When talking about conditioning, it is confusing with what people call cardio. Difference is in planning and having a focus on what you are wanting to improve. Although you can apply conditioning in cardio work like walking, biking, jogging and so on, you can also apply this to your strength exercises such as squat, bench press, over head press, pulling, and deadlift.
Conditioning is focusing on using your current fitness capabilities such as, strength, mobility, cardio and build metabolic efficiency where the body can use stored fat and limited supply of carbohydrate. Metabolic efficiency means how efficiently the body create energy from your either sugar or fat into energy. Typically, we can retain 1200-2000 calories worth of carbohydrate in form of glucose or glycogen. When you look at stored fat there are more than 80,000 calorie stored in our system. Both energy has its purpose. Energy from glucose is faster conversion to energy which is useful for lifting heavy weight, however, you may be limited in how much you can store. Fat has more energy but does take longer process to covert into energy, therefore, very useful for long duration of activity but not in quick strength production.
Majority of population, especially those who have not been training properly, their body may not be able to convert fat as energy source and rely only on carbohydrate energy. Consequence will be more carbohydrate the body rely on, more the body will demand carbohydrate, especially sugar, which we know that this will negatively impact our digestive system, metabolic profile, such as diabetes, blood pressure, and even affect our cognitive functioning.
This is common where you'll see a person with very big muscles but they cannot last 5 minutes when they are doing house chores like carrying laundry basket, going up and down the stairs multiple times, and something as simple as vacuuming the floor. It is all because their conditioned to short burst of energy (carbohydrate), rather than trained in using fat as energy source.
Before going into detail of how to plan your conditioning let's quickly review 3 energy systems that we have and what they do.
What are Energy Systems?
We have 3 energy systems. First system is alactic system where energy system required for movement that last for up to about 12 seconds. Common example of movement requiring this energy systems are sprinting, jumping and lifting heavy object. This energy usually is created outside of mitochondria using glucose.
Second system is lactic system where movement lasts for up to 90 seconds. This may be hard to visualize, however, going up several flights of stairs, carrying relatively heavy grocery bag to your car are some of the common example. You may have heard of high intensity interval training (HIIT) method and typically it falls into this second category. This energy is usually created inside of mitochondria using mainly glucose.
Third system is aerobic system. This energy can last for long time. This could be walking around the neighborhood and leisure bike ride where you can perform for longer duration of time usually more than 20 minutes at a time. This energy is created in mitochondria using mainly fat.
Aerobic System Conditioning
Aerobic system mainly utilizes fat as energy source. So I consider this system as the starting point for majority of people because it is possible that body is not ready to utilize fat as energy source yet. Even for athletes who came out of their season, for the first 3 weeks I will have them on training at this level to reset their metabolic efficiency. This level of conditioning can also help improve your recovery.
You can choose between, swimming, bike, run, walk, jump rope to name the few. Choose the exercises that you feel comfortable with. If you are new to this concept, start with 20 minutes with low intensity. Good way to monitor is being able to have conversation although your body is exercising. So for example, if you can jog with your friends and able to have conversation without breathing issues then you are working out at the right intensity. On the other hand, if you are huffing and puffing and not able to have a conversation, you are way above your aerobic system. Remember, working out hard all the time does not give you better results.
Start with 20 minutes and see if you can increase the duration to 30-40 minutes maintaining the same intensity level. This type of training is called cardiac output.
Nutrition During Aerobic System Conditioning
Primary focus for aerobic system is to teach body how to use fat as energy source. Therefore, nutrition will make more sense if it is low carbohydrate and high fat diet. Meat, fish, avocado, nuts, seed, olive, olive oil, eggs are all great source of fat. Vegetables, especially green leafy, are friendly to low carb diet so you can enjoy them.
If you have stress issue, avoid sugar, alcohol, and caffeine for 6 weeks which is enough time for the body to adapt with your training and nutrition.
Aerobic System Conditioning Review
Exercise: 20-40 minutes of walk, jog, swim, bike
Intensity: Low to moderate where you can still have a conversation
Nutrition: Low carb high fat diet
Kota Shimada
Comments