Hello Dear Danglers! There was an interesting post floating around the F-Books a couple weeks ago, which posed the question: do you do your conditioning at the beginning of class or at the end? There was a lot of virtual side eye slung around, until we realized folks were defining “conditioning” in a lot of ways. What is it? Why do you need it? And why are you an a$$hole if you skip out on it in class?

Muscle Activation vs Conditioning

At SassyPants Aerial Arts, we have two veeeeeeery different things going on – muscle activation, and conditioning.

Muscle activation – getting a muscle fired up and working properly. It can be part of a warm-up (hanging sit-ups), or done separately later in class if it’s to help you focus on using the correct body part (chicken wing pull downs). Think of it as aerial foreplay, getting you ready for a good time.

Conditioning – working the muscle to (or close to) complete fatigue; you are unable to complete another rep with good form. Designed to produce an increase in muscle strength and endurance. Imagine you’re doing a biceps curl with a weight (you can imagine a personal trainer barking orders at you too, if that helps). You get to 10, and physically cannot lift the weight again without doing weird gyrations with your body – that’s the sweet spot you’re aiming for with conditioning (it should, at the very least, be f-ing challenging).

Both are exercises we might do in class, but designed to do very different things. Using the definitions above, doing conditioning early in class – working a muscle to complete fatigue – would be foolish; but muscle activation drills make a lot of sense.

I See You Half-Assing Conditioning

Yes I do. I see everything. Now, I can’t MAKE you complete your conditioning to the best of your abilities, same as I can’t make you eat your broccoli or park farther away from the mall. But I CAN give you The Look. I can also explain to you that the miserable things we do in conditioning will make the fabulous things you WANT to do in class possible. We’re not doing conditioning to torture you! Well, not just to torture you.

Also. If you routinely skip out on conditioning, you are being an a$$hole. Your teachers think it, your fellow students think it. If it’s more than a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence, knock it off. (To my students – don’t even try it. More than “very occasionally” will get you The Talk. Not that one, another one. It will be just as awkward.)

So activate those muscles before and during class, and push them to fatigue (with good form) at the end! And don’t half-ass your conditioning. Enjoy your awesomeness. Love and pull-ups, Laura