This is a Strength and Conditioning workout I designed for combat athletes. It’s pretty brutal, and will definitely challenge your conditioning.
The Workout
Round 1: 3 minutes as many reps as possible of Man Makers.
Rest 1-3 minutes, depending on your level and how much you like a good kick in the balls.
Round 2: 3 Minutes as many burpees as you can do
Rest 1-3 minutes, depending on your level and how much you like a good kick in the balls.
Round 3: 3 Minutes as many rounds of MMA Drill 1 (see video) as you can do.
Rest 1-3 minutes, depending on your level and how much you like a good kick in the balls.
Round 4: 3 Minutes as many round as you can get of:
10 Push Ups
10 Squats
5 Pull ups (modify if you need to)
What This Workout is Designed to Do
This HIIT session is designed to improve aerobic power (the amount of oxygen you can use) as well as anaerobic capacity.
3 Minutes is a long time to go all out. Just like in a fight, you have to be able to keep going. Doing anything after man makers isn’t fun, especially burpees.
Workouts like this will definitely boost your mental toughness as well. It’s nice to know you can suffer so much and still put out. If you’re looking for more on mental toughness, check out this article
If you try this out, let me know! Thanks for being here, now go get some.
Mike (Supastrong)
Bioforce Certified Conditioning Coach and personal trainer. I’ve run boot camps and served as the wellness coordinator for a fortune 500 company. Currently a Federal Agent in San Diego, CA, and an Infantryman in the Army Reserve.
Is HIIT harmful? Can it damage your health and fitness? It all depends how you use it…
Snapshot:
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has become a popular training method for squeezing in a workout in a small amount of time.
Failure to balance high and low intensity training methods can hurt your fitness and your health. HIIT is a powerful tool to be respected.
HIIT, performed properly, can improve several markers of fitness, both aerobic and anaerobic, heart rate recovery and peak power output. (1)
High Intensity Training has infiltrated almost every corner of the fitness landscape. But is HIIT actually improving, or sabotaging your health and fitness level?
What is HIIT?
High Intensity Interval Training refers to any workout in which you are:
Working out at greater than 90% of your max heart rate
Using maximum-intensity periods of work followed by rest periods
Examples: Interval Sprints, High Intensity Circuits done for 3 minutes with a short rest period between sets.
The Allure of HIIT
HIIT is the preferred method of many with limited time to work out. The rationale is, you can squeeze a quick HIIT workout in 20 minutes and get the same benefit as an hour of a normal workout. For the majority of us with crazy busy lives, HIIT offers a convenient solution.
Many also believe that performing such high intensity training simply must be more beneficial. After all, it’s harder and requires you to really push yourself when compared to an hour of lower intensity training. It’s the widely accepted misconception that more is better.
The Problem
Too much HIIT causes a massive recovery debt and chronic stress-state
I hate to be the one to kill a good vibe.. but I feel like it’s my duty to expose this problem so you can hopefully have a better understanding of what you’re actually doing in the gym and to your body and mind.
First off, I have to be clear that I’m not saying that HIIT training is “Bad.” There are actually plenty of studies that show some really amazing results, and I’ll cover that later. But….
To understand the problem with too much HIIT training, you have to understand a few things about your body and how it responds to stress:
Stress, from anything.. be it work stress, being stuck in traffic, relationship stress, or really intense physical demands.. is registered by the body in a similar way.
The sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) is activated in response to stress, dumping stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, into the body.
Keeping your body in a state of constant, chronic stress is the opposite of promoting health and fitness. The body cannot recover, build muscle or improve any markers of fitness when it is in a chronic state of stress.
The main take-away here is that HIIT training is INTENSE… and it takes your body a lot longer than you think to actually fully recover from it. A really high intensity trainings session can take several days to recover from.
What You’re doing to Your Body
use both forms of training for optimal fitness gains
Overdosing yourself with too much high intensity training is causing you to accumulate an ever increasing recovery debt. Your body is never fully recovered, and is being forced back into a sympathetic, stress dominant state over and over. Sooner or later, something will give.
The massive amounts of energy being demanded by constant stress will be recruited from other areas.. your immune system, your cognitive function.. and a host of other functions you probably don’t want to mess with. The end result is a reduction in actual fitness and health.
