Conditioning Focused on Explosiveness/Mobility?

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

I wanted to start focusing on my conditioning work now that I’ve get a strength program that is working for me. I am hoping for some direction on a good circuit routine that focuses on explosiveness and mobility. Currently I’ve just been doing some of the insanity workouts which have been somewhat useful, but I end up substituting a lot of exercises because it doesn’t have a lot of upper body work.

I was thinking of just doing the Olympic lifts with a really lightweight (like the bar plus 20 pounds) with some plank work, jump rope, etc but I don’t really know where to begin. I have limited equipment (barbell, dumbells, jump ropes, pull up / dip station). I was thinking about maybe even some sprinting intervals but I have limited space (the hallway in my condo building is roughly 80 meters).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

2

Conditioning and explosiveness are mutually exclusive up to a point. If you want to train explosiveness, do olympic lifts, throws or box jumps for sets of three and rest at least two minutes in between. If you want conditioning, you will need a lot less rest. You can do both in the same program, but doing it simultaneously is - IMO - crossfit BS.

*YES, you can use lifts/sprints/jumps for conditioning, but your speed will suffer - max. explosiveness won’t improve.

3

dude, don’t sprint down your hallway.

If you aren’t in Mother Russia, get outside.

4

[quote]nighthawkz wrote:
Conditioning and explosiveness are mutually exclusive up to a point. If you want to train explosiveness, do olympic lifts, throws or box jumps for sets of three and rest at least two minutes in between. If you want conditioning, you will need a lot less rest. You can do both in the same program, but doing it simultaneously is - IMO - crossfit BS.

*YES, you can use lifts/sprints/jumps for conditioning, but your speed will suffer - max. explosiveness won’t improve.[/quote]

Couldn’t you do some kind of interval starting out with an explosive movement and then do 2 or 3 exercises, then rest?

[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
dude, don’t sprint down your hallway.

If you aren’t in Mother Russia, get outside.[/quote]

I live in downtown chicago, I’d either be running into cars or other people

5

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:
I wanted to start focusing on my conditioning work now that I’ve get a strength program that is working for me. I am hoping for some direction on a good circuit routine that focuses on explosiveness and mobility.[/quote]
Check out Neural Charge workouts:
http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_neural_charge/neural_charge_training

The moves discussed here:

Or barbell complexes (there have been a bunch of articles on these). Basically 4-8 exercises done back to back to back all using the same weight. I find including more than one or two Olympic lift variations in any given complex gets beyond brutal.

6

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:

[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
dude, don’t sprint down your hallway.

If you aren’t in Mother Russia, get outside.[/quote]

I live in downtown chicago, I’d either be running into cars or other people [/quote]

You can’t head over toward the lake and do some sprints along that path near lake shore dr?

7

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:

[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
dude, don’t sprint down your hallway.

If you aren’t in Mother Russia, get outside.[/quote]

I live in downtown chicago, I’d either be running into cars or other people [/quote]

You can’t head over toward the lake and do some sprints along that path near lake shore dr?[/quote]

Could do that if sprinting was the only thing I wanted to do for conditioning (or I guess try and split it up, one session sprinting, another something else)

8

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:

[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
dude, don’t sprint down your hallway.

If you aren’t in Mother Russia, get outside.[/quote]

I live in downtown chicago, I’d either be running into cars or other people [/quote]

You can’t head over toward the lake and do some sprints along that path near lake shore dr?[/quote]

Could do that if sprinting was the only thing I wanted to do for conditioning (or I guess try and split it up, one session sprinting, another something else)[/quote]

You would probably be the only person running in Chicago…

Google it

Go to a running store and ask

Look outside.

Don’t want to run? Grab a kettle bell, stairs, burpees, jump rope, box jumps, etc

Not complicated.

9

[quote]JFG wrote:

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:

[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
dude, don’t sprint down your hallway.

If you aren’t in Mother Russia, get outside.[/quote]

I live in downtown chicago, I’d either be running into cars or other people [/quote]

You can’t head over toward the lake and do some sprints along that path near lake shore dr?[/quote]

Could do that if sprinting was the only thing I wanted to do for conditioning (or I guess try and split it up, one session sprinting, another something else)[/quote]

You would probably be the only person running in Chicago…

Google it

Go to a running store and ask

Look outside.

Don’t want to run? Grab a kettle bell, stairs, burpees, jump rope, box jumps, etc

Not complicated.

[/quote]

Not Really sure what to make of this. I see a lot of people jogging, but no one really does sprinting intervals

10

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:

[quote]JFG wrote:

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:

[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
dude, don’t sprint down your hallway.

