I’m going to be hiking with my pup early Thursday morning, so here’s a quick Q&A.
From yesterday’s comments, aramirez asks
Reading about conditioning brings up a question I have had since I read the longevity and being active article a few weeks ago. I sit behind a computer all day. I train three times a week doing the main lifts (squats, press, bench press, deadlift, etc). No cardio, no conditioning. My cousin who is a conditioning/strength endurance guy, says that heavy weight training alone three times a week is not enough to maintain overall health. He says even though my strength and muscle mass is increasing, my cardiovascular health is not being trained therefore I am still prone to cardiovascular issues. Is this true? Taking extrinsic factors such as smoking, drugs, family disease history, etc. out of the picture is a cardio training component needed for overall health and longevity, or is weight training three times a week enough?
The first question I have is, “What is aramirez training for?” I get tons of questions — so much that I have been backed up on e-mails for a couple months now (the chat room is a way to get an immediate response). Over 90% of the questions are vague to the point that I can’t answer them without asking questions in return. If you are trying to get advice on inducing adaptations in your body — whether it be programming, exercises, food intake, injury issues, recovery issues, “mobility” issues, etc. — then I’m gonna need adequate information to give you an opinion on the matter. “Adequate information” means what you’re training for, what you’re currently doing, and current state of adaptation. Perhaps you don’t know how to identify some of those things (I guess I’ll give them operational definitions later), but make an attempt if you want a quicker, more concise answer.
With that being said, I will go ahead and assume aramirez here wants to get stronger while at the same time maintaining good health. He may participate in some kind of strength-related competition at some point, but we’ll go ahead and assume it’s a hobby. I’ll also go ahead and assume he isn’t “hardcore bulking” — a term I will use to explain someone who is completely committed to gaining weight (with a properly volumed program) quickly. People who should be “hardcore bulking” are skinny guys who are 90’s Small (it makes them more likeable). In any case, we’ll assume aramirez is your average strength training guy who wants to continue getting stronger with consistent barbell training over time, but wants to be healthy and doesn’t want his health to suffer.
In such a case, yes, conditioning is in order. Now, I don’t know what his cousin does (I don’t care), but aramirez doesn’t have to do anything fancy to maintain health. This is why retired or older lifters love the prowler so much; it’s something that stimulates their cardiorespiratory and vascular system to produce an adaptation, but it isn’t something lame like “jogging” or a LSD type endurance. It’s important to note several things:
1. A guy who just wants to maintain health doesn’t need a whole lot of conditioning, and doesn’t really need more than a day of effective conditioning.
2. The prowler meets the qualification of #1, but the prowler is also a supreme conditioning tool that can help a trainee obtain high levels of conditioning ability.
3. The prowler isn’t a requisite. You can use your car, assuming someone is behind the wheel and/or you aren’t rolling it towards a cliff.
4. Pushing things like a prowler or burning vehicle aren’t the only options. You can do higher rep sets on timed intervals with big lifts (think squat, deadlift, and power cleans). You can do barbell complexes. You can do lower rep callisthenic complexes. You can run intervals. You can combine these things with jumping if you want to feel more athletic.
Yes, some conditioning work will be helpful to maintain cardiovascular/respiratory health. No, you don’t need to think really hard on what to do or when to do it. Just throw it after one of the harder workouts, but don’t put it on a day before a harder workout (even if it’s your rest day from lifting). One day a week is fine for a guy who just wants to maintain. Two or three workouts can be used by a guy wanting to build a little conditioning. Four days a week is not necessary, unless you’re training for something. The priority is keep it short and intense, and don’t interfere with your lifting. If you disrupt recovery for strength training, then you are this guy:
I love the prowler.
I want one.
I am already saving up for a prowler, regular sprints and plyo box pushes will suffice in the mean time.
I did a car push workout in college once when i was home for the Christmas break. I made one 40-50 yard pass pushing our suburban… my wife has a jetta which seems like a more appropriate size for this activity. Ill give it a shot this weekend.