New Research into HIIT and Overtraining
A new study by Les Mills Lab found that 40 minutes a week of HIIT training was optimal for most people. Beyond this amount of high intensity training, most people will not reap additional benefits and will in fact become more fatigued. Read about the study by Les Mills here.
How Much HIIT is Optimal?
The answer to this question depends on your current level of fitness and the nature of the training. Remember that HIIT refers to training at maximum intensity (at least 90% of max heart rate).
For 90% of people out there, there is absolutely no need for more than 2 true high intensity training days per week. Elite athletes rarely ever go beyond 3 days per week, and even then it is only for a short time.
So how much is optimal? Well, if you’re in pretty good shape, 2 days per week would be optimal. If you’re out of shape, 1-2 days per week is where I’d recommend starting. If you feel like you’re in great shape, you can utilize HIIT up to 3 times per week, but definitely keep an eye on your fatigue, and if you’re that serious about your fitness, you can use things like heart rate variability to check in on your body and see if it’s being overstressed.
Now that I’ve sufficiently killed the HIIT vibe, let me backpedal a bit.. To be clear, HIIT is not a bad thing. It is actually a well researched, highly productive form of training.. Studies have shown that you can improve aerobic and anaerobic conditioning, get leaner and stronger utilizing high intensity interval training.
A 2017 study by Frontiers in Physiology found that high intensity interval training was superior to lower intensity training, showing improved:
Anaerobic power
Heart rate recovery
Neuromuscular status (peak power)
Conclusion
So what are we to make of all this? HIIT can cause big improvements in fitness, but can also damage fitness.. what do we do?
Balance is always the key to growth
Knowledge really is power. HIIT is a powerful tool in your arsenal, with the capacity to dramatically improve your conditioning and fitness. But it is to be respected…
Your training week should include a lower intensity training day for each high intensity day. This way you can reap the benefits of both types of training, without putting your body in a constant state of stress. Lower intensity training promotes recovery and parasympathetic function.
Get ready to push your conditioning on this one. Full Body movements with explosive components.. This will test your metal for sure.
Excuse the video quality. Had to use my phone for this one, but it’s enough to get the idea
All you need are 2 kettlebells (or dumbells) and something heavy to throw around. I’m using a 50lb slam ball, but work with what you got. If you don’t have a rower, then do 45 second sprints or rows.
Each round is 5 Minutes total… 4 minutes of work, followed by 1 minute of rest. Complete 4 rounds getting in as many reps as possible. = 20 Minutes.
Round 1: Kbell high pulls x 8/Overhead throw x 5
Round 2: Kbell Clean and Press x 8/Over the shoulder throw x 5
Round 3: 250 meter row/Explosive Pushup x 8
Round 4: Single arm Kbell swing x 15/explosive wall throws x 5
This Method of Training Will:
Increase VO2 max
Increase ability to sustain high intensity effort for longer
Improve strength and power endurance
Improve Your Mental Toughness
Improve Aerobic abilities
Tips
Try to keep good form under fatigue.
During rest periods, really try to drive your heart rate down as much as possible.
Wear a heart rate monitor, get familiar with what HR you begin to reach that deep state of fatigue.
Make sure to follow this session up with a Recovery Training day the next day. Don’t train HIIT/High intensity back to back days. For more on recovery check out my article on Recovery Training
You Don’t need 2 hours at the gym. In fact, I’d argue that if you’re spending more than an hour or so working out, there may be a problem with your training. Too much talking maybe. Too much narcissistic mirror watching, or messing around on your phone. I cannot relate. Training is sacred, and when I train I’m all about getting down to business, being focused and getting something specific done. With just a couple dumbells and 20 minutes, there are endless possibilities to hammer out a great, productive session.
Below is one example from my YouTube Channel (SupaStrong). I was able to hammer this out in 20 minutes (5 x 4 minute rounds), while building up a decent amount of volume, and also giving my heart a workout similar to running a moderately fast 2-3 mile run. I’ve attached my HR data from this session to demonstrate.
You can see below that along with a pretty decent amount of lifting volume, I also had my heart rate in the upper training zones (150-168) for about 13 minutes. I also burned over 330 calories (likely significantly more than that considering the “afterburn” effect of intense sessions).. in just a 20 minute workout.
