Conditioning Stations for Fat Loss

by Dan Blewett   03/05/14

Here's what you need to know...

•  Station training is partner friendly, mixes different stimuli, can be done indoors or outdoors, and allows you to do more locomotive exercises.

•  Simply choose two exercises and set up dedicated areas 10-40 yards apart. You'll perform an exercise at one station and then perform a locomotive exercise to get to the other station, where you'll perform the second exercise.

Conditioning is usually pretty monotonous. We get sucked into a routine, and "routine" is exactly the problem. Variety, however, is a great thing for both physique and sanity. Enter station training.

What is Station Training?

Find a clear area. Choose two exercises and set up dedicated areas 10-40 yards apart. You'll perform an exercise at one station and then perform a locomotive exercise to get to the other station, where you'll perform the second exercise.

Why Station Training?

A few reasons:

1. Chunking

Steady state cardio, repeating sprints, complexes, and circuits get monotonous because they're incredibly repetitious. Though station training is certainly repetitious, the chunks are smaller. Many find that time flies because attention is turned to the next thing on the list as soon as fatigue starts to get severe.

2. Mix of stimuli

I'll share three different variations that can blend any type of training into an interesting and challenging station workout. Sprints, calisthenics, heavy lifts, volume lifts – they can all have their place.

3. Indoor or outdoor

If you're in a cold climate and get that rare beautiful day, station training is a perfect specialty workout for the local park or parking lot. Really, any open space of 10+ yards will work great.

4. Partner-friendly

You and a buddy can each start on a different station and work through it together to push each other.

5. Locomotive exercises need more love

Too many of us get trapped in our power rack, always lifting heavy but never moving around. We humans used to love running around, killing things, and then eating them... what the hell happened to us? Seriously, though, moving with agility is important, and stations are a good way to blend it into strength training.

The Top 3 Station Schemes

For clarity in programming, think of each complete workout you create – two stations with locomotion in-between – as a "scheme."

Variation 1: Heavy – Dynamic – Heavy (HDH)

In this variation, we'll use stations with dumbbell or barbell exercises set up with a 10-rep weight. The goal is to get 6-8 good reps, which will probably be difficult because you'll be breathing heavily from the locomotive exercise. Good heavy exercise choices are low-technique compound movements that can be performed safely without having to use flawless form – barbell and dumbbell rows, presses, deadlift variations, and squat variations all work well. Ballistic movements like Olympic lifts don't mix well with fatigue.

Dynamic choices include sprints, side shuffles, backpedals, jumps, bounds, hops, and skips. Most commercial gym-goers prefer not to bounce around like a bunny, but for those of you in more private settings or who don't give a shit, jumping, bounding, skipping, and hopping is fantastic for building athleticism and getting the heart rate up.

HDH Scheme Example #1

Stations set 20 yards apart

Station A: Barbell Push Press
Locomotive: 5-Line Sprint (up and back twice, ending at opposite station; 100 total yards)
Station B: Split Stance Dumbbell Row

The sprint is going to become a hard run once fatigue sets in, but that's okay, just push the pace and move fast. Get to the station exercise as soon as possible. That may be near instantaneous for some, or 10 deep breaths later for others. The point is to keep moving, but understand that as long as you're breathing heavily you're still increasing your conditioning, even if you're not pushing iron at that precise moment.

HDH Scheme Example #2

Stations set 10 yards apart

Station A: Barbell Row
Locomotive: Side Walk Push Up
Station B: Dumbbell Reverse Lunge

Variation 2: Dynamic – Heavy – Dynamic (DHD)

In this variation, "dynamic" can mean a lot of things, but in this context it most often means calisthenics or explosive movements – things that will get the heart rate up fast – while allowing semi-rest for the heavy locomotive movement. I suggest 30-60 seconds for the dynamic exercises, or simply going hard and moving on to the locomotive movement when fatigue or boredom gets severe.

Simple calisthenics such as skier jumps, jump rope, plank variations, high knees, jumping jack variations, and mountain climbers work well. More taxing choices for the legs involve squat and lunge jump variations such as squat jumps or split-squat jumps.

