Conditioning Methods I'm Using Right Now

If you're over on the ART Facebook page then you'll be receiving my daily updates on what I did for training that day. Right now I'm in the middle of my conditioning phase which consists of 2 blocks.

Block 1 was the preparation phase which was 9 sessions in 13 days that I have completed.

Block 2 is the main conditioning phase which will be 16 sessions that I aim to complete in no longer then 4 weeks. I'm almost at the end of week 1 today.

So what I want to do is talk a little about the methods I'm using for my conditioning of which you may never even knew existed.

For block 1 I used 3 different methods being High Resistance Intervals (HRI), Explosive Repeats (ER) and Aerobic Plyometrics (AP).

HRI improve the aerobic abilities of your fast twitch muscle fibers which are you fast an explosive fibers but they fatigue very quickly. This method can help extend the time to fatigue for these muscle fibers by supplying them with constant oxygen. You must use a mode of training that provides resistance such as hill sprints and cardio machines that allow for very heavy resistance to be used. I did manual treadmill, as high as it can go resisted cross trainer, heavy ropes and tall kneeling boxing. Do 15 - 20 x 10 - 12secs per session.

ER improves the fast twitch muscle fiber's aerobic repetitive power output by developing the slow twitch muscle fibers rate of oxidation meaning you fast fibers can recover faster between explosive bursts. You need to choose an explosive exercise, weighted or unweighted, and also be able to do 1 rep per second or thereabouts during these sets so look at plyometric push ups, bounds, low jumps, or even basic lifts done explosively with lighter resistance. I did band resisted feet elevated glute bridges and overspeed eccentric squats with my portable power jumper and push ups for 2 of the 3 days. You'll need to do 6 - 10 x 8 - 14secs x 2 series per exercise x 2 - 3 exercises per sessions, Rest 60 - 40secs between sets and 8 - 10mins between exercises too. So start with lower reps and higher rest and increase/decrease over time.

AP aims to improve the aerobic abilities of the fast twitch muscle fibres meaning higher power can be maintained for longer. Each rep should be of moderate intensity which means you need to choose your exercises carefully and do 5 - 15secs x 10 - 20mins with 30 - 10secs rest between exercises. I did a full on circuit for this consisting of line jumps, lateral line jumps, on spot sprints, low foot squat jumps, wideouts, skipping, ankle jumps, band assisted ankle jumps, rebound bench press, drop catch and throw bench press, plyometric push up, band assisted plyometric push up, rebound standing angle presses, alternate step toe taps, side to side step toe taps, step wideouts, on off step jumps, resisted sled bounds, square jumps, hops and jumps over low objects! Quite a list!!

You'll see that I didn't run at all during this preparation phase for a few reasons.

1 - Running bores the shit out of me

2 - My knee isn't quite 100% yet

3 - The lower back was stiff iffy as well

EDIT - Part 2 can be found here.

All these conditioning methods, and the one's I'll describe on part 2 of this series, all come from probably the greatest conditioning manual there is to date - Ultimate MMA Conditioning by Joel Jamieson. He specialises in training fighters which is why it's titles as such but the methods can be used to suit any goal for any sport. Almost the best $70 I ever spent.

This is light years ahead of repeat 100m sprints you still might be doing at your current footy training. This is actual science and I'd love to hear a coach give me their reasons for doing some of things they do for fitness. If it's not backed by some form of evidence then there's probably a better way to spend this time and get far better results from it too.

Remember I'm available for team and personal online strength and conditioning coaching whether you want to me to look over your personal or team's training program, set a program for a specific goal (speed, strength etc) or you just want some feedback on anything. Let me know via the Facebook page or PM from there.