A Quick Look at 3 Ways to Revamp Your Conditioning

Your conditioning may be de-conditioning you! There I said it.

That is because when you hear the word conditioning in generalized fitness classes or in the over all “free social media fitness world” you more less see the same underlying patterns — High Intensity Interval Training, High Impact, Incredibly High Work to Rest Ratios, Every Minute On the Minutes, and As Many Reps As Possible! — that aim to increase your heart rate, keep it high while fatiguing the body and give you a feeling of a good sweaty session. While most of these workouts were developed with an applicable intention, unfortunately, most group fitness classes and platforms use them as a way to bring a sense of accomplishment based on an irrelevant metric, sweat and total muscle fatigue. Creating a false sense of progress leaving most performers and participants stuck in a loop of zero progress, reoccurring injuries, and a false idea of what a healthy relationship with fitness really is.

Unfortunately, most of these sessions are put together the day off by the trainers or pulled from a preexisting number of workouts they already have. What this means for you as a performer is that sure you will get a workout but it will not be anything different than what Kirsten from Accounting is doing or any better nor customized than what Jason from UX experience development is doing to prepare for his Spartan Race.

While these workouts may work well (arguably to a point) for the average 9-5er , when we speak of performers we are speaking of athletes. Athletes who put their bodies under high amounts of stress; capable of performing multiple times a week, multiple times a day at high intensities, and performing tremendously demanding movements with their bodies all while singing, carrying, dodging, leaping and smiling. My point being that you cannot compare the conditioning preparation these athletes/performers require to what the general population (who is now more sedentary than ever with remote jobs) needs.

I decided to give you 3 ways you can enhance your Conditioning workouts with intention, thought, progression and relevance to your performance.

Sack your As Many Reps As Possible workouts:

❌You more often than not Miss the neurological (mind to body) connections that the exercise is meant to achieve for your body
❌When you rush through exercises more often that not you hide compensations
❌When you rush through the movements You Fail at demonstrating that you have control over each component of the movement.

Approach your training with a plan whatever the goal of the session may be.

Whether it’s going to be a easy recovery session or a “put your head down and work!” session your workout has to fall under the overall progressive training plan.

I have found that it is more beneficial to work within a fixed time and fixed number of reps and instead focus on the amount of rounds I can achieve in that time.

In this way I can control:

✅the intensity of each round as well as the intensity overall as it progresses.
✅Select a rep scheme that fits my overall goal for the workout (volume, power, endurance, etc)
✅Your work to recovery ratio is one that sets you up for successfully maintaining a steady increase of intensity without form breaking down not fatiguing before achieving your goal for the day.

Ex.

Set up at 10min timer and a set rep number to hit every time with a total min by the time the timer runs out. Lastly, rotate between exercises

Use your Intervals Workouts to improve how you recover

How fast can you recover from a demanding burst of energy and do it again?

When working on your stamina as a performer, that is to say your ability to maintain a high pace on stage, keep up explosive bursts repeatedly, recover and repeat it multiple times a day or multiple times a week.

It becomes a conversation about your recovery rate (how quickly you can recover from high stress activity) as much as it is about how well and how long you can keep up the same intensity without compromising your body and form (perform at your best)

Key points:
👀Ensure every round is the same or better power output
👀No decline in time

So that you:
✅Don’t sacrifice your recovery time which will impact your performance
✅Become competent and adaptable at recovering quickly and efficiently
✅Strengthen your cardiovascular foundation

Ex.
-10 rounds of 120m on skierg/rower/assault bike/sprint
-80s rest while working on postural positioning (5 breaths 90/90 hamstring rolls)

Adjust your Work to Rest Ratio

Your work to rest ratio will determine the type of conditioning you are seeking and the ways your body will behave — 5 sets of swings at 20s work 40s rest will feel completely different than 5 sets of swings at 20s work 10s rest. Your body might feel more comfortable when doing the option with double the amount of rest to work, which would mean you are working one end of the spectrum that is absolutely normal. On the other hand it might do your body some good to explore the other side of the spectrum, where your rest is half of the amount of work, in order to optimize your overall daily stamina, energy levels and performance capabilities.

You can determine what is it you need as a performer:

👀Where in the spectrum do you spend most of your time when you are on stage?

👀Where in the spectrum do your rehearsals keep you?

👀Where in the spectrum do you not feel comfortable in or do not spend time at all?

Ex.
- Kb swing 20s/40s (high level of work for short time to long rest - Give your body enough time to chemically refuel your body to perform at a high level again )
- Kb Single arm row 20s/10s (medium level work with short rest to recover - how long can you keep up the same performance at this pace)
- Kb narrow grip chest press 20s/20s (equal level work to rest - ensure you can maintain the higher heart rate and intensity keeping a balance in your body)

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