Conditioning is treated like punishment in most gyms — the thing you do when you ate too much. That framing wastes it. A trained aerobic engine is the difference between an athlete who recovers between efforts and one who falls apart.

We program conditioning in three lanes: long and easy to build the base, threshold work to raise the ceiling, and short savage intervals to sharpen the top end. Each has a purpose and a place in the week.

Build the engine and everything else — strength, skill, recovery — gets easier.