Predator Conditioning

by Chris Shugart 

Here's what you need to know...

• Perform your conditioning work like the bad-ass predator that you are. Don't run from it like prey.

• To accelerate the benefits, perform conditioning work in the post-absorptive state or after weight training.

• Adaptation is the enemy. Rotate conditioning exercises and the results will keep coming.

Cardio vs. Conditioning: There is a Difference

We could start here by listing all the studies about the drawbacks of long duration cardio and running. Then we could list all the studies that show the benefits of shorter, high intensity conditioning sessions.

There would be lots of fancy acronyms and PubMed links. You'd feel smart reading it, but most likely you wouldn't apply any of it. Plus, that would be boring. So let's make the distinction between cardio and conditioning like this:

• Conditioning prepares you for battle. Cardio makes you really good at running slowly away.

• Conditioning fires up the metabolism. Cardio extinguishing it over time.

• Conditioning makes a man look good naked. Cardio makes a man look good in lavender skinny jeans and not much else.

• Conditioning builds legs of steel. Cardio builds legs of an underfed seabird.

• Conditioning makes you lean and hard. Cardio makes you small and soft.

• Conditioning gives you an upper body made of stone. Cardio gives you an upper body made of twigs and Jell-O.

• Conditioning makes you better at any physical activity. Cardio makes you good at cardio.

• Conditioning is sex. Cardio is cuddling and a chick-flick.

• Conditioning is testosterone. Cardio is cortisol and estrogen.

• Conditioning is pecs. Cardio is man-boobs.

• Conditioning is Westside Barbell. Cardio is Planet Fitness.

• Conditioning relieves anxiety, boosts all-day energy and fires up brain function. Cardio increases anxiety and cortisol. (Runners are only happy when they run. The rest of the time they're assholes. True story.).

• Conditioning is fun. Cardio is fun when it's over.

• Conditioning is for hunters. Cardio is for Bambi's mom.

• In short, conditioning is for predators. Cardio is for prey.

That was fun. Let's move on.

Predator Conditioning

Predator conditioning, as we'll call it here because it's cool, revolves around two main principles:

Principle #1: Avoidance of Adaptation

Strength training is all about adaptation. You lift weights and the body adapts by getting stronger, building muscle, and increasing your capacity for being awesome. You add load, adjust sets and reps, and tweak exercises to keep the body adapting because that adaptation makes you better.

But the opposite is true when it comes to energy systems work. With traditional long-duration cardio, you adapt too, and quickly. It doesn't take long before you have to run 10 miles to get the "results" that 5 miles used to get you. In short, that form of cardio makes you better at doing that form of cardio, so you have to keep doing more.

Problem is, damage incurs – physical, metabolic, and hormonal – and the "better" you get the worse you look and the weaker you become. When the unavoidable injury occurs, your cardio-adapted body stores fat like a hoarder. (More on that here.) That leads to not only stagnation but fast regression.

Predator conditioning revolves around avoiding too much adaptation, mainly by switching exercise modalities or rotating them. See, you don't want to adapt to conditioning. If you get good at it, it has essentially stopped working, leaving you doing a lot of work just to maintain previous improvements. Nothing like working hard and putting in the time just to maintain a level of stagnation, right? And just adding more of the same type of conditioning leads to all the "cardio" problems mentioned above.

The good news here is that people have an innate desire for variety. Conditioning is your chance to scratch the variety itch while keeping your weight training well-planned and progressive, as it should be.

Principle #2: Selective Workout Timing

Let's preface this by saying that whatever time you have to get your conditioning in is a good time. A tough session at the "wrong" time is far better than skipping the workout entirely. But there are two times where conditioning works even better.

The Post-Absorptive State

The post-absorptive state is that time between being fasted and being recently fed. You're no longer fasted, but you're finished up with most of the digesting and the nutrients are available in the bloodstream.

"This is where fat oxidation and caloric expenditure are at their greatest," Christian Thibaudeau says. "Unlike fasted cardio, the post-absorptive period isn't catabolic to muscle mass."

Since many athletes and lifters like to do their conditioning work in the morning in a separate training session, what's the best way to take advantage of the post-absorptive state without having to get up at 3AM to eat breakfast?

