Synergy Conditioning Article Section
4. Hand Walking – over plates Increase or decrease the height for difficulty.
Move QUICK to help facilitate shoulder stabilization.
Put this conditioning complex at the end of an upper body workout, or a workout with a rest day after it.
Conditioning Around An Injury
Joe Hashey, CSCS
WARNING: The conditioning exercises in this video could break your will to live!
In April, 2009 (yeah we have been around for awhile now!) I wrote an article called Essential Ankle Mobility Strategies on the prehabilitation for ankle injuries. Well what should people do who sprain an ankle? Take time off in the gym? HAHA
Here’s the truth. Every day in the gym is valuable. Especially if you are training for a fall sport that is 10 weeks out. An ankle sprain is no reason to miss a week of training (10% of your pre-season training).
First, you want to make the injury feel better, and I largely prescribe to the I.C.E principle. You may be thinking “isn’t it R.I.C.E?” Let me explain.
I.C.E Principle
1. Ice – Ice your injury to reduce swelling. 15-25 min on, 15-25 min off for cycles works well.
2. Compression – If it is swelling, compression will help squeeze come of the swelling out and provide mild temporary support
3. Elevation – Putting the foot above your heart, ie up on a few pillows, will help minimize swelling as well.
As for REST? For get about it. Don’t park your ass on the couch for 2 weeks due to a small injury.
Footnote – We are not crazy. You will want to leave the specific injured area alone briefly until the swelling is down, but as a whole you must stay active. Also, lose any brace AS SOON AS you don’t need it anymore.
Conditioning Around An Injury
Max is a quarterback that came in with a sprained ankle. With the football season closing in Max can’t afford to take any time off – and to his credit Max had no interest in “rest.”
We went through our normal upper body protocol and an adapted lower body training program.
What about conditioning? I had to get creative since we couldn’t use a lot of our typical upper body conditioning (almost all of it is done standing to recruit more muscles). Check out the video below for a few of the exercises Max had to suffer endure:
CONDITIONING AROUND AN INJURY VIDEO #1 Full Article On Synergy Athletics
In Shape? Try The Tension Test
I received a tweet from a hard working friend yesterday that stated “I’ve noticed after my BSC sessions, my heart rate isn’t as high as it used to be. Does this mean better shape or am I doggin’ it?”
In his case, he is getting in great shape and closing in on superior conditioning but how do I know?
Aspects of Being In-Shape
• Can perform slow state conditioning without issue • Recovers within a few minutes of exercise completion
• Can performs high intensity conditioning for 20-30 seconds x 3-5 rounds
Someone that is in-shape can perform most day to day activities, light cardio, and short bursts of high intensity cardio with a short recovery time. This is fine for most general fitness individuals.
Aspects of Athletic Superior Conditioning
• Recovers from high intensity conditioning within 30 seconds • Recovers WHILE still conditioning
• Handles both aerobic and anaerobic conditioning
• Has no issue with slow state cardio (except for maybe some boredom…) • Can condition in 15-20 minutes a few times a week to maintain their level
I might get some doubters with the last one, but superior conditioning doesn’t require 60 minutes 3 times a week. Also, I am writing from a perspective of the athletes I train – not marathon runners (although we have had distance runners adhere to this standards and improve their times).
There is no one exercise sequence that is “perfect,” but here are some with superior conditioning have accomplished at the gym: 20 minutes of rope battling STRAIGHT with a 2 in x 50 foot rope, 14 total plate prowler suicide super set with a 6 plate 30 yard push in under 3 minutes, the warrior conditioning complex (from
Bull Strength Conditioning) for 5 rounds with 15 seconds of rest, and passed the tension test.
What is the Synergy Tension Test?
The tension test is something we use at Synergy Athletics to see if an athlete can recover while there is tension on their muscles after a high intensity movement. For example: perform a 100 yard sprint, drop into a plank for 30 seconds, stand up, shake it off then run again. Repeat x 3-5. Your times on the sprints – if you can handle recovering during tension, should be nearly identical.
If you feel your heart rate and breathing slow during the plank, then you are getting the job done. This test is one of the many measurements to judge is an
athlete has superior conditioning – many of the others we use are more sport specific.
READING THE RESULTS: People that are out of shape will have their heart rate
and breathing under tension, people in shape will stay roughly the same (as during conditioning) or recover slowly, people with superior conditioning will recover quickly.
