Periodizing Conditioning and Strength | Hayden-William Courtland

[stef]

Starting Strength Coach Dr. Hayden-William Courtland talks about how to layer in conditioning with your strength training. Originally broadcast on FB Live.

[tompaynter]

So if a trainee is going to focus on conditioning or a sport for a block of time, but wants to maintain strength, what would that look like? Would one day a week of strength training be enough to maintain most of one's strength while getting into condition? Should the strength-training days look like ordinary SS workouts of 3 sets across (fewer for deadlifts), or more like ramping up to one heavy set of five, to keep intensity high while reducing volume in light of the recovery demands imposed by the conditioning?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Depends on the trainee's level of training advancement. Novices are obviously different than mature intermediate-level athletes.

[Hayden-William Courtland]

What Rip said. In addition, you need to take into account the extensiveness of the sport training. If someone is very competitive with a demanding sport training schedule, the emphasis will have to be on getting some high intensity lifting in and the volume will have to be dropped as there won't be enough training time or recovery time. On the other hand, if the individual is more casual in their sport training, they could potentially still do a near full 3-day strength routine if you cut just a bit of the volume and accessory work.