How to count your sports in the conditioning protocol

[WallBilly]

Lots of people here into BJJ and other sports, and there's been some discussion about how to count your "sports" in the Green or Black protocols. KB has an example in the book of a dude who does recreational soccer on Saturdays, which turns out to be neither HIC nor E the way he was doing it, and wasn't really doing much for his conditioning.

Regular readers know I play ice hockey goalie 2-4 times a week, 6 months a year, for between 60-90 minutes. Throw in lifting (I am switching to Fighter for in-season this year, but that's a different story), and you have real trouble actually being Green or Black.

I have stated before that I believe my sport/position is a mixture of half-assed HIC and half-assed E, which pisses me off.

So, I decided to actually measure it. I have been using a Polar M435 watch with wrist-based HR (which is very accurate), and I recently bought a Polar OH1 sensor that goes on the inside of my forearm with a velcro strap. It does not display but it does record, and it fits under the goalie chest protector a lot better. It syncs with the Polar app later.

Here is some HR vs time data for 2 HIC's I do, and my goaltending session last night.

If you believe 220-age for HR max, my HR max should be 165.

HIC1: Short hills x 10, about 120 m, walk down. Maxes out around 155 bpm. Have hit 160-ish on this workout before with maybe higher intensity or hotter weather.

HIC2: Intervals. 5 minute warmup, sprint 1 minute, jog or fast walk 90 seconds, x 10, 5 minute cool-down. I get a bit higher HR on this than on the short hills, probably because I am going for a minute instead of 30 seconds.

Goaltending: 1 hour rental, throw the first 15 minutes out. Had to start the sensor then put some gear on.



Well, son of a gun! It looks like I can count the goaltending as HIC, maybe with some E thrown in for bonus points. Let me know if you disagree.

So now I know if I stick with Fighter, goalie 2X/week minimum, and throw in 1 LSS, my season should not hurt my conditioning and I should be good to go. I could stick in the occasional HIC sprint just to remember how to run fast, and maybe I'll do this.

These tools come in real handy.

[K.B.]

General rule of thumb:

30 minutes or more of activity = E
Less than 30 = HIC (or it's subcategories like GC/AA etc)

There seems to be a bit of confusion around the difference between E and LSS (this doesn't necessarily apply to you Walt):

'E' or Endurance is the category. It's an umbrella term that covers a multitude of activities.

'LSS' falls under that umbrella. LSS is not synonymous with E. LSS is a type of E that utilizes heartrate restrictions to bring about a particular set of adaptations.

A Fun-Run is also a type of E. A Fartlek done for 30 minutes + is a type of E. A tempo or speed run done for 30 mins+ is a type of E.
None of these have heartrate restrictions slapped on them. They bring about different sorts of adaptations - but they're all shelved under the 'Endurance' category if performed for 30 minutes or longer.

When it comes to Base Building the bulk of your E sessions should be LSS; be it running, swimming, rucking etc. After Base - anything goes.

Back to your example Wallbilly; a flurry of movement interspersed with periods of lesser activity/inactivity would most closely match things like Fun-Runs, Fartlek, intervals. So if you're going for 30 minutes or more with the hockey - you're looking at an E.

[Seabassius]

Thanks WallBilly for asking and KB for responding. That cleared up a question I didn't know I had. I assumed if HR was getting into a Zone 4/5 area it would be HIC, regardless of time.

[WallBilly]

Back to your example Wallbilly; a flurry of movement interspersed with periods of lesser activity/inactivity would most closely match things like Fun-Runs, Fartlek, intervals. So if you're going for 30 minutes or more with the hockey - you're looking at an E.

Dang. Makes sense though.

So if I have a free day for conditioning with this schedule, and want to tend towards Black, I should make it an HIC instead of an E?

[spemma]

this is pretty cool WallBilly, thanks for posting.

iirc, you liked to keep some weekly E while you were in hockey season, because when you finished the season, you felt as if you were unable to maintain your level of conditioning? is that correct? or perhaps it's more specific than that, in that running was hard getting back into after hockey season?

so i'm just wondering, is hockey not doing as good of a job of conditioning as you thought? or is it just the specificity of running economy that gets lost during hockey season?

i know the graph seems to show it as close enough to your other conditioning specific routines, but i thought your lived experience was different.

[WallBilly]

this is pretty cool WallBilly, thanks for posting.

iirc, you liked to keep some weekly E while you were in hockey season, because when you finished the season, you felt as if you were unable to maintain your level of conditioning? is that correct? or perhaps it's more specific than that, in that running was hard getting back into after hockey season?

so i'm just wondering, is hockey not doing as good of a job of conditioning as you thought? or is it just the specificity of running economy that gets lost during hockey season?

i know the graph seems to show it as close enough to your other conditioning specific routines, but i thought your lived experience was different.