Advanced Application
Perform various high intensity movements coupled by quasi-static exercises. Check out the video below, I put Jeff through rope battling, prowler, burpees, then had him perform a static hold on the pull up bar WHILE doing core
exercises. We tested heart rate (monitors) and breathing (judged by the athlete) after completing the second and third rounds.
Within 15 seconds his heart rate and breathing were back down to normal. The dude is in superior condition!
I tried it and it was nearly 30 seconds…damnit! More work to be done for me.
TENSION TEST VIDEO
Dirty Dozen Conditioning
Now on to the Dirty Dozen. This is more a method than it is just one workout. I came up with this idea to make sure the workouts are short, flexible to your equipment, and adaptable to your needs.
Pretty cool right?
Here’s how it works. Choose 12 exercises, 6 strength exercises and 6 conditioning exercises. Do note, that the strength and conditioning exercises may have aspects of the other movements (for example, 2 squats is more strength while 100 squats will be more conditioning – same exercise though!). To make this simple to read, I am using the term “strength exercise” to refer to a general lift, even though it may be strength/muscle endurance. These are primarily anaerobic movements.
Pair the movements up – strength then conditioning and repeat. 12 straight exercises is a LOT so check out these progressions.
The Beginners Dirty Dozen
1. Strength Exercise 2. Conditioning Exercise Rest 20 seconds 3. Strength Exercise 4. Conditioning Exercise Rest 20 seconds 5. Strength Exercise 6. Conditioning Exercise
Rest 20 seconds 7. Strength Exercise 8. Conditioning Exercise Rest 20 Seconds 9. Strength Exercise 10. Conditioning Exercise Rest 20 Seconds 11. Strength Exercise 12. Conditioning Exercise
REST 90 seconds and repeat for 2-3 rounds.
To make advance the progression, switch the rest time.
Intermediate Dirty Doz
1. Strength Exercise 2. Conditioning Exercise 3. Strength Exercise 4. Conditioning Exercise Rest 20 seconds 5. Strength Exercise 6. Conditioning Exercise 7. Strength Exercise 8. Conditioning Exercise Rest 20 Seconds 9. Strength Exercise 10. Conditioning Exercise Rest 20 Seconds 11. Strength Exercise 12. Conditioning Exercise
REST 90 seconds and repeat for 2-3 rounds.
Advanced Dirty Doz
1. Strength Exercise 2. Conditioning Exercise 3. Strength Exercise 4. Conditioning Exercise
5. Strength Exercise 6. Conditioning Exercise Rest 20 seconds 7. Strength Exercise 8. Conditioning Exercise 9. Strength Exercise 10. Conditioning Exercise 11. Strength Exercise 12. Conditioning Exercise
REST 90 seconds and repeat for 3-5 rounds.
When To Get Dirty
There are a few ways to apply this protocol to your training. We prefer to use it as conditioning only. It skyrockets your heart rate and teaches proper breathing and recovery. 3 rounds are typical (usually takes about 6 minutes a round) for us on a workout day that is followed by a rest day.
Always keep the big picture in mind, that this will increase your conditioning and muscle endurance, but you still need proper strength and dynamic workouts in
your program! I prefer to use this conditioning only once a week to avoid over fatiguing muscles that I will need in my regular program.
DIRTY DOZEN VIDEO FULL DIRTY DOZEN VIDEO
This is an advanced workout. Make sure you have a baseline before getting dirty! - Joe Hashey, CSCS –
Bull Strength Tire Conditioning
Joe Hashey, CSCS
Casey “No Holds” Bard sent me a few pictures of him dominating an exercise I posted a little while back and included in the Bull Strength Manual.
This exercise is a combo of tire throwing and conditioning. The weight of the tire does not matter, it is the rate of force development – how fast you can move it, generating a long toss.
Here are the benefits of tire throwing and conditioning:
• Increased work capacity
• Posterior chain strength and explosiveness • Shoulder strength and power
• Upper back strength and power • Grip and forearm strength
Another benefit is that you can do this with lifters of all ages with success…and for free!
Casey’s pictures
EXPLODE and launch
Sprint and Repeat
This setup and exercise is literally FREE. All you need is a used car tire and some intensity. Want to get some more intense and EFFECTIVE workouts, get Bull Strength!
Thanks for the pictures Casey, keep up the great work! - Joe Hashey, CSCS -