A bunch of “cardio” or “met-con” absolutely guts your strength progress, while getting stronger improves your work capacity all by itself. There’s time to do your conditioning work later – you’re not going to die immediately, and if you do, nobody will talk about your shitty 5-mile time. The very programs that should be preparing young guys to be more useful are instead making them very good at running away, and that’s about all.

I, of course, realize that my recommendation goes against the conventional wisdom regarding physical preparation for the sports and jobs typically (and incorrectly) regarded as endurance-based.

Running 26.2 miles in under 3 hours is an endurance activity, without doubt. It requires specialized preparation, and strength training is detrimental to high-level marathon training.

But twenty six 5.5-minute miles represents an extremely specialized activity, the epitome of endurance, the performance of which has absolutely no bearing on the ability to do anything else, and the training for which actually decreases physical capacity for other activities – just like the specialization for powerlifting in the elite levels of the heavier weight classes in the weirder federations that don’t judge depth anymore.

Marathon competition itself is highly catabolic and has an exceptionally high mortality risk. Half-marathons are much less dangerous, as of course are 5 mile runs. But running at any distance produces no strength adaptation, while strength training improves the sedentary person’s ability to run and do everything else, too. So a rational person would regard strength training as the more beneficial activity.

But we don’t. We – meaning we recipients and promoters of the conventional wisdom – regard endurance activity as exercise and strength training as something to “sculpt lean muscle” and soothe vanity.

So sayeth Mark Rippetoe, that “Conditioning is a Sham“.

Frankly, I hate specific conditioning. I hate walking/running/jogging. I might tolerate hill sprints if I had a decent hill nearby… maybe. I haven’t been dragging my tire sled because the only time I can drag is early mornings when the neighborhood is asleep and yes I prefer to be a considerate neighbor and not wake everyone up with my weird behavior. So my solution has been to squat faster, decrease my rest periods during my assistance work, more reps, and squat more. So far, so good. And while I don’t want to use Rip’s article as a way to justify not doing specific conditioning, at least I feel a little relieved to read it. That if I just keep focused on getting up to a baseline like he recommends (e.g. 1.75x bodyweight squat, 0.75x bodyweight press, 2.0x bodyweight deadlift) well… that should be my focus, instead of spreading myself thin. Focus.