Easy. Consume the right amount of di- and tripeptides, which are transported directly into the bloodstream without the need to be further broken down. Couple that with a small amount of a special carbohydrate mixture that increases metabolic rate and drives supraphysiologic levels of these di- and tripeptides into the muscle cell.

"That's where MAG-10® shines," Thibaudeau says. "It's readily absorbed. You can drink it and go do your conditioning work soon after."

In other words, the post-absorptive state induces faster fat loss than a fasted workout, with none of the catabolic drawbacks.

"I find that MAG-10® pre-conditioning boosts metabolic rate and helps me get leaner even faster. Two scoops roughly 20 minutes prior to your workout is all you need," Thibaudeau adds.

This is easily applicable in real life. Wake up, drink a serving of Mag-10®, and do your conditioning.

Post Weight Training

Not a morning person? Then simply do your conditioning work directly after your lifting session, choosing wisely among the choices we'll get to below. In short, body fat stores are more easily tapped for energy after you've already had a full weight training workout. It doesn't take much to target excess fat when you've already been going hard for an hour or so.

Predator Conditioning Guidelines

Don't expect any Draconian tempo and duration rules here. You know the difference between sucking wind and, well, just sucking. Conditioning is about short, hard intervals. Kick ass, rest a little, kick some additional ass, repeat. Like this:

1. Choose a conditioning exercise. Go hard for 15 to 30 seconds, roughly.

2. Catch your breath. Don't "rest", just wait for the black spots to fade from your vision.

3. Repeat.

4. Stop after 10 to 20 minutes.

As a general rule, 10-minute sessions are perfect for post-weight training. Longer sessions, up to about 20 minutes, are best for separate conditioning sessions in the post-absorptive state.

Exercise Selection and Rotation

Remember, don't get too "good" at one form. Avoid adaptation. The more you suck at one form of conditioning the higher the impact it will have. Conditioning isn't a competition (CrossFit aside), it's a tool for getting a job done. Focus on the goal you're after, not the tool used to get there.

Conditioning is all about variety, so it's fun and never boring. The list of exercises is endless, but here are some good ones:

Battle Ropes: This is like sprinting for your upper body. Use a variety of undulation techniques. If you can go much over 30 seconds every round, then you're either a world class athlete, you're using dental floss, or you're phoning it in. Go hard. Make noise. Leave some blood on the ropes.

Sprints: Flats, hills, glaciers, with Jim Wendler on your back, etc.

Heavy Bag Work: Beat it like it's wearing an Affliction T-shirt.

Loaded Carries.

Fast Jump Rope: Double-unders if you have the coordination.

Medicine Ball Work: One of the best exercises here is to take a 100 to 150 pound med ball or Atlas stone, pick it up and toss it over one shoulder. Then turn around and repeat. Sadly, 100+ pound med balls are hard to find in most gyms, but they're out there.

Prowler or Sled Work: push it, drag it, or throw it.

The rule here is that if you can do it while checking your iPhone, watching TV, or carrying on a conversation then it isn't predator conditioning. If it would get you kicked out of Planet Fitness, it's predator conditioning.

The goal is not to throw up, but you're on the right track if you get close to it. Train to the limit of your capacity. When you think you can't go a second longer, add five seconds (because you can, sissy), then take a quick breather. Then do it again. This will feel like the longest 10 to 20 minutes of your life, not counting that vasectomy.

Bonus Tip: To really accelerate the effect and perhaps even target abdominal fat loss, do ab work during "rest" periods.

If your knees are already buckling after leg day, don't go run hill sprints. Instead choose an upper-body based conditioning exercise. Reverse that for upper body days. Do what you want if this is a separate training session.

If you're doing conditioning work three times per week, choose a different exercise modality each session. Or, do the same exercise for a week, then switch to something new on week two. Remember, keep sucking and it'll keep working.

Kill It

We could've talked about HIIT, the glycolysis system, EPOC, fartlek, or Tabata, but predators don't sweat the details, at least not when they're hungry and see a doe in front of their conveniently forward-facing eyes.

No, let's keep it simple. Attack your conditioning like a predator. Don't run from it like prey. Hunt it down, kill it, and eat it.

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.

Regular Cardio Will Make You Fat

by John Meadows   

Here's what you need to know...

•  When using cardio while dieting, begin by doing the minimum necessary for fat loss, not the maximum.

•  The most effective cardio for retaining muscle is the kind you don't need to recover from, which is walking.

