Cardio Vs. Conditioning
I will define and clarify this moderately quickly, so I can go into the benefits and dangers of both. To laymen or most people, cardio is anything that makes you breathe heavy. Conditioning is a term for strength coaches, so they don’t get grouped into boot camp HIIT style training. There was a hockey player I met at the gym and he gave me this beautiful analogy of the difference. I’m rough quoting Jay Harrison here, but this is roughly what I remember him saying,
“I don’t do cardio. I do conditioning. If you look at the wild and you will see a difference in the prey and predator. Like the antelope in the wild, it can run and gallop for a long time. But the lion, not good at cardio, rather it sprints towards that antelope because the lion is the predator that is conditioned.
I am the lion. I do conditioning. Not cardio.”
I love how simple and poetic this analogy is.
There is a flaw here, we need ‘cardio’ still.
To repeat, a little more definition is needed here, because it sounds like anything other than a sprint is cardio. To answer, it's both yes and no.
There are zones based on your percentage of heart rate max. We can predict how intense something is and you would have different benefits for each. For the sake of simplicity, you can use a scale of 1-10 and it will match your percentage of heart rate well.
(NOTE: I said you would benefit from each.)
Conditioning/Sprint Training
The style of training Jay is referring to sprints, which would put you in the upper 90% training and I recommend the most for athletes and most people trying to be in good shape.
Example: 10-30s of work matched with 60s-180s of rest; 5-10 sets (The reason for the big rest, is so that the work is more intense.)
Benefits - You create a bigger capacity of work for your aerobic system, saving you time because one does not need to do as much to get most of their benefits.
Dangers - IT’S HARD! Meaning, you don’t want to do it too much.
Suggestions - Maybe 1-2x per week. And you need to find an activity that can make you reach a 9-10/10 intensity.
A good test for the right exercise means asking: “Am I easily keeping the same speed in 30 seconds, or do I need to slow down?” If you slow down, that’s a good sign. This means you’re exhausting the power system, which is what you want. If you don’t feel that tired after 30 seconds, go harder or find a different exercise.
Low-Intensity Steady State
This is as basic as walking and goes all the way up to just before you can’t talk during the exercise. Heart rate ranges from 50%-70% roughly. The upper range of your aerobic zone or “Aerobic Power” = 180-Age.
Example - (I'm keeping this concept simple.) For a healthy lifestyle basis, go for walks at least 1-2x per day does most of what you want to ensure you don’t activate the aerobic recovery system.
Benefits - Making sure your body can take in and use oxygen effectively, thus heart health! This also includes helping with recovery during and after the intensity sprints or strength training workouts. It is a great way to burn more calories if you use low-impact means when you’re improving body composition.
Dangers - TOO MUCH can exist quickly when people try to improve body composition. I know this battle too well. Keep a standard that fits your life. Too much can also cause too much of a deficit and cause either more appetite or slow metabolism, and you can lose lean muscle tissue.
Suggestions - 1-2 walks a day, and if the rest of your program and nutrition is on point, you want to enhance the body composition more, add in 2-3 of them being more intensity such as incline walking, biking at a moderate tension interval, or elliptical.
(NOTE: Careful to pull this lever only when you need to.)
The Middle Zone
Imagine this is 70-90% of your max intensity. When things burn and you can’t talk easily while you workout. I will say most athletes and runners will use this zone the most, but we end up here with a lot of HIIT Style workouts--as most HIIT workouts don’t follow the sprint protocol above.
Example - 30s On 30s off, for a set OR tempo running for 10-60 minutes.
Benefits - It’s challenging your aerobic capacity in a more endurance style. If you enjoy this style of training, maybe you’re a runner, maybe a boxer, or maybe you just love HIIT training, then do it up! It’s so vital you enjoy the variation you put in front of you because this zone is tough.
Dangers - Impact and system exhaustion. Too much running or HIIT workouts can beat up our joints, and we need to consider longevity. Like too low intensity, this can cause an increase in appetite because you use more carbs to work in this intensity. Must have the right amount and consider your whole program.
Suggestions - 1-2x per week
(Note: this would replace or could team up with sprint training—making sure it doesn’t pull from strength.)
The truth is ALL are important. Define your goal first, then ensure these promote your goal so you don’t get yourself overdoing all these. Do a month of Middle Zone, then change it up and do just Sprints. Just ensure you look at the drawbacks and benefits of each.
The most important feature is the balance of volume and intensity of what you do.
If you ever want to ask me for any suggestions, don’t hesitate to reach out for some great workouts!