What Is Strength and Conditioning?

You’ll likely hear the words “strength” and “conditioning” used together when you begin a fitness regimen or athletic training series. Although they both aim to improve athletic performance and overall health, strength and conditioning training each have a distinct focus and methodology.

“As certified strength and conditioning coaches, our team’s focus at the Center for Sports Performance and Research is on helping our clients become stronger and more resilient,” says Mark Murphy, DPT, SCS, CSCS, CPSS, Mass General Brigham Applied Sport Science & Performance Lead. “We work with our clients to develop individualized training plans that use a variety of loading parameters and movement patterns to build capacity, improve performance, and mitigate risk of injuries.”

Resistance training vs. conditioning training

For most athletes, the primary goal of resistance training is to increase overall muscle strength and growth (hypertrophy) through progressive overload. This means you gradually increase the intensity and/or length of your workouts over time.

“Muscular hypertrophy is a driver for all activities,” Murphy explains. “The force a muscle creates is proportional to the size of the muscle.”

He shares 2 primary pathways for athletes to drive muscle hypertrophy:

1. Metabolic stress. This happens when your body responds to training by building up metabolites (a byproduct of muscle damage), which are molecules in your body that have different functions. When they build up, this increases hormones and tells your body to build more muscle. Metabolic stress usually occurs at decreased load, increased reps, and decreased rest time.
2. Mechanical tension. This happens when you apply a large force across a muscle, usually with heavier loads, decreased reps, and increased rest time. Your muscle tissue senses how much tension it’s under and how many fibers it must activate to complete the movement. When you use a heavier weight, muscle damage occurs from the mechanical tension. This leads to your body building new muscle tissue to support that weight in the future.

"We choose a path based on the individual’s goals, training age, past injury history, and the task they’re looking to participate in,” says Murphy. “Regardless of the path we choose, or a combination of both, it must be challenging.”

Strength training regimens typically involve lifting moderate to heavy weights to within 1 to 3 reps of volitional fatigue, or the point where you can’t perform another rep without it affecting your form. A heavy weight is greater than 80% of the estimated weight you could use to complete only one rep (your repetition maximum, or RM). This method maximizes the principles of mechanical tension to gain strength.

Strength and conditioning can focus on:

• Anaerobic activities that last less than 15 seconds
• Glycolytic activities that last 16 seconds to 2 minutes
• Oxidative activities that last more than 2 minutes

You can train these energy systems with activities like running, cycling, swimming, rowing, and more. Coaches like Murphy can complete a comprehensive needs analysis to match your conditioning and resistance training to the demands of your specific activity.

The benefits of combining strength and conditioning workouts

A well-rounded routine of both resistance and conditioning training are essential to athletic performance and preventing fatigue. Fatigue means any reduction in the amount of force your muscles are able to generate, no matter how much force you need to complete a task. This decrease in force reduces your speed and accuracy, leading to inconsistent performance.

Alternating strength and conditioning exercises into your workout routine gives your body what it needs for peak athletic performance, whether that’s power, endurance, speed, agility, flexibility, or a combination. An integrated routine also mitigates the risk of injury and adds variety to workouts.

Scientific principles of a strength training and conditioning program

Applying specific guidelines to your fitness training regimen can help you achieve your fitness goals safely and effectively. Follow these principles of strength training and conditioning to maximize your potential:

• Individuality: Strength and conditioning training doesn’t follow a one-size-fits-all approach. Your strength and conditioning training program should fit your individual needs. Take your sports, position, age, gender, training history, and overall health into account.
• Specificity: Determine the goals most important to you. Maybe you want to increase your strength or boost your endurance. Whatever outcome you hope to achieve, focus on training parameters that provide those benefits.
• Progressive overload: By gradually increasing the intensity and/or length of your workouts, you challenge your body to reach its full potential. Avoid overloading too quickly, which can lead to overuse or injury.
• Repetition and frequency: Consistency is critical in reaping the rewards of your hard work. Your physical gains can slip when you stop exercising. To avoid this, set a schedule and stick to it.

Designing a full-body strength and conditioning workout

Enjoying all the benefits of strength and conditioning means creating a routine that works all the major muscle groups and focuses on building strength and endurance safely. Common strength and conditioning exercises include:

Weight training

Building muscle mass is essential to the strength, flexibility, and agility you need for peak athletic performance. Weight training offers many health benefits, including an increase in bone density, a boost to metabolism, strengthened joints, a reduction in fat mass, and increased lean muscle mass.

