The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Learn How to Burn More Calories with Metabolic Conditioning (MetCon) Style Workouts | PPP #103

Episode Date: February 9, 2022

Sharing the background, benefits and some examples of metabolic conditioning or 'MetCon' style workouts.

Hey everybody, welcome back to the People Process Progress podcast. I am Kevin Pinnell, your host. Another port with this episode 103, Set Your Fitness to Condition 1 with Metabolic Conditioning or Metcons. I originally put this out on the Up in the Morning podcast. I'll be shutting that down this month. And so I wanted to get this, I think, valuable information that I got from a few different sources and the style of exercise that I do often, Metabolic Conditioning or Metcons,

which saves some time, gets great cardio and muscular endurance. And I'll talk about more of that in the episode. But thanks again for listening. I'm going to kick off this episode intro with one of my favorite poems, one that I was introduced by Master Henzo Gracie when he read it in his documentary. It is the man in the arena. The credit belongs to the man or woman who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.

President Theodore Roosevelt, Man in the Arena, 1910. As you return to or get started on your own path to wellness, your face will also be covered with sweat and dust, and perhaps even by blood. Today I'm going to share a workout style that will no doubt contribute to the sweat part, metabolic conditioning, or Metcons. Since I rededicated myself to fitness four years ago, I've done almost or maybe even a thousand workouts. These have included body weight, traditional weight training, yoga, jujitsu, and for about a quarter of all my workouts, Metcons. In Up in the Morning, Episode 3, Set Your Fitness to DEFCON 1 with Metabolic Conditioning, I'll discuss what a Metcon is, the benefits of Metcon-style workouts,

and I'll give you some examples to get you started on your fitness journey. But before we get started, I'm glad you got up in the morning with me. It's time to lace up, chalk up, tie that belt, and get ready to roll with Kevin Pinnell. Hey, everybody. Thanks for coming back where we are going to set our fitness to the highest level, just like DEFCON 1 or Defense Condition 1 is the highest level of national preparedness. My two cents is that by adding metabolic conditioning style workouts to your fitness routine, you will be at the highest level of preparedness to get healthier, burn more fat and have better overall health. So let's jump into this episode with what is a Metcon. And again, Metcon stands for metabolic conditioning.

It's become really popular with things like CrossFit with boot camps, those kind of thing. And we'll touch on that. But it's been around for a long time, right? So let's hear from some people that are professional trainers, certified trainers. I am not one. I'm a guy in the garage gym that gets up gets after it. I hope a lot of you out there are too. But let's hear from some folks that are trained in this kind of thing and have really good I think think, captured the definition of what a Metcon is. So this first one is a Metcon from an article in Men's Journal called Metabolic Conditioning, The Key to Better Performance by Jeremy Duvall, MS, CPT, who says,

Metabolic conditioning simply refers to structured patterns of work and rest periods to elicit a desired response from the body. This desired response is usually to maximize efficiency of a particular energy system. So in this article, and I'll link to it on upinthemorning.org, there we'll have that and more resources. But he also helped share with us the basics of metabolism, right? That simply refer to how we break down food for energy. So these three systems that Jeremy mentions are the

immediate system, which is phosphagen. And so that's the fastest way and most powerful method of getting energy. And it's used when we are doing exercises that are less than 10 seconds. So like Olympic lifts, short duration sprints, those kinds of things, then the intermediate system, or glycolytic system, which provides energy for things that are one to four minutes. So like shorter duration, intense things, maybe mid distance once around the track, twice around the fat track, that's four to 800 meters. And then the third system he mentions is the long duration system or aerobic. This is like a long term, easy to moderate intensity. We've got a lot of fuel for this, he says for aerobic system because it's in the form of fat,

right? And if you're like me, got a little extra fat even though i exercise so always looking to get that down um and as he says there and i'm not going to get too deep into this because again i'm going to share the link go read it get all the sciencey stuff from the the pros that that know it these systems all work together on a balance so what these um metcon workouts do is help optimize and what changes as he outlines there is if I focus on more rest, it can help with performance in this one area. If I focus on less rest, it can help with performance in another area. So really good things. I recommend that. I won't do it justice by trying to really just read it to you. So I won't do that. So go to peopleprocessprogress.com and read more about that. So that's his definition. Let me give you somebody else's, which is also good, a different perspective.

