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Get Conditioned to Grow
Four Week Super Conditioning Program
By Terry Goodlad
posted on 02-21-2007
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Most self respecting bodybuilders think good conditioning means being lean and shredded. The problem is they can be lean and shredded and still get purple faced, out of breath and soaked in sweat just tying their shoes. Cardiovascular conditioning is not measured in how a person looks but in how efficient their cardiovascular system is at oxygenating blood and recovering from physically demanding activity. If you're a UFC fan then you have seen guys that may look a couple bags of Doritos past the shirtless limit yet they can battle for 3 five-minute rounds of non-stop rockem-sockem action and not look exhausted. Just watch a lineup of pro bodybuilders on stage bent over sucking air and unable to talk after doing a one minute pose-down and the difference between looking conditioned and being conditioned becomes painfully clear.
Bodybuilders usually look at cardiovascular conditioning as evil muscle-eating tomfoolery that is completely unnecessary. Or if they do give in and do some cardio training, it's at an ambling pace on the treadmill at a speed similar to a cow grazing. It's generally and errantly accepted that cardio training will get in the way of building muscle and must be avoided at all costs.
Sorry boys, it's just not true. If you run out of breath walking up a flight of stairs then how can you possibly put a 100% effort into your weight training? How will you tackle a leg day and push your body past the point of what it is used to if you are breathing heavy just from loading the squat bar. If you are mentally strong and motivated you can train to the point where it becomes uncomfortable and maybe slightly beyond but most times that discomfort is caused by cardiovascular fatigue and not muscular fatigue. Your muscles may feel like they can't contract another rep but it may just be from severe oxygen debt and not because they have been taxed to their limit. The result is that you stop growing, stop improving, and your bodybuilding progress slows to a halt.
Being in top condition will help you build muscle for a number of reasons, but the most obvious is you will be in better shape so you can train harder and longer. There are lots of well-muscled athletes out there that train their cardiovascular systems very hard and still maintain muscle with proper nutrition and rest. Professional football players are just one such example. Strongman athletes often train to improve their cardiovascular conditioning and you won't see any of them looking like distance swimmers. If you eat enough food to give yourself energy to train and recover, all that hard-earned muscle will stay with you while you make some training adjustments to improve your cardiovascular fitness level.
The idea with this program is to focus 4 weeks of your training on increasing your cardiovascular conditioning and train to maintain your level of muscularity. At the end of the 4 week program you will be in much better shape and able to train harder and longer when it's time to cycle back and train for more size again.
This will be a tough program but realize if you stick to it and re-introduce it into your training program between 3 and 4 times a year you will be surprised at the incredible gains you make, how good you feel while you are making them and, as a very important side benefit, improve your overall cardiovascular health in the process.
This is a very intense training program so it's absolutely necessary to see your doctor beforehand for a checkup to ensure you are able to participate in this very rigorous training program.
You will train Monday to Friday but take the weekends off training all-together. Your body needs time to rest and recover. Training damages tissue and you need a good solid nutrition program in place so you can recover from the grueling workouts. Muscles grow when they are rested and fed.
Stretching is very important and you should make time for at least 20 minutes of stretching in your day and even with that small amount you will notice a huge difference in your mobility and even strength and endurance.
Rest in between sets should be minimal, about 30 seconds.
There is no rest between sets when super setting, just keep moving from exercise to exercise keeping your heart rate elevated. You can use a heart rate monitor to ensure you are training in your cardiovascular training heart rate zone and ensure you are training at the optimal tempo.
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Monday -- Chest
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| EXERCISE | SETS | REPS |
| Chest and Sprints | | |
| Cable crossovers | 4 | 15 |
| Superset with crunches | 4 | 20 |
| Flat dumbbell bench press | 4 | 15 |
| *Superset with abdominal knee tucks | 4 | 15 |
| Decline barbell press | 4 | 15 |
| Superset with hyperextensions | 4 | 15 |
**Treadmill sprint intervals 7-8-9-10-10-10-8-7 |
| *Knee tucks are performed laying on your back with your hands under your butt and feet together. Draw your knees up towards your chest contracting your abs and raising your butt off the floor with your knees as close to your chest as possible for a peak contraction. |
| ** Treadmill sprint intervals are performed on a treadmill set to 2 degrees elevation and after a 5 minute warmup walk set the speed to 7.0 and run for one minute. At the end of the minute set the speed to 3.5 and walk for one minute. Set the speed at 8.0 and run for a minute then 3.5 and walk for a minute, 9.0 for a minute and walk at 3.5 for a minute and so on until the workout is done. |
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Tuesday -- Back |
| EXERCISE | SETS | REPS |
| Chin ups (assisted if needed) | 3 | 15 |
| Seated narrow grip rows | 3 | 15 |
| One arm dumbbell rows | 3 | 15 |
| Dumbbell pullovers elbows straight | 3 | 15 |
| Crazy Cardio Circuit after training - Repeat circuit 2 times |
| Walking lunges | 25 yards |
| Knee tucks | 20 |
| Mountain climbers | 15 each side |
| Pushups | 10 wide, 10 narrow, 10 regular |
| Pop squats | 15 |
| (squat down deep in a wide stance then push up jumping off the ground bringing feet together then hop up high as possible and drop down into squat position again and repeat. |
| Crunches | 20 |
| Jjumping jacks | 25 |
*No rest in between exercises, keep moving and breathing. If you feel faint or light headed or sense anything unusual stop immediately and contact your physician. |
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Wednesday -- Shoulders and sprints |
| EXERCISE | SETS | REPS |
| Seated front dumbbell raise | 4 | 15 |
| Superset with crunches | 4 | 20 |
| Upright cable rows (pulley on floor) | 4 | 15 |
| Superset with abdominal knee tucks | 4 | 20 |
| Side lateral machine | 4 | 15 |
| Superset with hyperextensions | 4 | 20 |
| Rear delt machine | 4 | 15 |
| Treadmill sprint intervals 7-8-9-10-10-10-8-7 |
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Thursday -- Legs |
| EXERCISE | SETS | REPS |
| Laying leg curls | 4 | 15 |
| Superset seated calf raise | 4 | 15 |
| Stiff leg dead lift | 3 | 15 |
| Superset standing calf raise | 4 | 15 |
| Walking lunges | 3 | 25 yards |
| Superset with hyperextensions | 4 | 20 |
| Heels together leg press | 4 | 15 |
| Wide stance squats on smith machine | 4 | 15 |
| Leg extensions | 3 | 15 |
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Friday -- Arms and sprints |
| EXERCISE | SETS | REPS |
| Low cable curls | 4 | 15 |
| Superset with overhead cable triceps extn. | 4 | 15 |
| Alternate dumbbell hammer curls | 3 | 15 |
| Superset with dumbbell kickbacks | 3 | 15 |
| Preacher curl machine | 3 | 15 |
| Superset with narrow grip bench press | 3 | 15 |
| Treadmill sprint intervals 7-8-9-10-10-10-8-7 |
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