Just to clarify, there are more things you can do, I just was giving a few options (talking to everyone, not just you, Stone).
–Justin
Justin, your assumptions are corret. My goal is to maintain health. I don’t compete, I am not involved with any athletics.
This post answers my main question for my 2011 planning because I’ve pretty much finished bulking and have got the same goals: increased strength with better conditioning and less bodyfat (so now that I’m 200 lbs controlling diet will be an issue). But none of that until after I compete in a meet in April. That’s priority 1.
I just spoke with the meet director about how the meet will work and about my programming. He gave me some of the same suggestions that I’ve gotten from other accomplished lifters including you, Justin–that continuing on 3x/week squatting is too much volume and will come back to bite me soon, and that deadlifting every 5 or 6 days is also too much. He said to figure out what my 1RM is, then work percentages of my lifts so that I can continue to increase my strength without overtraining. My goal is to be as strong as possible on April 16.
My calculated 1RM for squat right now is 380. So he said to break that down into percentages for a cycle. There would be 1 heavy squat day and 1 light day each week. I’ll still workout 3x/week, but I’ll only squat 2/3 of the time. I’ll alternate bench and press each workout, do barbell rows every other workout, and I’m still not sure how often I should deadlift (I guess every 10 days on a non squat day). My deadlift right now is 370 1×5 (I’ve never deloaded and have been deadlifting every 5 days). I think I’ll just continue linear progress on bench since I only do that every 5 days. So the squats will look like this:
Week 1: A-75% (285) 3×5, B-60% 2×10 for speed
Week 2: A-80% (305) 3×5, B-65% 2×10 for speed
Week 3: A-85% (325) 3×5, B-70% 2×10 for speed
Week 4: A-90% (340) 3×5 (or whatever is possible), B-75% 2×10 for speed
Week 5: Deload week A-70% 3×5, B-60% 2×10
Week 6: A-78% (295) 3×5, B-65% 2×10 for speed
Week 7: A-83% (315) 3×5 B-70% 2×10 for speed
Week 8: A-88% (335) 3×5 B-75% 2×10 for speed
Week 9: A-93% (355) 3×5 (or whatever is possible) , B-80% 2×10 for speed
Week 10: Deload week A–70% 3×5, B–Test 1RM possibly or just calculate it and do another cycle
Although I don’t have all the symptoms of overtraining (sleep disruptions, constant soreness, lack of recovery, etc.) I do get those from time to time. And I definitely have started dreading going to the gym because squats are so difficult. And the heavy squats are definitely impeding my progress on the bench and other lifts. I just don’t want to switch to this intermediate type of approach too soon, since I’m still making some linear progress (I did 4 deloads on a 5×5 program and have done 1 deload on the 3×5 program over the past 20 months of training). Anyway this may be too much for the comments. I hope my question makes sense. I’m just trying to make sure I can continue to make progress without overtraining. I’m 5’9″ and currently 197 lbs (the most I’ve ever weighed, 35lbs gained in 2010). Or maybe I should just find an intermediate program and do it?
Thanks for any advice you can offer.
This was a fuck load of reading, and I skimmed the second half. I see that on your second squat day you are wanting to do speed squats. If you’re gonna compete, you need to get the heavy work in (higher intensity). The guy who told you to use percentages is probably experienced, or follows the classic percentage-based advice that was gleaned from Russian lifting research. In any case, it’s a little pre-emptive in your case. When someone is more advanced (it takes them a month to adapt and improve), they’ll need a more periodized approach. If someone makes gains linearly on a daily or weekly basis (weekly being an intermediate, like you are), it will be too slow. The thing about your 1RM is that it increases every week (if you program correctly as an intermediate). A novice’s 1RM increases daily on a linear progression. Thus, percentage-based programs are irrelevant since the 1RM is constantly changing each week.
So,
A) You don’t need to do the percentage stuff.
