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Training for Your Favorite Sport
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Over a 30 year career in the Fitness Industry I have had the opportunity to work with many athletes from all different sports. I find that most have little or no idea about the strength demands of their sport or current strength training methods. After talking with many of these athletes about this, the answers are invariably the same.
• If they have some free time, they think they need to be golfing, playing tennis, swimming, biking, running etc.
• The additional pounds added from strength training will decrease performance
• They just don’t know what to do!
What we know for sure is there is no doubt that a comprehensive strength training program can benefit an athlete – any athlete! But what exactly is a “strength training program?” For many, this conjures up visions traditional single joint weight training. Although this form of strength training is valid for some, it is not for most athletes. The type of strength training that is much more appropriate is functional strength training.
Let’s look at the physical demands of some of your favorite sports - Golf, Tennis, Running, Biking and Swimming.
1. All five sports require a strong core, defined for our purposes, as the area between the sternum and the knees (every one of these muscles attaches to the pelvis).
2. Swimming is not a ground based activity. Therefore, the core and rotation become the basis of movement.
3. Tennis, golf, biking and running are dominated by single leg movement as well as a large rotational component.
4. Balance and stability are two more components used in all five sports; remember that balance and stability drive strength.
Hang with me for a bit…The sports you play involve many variables - ground contact, multiple planes of motion, multiple planes of stabilization and integrated movements. Also speed, power, force production and force reduction. Therefore, your training should include all of these components.
What we are talking about here is training movements not muscles -the body works as an integrated unit and should be trained that way. Looking at strength training through these “new eyes,” we now have to ask the following questions:
1. Is my training dynamic: A training environment that allows us to dynamically load multiple muscle systems to create powerful movements? A good example is to move from Seated Machine Chest Press to standing Chest Press.
2. Is my training multi-planar: Think of your golf and tennis swings – you need a training approach that prepares you to stabilize multiple muscle and joint systems in a 360 degree fashion?
3. Is my training proprioceptively enriched: Training in an environment that teaches the Central Nervous System how to communicate more efficiently with the rest of the body? An example of this is balance training.
4. Is my training systematic: Training with a plan to get from point A to point B?
5. Is my training progressive: Basic conditioning and skill acquisition before advanced conditioning and skill execution? Slow and controlled to fast and chaotic.
6. Is my training specific: Mimic the target activity? This includes all of the appropriate joints as well as the speed and amplitude of movements. The principle of specificity dictates that you “train like you play/live.”
If the answer is “yes” to all of the above questions, then you are well on your way to an effective functional strength training program. Training with stability balls, bands, medicine balls, dumbbells and training in unstable training environment are some of the methods used to train more functionally. This does not mean that training becomes a circus act. The risk versus the benefits must always be taken into account. I always ask, "What is the reason for this exercise?"
Use this Training checklist and ask yourself the six questions to make sure that your training will be specific and effective for whatever goal or sport you’re training for. You’ll take your game to a whole new level by training with a purpose and working integrated movements, instead of isolating muscles.
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