Most Effective Means for Conditioning?

What has everyone found is the most effective means for conditioning? I viewed Pat Flynn RKC’s last blog post and it has spiked my interest for metabolic conditioning. He seems quite knowlegeable in his latest blog post with incorporating metabolic conditioning in a quest towards 6 pack abs.

What does everyone else think is the most effective form of conditioning?

Well, certainly not endless cardio, although when I trained for my trail marathon I did lose weight…just happened to all be muscle (ehhh). And for a while, I would have sided with the Crossfit training modality (put everything in a hopper, choose randomly, be mediocre at everything); until some strange and horrible things started happening to my body (don’t ask).

Definitely metcon gives you the most bang for your buck with some heavy lifting days thrown in. At least for me. I’ve been doing this exclusively now for about 4 months, and my strength and endurance have skyrocketed. My deadlift alone jumped from 245 to 275, which isn’t bad for a 145-lb girl and for someone who’s been lifting seriously since 2006.

And I love the metcon work with kettlebells. I used to subscribe to barbell complexes, but the kettlebells offer so much more flexibility and the ability to transfer much more easily between exercises. Just flows so much more smoothly, which means I can jump from exercise to exercise that much faster (with awesome form, of course!)

Those complexes in Pat’s videos are INSANE. Love them! But then again I’ve always been kind of a masochist.

Good topic!

And Pat–keep 'em coming! You put a whole lot of excellent information on that post. The market is so saturated with bad information, it’s awesome to see websites like this one and yours that actually have a lot of truth to them. Thanks!

[quote]bigmetalguy wrote:
What has everyone found is the most effective means for conditioning? I viewed Pat Flynn RKC’s last blog post and it has spiked my interest for metabolic conditioning. He seems quite knowlegeable in his latest blog post with incorporating metabolic conditioning in a quest towards 6 pack abs.[/quote]

Conditioning for what? depends what you are improving your cardio/vascular system for… ANd it depends on the population also… Not everyone is going to be able to say sprint, but because of their age and previous experience they might be able to walk on a tread mill at a 4% incline and 4% speed… So i think its always conditioning for what purpose?

^^ Very true conditioning means so many things to different people. What do you mean by conditioning? and for what?

I also am not sure what you mean specifically by conditioning?
I assume you mean fat loss? If that is the case then 150m-300m sprints with shortish recoveries are the fastest way to lose fat. Not going to do much for pure speed though.
My coach once had our group do 18 150m sprints. My core temperature and metabolism went through the roof in the days following that workout.

Airdyne tabatas. 6x.

This is what I have found to be most effective… Down Right Dirty Kettlebell Complexes for Fast and Effective Fat Loss - YouTube

Crossfit training is perfect…depending on what you mean for conditioning

Crossfit is not perfecft, far from it any real improvements take systematic progression. like everyone else said, conditioning for what? A marathon, an obstacle course, football?

Metalguy,

Thanks for sharing my video and endorsing my methods, hopefully I can clear some things up…

that video was a post from one of my metabolic conditioning blogs for fat loss, so I assume that metalguy is asking what has been most effective for everyone in terms of fat loss.

I’m glad to hear my metcon work has been working for you, as I will always turn toward heavy metabolic conditioning via kettlebell complexes to strip off body fat before just about anything else.

Prowler Flu ; )

[quote]bigmetalguy wrote:
What has everyone found is the most effective means for conditioning? I viewed Pat Flynn RKC’s last blog post and it has spiked my interest for metabolic conditioning. He seems quite knowlegeable in his latest blog post with incorporating metabolic conditioning in a quest towards 6 pack abs.[/quote]

Conditioning for what?

Things that you are motivated to do, and can do, for the rest of your life or damn close to it.

Big fan of double kettlebell chains. Here is one I learned from Pat. I substituted out renegade rows after a bell came out from under me for rows, and I’m doing double swings intsead of double snatch

Double Clean
Double Clean, Pushup on Bells
Double Clean, Pushup on Bells, Double Row
Double Clean, Double Squat, Double Row, Pushup on Bells
Double Clean, Double Squat, Military Press, Double Row, Pushup on Bells
Double Clean, Double Squat, Military Press, Double Row, Pushup on Bells, Double Swing Outside the Knees

It looks simple, but if you go heavy enough with double bells, you’ll only make it around once and be gasping for breath. Today I did it 6 times w/ one minute rest between. I thought about doing a second round without stopping. Thought passed.

[quote]bigmetalguy wrote:
metabolic conditioning in a quest towards 6 pack abs.[/quote]
Is it just me, or is this a complicated way of saying “cardio for fat loss”?

In any case, check out Wendler’s article that came out yesterday for some ideas:

Depends on your goal. Just over all in better condition? Prowler, sled, sledge hammer circuits. Bodyweight calistinics with some sprints mixed. Stairs, hills, burpees. Mix n match n see what you like and what you will stick with.

Tire Dragging bar none.