First off, it has been a little bit since my last check-in. I have been busy with licensure testing, changing a few details professionally, and jumping right into some continuing education. All those things, plus I have been coaching a high school lacrosse team in the area.
I was kicking back, sipping on a nice cup of coffee the other morning, reading over some “professional development” type material, when I came across a post along the lines of “why do long slow distance aerobic work?” That post of course got some great professional feedback, but it got me thinking too.
Most of what I was reading in terms of feedback was along the lines of: why indeed? Now, I like bang for the buck type exercise regimens. I feel as though we do a really good job of accomplishing both anaerobic and aerobic work in a relatively short period of time on a daily basis at our facility. By using simple concepts like HIIT in our lifts we are able to develop strength and power via resistance training at appropriate, demanding percentages; and, also tax the aerobic system at the same time. We also incorporate a conditioning portion after the lift that works usually on some type of lactic or alactic interval (think Certified Conditioning Coach) in the preseason phases.
But where can we fit in the long-slow distance type conditioning???
This is where I reflect back to my magical weekend at IFAST, listening to Joel himself hurl information grenades at all of us innocent Performance Coaches. In a very organized manner, he managed to explain to us how to use each concept that he has written about in books like “Ultimate MMA Conditioning”. Long story short, one cannot sustain all out lactic intervals 7 days a week for very long. This makes sense, right?!
With all the concepts in strength and conditioning regarding the importance of the nervous system, this should be a no-brainer. Simply put, sometimes it is just better to let your foot off the gas pedal, slow down, and let your body (and nervous system) relax. Let’s find that parasympathetic state for once in our training year.
Now that both sides of the continuum are screaming at me, let me elaborate. First off, no, I do not think that you should be performing long-slow distance aerobic conditioning all year round–unless your sport is running a marathon or the Tour de France in which case you still shouldn’t do it on consecutive days. Will you see strength and therefore power decrements as a result? Maybe. Will you be introducing a new variable into your training regimen? Absolutely! Cooling the jets for a few weeks will not have an absurd impact on strength/power/muscle fiber type. But, it may afford you the potential to get even better because you let the body experience a new stimulus.
Personally, I don’t like long distance cardio. I get bored with it, unless I am chasing a ball or object. Cycling is more doable, but still, the struggle is real. However, when no one is watching, I will jump on the Assault Bike for about 45-60 minutes and get in a good cardio sesh.