How TP utilizes Aerobic Conditioning to Improve Strength and Power

Thinking back to the summer, and our discussion with energy systems, I want to discuss aerobic conditioning’s role at Total Performance to improve strength and power. 

If we remember, the aerobic (oxidative) energy system is involved with lower relative intensity work levels, we are working for a longer period of time, and it plays a huge role in restoring energy substrates to the muscle to allow for work to be accomplished. There are different levels of intensities we can work at in this energy system (long slow distance, pace, interval, and high intensity intervals (HIIT)) and for most people outside of professional athletes and clinical settings we track this intensity with our heart rate (BPM). Higher BPM equals more intense work levels, lower BPM is less intense. A person’s heart rate is correlated with other physiological responses to work such as volume of oxygen consumed (VO2) that help determine intensity. The intensity of training is a crucial variable that must be tracked to ensure we are getting done what we need to get done. 

At Total Performance, the vast majority of our athletes participate in “power” dominated sports such as baseball, and football. Being an elite endurance athlete is not a requirement of these sports. When we condition these athletes, we want to make sure that we do not take away from strength and power development in the weight-room. By tracking an athletes BPM, and asking “how hard is this?” we are able to determine if our conditioning prescription is appropriate. 

What is appropriate? Why is there a negative connotation with intense conditioning bouts for these athletes?  Well, what are trying to avoid is burning the candle from both ends. The high school athlete does not have the training age, or biological maturity to withstand an intense strength training session and an intense conditioning session. Our goal with these athletes is to: improve movement capabilities, develop strength, improve sprint velocity, and develop overall athleticism. Anaerobic and aerobic conditioning is important, however these athletes will get sport conditioning from playing their sport! Too much conditioning well take away from these adaptations, resulting in blunted sprint velocity,  strength gains, and potentially over-training syndrome. 

Taking novice athletes from “0” and exposing them to strength training will automatically improve work capacity without the need for strict conditioning regimens, this is easy to train, and track. Once we have a foundation of work capacity, we can now spend more time sprinting, and lifting to achieve our goals of movement, strength and speed. Increasing the volume of training will continue to develop these qualities with minimal need for conditioning! However, as we continue to develop our athletes, there comes a point where we need to improve the athletes recovery ability. We can do this via training the oxidative energy system. When we improve the oxidative system, we improve the cardiovascular system. The biggest enhancement with improved cardiovascular function in regards to strength training is increased oxygen delivery to the working muscles. When oxygen delivery is enhanced, the athlete’s ability to recover improves not only within the training session, but after training as well. This allows for a greater volume of training to take place. What use to fatigue the athlete, is now barely affects the athlete and the training stimulus can increase. 

Up to this point, the best way I’ve seen to improve recovery while strength training is low intensity aerobic conditioning. Elevating the heart rate to 50-65% of their estimated max, 10-20 minutes. High intensity interval training elevating the heart rate to 90-100% of their estimated max for 5-15 seconds and resting for 90-120 seconds will also improve an athlete's work capacity and recovery ability. While we may not be working in the oxidative zone, we are improving the athlete’s ability to recover from intense bouts of movement. Working at these two ends of the spectrum improves cardiovascular function without negatively affecting strength and power gains. How often we use these forms of conditioning is dependent on what phase of training we are in. Further away from the season means more time in the low intensity zone, and as we move closer to season we ramp up intensity to match sport requirements. In season conditioning will shift back to low intensity work to ensure preparedness for competition. 

If your goal is to be powerful; long duration, highly intense conditioning prescriptions will burn out the athlete and take away from power development. Low intensity aerobic conditioning mixed with HIIT will attenuate recovery and improve overall work capacity without negatively affecting weight-room goals. 

Thanks for your time!

Coach Nate Garcia 

nate@tpstrength.com

tim@tpstrength.com

scott@tpstrength.com 

914-486-7678

Instagram: tp_strength