The term conditioning is thrown around but what exactly does it mean? According to Starting Strength's John Sheaffer it is defined as an individual's ability to perform a given task. Terms like “General Physical Preparedness (GPP)” and “Work Capacity” have become buzzwords these days, particularly among people who do not compete in an activity that requires a specific conditioning adaptation. In CrossFit there is a widespread belief that one must train for any possible contingency, “the unknown and the unknowable.”
According to Sheaffer, becoming as strong as possible will have the most significant effect on one’s overall ability to perform a variety of tasks, and therefore represents the most intelligent use of training time for the purpose of conditioning, within certain limits.

An excerpt from John Sheaffer's, 'Appropriate Conditioning'

If basic strength gives us the tools to better perform most any task that can be asked of us, then after we acquire that strength what is left is to prepare specifically for these tasks. This sounds simple, and has been practiced for ages by competitive athletes, but the concept escapes most people these days. What is it that you have to do? What does your life entail? What is appropriate “conditioning” in your given situation? For the athlete this is relatively simple to illustrate. An offensive lineman will at no point in the course of a football game be required to run at a slow pace for one mile. Nowhere in the history of football can anyone show an example of this being required of a lineman, or any player for that matter. Does it therefore make sense to have high school football players practice and test in the mile run? Absolutely not.

Once the base of strength is established the decision is then made as to what is appropriate in terms of “conditioning” work. If something is going to be added to a program then one must understand that total recovery ability will be spread thinner than it previously had been. If someone was formerly lifting weights three days per week and resting on the other days, then they are in for a rude awakening if they attempt to add three high intensity conditioning workouts on the days in between. Often times, the simple addition of a single stress outside of a regimented program can bring progress in the program to a halt, or at the least slow it down considerably. This is particularly true if dietary and or supplementation considerations are not made which would help with recovery from the added workload.

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