PP Cardio question

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

Mark,

Thank you for writing SS and PP, they are both awesome and have helped me greatly.

In PP, you say that cardio training should be done at least 5 hours after strength training and that it a negative effect on strength and size. This statement is in regards to Long Slow Distance (lsd).

My question is on the effects of sprinting and middle distance (300 - 800 meters) on strength development? Would the same 5 hours time frame apply? Could you suggest a training protocol for sprints and middle distance running to compliment SS program or a basic Texas method? If not, could you suggest a source fo such information?

Sincerely

Jamie

[Mark Rippetoe]

LSD is really not good for humans. Middle distance efforts and sprints can be quite useful for metabolic conditioning, and CrossFit makes good use of them. If you are working up through your novice SS progression, I'd recommend holding off a while until your initial plateau is reached; this linear strength improvement will be more valuable in the long term than met/con, which is easier to obtain and comes more efficiently when you are strong. If you are already an intermediate-level trainee, you could add a sprint day to your week, and then add your middle distance day a month or two later after you have had time to adapt the rest of your training to the added work.

[Keenan]

LSD is really not good for humans.

Quite the double entendre....I believe psychedelics should only be introduced in advanced programming.

[Matt DeMinico]

LSD is really not good for humans. Middle distance efforts and sprints can be quite useful for metabolic conditioning, and CrossFit makes good use of them. If you are working up through your novice SS progression, I'd recommend holding off a while until your initial plateau is reached; this linear strength improvement will be more valuable in the long term than met/con, which is easier to obtain and comes more efficiently when you are strong. If you are already an intermediate-level trainee, you could add a sprint day to your week, and then add your middle distance day a month or two later after you have had time to adapt the rest of your training to the added work.

I definitely agree with Mark here. The stronger you are, the easier the metcon will be. I've been doing Crossfit training for over a year now, and a new guy I'm training at my affiliate is pretty strong, and started with a decent conditioning base, but not a very good metcon base. On his 6th session, he did 9 rounds in a 1/2 Cindy (max rds in 10 minutes instead of 20 minutes, of 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats).

Me personally, after a year on Crossfit, after coming off a long Crossfit break during the speedskating season, I could only manage 9 rounds myself, and likely if I trained for a month, I could probably do maybe 11. My problem is the arm strength is wholly insufficient to complete this, I ended up having to break up the pushups halfway in, and was doing 3, 2, 2, 2, 1 for the last few rounds.

My problem was the lack of strength, but good metabolic conditioning. His problem was lack of metabolic conditioning, but plenty of strength. To give you an idea of how quickly he got up to 9 rounds for metcon, he did 6 rounds three weeks before he did the 9 rounds. Give him a month and he'll be up to 12 I'd just about guarantee it, whereas give me a month (and all my previous conditioning), and I'll likely hit at most 11.

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

Then how would you tell whether it was the 600 lb squat or psychedelic that was causing the bar to bend?

Mark,

How do you draw the line between LSD and more useful training? Heart rate, speed, RPE?

[Mark Rippetoe]

As a general rule, if you can keep doing it for more than 20 minutes at the same intensity, it's slow.