A year-round general conditioning workout designed to gain and maintain an excellent overall state of conditioning. This workout includes exercises to develop cardiovascular endurance, core stability and maximum strength.
Cardiovascular endurance is trained and tested using a 1.5-mile run. Each 4 session cycle will include a best-effort time trial, two easy jogs and a fartlek workout. Fartlek is the Swedish word for "speed-play". During the fartlek session; the first and last half-miles are conducted as an easy jog with the middle half-mile run at a vigorous pace.
Core stability and local muscular endurance are developed and tested using abdominal crunches.
Lower body and upper body strength are developed and tested using the barbell squat and barbell bench press. The sessions are cyclic in nature; moving from reps of 5, to 3, then a 1 rep maximum lift. A one week of light lifting ends the cycle. Each work includes 3 sets of each lift. The first set is conducted at 50% of the training/max weight. The second set is conducted at 75% of the training/max weight. If you're doing sets of 5 with 100 pounds being the training weight; the first sets will be with 50 pounds, the second set at 75 pounds and the final set at 100 pounds. This protocol serves 2 purposes. First, it provides a specific warm-up using sub-maximal weight. Second, it conditions your body to lift heavier after you've already lifted. This will help reduce the risk of injury while training yourself to finish strong. The light week includes one set each at 5, 3 and 1 reps all at 50% of the normal training/max weight. As you get stronger, increase the weight in small increments and maintain the 50%-75%-100% lifting protocol.
