Should you STOP your conditioning work?
How to Use The “Light-Heavy” System with Kettlebells to INCREASE Your Strength AND Conditioning at the SAME Time
Should you stop doing conditioning work with kettlebells?
Maybe — especially if your conditioning has stalled and you’re still not getting stronger.
A lot of guys fall into what I call the “huffy-puffy-sweaty” trap.
Every workout gets judged by:
How much you sweat.
How out of breath you get.
How exhausted you feel afterward.
And yes, that can improve conditioning.
But there’s a problem:
You can get conditioned without ever getting strong enough.
I recently got a question from a guy who had already done around 70 workouts and was trying to move from a pair of 16kg kettlebells to a pair of 20kg kettlebells.
My recommendation?
Start training for maximum strength.
And stop trying to solve the problem by doing even more conditioning.
Maximum Strength is the “mother of all strength qualities.”
Strength coach Charles Staley once explained it like a rope ladder.
The top rung is Maximum Strength.
Every other physical quality sits on the rungs underneath it.
Pull the top rung higher...
And the other rungs come with it.
That’s exactly why I think conditioning is often easier to improve when you first build a larger base of strength.
I saw this firsthand when I trained for my RKC kettlebell instructor certification back in 2005.
I had to Snatch a 24kg kettlebell 74 times nonstop with only one hand switch.
At the time, I could Snatch Grip Deadlift 270kg from blocks just below the knee.
I spent only three weeks specifically practicing the Snatch.
I used a 32kg kettlebell for:
3 sets of 15+15 reps
And despite never specifically training endurance...
I crushed the Snatch test.
That’s the point.
If your conditioning has stopped improving, the answer may not be:
More conditioning.
It may be:
Get stronger.
Build a bigger strength base.
Then your conditioning work has more to work with.
And yes — you can train maximum strength and conditioning at the same time.
One way to do that is with a light-heavy system, where heavier strength-focused work is balanced with lighter work.
Remember:
When conditioning stalls, don’t automatically add more conditioning.
Sometimes the fastest way forward is to switch gears and build more strength.
Stay Strong,
Geoff Neupert.
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