The heavy movement will be relatively slow because the weight needs to be so heavy that you barely make it from one station to the next. My favorite choices are heavy farmer's walks, dumbbell lunges, and sled pushes and pulls. (Our gym's 10-yard backward sled pull record is 860 pounds.)

DHD Scheme Example #1

Stations set 20 yards apart

Station A: Split Squat Jump
Locomotive: Farmers Carry
Station B: Band Pull-Apart

DHD Scheme Example #2

Stations set 10-15 yards apart

Station A: Jump Rope
Locomotive: Heavy Sled Pull
Station B: Marching Plank

Variation 3: Volume – Volume – Volume (VX3)

In the volume-based variation, we're looking to get a good pump and a lot of work done. We won't choose calisthenics and we'll let the locomotive exercise and higher rep range (10-15) get the heart rate up and pump blood into the muscles. Mixing compound movements with more characteristically bodybuilding-type movements works well.

VX3 Scheme Example #1

Stations set 20 yards apart

Station A: Goblet Squat
Locomotive: Farmer's Walk with 5 shrugs every 5^th step
Station B: Push Up

VX3 Scheme Example #2

Stations set 20 yards apart

Station A: Hammer Curl to Overhead Press
Locomotive: Walking Lunge with Fat Grips
Station B: Sliding Leg Curl

Workout Length and Volume

There are two good options:

1. Complete a specified number of sets of each station, using one to three station schemes. Remember, each complete workout you create – two stations with locomotion in-between – is a "scheme."

2. Choose a timeframe and work on a scheme until time elapses. I prefer this method because I don't have the brainpower to count during conditioning work.

Two turns at each station is a good starting point, which will provide four locomotive sets and take approximately 8-10 minutes, depending on the exercises. From this, you can tailor the exercises and schemes to suit. Volume schemes can work well as high as three or four turns per station.

Exercise Choices and Pairings

If I'm using only one scheme as a complete workout, I'll typically do a push exercise and a pull exercise as the stations and a leg exercise as the locomotive. This is a simple, balanced workout. Beyond this, you can get deeper into hitting more body parts and movements. A good starting point is the big six, around which I base most simple workouts:

• Push
• Pull
• Hip-Dominant
• Quad-Dominant
• Core
• Rotator Cuff

Beyond choosing balance in the workout, it's a good idea to pick exercises that "rest" one another. If you're doing goblet squats as station A, running sprints as the locomotive, and performing RDLs as station B... you're going to die.

Sure, you'll earn your "brutal leg workout" merit badge, but the quality of every exercise will suffer. I also get concerned when people want to run with exhausted hamstrings. That's not to say you can't have leg exercise overlap – you can – just be smart about it. Moving from leg to upper body exercise is the easiest way to design a sensible station scheme.

High Box Jumps: An Overrated and Dangerous Exercise

Personal Trainers and Strength Coaches are in a constant battle of weighting the risk and reward of exercises. In the article below, Dan Blewett, a professional Baseball player, (former intern of mine) and owner of a very successful Sports Performance Training business, shares the logic we both share for X-ing out high box jumps from our training programs, as we strongly believe they’re a dangerous and overrated exercise.

In today’s article, Coach Dan also provides some quick mods to allow you to keep (what we both feel is) a safer version on-hand.

Easy Killer!

No one is going to try to claim that the high box jump exercises will injure everyone who does them. And, we certainly embrace that other personal trainers and strength coaches use High Box Jumps. However, this article isn’t about what OTHER people do, it’s about what WE do, and in this case, don’t do in training.

Put simply, we don’t use high box jumps with our clients and athletes because we feel they are not worth the risk in most instances, for most populations. Dan’s article (along with one of our videos) below gives you a very clear and concise explanation as to why we feel this way.

Why (we feel) The High Box Jump Exercise is Dangerous & Overrated

Enter: The Post-Injury Parent Conversation

“How did my son tear his ACL, Dan?”

“He fell awkwardly off of a 55 inch box while attempting to jump onto it.”

“Why was he doing such a high box jump?”

“I wanted to increase his jumping ability.”

“Was having the box at his max jumping height essential to the exercise?”

