Conditioning vs not conditioning

[Euby]

My conditioning SUCKS. This is strange to me because I started lifting weights about 15 months or so ago. In that time, my body composition has changed dramatically, meaning I'm leaner, more muscular, and have a much narrower waist. My strength has gone way up, and my work capacity to lift heavier/longer has increased. But my conditioning has declined greatly simply b/c I don't jog anymore. I can feel my lack of conditioning most readily when I do things like work in the yard. I'm stronger to do things that require strength, but less able to feel comfortable or recovery quickly between doing them.

I've been walking once or twice a week for 30 minutes, plus some AMRAP stuff. It's just not enough to me. I am starting a session of HIIT this week on an airbike. 20 seconds on by 140 seconds off for 14 minutes. I'm hoping to see how this changes things.

Anyone else had similar observations or experiences?

[FredM]

Yup. I have very similar stats to you as well. I'm 5' 11", 208 lbs, 38" waist, 32" pant size, some man boobs and 20-24% bf. I hate running but had gotten myself down to an 8.5 min mile pace for 3-5 miles before finding SS -- which took me about 3 months to accomplish (started at about a 10.5 min pace). Almost all that progress is probably gone (although I haven't tried).

My resting heart rate is up noticeably. I get out of breath easier. Etc. Although that's been improving because I added in conditioning as well. I plugged it in along with the novice upper body plugin so I could start the bridge with two conditioning days.

I think it's due to dragging out LP by gaining weight (I gained 14 lbs over 6 months of "LP") and increasing rest times significantly (8+ min). I was so desperate for some freaking upper body gains and convinced by SS coaches that the ending numbers of my LP would dictate the rest of my lifting career that I'd do upper body lifts first, rest 8+ min between sets, do really heavy squats that also took 6-9 min of rest. In other words, my time with increased heart rate was very low.

Now that I'm resting a more sane 4-6 min because I use RPE and doing conditioning I feel a lot better and back in control.

[Eric Mark]

I think it's due to dragging out LP by gaining weight (I gained 14 lbs over 6 months of "LP") and increasing rest times significantly (8+ min). I was so desperate for some freaking upper body gains and convinced by SS coaches that the ending numbers of my LP would dictate the rest of my lifting career that I'd do upper body lifts first, rest 8+ min between sets, do really heavy squats that also took 6-9 min of rest. In other words, my time with increased heart rate was very low.

Now that I'm resting a more sane 4-6 min because I use RPE and doing conditioning I feel a lot better and back in control.

Yeah SS has an unhealthy obsession with LP. "More weight on the bar" is not the panacea they make it out to be.

OP, if you have reached the point that your quality of life is declining due to lack of conditioning, by all means add conditioning. Don't go overboard and start compromising strength, but the two can coexist if you do it intelligently. What is your current programming? By week 5 The Bridge you would be doing 30 minutes LISS and 12 mins HIIT on that airbike anyway.

[Euby]

I've been doing Bridge, HLM and now 12-week strength (3x per week) for months now. I've decreased most rest intervals to 4 minutes or less except for the last few weeks of each template. Work capacity for getting through the sessions feels better than ever. It's just little every day, non-lifting things that seem to make my heart rate jump up for a bit.

I've NEVER been able to pursue HIIT consistently while lifting. Since there is a recommendation to not run, I've only been able to walk for LISS. I have not been consistent with that for long periods of time either. I just hate walking as my life is super busy and it feels like a waste of time more than anything. I did Crossfit a few years ago for about 24 months, and was in great conditioning shape during that time. I had other issues (like not getting strong, feeling constantly beat up, and lots of niggling shoulder/back injuries) so I know that's not the answer. As an ex medium-distance runner, I'm used to running interval sprints too. I say all this just to show I know what being in good cardiovascular shape feels like.

Now, I'm much better off than a coach potato for sure. But I don't feel "in shape" and that is starting to bother me. My Schwinn AD2 airbike gets delivered today, so I'm hoping all this will change over the next month or two. I plan to use it for LISS and HIIT each week (thanks Eric!)

[Eric Mark]

Can 100% verify that bike solved my issues getting winded on the stairs.

[Jon La]

Euby, I had a similar experience following LP. I fell for all the SS hype about extending LP: drug it out for about 6 months, 8+ minute rest periods, long deloads to squeeze out a little more weight on the bar, gained 30lbs and a few inches around the waist, and had dramatically reduced level of conditioning that effected my ability to do things like go for a hike in spite of significant increases in strength (115x5 squat --> 360x5). Incidentally, I also had more sleep issues during this time (restlessness, snoring for the first time in my life).

I did the bridge, am about halfway through the Press template, and use rowing for the GPP days (was cycling for a while; I like rowing better). I feel MUCH better in and out of the gym, especially now that I've switched to rowing and been doing the HIIT protocol along with LISS for a few weeks. I'm sure the 3-5 minute rest periods have also had an effect.

All this is to say, I'm sure the airbike and consistent LISS+HIIT will make a big difference.

[Euby]

I hope you guys or right. I have 10 and 15 year old boys, both soccer players, and it sucks when I can't get out there and just kick a ball around with them for 15-30 minutes without feeling like I'm going to die.

The funny thing is I can do slow, not explosive time things just fine. Went to Hawaii this past summer, and was able to hike around in the mountains no problem. I went snow skiing a couple months ago, and that was much tougher though it wasn't terribly difficult, at least not cardio vascularly. I was better off than a lot of folks who don't exercise at all, but I think it could be much better with some regular and consistent HIIT mixed in.

[PWard]

SAID basically states that if you don't use it, you will indeed lose it. In my experience (I'm newer to strength training, but was big into more conditioning / endurance stuff throughout my 20's and early 30's) conditioning levels decline quickly when you stop training them, and improve quickly compared to strength when you reintroduce training. Also, training for strength does not train conditioning, they are two totally separate adaptations that need to be trained separately if you want both. Keep at it, you'll adapt and get less winded within a couple of weeks.

[FredM]

I hope you guys or right. I have 10 and 15 year old boys, both soccer players, and it sucks when I can't get out there and just kick a ball around with them for 15-30 minutes without feeling like I'm going to die.

The funny thing is I can do slow, not explosive time things just fine. Went to Hawaii this past summer, and was able to hike around in the mountains no problem. I went snow skiing a couple months ago, and that was much tougher though it wasn't terribly difficult, at least not cardio vascularly. I was better off than a lot of folks who don't exercise at all, but I think it could be much better with some regular and consistent HIIT mixed in.

Just keep track of your progress the same way as you're doing with strength training and you'll be good. Personally I do incline treadmill for LISS and keep heart rate/speed the same while increasing incline once a week. I think I stole this from Andy Baker. So far my heart rate has actually gone down a little for the same speed with .5 more incline.

The AMRAPs are decent cardio too, at least for rows, which I'm doing. Again I've made sure to add reps every week to my total while tracking my heart rate.

I followed the Bridge protocol before doing the Bridge so I didn't even start HIIT until last week -- but I noticed a difference in how I felt during lifting sessions and during "runs" (to catch trains).

[Euby]

Thanks guys. I do actually plan to track both HIIT and LISS for the remainder of this year, as well as learning to consider them mandatory just like I view lifting sessions. I plan to record some form of RPM and/or distance along with heart rate. I'm going to use a target heart rate zone for the LISS, and measure recovery between HIIT intervals. At least that way I can know if I'm progressing beyond just feeling better at other things. Doing this with walking alone just wasn't really possible.