2x30 (increase load) -Week 3 – 3x30
C) Banded adduction – Week 1 – 2x20 reps e/s - Week 2 – 2x25 – Week 3 – 3x25

Time pressured training part 2

Another template to show how effective training doesn't need to be arduous. Work hard, efficiently and use your rest period to include rehab or rehab work.

A) 1 arm DB sn**ch x 3x3 (8 mins)

Great way to activate the nervous system before deadlifting.

B1) Deadlift x 4
B2) Pull up x 8
B3) Rear delt fly x 20

Rest periods can be used to include mobility work

(20 mins)

No rest between each movement then take 3 minutes rest and complete 2 more rounds

C) DB Goblet squat x 25 reps then rest 60 secs and get half that number of reps

(5 mins)

Heavy strength exercises put our bodies in a state of heightened readiness where the increased neural excitibility that comes from lifting something heavy (in this case the deadlift) can feed into the next exercise. This works brilliantly with explosive movements, but will also make a high volume secondary movement like the DB Goblet squat feel more fluid than it would have had it not been performed before.

D1) Copenhagen side plank - 3x12 reps e/s
D2) Reverse crunch straight leg lowering - 3x6

A time efficient adductor strengthening and ab combo.

(10 mins)

Time for most of us is at a premium. Busy jobs, family commitments and everything in between can make it hard to find long periods of time to exercise.

We all really want to just feel better, move better and look better and ideally do it in the most efficient time frame possible.

The template above shows how you can - in 45 minutes or less - maximise the entire session to include strength, mobility and core work.

Sessions like this can be tailored towards different body parts and different phases of training. E.g an intensificstion phase would drop the reps down on each exercise to decrease the volume but elevate the intensity.

The program:

A) An explosive jump 4x2

Rest 60 secs inbetween sets

B1) Squat 3x5
B2) Leg press 3x15
B3) Walking Lunge 3x30

Rest 3 minutes and repeat twice more, but use the rest periods to work on some mobility movements.

Then superset

C1) Calf raises 3x20
C2) Ab wheel rollouts 3x15

Give it a try.