"Conditioning" is about speed, agility, HIIT cardio, endurance, explosiveness, and muscle use. Energy, stamina, and get-up-and-go. It is not about strength or strength-training, which is why lots of calisthenics are involved. In a tough conditioning hour, you can never catch your breath so it is intense cardio. Good stuff for life.
I am in the sorry 10% who routinely flunk our Sat. AM calisthenics ("Athletic Conditioning") class. By flunking, I mean being unable to complete the trainer's expectations on at least half of the exercises in the time allowed. I hate failure, so I give it my all and come up short. We are calling ourselves the "Masters Class" and we are all age 45 or more. However, several 50+ and 60+ do make the passing grade. Bravo for them because this sort of thing is great to prevent physical deterioration.
If it were high school or college, we would ask for extra time due to disability but, instead, we do our best and accept the fail. Reality is a bitch. Do better next week, or just give up and rightly despise yourself forever for being a loser.
Details below the fold -
This class is in the parking lot regardless of weather or temperature (except heavy rain or ice). 50-60 minutes. Last Saturday's routines are below the fold. No breaks, except at the 30 minute mark he gives a 45-second rest after one of the 5 rounds of 2 sets of 25 pushups (which I can not do - I do 2 sets of 10 so end up with 100 instead of 250 total. That's a Fail).
Warm-up:
running jump rope twice around parking lot
50 jumping jacks
1st sequence
- 30 second wind sprints and 45 second jogs x2
- double set of 25 pushups
- jog around parking lot with raised viper
- hand-weight curls and presses
- 25 kettlebell squats
2nd sequence
- 25 roll-ups-to-jump with viper (I still can't do a proper rollup to stand but I am practicing)
- high knee jog around parking lot raising and lowering viper
- double set of 25 pushups
- kettlebell swings for 1 minute
- 30-second wind sprints and 45 second jogs x2
- 2 sets of 25 pushups
- Seated viper side swings
45-second rest and water (coffee, in my case)
3rd sequence
- viper shuffle smashes across parking lot
- jumping squats with heavy balls
- 25 rollups to burpees
- 2 sets 25 pushups
- usual sprints+jogs
4th
-lunges or hops across parking lot with viper (hops that distance? forget it. can barely do all the lunges)
- 2 sets 25 pushups
- 25 rollups to burpee to donkey kick then star jump (I can do barely 5)
- usual sprint+jog x 1 (by now my sprint is like a jog, and jog like a walk)
- side-shuffles around lot chest-passing heavy ball with partner ( so worn out that I tripped over my sneakers)
We do the best we can Success is good for ego but failure is good for the soul. I do 2 hrs of calis each week, but this is the most-impossible one. There is satisfaction in surviving it. Trainer applauds anybody who comes back a second time, but it's a determined team which performs at all levels. And it feels like a team. They all yelled at me "Speed, speed!" on my final sprint. Sheesh. There was a time when I was a fine sprinter.
At the end of this hour, you have zero energy, stamina, or get-up-and-go. You need nap. The experts say that calisthenics need no recovery time, but I do not do a good job with weights if I do these sorts of calis the day before. I can do cardio fine the day after. So that's a good routine for me: Calis, Cardio, Weights, rinse and repeat. Take Sunday off. It's the Lord's Day.
