Week 1 preview
CONDITIONINGADD-ON
Build conditioning alongside your lifting
12 WEEKS2 DAYS / WEEKINTERMEDIATE
Build conditioning alongside your lifting
I started lifting in November 2018 at 118 lb. I was tired of being skinny, chronically depressed, had no direction, and could never consistently stick with anything.
Fitness and nutrition gave me something I genuinely loved and eventually gave my life purpose. Training helped me build confidence, while learning about nutrition helped me stop being afraid of food. I learned that you can enjoy almost anything in reasonable amounts. Context and total intake matter. The dose makes the poison.
By 2024, I was around 185 lb while generally staying between roughly 10 and 15% body fat throughout the year. There was a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and a few back problems along the way. But the process almost completely got rid of my anxiety, opened up opportunities, and helped me earn respect within my community. I went from feeling like a loser with no direction to becoming someone others could trust and look to as a leader.
I hope everything I have learned can help other people become healthier, find confidence, and inspire them to make a positive impact on the people around them through a healthier lifestyle.
I made this add-on for lifters who want to work on conditioning without turning every cardio session into another leg workout. It gives you two clear jobs each week: build an easy aerobic base and practice hard efforts you can repeat.
The easy day should stay easy. The interval day should challenge you without becoming an all-out sprint. Keep a useful record, follow the weekly changes, and make the conditioning fit around your lifting.
This guide provides general fitness education. It is not medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, or individualized coaching. Results and tolerances vary.
If you have a health condition, injury, or concern about beginning exercise, seek appropriate professional guidance first. Choose loads you can control and follow facility rules.
Stop for sharp pain, dizziness, or unusual symptoms. End the set when you cannot maintain the intended movement or technique.
Inspect machine adjustments, pads, pins, cables, and attachments before use. Use equipment as intended and ask facility staff if you are unsure how to set it up safely.
Stay at a conversational pace on one machine. Follow the time and effort for that week. No loaded stations, extra rounds or finishers.
Use a treadmill walk, bike, elliptical or rower. An outdoor brisk walk is an alternative when suitable. Choose a mode that does not make grip or leg fatigue limit the session.
Work hard, then take the full easy recovery. The goal is repeatable output, not an all-out sprint. Keep the same low-impact mode through the phase.
The listed block time includes every work interval and its easy recovery, including the final recovery. Warm-up and cooldown are additional.
Weeks 1-4
Establish pacing, talk-test control, and interval repeatability.
Weeks 5-8
Extend continuous easy cardio and hard-interval volume without loss of output.
Weeks 9-12
Build sustained output and repeat the Week 9 HIIT benchmark in Week 12.
For intervals, use a machine that shows average watts or speed for each hard interval and lets you check that result during recovery. A live or peak number alone isn't enough. Check the display before starting; ask gym staff if you need help. If it can't show interval averages, choose another listed machine that can. A timer handles the timing, not the output measurement.
If your purchase includes Everfit access, or you're coached by me, log your workouts in the app. PDF-only purchases don't include app access; use these worksheets or your own training log.
Use workout notes for details without a matching field. You don't need to record everything twice. Optional summaries are explained on page 9.
This add-on is for adults who already lift and tolerate about 20-30 minutes of comfortable easy cardio. This is a practical starting point, not medical clearance. If you are inactive or returning after illness, rebuild comfortable easy activity before hard intervals. Seek appropriate medical guidance for a known health condition, exercise-limiting injury, or concerning symptoms before starting or increasing intensity.
Choose a comfortable, controllable modality. If a movement causes joint pain, stop that movement; use a pain-free listed alternative only if symptoms settle. Lower speed or resistance when effort exceeds the assigned target. If it does not settle, end the session. Stop immediately for chest pain, faintness, unusual breathlessness or other concerning symptoms; seek appropriate care. Symptoms override every timer and output target.
The app lists the main block as one timed exercise. Use your machine's interval setting or a separate interval timer for the hard/easy changes.
Advance only after completing both sessions at the assigned effort, with repeatable technique and no concerning symptoms or unresolved fatigue affecting normal lifting. If you cannot complete the current week, repeat that week's targets after recovery rather than forcing the next increase. Repeated difficulty needs reassessment, not extra work. A repeated week does not extend purchased app access.
Do not double up or cram missed intervals around hard leg training. Resume the next planned session when recovered; if you missed a full week or more, return to the last comfortably completed week. After illness, rebuild easy activity before resuming HIIT. Do not add catch-up volume.
This is an example, not a change to your lifting plan. Keep HIIT away from demanding lower-body work when possible. If training on the same day, lift first and separate sessions when practical. Skip or move conditioning when it compromises lifting recovery.