•  When it comes to doing cardio for fat loss, it's either slow and easy (walking) or fast and torrid (HIIT). The middle ground can make you fatter.

•  Don't think of HIIT as calorie burning cardio, but rather muscle building cardio.

Whenever the topic of "cardio" comes up, it always ignites a firestorm of differing opinions, most dealing with how much people hate it or how you have to do it to get shredded. What never gets clearly explained, though, is the context and reasoning for which it's being done. This is crucial to understand, because cardio from a conditioning and endurance standpoint is going to be very different from a physique and bodybuilding perspective.

For a competitive athlete, it's likely very important that some kind of energy systems work be performed that either prepares them for their sport or aids in building overall work capacity. In contrast, for a physique competitor, cardio is employed for the sole purpose of either weight control/maintenance or creating a calorie deficit for fat loss. Energy systems development is likely a non-issue, provided the physique competitor is lifting with enough frequency and relative intensity.

Still, when it comes to doing cardio for fat loss, bodybuilders – if they want to preserve their muscle mass – need to take it either slow and easy or fast and torrid. The middle ground can actually make you fatter.

Slow and Easy

Speaking specifically to the bodybuilders, you have to ask yourself the following:

If my primary goal is maximal muscle, do I want to be performing a high volume of an entirely conflicting activity?

Please tell me you didn't answer yes to this. This isn't to dissuade people from doing cardio. If you like cardio, and I know some people that do, by all means do as much as you want. But be cognizant that it may be a conflicting factor that you have to account for if you want to get as big and lean as possible.

If, however, you're going to do cardio, it'd be best to do something that won't conflict with your goals and that's easy to recover from, namely, easy walking. So, if you're doing the incline walks on the treadmill, you're probably doing something right. Just keep it as short as necessary.

However, if you're insistent on stair stepping for an hour to "striate the glutes," or walking on an incline for two hours as contest prep, consider the following:

You have to take the Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (SAID) principle into account.

If you're dieting for a show and your lifting volume goes down but your cardio goes up, what's the primary stimulus your body is going to need to adapt to? The cardio. Now how does one become more efficient at slow, aerobic cardio? By decreasing overall energy output, which means burning fewer calories to do the same activity.

So how do we increase energetic/caloric output? We get rid of the most metabolically expensive tissue we have that's taking up those calories, which means our muscle.

The net result is that you over-diet for a show, lose muscle, lose fullness, and your physique suffers. Or, for the non-competitive bodybuilder, you just cut into your muscular gains come summer when you all you wanted to do was cut down for the beach. Not the outcome you wanted.

The answer isn't to refrain from ever doing cardio, but to employ it intelligently. Imagine this hypothetical scenario:

Bodybuilder A trains high-frequency six days a week on the Reactive Pump program, and each training session burns on average of 450 calories over a 1.5 hour period, and he uses peri-workout nutrition. He weighs 240 pounds in the offseason and he'll be dieting down to 220. He stays lean year round and his caloric intake is 4200 calories while his expenditure is 3800.

Bodybuilder A's active metabolic rate is 3800.

Bodybuilder B does his own type of training. He trains high-frequency as well, 5-6 days a week, but his workouts aren't as intense and they take about 2 hours. He also does an additional 45 minutes of cardio every workout, which equals about 650 calories.

He uses IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) and doesn't pay much attention to food quality, and his peri-workout nutrition consists of a shake before and after training, followed by tons of low-quality carbs. He gets fat in the offseason and his caloric intake is about 5500 calories, but his expenditure is only 4500, which puts him into a significant surplus. His offseason weight is 270, but he'll walk on stage at 220 as well.

Bodybuilder B's active metabolic rate is 4500.

Now let's move into the competition prep phase. Both start 24 weeks out. Bodybuilder A has to lose only 20 pounds, which is less than a pound a week. Bodybuilder B, though, has to lose 50 pounds, so approximately 2 pounds a week.

Bodybuilder A does ZERO cardio during his offseason, other than going for leisurely walks that don't stress his adaptive response at all. So by reducing his calorie intake very gradually and maintaining his peri-workout nutrition, his cut is easy to manage. Only the last couple of weeks before the contest does he do any cardio, and it's only for 30 minutes a pop. He also does a few HIIT bouts to really accelerate the fat loss.