This article about Metcons is from Runner's World. And this article is, what is metabolic conditioning and should I add it to my training? Right? So Runner's World, go figure, focused on runners. And as they say in the full article, you can run and get really good running. But to get really good at it, you got to do some supplemental performance. And this is by Danielle Zickle, who consulted Pete McCall, who's a trainer as well, also MS, exercise physiologist for Ace Fitness, and then Kenny Santucci, who's a NASM and CrossFit certified personal trainer. And

what they say is when you think of metabolic conditioning or Metcons, options like HIT or HIIT, which is high intensity interval training, what some of you may have heard about, workout or boot camp class. Right. We've all heard of those. Those have gotten really popular. This boot camp type class has probably come to mind. Metcon workouts recruit your body's three metabolic systems or pathways. We talked about that. Phosphogen, glycolytic and oxidative. So that's the aerobic piece. They changed oxidative for

aerobic like Jeremy used aerobic, I believe. Says McCall, and they play a key role in how your body stores and uses up energy. So their example was less kind of pure definition and more examples. So if you've gone to a bootcamp class, so you do pushups and then you stand up and do air squats and then you do a sprint, right? And you're not to a boot camp class, you do pushups and then you stand up and do air squats and then you do a sprint. Right. And you're not resting a lot in between. And then you rest between full sets of those. That's the Metcon thing. Here's my two cents.

Right. From a guy in the gym that Googled a lot, that experimented, that has some knowledge in this just from trial and error. To me, it means you're not standing around as much between repetitions of exercises like we see at a gym oftentimes, right? Where the old school way and we're overall for folks that are active, smarter in how we do things, but the old school way, bench press, right? It's very popular or has been where I do the bench press at whatever weight. I would change the weight plates or add more. I'd wait a second and sit there on the bench doing nothing, do it again, right? So I do the bench to change the plates, I wait and I repeat. If I wanted to turn that into a metabolic conditioning style workout, I would do the bench presses, then I would immediately stand up and do air squats, then I would lay down and do crunches. And then I would do jumping jacks. And I would do all of

those together, like four times in a row, right with no minimal to no rest between the movements and then some rest between the sequence of those things. So that's how you can change up kind of a traditional thing too. And this is advice I've given other folks that do traditional training and they're trying to build more endurance, particularly for jujitsu. So that's some, again,

and I'm gonna link to the Runner's World article where they get more into the benefits for running. So if you're a runner out there, check that out up in the morning.org and I will have direct link to that Runner's world article where they get more into the benefits for running. So if you're a runner out there, check that out up in the morning.org. And I will have direct link to that runner's world article. So again, it's workouts where you're moving, and you're really pushing yourself. And we'll get into this in a second. And some of the benefits are examples of those. So what are benefits of Metcons? For me, a huge one is a time saver, I'm married, I have three kids. And while I get up early and have

time, you know, between when my workouts over to then help get the kids ready for school, or see my wife before work, you still want to save time, right? Get the maximum amount of work in you can for time unless it's a weekend or other times. But that's a huge thing for me. And I would imagine a huge thing for a lot of you listening. And maybe that's an excuse that you've had, right? Is I don't have time. Well, with a Metcon style workout, where you're doing exercises quickly, you're taking minimal breaks, and we'll get into this, you can scale them, you don't have to start off doing like the hardest workout ever, the 300 workout, which we'll talk about one of the hardest workouts ever that I've done but it saves a ton of time because you're doing that and so if you need to save

time consider these Metcon style workouts and you don't need equipment form and I'll give examples of where you don't need equipment some equipment all equipment and it's just a huge huge deal I think I've stressed that it's a time-saver enough right another great benefit which everyone wants right is that it burns fat very efficientlyver enough, right? Another great benefit, which everyone wants, right, is that it burns fat very efficiently. Those pathways, those systems they talk about, it helps them either work more one or the other, work well together. Basically, you're going to burn fat during the exercise because you're moving. And what the Metcon does is because it kind of kickstarts your metabolism, you also are burning fat throughout the day

because of the efficiencies you've created from the exercise style that you're doing, right? That's my super basic summary. But it burns fat, right? So for everyone that says I need to lose fat, I want to do this, consider that that's why those boot camp classes work. That's why they're popular. And the next thing, I think another reason why those are probably popular and why they work is that it's a mind strengthener. To me, a Metcon or metabolic conditioning workout has helped strengthen my mind, excuse me, when I, you know, had a tough time, maybe I lost a friend, or maybe I had an argument with my wife, or just not feeling it, right? These days, a lot, we're not, it's, it's getting fall,

and it's, you know, cloudy, sometimes and gray. And I don't know, maybe we're just tired. But when you get in there and you do this Metcon style workout where you're going and going and you're pushing, you're pushing through emotions. You're focused on the movements you're trying to do. And there's not a lot of downtime like when you're kind of doing traditional training and you're taking those breaks. And I've felt really the mental benefit from a Metcon style workout more than I have with anything other than jujitsu, which is its own kind of metabolic conditioning for sure. And that's, that's the other benefit for me. And you can tailor this is that it's an outstanding