Notice how each interval creeps the heart rate up higher.. this reflects the fact that when you train in intervals, each interval becomes more and more aerobic.. the body becomes increasingly more dependent on the aerobic system to keep you moving.. this is as true for interval sprints as it is for lifting like this.
Building these types of sessions is pretty simple. Choose 4-5 compound movements, using whatever implement you have available (kettlebells, dumbells, small children).. and choose how much volume (reps) you’re going to perform for each. I always choose at least one movement that will really drive my heart rate up, such as clean and press, to really challenge my conditioning with a full body movement. The possibilities are endless.
I highly recommend training with a heart rate monitor. It can be a game changer, but I’ll save that for another article. Till then, go get some!
The desire to push the body to new levels of strength and fitness is something I understand very well. I’ve been training in one form or another for most of my life, and my life has in fact usually revolved around my training schedule. If I knew years ago what I know now, I no doubt could have reached much higher levels of physical conditioning, and in turn, performance. The secret to being that beast you visualize in your head (but havn’t quite achieved, despite punishing your body relentlessly) is not a magic training program, nor is it a supplement or hack. I’m not trying to sell you anything either… I have acquired the knowledge both through my own experiences and through the help of some great coaches, books and articles that I’ve learned from and tested out on myself. I have been my own guinea pig over the years. I’m no guru, but I do believe I’ve got it right.
To spare you from having to read too much, I’m going to keep it as simple as possible. What’s holding most people back from harnessing the full power of their body’s potential is the over-reliance on High Intensity Training (think HIIT, circuit training, etc..). We skip straight into high intensity training, without realizing that we have neglected the foundation of fitness and of high level physical conditioning.. the aerobic energy system.
A Quick Explanation of Energy Systems
The Aerobic energy system uses oxygen along with fats and carbohydrates to create energy for us to continue moving. It is efficient and long lasting, but slow. As exercise intensity increases, the aerobic system will try to keep up, until it no longer can produce the energy being demanded by whatever we’re doing.
At this point, the anaerobic energy system will begin to increasingly become utilized to continue producing energy. The anaerobic energy system does not utilize oxygen, and instead uses substrates already present in the blood and muscle tissue to create energy. This provides a fast, powerful source of energy (think sprinting or any explosive movement lasting less than 30 seconds). The downside is that the anaerobic energy system cannot produce energy for very long. If you sprint at maximum speed, you cannot maintain that speed for longer than about 10-15 seconds.. It is simply not how our bodies are designed.
Thank of the fighter who completely gasses out in the middle of a round. Why, after so much training and sparring and high intensity conditioning would that happen? Most likely, it happens because that athlete has not built up his aerobic engine, the foundation of conditioning.
It can be very counter-intuitive. fighting is a sport where you have to be explosive, so why would you need to build up your aerobic system with lower intensity training? The answer to this question is the secret to achieving a higher level of fitness and conditioning.
The Aerobic System resupplies energy (recovery) between explosive bouts
Building up the aerobic energy system will allow you to recover faster between explosive bouts. The aerobic system clears out the byproducts created during high intensity exercise, and also replenishes energy so you can continue moving at that high intensity. If your body is unable to keep up with the intensity you’re trying to train or compete at, you will “hit the wall.”
So, how can you harness and build the power of the aerobic energy system?
Take a step back and dedicate 12 weeks or so to building your foundation. If you need help, check out how I programmed this for myself here. You shouldn’t completely cut out high intensity training, but keep it to 1-2 days/week. On those days, push yourself as hard as you need to. Devote 3-5 days per week, depending on your current fitness level, to low to moderate training lasting 30-60 minutes in duration. You can use treadmills, running, or any other activity, and should mix it up frequently. These sessions should have your heart rate between 130-150 for the duration of the session. gradually increase the length of the session over the course of several weeks.
Over time, you will be gaining invaluable adaptations in the body. The heart will adapt by pumping more blood per beat, and thus you should see your resting heart rate move lower, which is one of the surest signs of improved aerobic fitness. You will improve your body’s ability to clear out the byproducts of intense exercise and thus will be able to go harder, for longer. To see some advanced ways to plan your programming, check out my article on how to program your training for optimal results.
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