Targeting multiple movement patterns and muscle groups is key for building a comprehensive training plan. Murphy recommends movement patterns and examples of exercises below to optimize athletic performance. You can complete all of these activities on both bilateral and unilateral variations with a variety of equipment.

Squat pattern

• Dumbbell goblet squat: This lower-body exercise targets your glutes and quads. Standing with your feet hip to shoulder-width apart, slowly bend your knees and allow them to come forward. The goal is to move straight up and down, pushing through your whole foot. Then slowly return to the original position. Incorporate barbells, dumbbells, or kettlebells into your routine for greater resistance.
• Leg press: The leg press targets all lower muscles, such as the quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves. This may be a nice alternative for those that struggle with upright squatting. Sit at the leg press with your feet hip-width apart and push the weight up until your legs are almost fully extended, but don’t lock the knees. While lowering the weight, avoid letting your knees move in or out.

Hinge pattern

Kettlebell deadlift: This activity targets your glutes and hamstrings, as well as your entire posterior chain. The goal is to sit your hips back while keeping your back straight and your arms hanging down toward the ground with the eyes slightly forward. Reach down to the implement while shifting your weight back (hip hinge), feeling a stretch in your glutes and hamstring as you keep your back straight and core engaged. Once the implement is your hand and you’re in the appropriate position, stand up and push through your whole foot using your glutes and hamstrings.

Murphy emphasizes that you always want to feel your glutes and hamstrings in this lift, and not your lower back. It’s important to keep the weight close to your body during the activity.

Horizontal push

Barbell bench press: This is an excellent upper-body-strength-builder, targeting shoulders, chest, and triceps. You can lie flat or on an inclined bench using barbells or dumbbells. Keeping your core engaged, be sure to have your eyes under the implement before you unrack a bar. Slowly lower the weights to your chest and then press up. Always have a trained spotter with any pressing or pushing variation.

Vertical push

Dumbbell seated overhead press: Ideal for strengthening the triceps and deltoids, you can perform this exercise standing or seated. With a trained spotter, lift the weight to shoulder height, press it overhead, then lower it back to the shoulders. It’s important to keep your core engaged to avoid extending through your lower back and overextending at your neck.

Horizontal pull

Dumbbell incline bench chest supported rows: Rows are great for the back and arm muscles, and they also strengthen the rotator cuff in your shoulders. A great place to start is laying prone on an incline bench. It’s important to keep your core engaged and allow your shoulder blades to retract and protract during the movement. Be sure to bring the weight to your body instead of bringing your head towards the weight, and keep your elbows close to your body. 

Vertical pull

Lat pull down: Pull down variations are another great way to train the back and arm muscles. This exercise also strengthens your rotator cuff and engages the upper back and arms. While seated on the bench, grip the implement overhead. Keep your ribcage down, core engaged, and elbows straight under your hands as you pull the implement to your body. There are many unique grip variations with this activity, either pronated, supinated, or neutral.

Bodyweight exercises

These exercises don’t require any free weights or exercise equipment. You use your body weight as resistance to increase strength, balance, coordination, and endurance. Effective bodyweight exercises include:

• Push-ups and pull-ups
• Lunges
• Planks
• Squats
• Bridges

Plyometrics

This exercise method involves intense, explosive movements, like jumps and hops, done in short bursts to increase speed, power, and strength. Plyometrics are essential for athletes who need to demonstrate speed and agility to succeed in their task. Common plyometric exercises include:

Intensive plyometrics

• Box jumps
• Split squat jumps
• Countermovement jumps in place

Extensive plyometrics

• Jump rope
• Pogo hops

Soft medicine ball throw variations

• Standing chest pass
• Standing hip toss
• Standing lateral toss

Isometrics

Isometric training involves contracting specific muscles without other movement. These exercises increase stability, strengthen tendons, and can mitigate the risk of overuse injuries. Examples of isometrics include:

• Front plank
• Bodyweight wall sit
• Wall supported isometric split squat hold
• Wall supported tall stride single leg isometric hold
• Glute bridge with isometric hold

Find your strength and conditioning training program

Murphy and the performance coaches at Mass General Brigham’s Center for Sports Performance and Research help you incorporate the right mix of weight training, bodyweight exercises, plyometrics, and isometrics into your workout routine to give you all the strength and conditioning benefits needed to achieve your fitness goals.