Conditioning—When and How?
By
Tony Montgomery
Now that football season is coming to an end, many kids are looking to get
stronger and faster for next season. There are many things that go into
preparing kids for the next season, and conditioning is one of those things that
usually isn’t done correctly. I’m sure many of you have seen people pushing the
Prowler on YouTube until they puke or you’ve heard some of the ridiculous
conditioning tests that some athletes have to perform. Every team has its own
way of doing things. I just don’t agree with most of them.
There are many aspects to programming the conditioning of athletes. You have
to know when the season starts, what type of energy system the sport requires,
if the athletes have any conditioning test they have to perform, and how good or
bad of shape they’re already in. These are crucial in developing a successful
program.
Ideally, you want to do conditioning separate from the actual workout so that
the athletes can maximize growth from their workout with proper recovery and
nutrition. After a workout, glycogen stores are depleted. Athletes need to
generate the anabolic process by getting in the proper nutrition to start
protein synthesis so their bodies can repair and regenerate. That’s the purpose
of training to get bigger, stronger, and faster. So why waste a second with
conditioning when they should be focused on recovering?
That’s the ideal situation, but if you’re training athletes in your gym, that
will most likely never be the case. They want to get in and get out without
having to come another day or session to get conditioning in. If that is the
case, you have to maximize their time with weight lifting followed up with
conditioning.
We have our guys do conditioning that complements their training. So if it’s
leg day, we will have them either push the Prowler or pull the sled. This will
allow them to continue to train their legs and get some conditioning in. If
their season is four months away, don’t even worry about conditioning. Just
focus on getting them stronger and bigger. Once they’re two months away from the
start of the season, we start to incorporate conditioning unless they’re
extremely out of shape. Then we start three or maybe even four months out. This
just depends on the person and the situation.
Every sport requires certain energy systems. You have slow oxidative, fast
glycolytic, and ATP-PC. Most of your athletes play in an ATP-PC and fast
glycolytic sport, so you have to prepare them for that. The keys to achieving
this are to have as much capacity in both systems as you can and to reduce the
factors causing fatigue.
If the sport requires these two systems to be used during the game, you must
train your athletes to reach the highest levels possible in order to master
their sport. You have to have the exercise mimic the actual sport in duration
and intensity. The high intensity conditioning will increase the glycolytic
enzymes in all fiber types, which will increase the amount of ATP that can be
generated. It will also increase the speed at which PC can be degraded so that
faster ATP turnover is possible.
If they play football, have them do a conditioning exercise for 5–7 seconds
and then rest. At the beginning of the conditioning program, make sure you give
them a good amount of rest, and then in the preceding weeks, lower the rest,
increase the reps, or increase the weight. This will allow them to strive for
something new every week when it comes to conditioning. Conditioning should be
like max effort days. Your athletes should have a goal to beat. You want them
setting PRs in the weight room and when they condition.
Every school will have a conditioning test that the athlete must perform. Much
of the time, they don’t make any sense, but none the less, the athletes are
judged by how well they perform. You must train your athletes to be proficient
at their tests, but it shouldn’t be a basis of their conditioning program. As
long as you can increase their aerobic capacity and lactic threshold, just
running the test once a week will be sufficient enough training.
Here are a few key points that you must know in order to maximize your
athletes’ training.
· Don’t start conditioning too early in the off-season. This is a
crucial mistake that I see many coaches make. Give the kids time to heal up
after season and give them time to get strong and fast. I wait until six weeks
out from their season. This is all you need to get into shape. If you start any
earlier than that, you’re overdoing it.
· Don’t make their speed work turn into conditioning. Many coaches
fall for this one. They think running the athletes into the ground until they
can’t move anymore will make them faster. You have to treat speed drills like
max effort work in the gym. You need to make sure they get full recovery before
starting the next rep. Speed is speed, and conditioning is a whole other beast.
Treat it that way and you will see incredible gains.
· You have to program their conditioning like you do their weight
lifting. There has to be a rhyme and reason to what you’re doing. Start off
light and with long rest periods and then gradually increase the weight or reps
and decrease the rest as their conditioning progresses. Have a goal that you
want them to make. That goal should be accomplished at the end of their
conditioning cycle.
· Build their conditioning from the end to the beginning. This kind
of goes with the point above, but when designing their programs, start with the
last day and have that be their test day. Build the program all the way back to
the first day.
· Make the conditioning specific to their sport. This means that
football players shouldn’t be running miles for conditioning. The longest a
football play lasts is around six seconds with a rest in between plays of 25–30
seconds. This should be the basis of their conditioning.
There is much more that goes into conditioning, but if you follow these five
steps in programming off-season conditioning, your athletes will excel at their
sports because they will be able to outlast the opponent. That is where the game
is won—in the fourth quarter, the last inning, or the last mile.
Tony Montgomery is training to become a professional Strongman and a leader
in the strength and conditioning industry. After honorably serving four years in
the Marines, he is currently pursuing a degree in exercise science from Florida
Atlantic University. He specializes in training athletes of any kind to reach
their peak performance. He trains a wide variety of clients from tri-athletes to
football players and everything in between. Tony is currently located in Port
St. Lucie, Florida. Visit his website at samsonstrengthconditioning.com or check
out his training videos at
http://www.youtube.com/user/Judges1324.
Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength
training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products
and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the
industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit
us at www.EliteFTS.com.
