The term Metabolic Conditioning has become very popular over the last decade. A comprehensive review of Metabolic Conditioning would require an explanation of advanced exercise physiology and biochemistry principles that go beyond what most people need or want to know. In simple terms, a Metabolic Conditioning workout uses multiple bouts of high-intensity exercise separated by recovery periods.
The term Metabolic Conditioning has become very popular over the last decade. A comprehensive review of Metabolic Conditioning would require an explanation of advanced exercise physiology and biochemistry principles that go beyond what most people need or want to know. In simple terms, a Metabolic Conditioning workout uses multiple bouts of high-intensity exercise separated by recovery periods.
This type of training has been used by competitive athletes—including both endurance (aerobic) and strength and power (anaerobic) athletes—for many decades, even though it was not always referred to as Metabolic Conditioning. It has gained popularity within the fitness community because this type of training can promote many of the physiological adaptations fitness enthusiasts seek, including improvements in muscular strength, muscle mass, body composition, and cardiovascular fitness. While building muscular strength has long been associated with strength (anaerobic) training, many people have traditionally associated fat loss and cardiovascular fitness primarily with lower-intensity, sustained aerobic activity such as jogging, walking, cycling, and dancing.
Research has demonstrated that high-intensity interval training can improve cardiovascular fitness and can be an effective tool for improving body composition, while also providing opportunities to develop muscular strength and power. This does not mean that Metabolic Conditioning is inherently superior to aerobic or traditional strength training. Rather, it provides an efficient way to combine different training stimuli in a single workout. For many people, this combination can be an effective way to improve several components of fitness at the same time.
“High intensity” refers to a level of exertion that is sufficiently demanding that it cannot be sustained for very long. Even high-intensity efforts can vary considerably in their degree of intensity. For example, a weightlifting set—such as squats, dead lifts, power cleans, bench presses, or push presses—using a weight with which you can perform a maximum of 8 repetitions, 4 repetitions, or 2 repetitions would all be considered high-intensity sets, although they represent different levels of intensity and duration. Similarly, all-out sprints of 100, 200, and 400 yards would all be high-intensity bouts, but the demands of each are different.
Athletes incorporating Metabolic Conditioning into their training programs can be well served by selecting intensity levels (i.e., amount of weight or speed) that result in efforts of similar duration to those demanded by their specific sports. Just as the intensity and duration of an exercise bout can be selected to match sport-specific demands, the length of recovery between bouts can also be manipulated to match those demands. Metabolic Conditioning workouts can therefore be designed with work phases of different durations and recovery periods of different lengths. For fitness enthusiasts who are not training for a specific sport but instead seeking general improvements in fitness and performance, incorporating different work-to-rest ratios can provide a variety of training challenges.
Furthermore, many sports challenge players to produce maximum or near-maximum efforts of different durations. A soccer player may sprint 15 yards to be first to the ball or race the length of the field for a breakaway opportunity. Thus, even athletes training for a specific sport can benefit from incorporating different durations and intensities of high-intensity bouts and various work-to-rest ratios into their Metabolic Conditioning programs.
At 1TO1 FITNESS, we help our competitive athletes, weekend warriors, general fitness clients, and fitness newcomers implement appropriate Metabolic Conditioning workouts based on their individual goals, needs, and ability levels.