where to put my conditioning?

40 y/o M , 5’10, 230lbs ~25%bf

despite it not being a BBM endorsed program, I am doing Texas Method

sun-volume day
tues-recovery
thur-intensity

i do HIIT rotate between treadmill at an incline and all out airdyne sprints, usually about 3 sprints of 30 seconds at 100rpm. between airdyne and treadmil, in total about 15 minutes of conditioning.

i dont want this to negatively affect my volume or intensity day progress but i do like the feeling of “blowing out” my lungs and getting some conditioning in. what day (or 2 days) would be best to place conditioning so it doesnt interfere with training?

Thanks​

Hey Cole,

I don’t think there’s really a good place to put in this type of conditioning with this type of programming. In other words, it’s unlikely these two exercise prescriptions will work well together. If I had to choose, I’d do the sprints at the end of VD and ID, but I do not think it will work well. It is highly likely to interfere with your training, though part of that is training program related as well.

A few thoughts:

  1. As you mention, Texas Method is not a program we would recommend without serious modifications. At that point, one begins to wonder why would we start with TM-specific organization, e.g. VD, Recovery, and ID? Neither the arrangement nor the weekly progression is compatible with how humans adapt to training. It also violates several heuristics of training, e.g. some form of auto-regulation, movement and rep scheme variability, and volume-related increases in training adaptations. In short, I would be very curious to know why you’ve selected this program given these limitations and numerous other options?
  2. I do not think HIIT is a good choice for your main form of conditioning on this program (or other at this point). Rather, I would prefer that the majority of your conditioning is moderate intensity, RPE 5-6, HR ~65 to 75% of max, for sustained efforts. I think that’s likely to be better for your goals and training outcomes.
  3. 30 minutes of HIIT per week is certainly better than zero, but I would be planning on working up to ~150 minutes of conditioning per week. Again, most of this should be moderate intensity.
  4. Treadmill sprints are not something I would recommend for you or other lifters aiming for maximal strength and/or hypertrophy. You’re free to do what you want of course, but I would consider a change in programming.

-Jordan

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Jordan,

Thank you so much for the very thoughtful response. I am 100% positive I will not do TM forever but it seems to be working for me as of late. I will however consider your advice regarding more effective training methodologies.

Im doing HIIT because it was advised by Sullivan in BBrx. Perhaps I am implementing it incorrectly. (FYI I am not sprinting on a treadmil, just walking at an incline in between airdyne sprints)

I will probably follow your advice and tone down the intensity of the conditioning and replace with a longer, less intense duration, aiming for 150 min/wk as you suggested

Thanks again for the advice, you always seem to help out.

Cole

No problem. In general, I like high intensity interval training (HIIT) and sprint intensity interval training (SIIT) to be done maybe once a week, comprising 20% or so of the conditioning volume. For those workouts, I would rest in between efforts to gear up for the next one.

Thanks again for the question and kind words.

Hi Jordan,

I’ve seen you mention this a few times recently, about limiting HIIT to 1x/week. Is this a new opinion based on the research you did for the recent Cardio episodes of the podcast? I ask because I’m a dedicated follower of the General Strength & Conditioning I template, which prescribes quite a bit of HIIT. Will the upcoming GS&C II template include less HIIT and more LISS?

Thanks,
Alex

Yea, if I had my way most folks would be doing conditioning work 4-5x/wk and one of those would be HIIT or something akin to it. The templates are pretty challenging to program because you’re generalizing a recommendation across many people. One of the big limitations I spend a lot of time thinking about is training resources, specifically time. I would likely program more moderate intensity conditioning in most of our templates if I thought most users could/would do it. That said, the upcoming GS/C II template will have more moderate intensity conditioning, for sure.

Anything is possible, though I’m not convinced it would be helpful. To be clear, I am very happy with the conditioning and programming in our templates. Yes, there are things I would do to tailor various programs to an individual, conditioning rx included. It would be cool to have a “template customization” section in the eBooks, though I’m not sure anyone would read them lol

I think you severely underestimate the people buying BBM training templates!

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Good point!

When you say “conditioning volume” is the volume measured by total work time, total conditioning time (work+rest in the case of intervals), or percentage of conditioning-centric workouts?​

I count the entire time including rest periods for conditioning volume.

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