Conditioning
Once you can execute high-speed skilled athletic movements with tremendous force, then you need the ability to execute at a high level repeatedly under fatigued conditions. If strength/power are your engine, then conditioning is your fuel tank. This is where many athletes make the mistake of doing cardio to improve aerobic capacity. Do not mistake cardio for conditioning. There is a big difference between the two and what athletes need is conditioning, not cardio. Traditional cardio (which for this manual will be defined as long duration, slow, distance/endurance work) has numerous negative effects on performance including decreased strength and power gains, which in turn decreases speed and agility. These adverse muscular effects will greatly decrease sports performances in team, power, and combat sports, which require high power, rapid, explosive movements for success. Unless your sport is cross-country, most other sports require intermittent bursts of high intensity movements (sprinting, jumping, tackling, etc.) broken up by periods of walking or jogging. So in addition to decreasing explosive abilities, traditional cardio fails to prepare you for the specific intensity of most sports. Instead of traditional cardio, we use conditioning drills that consist of repeated high intensity efforts with incomplete rest periods. This type of training is extremely effective at developing aerobic and anaerobic capacity while at the same time better preparing athletes for the demands of competition.
Benjamin Servias
M.S. Kinesiology: Exercise Science
NSCA-CSCS, USAW L-1
Lecturer