If you aren’t in Mother Russia, get outside.[/quote]

I live in downtown chicago, I’d either be running into cars or other people [/quote]

You can’t head over toward the lake and do some sprints along that path near lake shore dr?[/quote]

Could do that if sprinting was the only thing I wanted to do for conditioning (or I guess try and split it up, one session sprinting, another something else)[/quote]

You would probably be the only person running in Chicago…

Google it

Go to a running store and ask

Look outside.

Don’t want to run? Grab a kettle bell, stairs, burpees, jump rope, box jumps, etc

Not complicated.

[/quote]

Not Really sure what to make of this. I see a lot of people jogging, but no one really does sprinting intervals [/quote]

Do you not have parks in chicago? Gyms with a track? Any open space whatsoever? I find it incredibly difficult to believe that you can’t find ANYWHERE in a huge fucking city like chicago to run.

11

[quote]Chris87 wrote:

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:

[quote]JFG wrote:

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:

[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
dude, don’t sprint down your hallway.

If you aren’t in Mother Russia, get outside.[/quote]

I live in downtown chicago, I’d either be running into cars or other people [/quote]

You can’t head over toward the lake and do some sprints along that path near lake shore dr?[/quote]

Could do that if sprinting was the only thing I wanted to do for conditioning (or I guess try and split it up, one session sprinting, another something else)[/quote]

You would probably be the only person running in Chicago…

Google it

Go to a running store and ask

Look outside.

Don’t want to run? Grab a kettle bell, stairs, burpees, jump rope, box jumps, etc

Not complicated.

[/quote]

Not Really sure what to make of this. I see a lot of people jogging, but no one really does sprinting intervals [/quote]

Do you not have parks in chicago? Gyms with a track? Any open space whatsoever? I find it incredibly difficult to believe that you can’t find ANYWHERE in a huge fucking city like chicago to run.[/quote]

I think we’re getting off track here, I’m not saying I can’t find a place in Chicago to run, what I’m asking for are some good routine suggestions that don’t involve just running.

12

[quote]dreadlocks1221 wrote:
I think we’re getting off track here, I’m not saying I can’t find a place in Chicago to run, what I’m asking for are some good routine suggestions that don’t involve just running.
[/quote]

Yeah, I got your point earlier.

As a former runner, my only suggestion is to run. You get yourself conditioned to run a sub-18 minute 5k and I say you’re in pretty good shape.

I’m going to stay on that topic, and stray a bit off yours, to talk about how my particular team trained. The principles should be useful for conditioning training in general, even if not running.

Lets say we were training for an 18 minute 5k (roughly 6 min a mile). The team was split into groups based on what bracket they were training for, but the basic formula is the same whether you’re running a sub-15 minute 5k or 20 minute 5k.

Monday: a long paced run, ~6 miles at a pace somewhat slower than competition (so, if we’re targeting 6 minute miles in a race, this would be done somewhere around 7 minute miles)

Tuesday: ~4 mile recovery run, stretching/mobility work after the run

Wednesday: interval training; sometimes time based (30-45 sec hard), sometimes distance based (200k, 400k, 800k). The shorter it was, the faster the pace, but usually we did a good 3-5 miles like this. Breaks were only long enough to catch our breath.

Thursday: long slow distance; 6-10 miles. Slow is relative though. 8-8:30 miles were slow.

Friday: recovery run – prep for race + carb load dinner

Saturday: race
Sunday: recovery

And that was the basic formula. Nothing quite as simple as “just do long slow distance” or “just do intervals”. Combined with a strength program, I’m not sure whether this is beneficial. However our conditioning was very very good, and this formula produced some of the top runners in the state.

I would imagine the basic structure could be adapted to any cardio-based activity, not just running.

13

@LoReZ:

what kind of mobility work were you doing?

I used to run a bit in high school, my best mile time was like 6:40 so obviously distance wasn’t really my thing, although I was halfway descent with sprinting, but I forget what my best was, I think I did the 50 in 4.6.

I am on 5/3/1 boring but big but for conditioning he recommends walking up hill (don’t have any hills) and the prowler (don’t have a prowler). So I have 3 days off 2 of which I can do some conditioning, maybe all 3 if one of the routines is light and I won’t totally burn myself out. So I could do (based on suggestions):

one day of running in which I would try to do some kind of sprinting intervals, maybe a 4x200 or 4x400 followed by a 5k at moderate pace. Although the distances aren’t marked on the path by lakeshore so I would need something that can track my distance.

On the other day I can try a light barbell complex for speed followed by some box jumps and plyo pushups and maybe even some light kettlebell swings for reps.

I should also add that I currently ride my bike everyday as my main mode of transportation

14

Mostly just dynamic stretching at different angles, after the run when everything was warmed up. Everything from ankle rolling to swinging the legs when braced against a fence or whatever. Really just working legs, hips, ankles, shoulders and neck through full ROM.

15

I have slowly grown quite fond of sprinting. It satisfies a need that not much else can.
Good sprinting is a blatant display of alpha prowess.