I know you all enjoy your time in the gym, some a little too much spending wayyyyy too much time in there and getting nothing done besides a jaw workout. But for those of you who want to find ways to lift more often, which is cool and which I've always championed (I know I have a ton of fuck rest days kinda stuff floating around on the blog, see Feeder Workouts), then you gotta be conditioned for that extra work. Matt Wenning, owner of Ludus Magnus and a 2300+ powerlifting total, and Louie Simmons (pretty sure Louie taught Matt but either way), both are champions of conditioning through lifting.
Matt brings the same intra abdominal pressure to deadlifts that I bring to the toilet.
So the old joke of Cardio being a Spanish word that means lifting faster actually has some weight.
No hablo condicionamiento
So we need to understand what conditioning means within these parameters. Short high volume workouts prepare you to lift long intense sessions. Wenning likes to do a 3 exercise circuit (youtube Wenning Warmups) prior to his main lifts on a conjugate program. He says it builds work capacity and working under fatigue (your bench isn't gonna be as heavy because you've done 100 reps of triceps work prior to benching). Louie does extra workouts throughout the day, sometimes twice a day a al those wiley Russians like Roman, Vorobyov, Chernyak, and Medvedyev. Personally, I shouldn't even be mentioned on the same day as these guys much less in the same paragraph, but that being said I have a small Daily Minimum style workout I try to do every single day. This can be for an actual workout (more volume) or as a warmup for my lifts (less volume). Its simple really.
How to do more to do more
A few rules:
Never let these affect your big lift days
Never treat this like a max effort workout
Never feel like you are spent
Pretty simple really; farm strength comes to mind. Moving submaximal weight for lots of reps or distance, but nothing close to how you feel on that 20 rep Squat program. I'll show you some examples:
Wenning Warmup (upper day)
DB Bench Press: 4×25 reps
Lat Pulldown: 4×25 reps
Tricep Pushdown: 4×25 reps
Louie Simmons extra workout
Band Good Morning: 3×1 minute
DB Row: 3×20 per side
Situp: 3 sets to failure
Both of these guys really are fans of walking with a sled; either dragging, pulling, or pushing for a set period of time. 15-20 minutes of mixed motion with like 20% of your bodyweight doesn't seem like much but over time you're gonna build a big ass gas tank. Personally this is how I do my Daily Minimum, and in fact this is the workout I did today:
Pushup: 2×5-10-15
KB Clean: 70 total reps
Getup: 3 reps per side
Nothing crazy, see? I did this in about 10 minutes then hit my Upper body day. Let me show you the structure.
I use one Upper body move (pullup, pushup, kb press, dip, etc.) for 1 to 3 ladders. A ladder is 3 small sets with ascending reps, so with pushups I did 5 reps, did some cleans, 10 reps, cleans, and 15 reps, then rested. That was 1 ladder. Next I choose a ballistic movement, mostly kettlebell work but I guess you could substitute this with jump rope, rowing, or some similar "cardio" move. I do somewhere between 50 and 200 swings, snatches, or cleans; this will be dependent on your fitness level. I finish off with 2-10 trips of some kind of loaded carry. Sled drags, farmers carry, husafel carry, getups, etc. will all fit well here. And that's it, superset your "cardio" move with the upper body work and carrys to get your heart pumping.
Don't fuck with Chuck and Lou
There you go. That's how you do more to do more. So go do more with the more you can do.
Got it?
Good.