The Genesis Program: {Part 2} The creation of a training program: Conditioning

Conditioning overview

 

Training has to be specific, our goal is body transformation in terms of becoming stronger, more healthier and most importantly creating a change in the body that has a long-term emphasis rather than hopping onto the next training fad and continually failing at improving. Cardiovascular training has to have the same principle of specificity in mind, it has to compliment the foundation being built with efficient resistance training.

Doing fasted treadmills runs first thing in the morning, doing every fitness bootcamp under the sun and starving yourself the whole day only to over indulge later and break you self-esteem even more is not the way to go about this. Even for the more level-headed and educated lifter, cardio programming has to built up over a period based on where you are in your training cycle. .

The background on energy systems

To understand the basics of conditioning you have to understand the body's energy systems.

The Immediate Energy System

This is a short-term energy system that strength athletes are the king of due to it only lasting less than 30 seconds before switching over to the next energy system. This is due to immediate nature of needing explosive power and strength through activation of switching muscles on quickly to produce force and kick some ass. The ATP/CP system utilises adenosine tri-phosphate and creatine phosphate for fuel rather than using oxygen which takes longer to utilise and process into fuel.

The Nonoxidative System

This energy system kicks in at about 15 seconds and reaches full strength at around 30 seconds as it utilises glucose (blood sugar) and glycogen stored in the body's muscles and fades after 2 minutes. This energy pathway produces lactate which is often referred to as the 'burn or pump' by athletes.

The Oxidative System

This energy system takes longer to produce energy for exercise, it takes time to build up  but it does supply longer lasting energy for endurance events through the use of the cardiorespiratory system mainly aimed at targeting fats in the body as the primary fuel source.

So where does that leave us?

For the Genesis Program, the goal is to utilise the immediate and nonoxidative energy systems as the goal is to get stronger, become more explosive and teach the body to program the use of high-threshold motor units and leave them on during the training session. This can only be achieved via compound resistance training and supporting cardiovascular activities to compliment the development of explosive power.

 

 

 

Conditioning parameters will be:

• Short bouts of explosive energy lasting up to 15 seconds
• Minimal rest periods lasting between 30 and 60 seconds
• Multiple sets of exertion
• The use of auto-regulation in knowing what is too little and when to stop. Your body should feel like it has pushed itself but your mind should still be fresh.

Conditioning tools: Where you learn to build the will to fight!

Before I list the conditioning tools that we will be utilizing in the program, one thing will be made clear, and that is this: There will be no jogging or whatever long distance bullshit escapade you can think of. This will be another topic I will write an article on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tools of the trade:

Prowler

The prowler is a training tool primarily used for added volume work in a training program. It is incredibly effective in increasing muscular size and strength in the calves, quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes, as well as increasing ones fitness and recovery levels. The reason it is so effective is that it relies on the premise of eccentric-less training ideologies.

Complexes

A complex is a series of exercises that either form segments of a bigger lift or are independent exercises performed one after the other in succession. The weight can stay the same or 'stations' can be set up to which the athlete moves from one to the other after the completion of the exercise.

Tabata sets

Tabata sets or intervals made up of 20 second high intensity exertion followed by 10 seconds rest performed for four minutes straight. Two exercises can be paired together and alternated between for the four minutes.

Battle ropes

Battle ropes build tremendous power and cores strength. Powering the body's arms, trunk and utilising the core in virtually every motion of each exercise variation of the ropes increases volume to the working muscles and is incredibly taxing to the cardiovascular system.

Farmers walk
Farmers walk is a functional conditioning tool in terms of it working virtually all the main muscle groups such as legs, forearms, traps, upper back, biceps, abdominals ect. Ideally it is picking up a heavy object and carrying it a defined distance but done with correct posture and with a relative load to one's abilities, it carries over to a host of other lifts and builds tremendous strength and increases an athlete's GPP (General physical preparedness)

 

Sprints
Keeping with training the early energy systems of the body to develop the high-threshold motor units in the body, sprints are effective in a high-intensity training protocol. Where a defined distance is used with a limit on rest periods to keep the heart rate up and the body primed throughout the workout. Sprints can be used as part of speed work before a training session, worked on in terms of sport specificity during the session or used as a conditioning tool for fat loss and overall body power development.

