After years of running myself into the ground in high school, it wasn’t until college that I learned how to condition properly.
There is a common belief that whenever you condition—whether through running, Prowler pushes, hill sprints, weight-training circuits or whatever your poison—you must stop just short of death. That is the manly thing to do, right? No pain, no gain. No brain, all pain—and subpar results.
You don’t have to go all out. You don’t have to fall to the ground gasping for breath. It may make a good picture or YouTube video, but what kind of person trains for the camera?
It may take a few months of beatings to get your bearings. This is especially common when you’re catching up after years of sitting on your ass, lifting weights and claiming to be “in shape.”
Conditioning needs to be consistent. It needs to be hard. But it doesn’t need to leave you two breaths short of Valhalla.
Choose Your Own Standard
I use this as a guideline: If I can push the Prowler for ten 40-yard sprints with 90 pounds on my street, resting one minute between sprints, I am good to go. I do this three days per week, and it doesn’t leave me too taxed to live my life or make progress in the weight room.
Yes, getting there required work. But you must choose a way to measure conditioning that fits your goals and current fitness level.
Build Your Conditioning Base
If you are in poor condition, I strongly recommend beginning with easy, steady-state cardio. There is no need to go all out. Three or four 30-minute sessions each week will help you recover from lifting, handle your training more effectively and build a broader conditioning base.
It isn’t sexy, but easy conditioning, smart and progressive strength training, and consistent mobility work go a long way—regardless of your training goals.
Train for Results, Not the Camera
Is it fun to perform a ridiculous test every so often? Of course. But there comes a point when someone becomes a conditioning queen rather than a king. You need to decide which crown you’re going to wear.
Sprint toward the fight—or run a long distance away from it.