RPE describes conditioning effort, not repetitions in reserve. 2-3 is light; 3-4 is easy with comfortable full sentences; 7 is hard; 8-9 is very hard but controlled; 10 is maximal and is not prescribed. During easy recovery, ease off to comfortable movement and let breathing settle. Do not chase a heart-rate number or turn recovery into more hard work.
LISS means low-intensity steady-state cardio. HIIT means high-intensity interval training. A primer is a short controlled pickup during the warm-up, not an extra working interval.
Use average watts or average speed during each full hard interval, including its acceleration. Keep the same unit and machine setup. Use the first controlled hard interval at the assigned effort as the reference. If any two later hard intervals fall below 90% of that reference, end the hard work and cool down; the drops do not need to be consecutive. If the first interval was too hard, reduce effort and stop if repeatability is lost rather than adding replacement intervals. This is a fatigue-management rule, not a medical safety test. Pace is inverse: convert time per distance to speed before calculating a percentage drop.
Output is average watts or speed over each hard interval, not a momentary peak. Average output is the mean of those interval averages; lowest output is the smallest one. Best-to-worst drop is (highest minus lowest) / highest x 100. Total work means the machine's work-only distance or energy across the hard intervals, excluding easy recovery; record units and leave it blank if the machine cannot separate them. Session RPE is the overall effort after the session, distinct from hard-interval RPE.
Completed example for six 30-second intervals: average watts 200, 196, 192, 190, 188, 184. Mean 191.7 W; lowest 184 W; best-to-worst drop 8%; work-only energy 34.5 kJ (sum of watts x 30 seconds / 1000). No interval is below 180 W, so the output-drop stop rule was not triggered. Record your actual session RPE separately; it cannot be calculated from watts.
Keep the same machine, seat/handle position, damper or resistance setting and measurement unit for HIIT comparisons; cadence and achieved watts/speed may vary at the assigned effort. For easy cardio, keep the same modality and comparison conditions, such as treadmill incline or the outdoor route; adjust speed or cadence to maintain the same easy RPE. Do not lock treadmill speed or target watts and then expect that same output to improve. Unequal-duration easy-cardio comparisons are training references, not equivalent performance tests.
Warm up 5-7 minutes easy before the main block. Cool down for 5 minutes after. Both are separate from the main time on the workout.
Warm up 8-10 minutes: 5 minutes easy, then 3 x 10-second primers at RPE 5, 6 and 7, each followed by 50-60 seconds easy. Continue easy as needed to finish the warm-up.
Cool down 5-7 minutes.
Total session: 34 min to 36 min • Treadmill walk • Bike • Elliptical • Rower • Outdoor brisk walk
| Stage | Time and effort |
|---|---|
| Warm-up | 5-7 minutes easy |
| Main block | 24 minutes continuous easy cardio at RPE 3-4 |
| Cooldown | 5 minutes |
Set up the equipment before starting. Walk or pedal with relaxed shoulders and controlled movement; choose a modality that stays comfortable. Use machine safety features as intended. Keep a comfortable full-sentence pace. No loaded stations or extra rounds.
Modality / machine settings: __________________________________________
| Duration | Distance / units | Average pace / power | Actual RPE |
|---|---|---|---|
Total session: 25 min to 29 min • Bike • Air bike • Rower • Elliptical • SkiErg
| Stage | Time and effort |
|---|---|
| Warm-up | Warm up 8-10 minutes: 5 minutes easy, then 3 x 10-second primers at RPE 5, 6 and 7, each followed by 50-60 seconds easy. Continue easy as needed to finish the warm-up. |
| Main block | 6 intervals: 30 sec hard / 90 sec easy at RPE 7 |
| Cooldown | 5-7 minutes |
Adjust the seat and handles before starting. Keep feet secure, grip controlled and posture stable as you accelerate. Reduce effort or stop when technique becomes difficult to control. Accelerate over 3-5 seconds. End hard work after any two intervals below 90% of the first controlled interval; see the output rule on page 8.
Modality / machine settings: __________________________________________
| Interval | Work | Easy recovery | Output / units |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 sec | 90 sec | |
| 2 | 30 sec | 90 sec | |
| 3 | 30 sec | 90 sec | |
| 4 | 30 sec | 90 sec | |
| 5 | 30 sec | 90 sec | |
| 6 | 30 sec | 90 sec |
Session RPE: __________
Optional summaries (page 9): Work: ______ Average: ______ Lowest: ______ Drop: ______
Thanks for putting in the work. Keep the easy days easy and make the hard efforts repeatable.
Use what you logged to see what improved and what needs more time. Keep showing up, and keep building.
- Mark Shaner