Because his loss has been more gradual, he has to resort to fewer dirty tricks to lose the weight and his metabolism hasn't slowed significantly. He still has a cheat meal a week before the contest. He steps on stage big, ripped, and vascular.

Post contest, he enjoys another cheat meal and eats dirty for a few days, but he hasn't been calorie or nutrient deprived, so his metabolism doesn't have a huge rebound. After 2-3 weeks he's back to regular training and he's set himself up for solid muscle gains.

Bodybuilder B, though, has a lot of fat to shed. Even though his initial caloric output his higher, he needs a bigger daily deficit to lose weight. He ups his cardio to 2 hours, but now he's increased his metabolic rate while at the same time cutting calories. He's constantly hungry and his workouts really start to suffer. He's not very smart about his peri-workout nutrition, he's often flat, and his strength starts heading south.

His metabolic rate starts to slow significantly because of his lowered caloric intake and his body begins to deplete muscle. Increasing his overall activity while heavily decreasing his calories makes his cut absolutely miserable. Oh, he still gets to 220, but he's soft looking and he's lost significant size.

Once the contest is over, he binges like crazy because he's been calorie and nutrient starved for weeks. Subsequently he gets even fatter than before, setting himself up for another hard cut a year from now.

Obviously, scenario A is where we want to be, so here are the major takeaways:

• Clearly define whether you need cardiovascular training for physical performance or purely for body composition management.

• The most effective cardio for retaining muscle is the kind you don't need to recover from, which is walking.

• When using cardio while dieting, begin by doing the minimum necessary for fat loss, not the maximum.

Of course, there's the other alternative.

HIIT It

HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) isn't really in the same category as traditional "cardio." If you do it right with extreme intensity, it's very complimentary to hard resistance training.

While it can be highly effective for fat loss and improved muscularity, the devil is in the details. When deciding which version of cardio to use, the body's natural physiological adaptations need to be taken into account.

Consider again how the "middle zone" cardio we talked about above (specifically in reference to our Bodybuilder B) is lousy for muscle gains. Adaptation is a response to stress, and biology will always seek efficiency and, consequently, minimization of stress. As such, the adaptation to this middle zone cardio is less muscle and more body fat.

In contrast, consider something like sprinting. Sprinting is the cardio version of maximal strength training. However, in this case we're not moving weight, we're moving our bodies. This essentially makes sprinting a "relative strength" activity, in that it's the amount of force – in this case, propelling the body through linear space – we can exert in relation to our body size or weight.

Of course, we're only as fast as we are strong, and the stronger we are, the faster we can be. And that strength, of course, comes from muscle. Even further though, sprinting is an expression of power output; it's mass x acceleration. The more efficiently we can alter our physiology and replace fat with muscle, the greater the force output and thus, the faster our potential speed.

Consider then, if sprinting is the stress, and the imposed demands are maximal speed that's compounded by mass relative to our ability to accelerate, what will make us more efficient/faster at sprinting? Getting stronger, of course, and sprinting itself can be anabolic.

As far as loss of fat, it's the extraneous, unwanted, unneeded tissue that impedes acceleration. That's why sprinters are lean. Sprinters have the lowest body-fat percentages relative to any other athlete. And I guarantee none of them train in a calorie deficit to look like that.

Their body composition and muscularity is the result of the natural biological adaptation that's taken place in response to their imposed demand/stress, which, in this case, is maximal efficiency at maximal force output.

The body's adaptation to middle ground cardiovascular exercise, however, is the opposite of weight training. In lifting weights, maximal strength often requires maximal bodyweight with higher body fat levels, but in cardio, maximal speed requires minimal bodyweight relative to the amount of muscle needed to reach top speed. In this case, however, minimal still equates to a lot of muscle, otherwise you won't ever reach your speed potential.

Too much sprinting, however, can quickly burn you out, just as too much maximal lifting can. The dosage is hugely important.

These are the takeaway lessons:

• Lifters should augment resistance training with HIIT.

• Sprint-based cardio can equate to lower body fat levels.

• Don't think of HIIT as calorie-burning cardio, but rather muscle-building cardio.

I've laid out two paths for you. The first – walking – will gradually get you cut without impeding further muscular gains, and the second – HIIT – will get you cut while building muscle. The choice is yours. Just avoid the middle ground.

Note: Alexander Cortes contributed to this article