B) Because it’ll make you stronger slower than a weekly progression.
C) I like to have people do a variation of a Texas Method. I say that, but all I mean is that it manipulates the volume and intensity throughout the week. I’ll be typing a multi-day collection of posts on this (probably next week because of the holidays).
D) Do whatever you want, by my opinion is that you don’t need to worry about percentages.
E) Regardless of what you do, speed work isn’t for you. Get heavier work in once a week, preferably triples. Triples will be very descriptive for what your attempts will be in April. Start conservative with whatever program you choose. Running a heavy triple up 5 pounds a week every week all the way until April will theoretically net you 60 pounds on the triple alone (12 weeks x 5 pounds = 60 total pounds). That may not happen, but if you do this correctly you can get 8 good weeks out of it. If you do, then you can start doing moderate singles to practice the rules of the federation while you taper. Don’t be greedy.
Lastly, I’d have you deadlift weekly for a top triple. If you get run down, bump it to every other week and do RDLs in between. That’s what I would have you do.
–Justin
Justin – is the store link not working or are you just completely out of shirts? I was hoping to order one soon and… well you get it.
We had a little issue. Getting the store back up with shirts on sale. Standby. I’ll post on here and the Facebook Fan Page when it’s back up.
–Justin
Ok im a tard and cant read, you can delete these if you so choose…
maslow, one thing you may want to try before ditching the LP is what Rippetoe suggested for the advanced novice:
Day 1
—–
Squat
Bench
Chin-ups
Day 2
—–
Front Squat
Press
Deadlift/Power Clean
Day 3
—–
Squat
Bench
Pull-ups
Alternate between the deadlift and power cleans, so you’d be doing each once every two weeks. And alternate between bench and press every other workout, so you would do each 3 times every two weeks.
Maslow you may also look into Johnny Pain’s Greyskull LP he breaks it down to 2 days of squatting and you do the presses first. You can find it in the Q&A on strengthvillian.com.
That is a good program. Maslow, however, has apparently been on some kind of linear progression for 20 months. He’s done.
–Justin
What worked really well for me a few winters back was non-stop sled dragging for time. Prowler Sprints, Hill Running, and all that jazz is pretty damn strenuous if your main goal doesn’t revolve around conditioning.
But walking a sled is much easier and will still get you in good shape. I would start with a plate and a quarter for 10 minutes of walking back and forth in a parking lot, then move up to 15 next session, then 20 minutes. Then I’d move up to 2 plates and bump the time back down to 10 and start all over. I was inspired to go for what Jim Wendler said he worked up to: 135 on the sled for 20 minutes at a brisk pace with no rest.
But its winter so all my conditioning is done on a C2 Rower. I remember reading on here about Alexander Karelin doing a bunch of rowing and I know Svend Karlsen gets all of his conditioning from strongman events, 500 meter repeats on the C2 Rower, and just going for walks on rest days.
I climbed a mountain today in north Georgia. A non-conditioned person wouldn’t have had a good time, but shit like this can be used for the guy who has health as a concern.
–Justin
I just wanted to add that pushing an up-armored humvee is also a pretty good substitute – if you happen to have one laying around. Be sure to bring a buddy if you want to give it a try.
Justin, is your Strength and Conditioning program good for somoene like me, or is that program designed for people who compete, or who are inn sports or military?
Thanks so much for the advice Justin. I’m going to do what you’ve said and look into the Texas Method while awaiting your upcoming posts. You’re exactly right–the guy said he does the Russian method. If your wondering why I was able to do linear progression for 20 months it’s because after six months I entered an endurance race and had to drop weight lifting to once/week for two months (Tough Mudder, pretty badass event). When I resumed linear I was doing 5×5 and milked that until I absolutely couldn’t take it (2 10% deloads and 2 20% deloads) and since I’ve got some scoliosis I was very careful about learning good form the first few months. Anyways, I wont type so much again. Thanks as always! Time to get strong as shit!