By definition:
In fitness, conditioning refers to:
“Training that enhances an individual’s overall physical capacity, focusing on improving strength, endurance, power and agility.”
Also:
“While conditioning includes cardio, it’s not solely about improving cardiovascular health. It also involves strength training, flexibility and agility work. The above is really a bit seamless and wishy washy. By dictionary definition (Merriam-Welter), conditioning is: “the process of training to become physically fit by a regimen of exercise, diet and rest.” So where do we stand here in Australia, we sort of follow the U.S. model pretty closely. Here it seems that conditioning refers to any form of training that promotes fitness that excludes resistance training.
We all know that resistance training refers to the development of strength, power, muscular endurance, hypertrophy and also in pre and re-habitation. But what does conditioning involve and is it often neglected?
Broadly speaking we usually refer to conditioning as purely cardiovascular (CVO). But we shouldn’t. It should also involve the development of speed, agility, quickness, mobility and in some cases muscular endurance. In many fitness courses these aspects are often neglected. Even the ASCA Level One Course, that I often teach has only one real unit on aerobic conditioning and devotes nearly the whole unit to MAS Training which I know a lot of S + C coaches don’t even use.
In the Cert 3 + 4 Fitness Guidelines, it is still heavily resistance training, weighted. For example, when Usain Bolt broke The World 100 meters record, he reached his terminal velocity 43.935kph at close to the 70-meter mark. All courts and even some fields don’t get anywhere near 70 meters in length. It is the acceleration component that is critical especially in sports like tennis (where the average sprint distance is only 4 meters) or in soccer (football) where the average sprint distance is somewhere between 8-12 meters (Pro Zone date from EPC).
What we are really talking about here is power: the combination of both strength and speed. Without one we don’t have the other. In contact sports, the strength end of the power spectrum not most important (esp., in positions that have more contact, and in non-contact sports like squash or tennis, it is the speed end that is critical.
But it’s not just the acceleration, but the deceleration as well, plus the ability to do this and change direction at the same time. Here’s an example,
In 1997 I was in charge of Performance at the Brisbane Broncos. Traditionally we tested players for speed only, over 10m and 40m> I questioned this, as it was apparent to me after in depth wider analysis that two things occurred. One, very few players (some never) sprinted over 40m. Second, when they did sprint, they seldom if ever, ran in a straight line. So, I did a little study. I used the straight line 40m data and compared it to a 40m agility test that I had developed.
I rank ordered the best to worse. We had 8 players on the field test who ran under 5secs for 40m in a straight line. I then rank ordered the results of the second test and did a correlation of both sets of results. It was a poor correlation.
Darren Lockyer had the 5th fastest straight line 40m. Still really fast, but on the change of direction 40m he was 1st but most importantly, he was fastest by a whole second. As S+C Coaches we can improve Power. This will improve speed, but also, more importantly out ability to accelerate and decelerate quickly. Power development is critical here, both strength and speed.
So, if we look at conditioning as anything other than weights, do we neglect it in our program writing as fitness specialists. My answer is yes. Very few everyday people want to improve speed and agility, but they should be wanting to improve their Cardiovascular Fitness. We tend to write really detailed strength programs and then tell clients to do 30minutes cardio however they won’t. Not good enough.
No one ever died due to a bad bicep or weak pecs, but they do die (about 55% of all deaths) from bad hearts or better still neglected or de-conditioned hearts.
Written by Steve Nance.