You're right. The last few years, after hockey season, I had a lot of trouble getting back into running. No surprise there, if you take 6 months off. The conditioning was not horrible, but it felt like I was back to Square 1 on running. At my age, taking 6 months completely off of running seems to be a bad idea, unless I want to stop running and do something else for conditioning in the warm months.

Last night I recorded another goalie workout. Different skaters, it was not nearly as intense. Shift the HR curve down by about 20 BPM across the board. It was almost equivalent to an LSS with a little bodyweight strength work thrown in. Calories burned were 200 less than the one posted, even though the skate was 15 minutes longer.

So, based on all this and KB's take, I am going to count goaltending as E. If it's a particularly spirited night, and I get some
HIC-like benefits, bonus.

I am going to try to sneak in 1-2 running workouts during the season (going to Fighter will help this). Most of them will be HIC. Maybe try to do an LSS run once every other week.

[spemma]

i see now, i didn't realize you didn't do any conditioning during hockey season previously.

BJJ is pretty similar to your experiences with hockey. sometimes i have hard back to back rolls and it feels like a definitive conditioning session, and sometimes the rolls are easy and i leave feeling like i didn't get a good workout in.

thanks for sharing.

[J-Madd]

General rule of thumb:

30 minutes or more of activity = E
Less than 30 = HIC (or it's subcategories like GC/AA etc)

There seems to be a bit of confusion around the difference between E and LSS (this doesn't necessarily apply to you Walt):

'E' or Endurance is the category. It's an umbrella term that covers a multitude of activities.

'LSS' falls under that umbrella. LSS is not synonymous with E. LSS is a type of E that utilizes heartrate restrictions to bring about a particular set of adaptations.

A Fun-Run is also a type of E. A Fartlek done for 30 minutes + is a type of E. A tempo or speed run done for 30 mins+ is a type of E.
None of these have heartrate restrictions slapped on them. They bring about different sorts of adaptations - but they're all shelved under the 'Endurance' category if performed for 30 minutes or longer.

When it comes to Base Building the bulk of your E sessions should be LSS; be it running, swimming, rucking etc. After Base - anything goes.

Back to your example Wallbilly; a flurry of movement interspersed with periods of lesser activity/inactivity would most closely match things like Fun-Runs, Fartlek, intervals. So if you're going for 30 minutes or more with the hockey - you're looking at an E.

This is pure gold. I move that we sticky it!

[K.B.]

Back to your example Wallbilly; a flurry of movement interspersed with periods of lesser activity/inactivity would most closely match things like Fun-Runs, Fartlek, intervals. So if you're going for 30 minutes or more with the hockey - you're looking at an E.

Dang. Makes sense though.

So if I have a free day for conditioning with this schedule, and want to tend towards Black, I should make it an HIC instead of an E?

Yes. The Protocols are set up the way they are partly so your secondary goal doesn't overtake and interfere with your primary goal. They're a set of minimums - so you can always maneuver within that protocol to bring your secondary goal closer to or farther from the primary.

If you're thinking to yourself 'I know Goaltending's technically an E but I don't think it's doing much to improve my cardio...' then be discerning when choosing your HICs - many of them build the aerobic system despite not being classified as E. Hill sprints, Buffalo Laps, Connaught, some of the track based like BOO. Fast5 or Buffalo Laps would be a better choice than say Heavy Bag or 600m Resets in that case. As a Black athlete you're closer on the spectrum to the 'strength-ier' side of the house; speed, power, etc. You want to build up your conditioning in a way that doesn't unnecessarily detract from that. Doing more E than needed isn't efficient and aligns against your primary goal.

[WallBilly]

Thanks to KB and the others for the valuable feedback.

I think I read Starting Strength 400 times and all the TB books 200 times.

Well, maybe 7 times each, but in really good detail.

Every time I read a section again or post a question here on the forum, I learn something new, which is awesome.

The issue of being very sports-active and still trying to be a TB Black or Green athlete is still quite the trick.

If I play in net 3 times a week, do operator, and take a day totally off, I am doomed without doing 2 workouts a day a couple of times a week. If you're a 23 year old kid, have at it. At my age and interests, and actually having to show up at work in the morning, playing in net 3X/week and actually getting in 3 Op strength training sessions consistently over a 6 month period was considered by me to be a major victory.

In response to Spemma, yeah, I really intended to play in net 3X/week, do Operator, and some conditioning on top of that. I was hoping the hockey would cover the conditioning. In the real world, it never happened. So I'll drop down to Fighter this year and try to see if it works out better.