It’s turning into my favorite two seasons. I’ll be hiking a ton and skiing before too long I hope. With my strength goals behind me for the year Testing Day Results it's time to go after my annual conditioning goal, beating last year's mile time.
A great lesson I learned from Jim Wendler is that if you are going to add something to your program, you need to take something out. That means I should not just throw in a bunch of conditioning work on top of what I have been doing.
With this training block, I will increase my conditioning with some tempo runs and hiit work on top of my 3 one hour rucks a week. In addition, I’ll be performing a separate calisthenics circuit (Walrus) on my 3 resistance training days.
So I'll be implementing a volume reset. I'll be removing half of my resistance training volume. When programming my resistance training I use Jim’s version of Prilepin’s Chart below for my volume. For example, in Week 1 when lifts are done at 85% of my training max (not to be confused with your true max) the volume range is 3-6 reps per set for 12-24 total reps.
For my strength cycle, I was maxing out those ranges. I was to the point where I’d be doing 6 reps for 4 sets to hit the top end of 24 total reps on volume. During this conditioning block, I’ll start with 3 reps for 4 sets to hit the minimum prescribed volume of 12 total reps. If and when my body adapts, I’ll slowly work the volume back up.
I have also removed the shoulder saver on the bench and the 2” blocks from the deadlift. However, I’ll only be using the deadlift for dynamic work during this conditioning phase. My main lower volume will come from a deep deep belt squat. So as I am moving to fuller ranges of motion I deducted 10% from my training maxes.
The older I have gotten the more fastidious I have had to become in my programming. It’s been worth it because I feel better at 55 than I have in decades.