Kettlebells

Kettlebells are an amazing tool to increase work capacity and overall volume to the posterior chain. By utilising the hip hinge motion in a ballistic fashion it taxes the body effectively while developing strength to have a strong carry over to compound lifting.

The third instalment of this series will be the complete program tying in compound and the above cardiovascular elements into an effective training program.

The Genesis Program: {Part 1} The creation of a training program: Compound Lifts

The Genesis Program is set to be a three-piece series going into the making-of a basic training program for *intermediate level training people to develop overall body strength, size, conditioning and composition change. *Intermediate level lifters are those that have at least a year of basic weight training in the gym under their belt but now need a plan in order to carry them forward now that the 'newbie gains' are starting to diminish and their strength/muscular levels are starting to plateau. Ideally its about giving them direction as just going to the gym for a workout is not enough to progress anymore towards their goals.

 In the beginning there was light

The compound lifts are the bread and butter of weight training and from there, sadly any other fitness fad that has been pumped into the mass market and suckered in a generation. Olympic weight lifting, powerlifting, strongman and even crossfit where the strongest and most highly conditioned athletes compete, all use compound lifts. Why? Because they get you the most bang for your buck, plain and simple.

 Free weights allow for natural movement patterns based on your current mobility and flexibility while doing the exercise. They also more importantly help build limit strength which is the maximum amount of force that your muscles can produce. The higher one's limit strength, the more amount reps one can produce with lesser weight, which increases overall muscular endurance, hypertrophy and work capacity. Also by recruiting more muscle mass through a challenging motor pattern, such as a compound lift, leads to a bigger metabolic stress on the body.  

Now I’m not saying isolation exercises are the devil and you have to scorn them like medieval witch burnings, but priority of any successful training program is the use of compound lifts as the mainstay of progress. The use of isolation exercises should be used as a tool to increase hypertrophy of weaknesses in lagging muscle groups to increase performance in the compound lifts.

 Choosing your tools to build 

Now that you know that compound lifts are the base to building this change in your body, the next question is which lifts are the most important to use and why do they have such a great carry over? The following lifts will be built into the Genesis Program and are the keystone to successful progress. They are the tried and tested building blocks of great physiques and developing strength and power. There are many variations to these lifts that one can use later on when the basic lift motor pattern has been drilled into your central nervous system, but as for basic programming, hammering away at these will build the necessary changes in your body:

 
The deadlift


This exercise tests full body strength to its maximum. It utilizes the entire body in a single movement tp lift a weigh off the floor. It builds a powerful posterior chain and develops tremendous lower body strength through the use of the hip hinge, as well as utilizes the upper body to stabilize and thus work in a isometric fashion.
 




The squat

The squat is said to be the king of all exercise, like the deadlift it utilizes the entire body to move the weight. The movement is similar to the deadlift except that the weight is not out in front of you but on your back. The upper body plays a role in stabilizing the weight, stopping the body from collapsing in on itself as well as keeping the body in moving in an efficient motor pattern. The lower body gets loaded then rebounds at the bottom to drive the weight back up.
 




The bench press


The bench press, if done correctly, utilizes the entire body to drive the weight from the bottom to the lockout. Correct use of the legs to drive kinetic energy from the heels, into the glutes straight into the lats and up the triceps to explode the weight into lockout.

 



The front squat

The front squat puts pressure on the quads, hamstrings and glutes and forces the upper body upright through activation of the core, lats and triceps. The front squat is a complete full body exercise when done in an Olympic fashion.



 


The overhead press


The overhead press was once the king of upper body development. The entire body is engaged in exploding the weight from the upper body to overhead. The glutes are utilized to stop the back from hyper-extending and the upper back and lats are used to stabilize and keep the weight moving in the correct path.
 


The chin up

The chin up performed through the entire range of motion develops tremendous back strength. The body must move in unison to bring the chest up to the body through pulling through the elbows and retracting the shoulder blades. With so much time the average person spends hunched over a desk now days, the chin up is one of the best counteracts to poor posture and developing strong base of strength in the back. 

 
 
 

Isolation work not left out 

Now to compliment the compound lifts is the use of isolation exercises to help build your weaknesses into strengths to aid in getting stronger. These lagging muscle groups need to be addressed in terms of direct work to make sure the whole body is well balanced and developed via hypertrophy. These exercises will be listed later on in a few sample programs and reasoned as to why they are used.


The next installment in this series will go into how to incorporate conditioning into the training program.