Is brisk walking (3.5-4.3 METS/hr) for 210 minutes/week sufficient for conditioning? I train at a powerlifting gym with literally no conditioning equipment except kettlebells. My main priority is powerlifting performance, but of course I would like to improve my health and physique as well.
You’re meeting the physical activity guidelines with that, yes.
There are likely additional benefits to be had from a health standpoint by doing more conditioning, but probably not from a powerlifting performance standpoint.
Out of curiosity. How would you know if your brisk walking is (3.5-4.3 METS/hr)? how do you find that out?
The pace would be your best bet in this scenario. Otherwise, correlating your activity to the estimated METs using this compendia would work:
If you’re looking to find out how many Calories you’re burning, you could measure that via oxygen consumption and duration or by using heart rate, BW, and duration.
I use this calculator: Walking Calorie Calculator - High accuracy calculation (casio.com)
4.8-5.6 km/h ~ 3.5-4.5 mets/h