I recently switched from a 5x5 program to 531. I love it and my strength is growing at a rate that I'm still loving. Now that I'm finally getting strength under control, it's time for me to start looking at conditioning.
Jim always says that anything you do for conditioning or strength should have a reason and a plan behind it. He also says you should have a goal for your conditioning. With strength being my biggest concern, I know I wont be running any marathons. That being said, I'm a firefighter who still needs to be in decent shape. My goal is to be able to work well on a structure fire for 20 min without getting too gassed.
This means being able to crawl, walk, and go up/down stairs and ladders, with 50+ pounds of equipment while breathing limited air through an SCBA. Other things I'd need to be able to do include swinging a sledge or ax for periods of time and carrying/maneuvering heavy hose. The 20 min time frame is that's the average time you're going to be working before you have to switch air bottles and (if you're lucky) you'll get a short break at that point to refuel yourself.
I don't have access to a prowler/sled and I have one medium size hill within walking distance from my house. I would like to avoid treadmill work though if I have to I'll suck it up. Right now I'm toying with trying tire flips, sledgehammers, and hill sprints.
Any idea's for a good conditioning program to help with the above goals while working out doing the 4 day 531?