Intelligent MetCon?
Intelligent MetCon?
In the wake of training approaches like Crossfit and Orange Theory, High Intensity “Metabolic Conditioning” has become a popular tool for weight loss and conditioning focused clients all around the world.
I like that people want to work harder.
I don’t like that people are burying themselves to the point of total exhaustion. There is a smarter way to train hard. Rather than compiling a random mish-mosh if exercises with arbitrary work/rest ratios its best to pick specific exercises with heart rate based work:rest assignments.
A few weeks a go I posted about this and I received a number of messages about the specific heart rate responses to look for when doing heart rate based conditioning work inside the weight room. Based on the interest I figured I’d film one of the protocols I use frequently with a video of the heart monitor overlaid so you can see it in real time.
This is what I did for conditioning following my lift:
10 Rounds:
– 10 KB Swings
– 10 Push-Ups
– Return Heart Rate down to 70%
The goal here is to be “anti-glycolytic” in that we want to be able to maintain high-intensity work outputs and not succumb to the fatigue by-products that come with glycolytic work. This means resting longer than an arbitrary 20 or 30 seconds and using your heart rate determine when to work again. The rest may seem “too long” for those accustomed to the incomplete recovery that is often a staple of traditional high intensity interval work. Trust it. Rest a bit longer to improve repeatability over the long term.
When picking exercises for interval based conditioning I’d recommend sticking to only two since the work interval shouldn’t be longer than 20-30 seconds. Choose one lower body and one upper body exercise that you can perform at high intensity and with perfect form. Some examples of this would be Swings, Snatches, Squats, Jump Squats, Push-Ups, Ring Rows, Sled Pushes or Medicine Ball Throws.
Throw on a heart rate monitor and give this a try for yourself and let me know how it goes!