supplement for sports or other activities like jujitsu. So if I'm used to exercising, where I do a bunch of movements, some I have to use some strength, some I'm using my lungs and my heart like doing burpees, others I'm doing both like doing movements with barbells or something at a fast pace and then moving to something else that's similar to jujitsu where I'm flexing my muscles, I'm moving my body, someone's squishing me, I'm trying to think through that. And metabolic conditioning to me is the best style of workout other than just doing jujitsu, but the best style of workout and the closest I've gotten to felt like I was live rolling other than actually live rolling. When

you're doing burpees for time or you're doing 10 burpees and then you're doing a hanging clean with a dumbbell or barbells, and then you're doing farmer's carries, carrying heavy kettlebells. It mimics the muscle burn and the lung burn that you get from jujitsu or probably other sports that you do. And so you can think about the movements you do in your chosen exercise or your chosen sport. If you play in sports or have a hobby and think about how can I mimic that maybe with some weights or with some body weight so that when you actually go do your sport or do your martial art, you're kind of better prepared. The other one is maybe a catch-all. Maybe it's too easy for this benefit, but overall fitness. I think the Metcons that I've done

have really supplemented all the other stuff that I do in a couple ways. One, because you're doing the movements. And as we know, when you exercise, you break down muscle, you have tears and the muscle grows back stronger and you condition your heart and your lungs and they get better. But also practically, to do some of the workouts that I've done, that I've looked up, that I've researched online or gotten from other people, I've had to learn movements that I wouldn't have learned if I didn't go down this road, if I stuck with just traditional weight training, or just running or just something else. And there's nothing wrong with that, if that's what you want to do. But I wouldn't have learned how to do a barbell complex style workout where I learned how to clean and press and bent over row, or how to do a Turkish

get up with a kettlebell and all these kinds of things just by doing the research. So there's tangible benefits in obviously exercise we've talked about in the previous episode, but also in varying the style of your exercise because you learn more and your knowledge of fitness and your knowledge of movement gets better. And to me, anytime our knowledge gets better, especially when it has to do directly applicable with fitness and health and wellness, that's a bonus, right? So what are some examples of metabolic conditioning? I touched on some of them, how to kind of convert a traditional bench press style to a Metcon, but I'm going to go over three different styles. And these are super basic. And if you go to at Hokie squid, which is H O K I E S Q I D Virginia tech plus Navy, that's me. One example, we're going to do 10 each of pushups,

then immediately do air squats, then immediately do crunches, then immediately do jumping jacks. And I want to do that sequence of exercises four times. So between each repetition. So once I do pushups, I'm immediately going to stand up and do air squats. And once I'm done with those, then I'm going to immediately lay down and do crunches. And once I'm done with those, then I'm going to immediately lay down new crunches. And once I'm done with those, I'm going to stand up and do my jumping jacks. I'll take if you're just starting out, take a minute, and then do that again. And then after you go through all four again, take a minute, right. And as you get in better shape, you'll take less time between the full set of those. And so again, for folks as a reminder, or if you don't know, a repetition of something,

if I do one pushup, that's one repetition. If I do 10 pushups, then 10 air squats, then 10 crunches, then 10 jumping jacks, all of those exercises together are a set. So when you see something that says 10 reps, that's the one movement of the exercise. And then however many sets, that's the groups of exercise. So good to know something. Again, you learn from doing research. So that's one thing you can do with no equipment, right?

It's all body weight. You can get a killer workout. You just change the number. Do more or less. If you're newer, do less. If you're intermediate, add a few more. If you're advanced, add a lot more, right? And so the next kind of Metcon that you can think

of is with kettlebells. Kettlebells, I can't recommend enough. It's a cannonball with a handle on it. There's so many different workouts. They'll make you stronger. They'll help your heart and lungs and the different movements you can do. Widely touted, look them up. There's tons of research on them. But so this example of a Metcon is you do a kettlebell swing. So 10 each again, a kettlebell swing. So I'm holding this handle that's on a cannonball underneath for folks that don't know what a kettlebell is. And I'm kind of swinging it between my legs with a strong back. Then I'm going to do burpees, which means I'm going to kind of drop down into this push

up position and come back up. And when I come up, I'm going to jump. And then I'm going to go into a goblet squat, which means I'm going to hold that kettlebell in front of my chest, like my sternum and do a squat. So you can see here, we are doing one body weight thing with burpees in the middle, but we're using kettlebell. So that's one piece of equipment. But that's how you can start, you can start building your home gym, your home fitness setup. Or, you know, if you go to a gym, just grab that one kettlebell, start with a lightweight, practice the movement, and then work your way up to heavier weights.

