justinr
Level 5 Valued Member
From here - FOBBITS: The Answer to Everything – Part I | Tactical Barbell | Strength & Conditioning For The Operational Athlete.
TL;DR - Z2 Cardio for 3 to 5 minutes, hop off and do 70 to 80% of 1RM on chosen strength exercise, and repeat for 30 to 60 minutes (only Z2 time is counted)
I regularly use this. And when I was running one in December, I wondered - what would it be like to do this for every training session? So in January I did.
Disclaimer - before all the “but that’s not optimal” or “there are better ways” pundits warm up their keyboards, I know. I’ve been lifting for 20+ years. I did this experiment because I like to do non-sensical things from time-to-time just to see what happens.
This was a 5 day a week, Monday through Friday, setup. In parentheses are my “sorta max” for each lift that I took the percentage from (in pounds because I’m heathen)
Monday - Deadlift with RowErg (530)
Tuesday - Overhead Press with SkiErg (202.5)
Wednesday - Pull-ups with Treadmill (BW)
Thursday - Squat with BikeErg (445)
Friday - Benchpress with Assault Bike (280)
I ran this for 3 weeks starting at 75% adding 5% each week to top out at 85% of my e1RM. For pull-ups, since they are body weight only, I bumped the reps per round each week. Week 1 was 3, week 2 was 5, and week 3 was 7. No reason for that scheme other than I wanted to do a little more each week.
So what did I learn with this little experiment.
Monday and Thursday (deadlift and squat) were the hardest days. My heart rate would spike to the high 150s/ low 160s after the strength movement. So my pace on the cardio implement was slower to give my heart rate more time to drop back into Z2. For week 1 this was 100 to 130 seconds. For week 2, this was 85 to 100 seconds, and in week 3, this was 65 to 90 seconds. So even with just 3 weeks, I saw remarkable ”gains” on my recovery.
Tuesday was my least favorite day because I hate the SkiErg. And maybe my technique on it isn’t dialed in. By the 30 minute mark on every week, my triceps were on fire. My pressing became more of a grind than it should have been. By the end of 3 weeks, I didn’t notice any improvement on anything.
Wednesday/Friday were my best days. The strength movement didn’t spike my HR at all. In fact, the strength movement was actually an active rest from the Z2 work I was doing. On both of these days, I had to bump up my pace on the machine to get my heart rate back into Z2.
All the extra Z2 work done on Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday probably helped out with my Monday/Thursday recovery gains while they weren’t that great by themselves.
Would I do this again? Maybe. It’s very zen. You just do the work. Shut your brain off and go. Normally when doing Z2 work, I can watch a show on my iPad. But getting up every 3 to 5 minutes, it became a hassle to pause/play each time. So I just used it as meditation time instead. Really focused on diaphragmatic breathing And how fast I could get back to that after each strength movement (especially on deadlift and squat).
I think if I do run it again, I’d use 5/3/1 for the strength movement. So for week 1, 65%, 75%, 85% AMRAP, and then just finish out the rest of the rounds with FSL. Given that it would be 10+ more rounds, it’s basically Boring But Strong with Z2 as your rest between sets.
TL;DR - Z2 Cardio for 3 to 5 minutes, hop off and do 70 to 80% of 1RM on chosen strength exercise, and repeat for 30 to 60 minutes (only Z2 time is counted)
I regularly use this. And when I was running one in December, I wondered - what would it be like to do this for every training session? So in January I did.
Disclaimer - before all the “but that’s not optimal” or “there are better ways” pundits warm up their keyboards, I know. I’ve been lifting for 20+ years. I did this experiment because I like to do non-sensical things from time-to-time just to see what happens.
This was a 5 day a week, Monday through Friday, setup. In parentheses are my “sorta max” for each lift that I took the percentage from (in pounds because I’m heathen)
Monday - Deadlift with RowErg (530)
Tuesday - Overhead Press with SkiErg (202.5)
Wednesday - Pull-ups with Treadmill (BW)
Thursday - Squat with BikeErg (445)
Friday - Benchpress with Assault Bike (280)
I ran this for 3 weeks starting at 75% adding 5% each week to top out at 85% of my e1RM. For pull-ups, since they are body weight only, I bumped the reps per round each week. Week 1 was 3, week 2 was 5, and week 3 was 7. No reason for that scheme other than I wanted to do a little more each week.
So what did I learn with this little experiment.
Monday and Thursday (deadlift and squat) were the hardest days. My heart rate would spike to the high 150s/ low 160s after the strength movement. So my pace on the cardio implement was slower to give my heart rate more time to drop back into Z2. For week 1 this was 100 to 130 seconds. For week 2, this was 85 to 100 seconds, and in week 3, this was 65 to 90 seconds. So even with just 3 weeks, I saw remarkable ”gains” on my recovery.
Tuesday was my least favorite day because I hate the SkiErg. And maybe my technique on it isn’t dialed in. By the 30 minute mark on every week, my triceps were on fire. My pressing became more of a grind than it should have been. By the end of 3 weeks, I didn’t notice any improvement on anything.
Wednesday/Friday were my best days. The strength movement didn’t spike my HR at all. In fact, the strength movement was actually an active rest from the Z2 work I was doing. On both of these days, I had to bump up my pace on the machine to get my heart rate back into Z2.
All the extra Z2 work done on Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday probably helped out with my Monday/Thursday recovery gains while they weren’t that great by themselves.
Would I do this again? Maybe. It’s very zen. You just do the work. Shut your brain off and go. Normally when doing Z2 work, I can watch a show on my iPad. But getting up every 3 to 5 minutes, it became a hassle to pause/play each time. So I just used it as meditation time instead. Really focused on diaphragmatic breathing And how fast I could get back to that after each strength movement (especially on deadlift and squat).
I think if I do run it again, I’d use 5/3/1 for the strength movement. So for week 1, 65%, 75%, 85% AMRAP, and then just finish out the rest of the rounds with FSL. Given that it would be 10+ more rounds, it’s basically Boring But Strong with Z2 as your rest between sets.
