how to get into conditioning

this year, i've been moving away from just lifting to also doing running/conditioning.

i signed up for a half marathon in january, and ran it in april. and in may i read Peter Attia's Outlive and learned how conditioning is so important to overall health and longevity.

and now i think i found the template to fit conditioning into my life, around my lifting.

i read Tactical Barbell 2: Conditioning, and it talks about all the different kinds of conditioning and gives you various templates to do so.

i was so excited about this book i finished this entire book in an evening LOL

one of the big programs in the book is "Building the Base," an 8-week workout program to build your conditioning base. a lot of people run this program once a year, and then use either run the other programs in the book for the rest of the year (the Black Protocol or the Green Protocol).

the Black Protocol fits really well with 5-3-1, the lifting program I do. so I'm excited to do both together.

these workout programs introduce workout sessions for the following categories:

• Endurance (e.g. low intensity runs)
• High Intensity Cardio (think HIIT)
• Strength-Endurance (building full body muscular endurance, not just cardiovascular endurance)

the books into great detail about all the options you can program for each session type. it also lays out the importance of each.

one of the main takeaways was the importance of not pushing too hard (e.g. running too fast) during the endurance activities. if you do, you're not training the right muscle (through training, your left ventricle of your heart hypertrophies, but if you push too hard, you won't get the benefits).

also the author is an ex-military guy, and he does a great job of making you appreciate the challenge of pushing your body through conditioning.

so excited to try Building the Base now! will report back on how i actually implement it soon.