If you have been wishing for more conditioning stuff well here it is. We are near the end of Building Stronger Bodies cycle and you will have noticed that the workouts are transitioning into the next phase of Building Fitter Bodies.

Now we truly hope you have been able to increase you strength base as this will allow you to move safely and faster through the next batch of workouts.

• So what’s next?…….

Our next cycle is going to focus on the aerobic system. We already spend a lot time developing this area (whether you realise it or not), but the next few months we are going to be making a concerted effort to develop your aerobic power and capacity.

• No Strength anymore?

Wrong! We will do less positional work and back away from longer repetitive strength work. There will still be decent portion of strength work but the percentage ranges will be more 60%-80% of your 1RM which is actually (according to various research) the sweet spot to get stronger.

• What is the Aerobic System?

The aerobic system is the energy pathway used by our bodies to produce energy (ATP) in the presence of oxygen (hence, aerobic) and it is responsible for long term energy production. To create ATP this system utilises both sugars AND fats and because of this the aerobic system has a huge capacity to generate energy. The downside being that this huge energy generating capacity comes at the expense of power and it cannot create energy as fast as the anaerobic systems, this is because the aerobic system needs oxygen (the anaerobic do not) and there are many more chemical steps that take place in aerobic energy production.

• What can we develop?

As the aerobic system relies on the presence of oxygen, it is therefore limited by oxygen supply and oxygen utilisation. You can think of oxygen supply as the ability of the cardiovascular system (heart, lungs, vascular network) to supply oxygen to muscles and cells. Whilst oxygen utilisation refers to the ability of the muscles and cells to actually use the oxygen efficiently. When the rate of oxygen demand exceeds it's supply/utilisation, we turn to the anaerobic systems for energy, and if we operate anaerobically for too long we fatigue and have to slow down.

By developing the areas of oxygen supply and utilisation we can develop our aerobic system. In our next post we talk more about the different methods we will use to get you faster!