Conditioning Series Part 2: Inside Your Body’s Energy Systems

In this episode of the Everyday Strength Podcast, Anthony breaks down the actual physiology behind conditioning and how the body creates, regenerates, and uses energy during training. Moving beyond vague cardio prescriptions, this episode explains the internal systems that power every lift, sprint, and endurance effort. Anthony walks through how ATP is produced inside the muscle, what adaptations occur in the heart and skeletal muscle, and why misunderstanding energy systems leads to poor conditioning outcomes. This episode serves as the physiological backbone of the Conditioning Series and gives listeners the tools to think more critically about how and why they train. Understanding these systems is presented as the key to smarter programming and better long-term performance.

Key Topics Covered:
This episode explores the three primary energy systems that fuel human performance: aerobic, glycolytic, and phosphagen. Anthony explains how each system produces ATP, what fuels they rely on, and how they adapt to training over time. The discussion covers cardiovascular, mitochondrial, enzymatic, and neural adaptations and explains why no system works in isolation. Concepts such as lactate production, buffering capacity, recovery between efforts, and training residuals are tied together using practical analogies. The episode emphasizes function over fatigue and sets the stage for applying these concepts in real-world conditioning programs.

Related Everyday Strength Episodes:

Conditioning Series Part 1: Defining Conditioning & the Energy Systems

Zone 2 Training: Science, Hype, and Reality

Concurrent Training: How to Build Strength and Conditioning Together