But if you're building your home gym, like I did a piece at a time, a kettlebell, a good kettlebell weight to start with. If you're a man, I would say it's 35 pounds. If you're a woman, I'd say 18 to 20 pounds or a little bit lighter if you're not really exercising and just get used to the weight. Don't worry about going up, you know, and being heavy and all that kind of stuff. But you can see with one piece of equipment, you can do tons of exercises. And for kettlebells, I'm barely scratching the surface just talking about two exercises or movements with those. This next one

is all equipment. So we're going to use a barbell, right? So the long bar that you do bench press and squats with plus some plates on the end. So 10 each, again, we're going to do various movements with barbells called a barbell complex. And if you look that up, there's tons of stuff on YouTube and Google. So basically, I'm going to grab the bar, and I'm not going to set it down until I've done, let's say four different exercises, 10 repetitions, repetitions each, and then that's one set and you can't put it down. So let's say I'm going to curl it, then I'm going to press it over my head, then I'm going to kind of bend over my waist and pull it up toward my chest. Then I'm going to put it up over my head and put it on my back and do squats, something like that. You're moving it the whole time.

Yeah, you're moving it the whole time. You're not setting it down. It's great for your grip strength. Your muscles certainly are going to burn, you get a little bit of everything. Barbell complexes are becoming one of my favorite styles of Metcon workouts, just because they're so diverse. And again, it's a great, great full body kind of thing, depending on what you do. So three quick examples. There's so many more examples out there on the internet, but you can do Metcons with nothing. You can do it with one piece of equipment. You can do it with a couple pieces of equipment. You could also set it up and combine those three that I just talked about, right? So you could do pushups, then you can do kettlebell swings, then you could do burpees,

then you could do a barbell thing, and you can combine all those. The cool thing I love about Metcons is it's like a buffet of fitness. You pick what you want from over here, put that on your plate, on your workout board, on whatever, pick what you want from there, from here, from there, and then you just program it. I always also recommend time your workout, see how long it takes you to do whatever you choose for your program, and it's a good way to monitor your progress. So I every day will put the date, the time of day I start, write time, leave it blank, then put my program, and then start my timer. And then when I'm done, I'll put the total time to see what it took me. And for some of these,

it's actually cool to race yourself and see how you get better and better each time. So again, a great thing about Metcons, they're relatively easy to self-program. There's so many you can find. I'm going to share two specific ones. And one is called the Marine Corps Special Operations Command Short Card or MARSOC Short Card. Google it. It's a sequence of body weight stuff and then a pull-up bar at the end. But it's like 30 push-ups, 30 air squats, 30 of another movement, and then do 10 burpees and then do 10 movements of kind of like a stretch active stretch. And it's four kind of sets of each of those all together. And it's excellent. And so you could scale it, right? So if you're just starting, that's a good

template, pull up Marsock short card, mar soc short card. And if you're new, change the number from 30 to five. If you're advanced, 30 is pretty good. I do it. I can do that in under 15 minutes now and I've been working out a lot. So that's kind of a gauge. But always good to push yourself a little bit more. The other workout does require equipment that I'm going to talk about, and that's the 300 workout. So it's really hard. 300 is because it was from that movie 300, where the actors did that to get totally jacked like Spartans, or like the Spartans looked like in the movie. And it's 300 because it's 300 movements, different exercises like box jumps and pull ups and deadlifts. So you need a barbell box,

you need some equipment for that one. So that's kind of an advanced, you need a little bit of a setup to do that kind of the official one. But again, you could also scale it and do different things. And I didn't have all the equipment for that all the barbells or I made my own plyo box or jump box. And I'll share that plan that I use. I got it from the art of mainlandness. So shout out to them. Great website, great podcasts. But the 300 workouts kind of advanced one, look it up. It's pretty crazy. It's really hard. But again, any workout shouldn't be overwhelming to you. Because you can scale it back and make your goal to do the full one. But when you're starting, just use lower numbers, except that it's going to take you longer, except that it's going to be hard. We all started new. I thank you so much

for listening to the show. Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Positive one would be great. Negative one, if I'm not doing well, leave some comments. Help me learn how to get better. Check out peopleprocessprogress.com. Until next time, set your alarm to get up. Prepare your mind and your body to get after it and i wish you all godspeed