“Well, No. I suppose we could have put it at 53 inches and he would have made it atop safely.”

“So you needlessly risked my son’s career over two inches?”

“I suppose I did.”

“We are not paying for his surgery. You’ll be hearing from our lawyer.”

I will never have this conversation. EVER. Why? Because this hypothetically irate parent is 100% right – box jumps at personal record heights are unnecessary. Reducing the height to a level easily cleared would eliminate a tremendous amount of risk while only marginally, if at all, reducing the effect of stimulating the athlete’s maximum jump intensity. After all, the training effect of the Box Jump is minimal, while risk is very high.

High Box Jumps Do:

1. Teach Intensity via a goal to jump to
2. Demonstrate Jumping Ability
3. Demonstrate Hip Mobility

High Box Jumps Do Not:

1. Provide Overload Stimulus For Muscles
2. Showcase the jump used in sports (ever seen LeBron tuck his legs while dunking?)

High Box Jump Risk:

1. Awkward Fall To Floor from 2-6 feet.
2. Skimming Shins (on wood/metal boxes)
3. Hands hitting the box on the upswing. Broken fingers, anyone?

High Box Jump Reward:

1. Show others how high you can jump
2. Show others how mobile your hips are
3. YouTube Hero*
4. Find out how strong your ACLs and bones are when you inevitably fall

 *Or, you could join the ranks of one those Youtube “Box Jump Fail” videos. Go on, test the waters and search D-I athlete jumping 62 inches with his competitive season just a month away? Check. Middle-aged dude challenging his “Box Jump PR” at the local CrossFit? Check. Cute girl jumping on top of eleven 10lb bumper plates, stacked like pancakes atop a 20” Plyo box? Check. 

Remind yourself that there’s no real training stimulus here except for intensity. Your ability to jump is already determined, the exercise is entirely aimed at eliciting 100% of it. Increasing one’s explosive power, especially that of a high-level athlete, requires exercises that force the athlete’s body to increase rate of force development. Plus, as briefly mentioned above, jumping height will depend to a high degree on hip mobility. Coach Nick expands on this idea in a brief seminar clip:

How To Make Box Jumps Safer and More Effective

1. Lower The Box and coach minimal hip flexion to be involved in getting on top of the box (as Coach Nick talked about in the video above). This way you’ll have a much better idea of how much actual jumping ability some one has. Plus, seeing a 48inch box is intimidating, even if you know you can jump 50”. If you think you have to challenge your PR to get adequate jumping intensity I’d counter that if no one told you, you couldn’t tell the difference without measuring. All you need is enough height for your body to really need to get up.

2. Use them as conditioning at low heights. Though CrossFitters are often the culprit of Box Jump PRs, I don’t mind the CrossFit notion of using low but repetitive box jumps for conditioning. It’s relatively safe as long as the height doesn’t challenge a person at any point. Jumping at 30-50% of your max height for reps can give you a nice anaerobic training effect.

I can hear you right now – “Joe DeFranco box jumps all his high-level athletes!”

I know – I’ve watched countless videos. And I have tremendous respect for Mr.DeFranco and his methods. But, I guarantee you he knows the risks of the exercise, talks it over with his athletes, and likely takes measures to ensure the height they choose is one they will make 99% of the time.

Also, jumping high is sexy and gets YouTube views. But just because he might churn out box jump videos doesn’t mean his athletes train that way all the time. .

We Train and Let Train

There’s a big difference between jumping onto a box and high-box jumps.We’ll stick with jumping onto a box (that’s at a reasonable height) when we feel it’s appropriate for lower-body dynamic effort workout and force summation purposes.

You can go ahead and “don’t be a punk,” if you choose – Just remember it only takes one awkward landing, and 50+ inches is pretty high to break the fall. And, that’s a risk we’re not willing to take.

Author Bio:

Dan Blewett is the owner of Dan Blewett Sports Performance and WARBIRD Throwing Academy in Bloomington, Illinois. Much of Dan’s training knowledge has come at the expense of his own body as he continues to chase professional baseball and high-performance for his athlete clientele. Visit DanBlewett.com for his unique take on training and baseball.

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