Specificity is an overused training philosophy for most lifters. I know this is a controversial statement in strength training communities, but I’m still not sorry for saying it. It’s the truth, and this quarantine is offering us a unique moment to put that theory to the test.

Let’s talk about what specificity is. In a nutshell, it is the training principle that says you get better at a specific skill by performing that skill, not any other related exercises, but repetitiously perfecting that particular thing. If it’s not clear yet, I believe specificity has gotten too dogmatic in strength circles.

When Specificity Is Necessary

But the people who benefit from specificity are high-level athletes who need to be exceptionally good at their sports. This applies to elite weightlifters and powerlifters just as it does to elite sprinters and professional running backs.

Most athletes who fit into this category already have a solid amount of general strength, are genetically freaky and are physically suited to their sports. The thing left to do is to become increasingly efficient at specifics.

But simply to like a sport, or even being good at one, doesn’t make you an elite level athlete who needs to be overly specific with your training.

And I would argue that even the best lifters could benefit from spending some time building some non-specific strength. The problem is they never listen.

When the Gyms Closed

But then, one day, when we Americans thought we had it all figured out, the government decided to shut down the country, including our beloved gyms, and with one fell swoop, there weren’t any barbells to be found.

There are no garage gyms here in NYC, so we were all forced to lift inside our tiny NYC apartments. This meant my gym had to transform from a barbell gym into a kettlebell, dumbbell, odd object gym overnight. But this was a blessing in disguise.

So what we did differently than most is that we didn’t kill people with mindless metcons.

When Yuri Verkoshansky said, “Any idiot can make another idiot tired.” We believed him.

So we ditched burpees in favor of lightweight tempo work. We focused on single-limb movements and trunk stability work along with sensible, measurable methods of increasing our athletes’ conditioning. This involved things like AMAP sets for a time, not used as finishers but woven into cycles of training geared toward building work capacity. There is a difference.

More important than anything, we built programming that targeted the places where we knew our lifters were deficient.

By definition, these movements are non-specific. But I’ll tell you what’s going to happen, not because I’m a psychic, but because I’ve been around a while. They will come back better.

To define better, we need to be clear: these athletes will not have added weight to their primary lifts, nor will they have larger muscles. That’s not what better means here. What will be better is that they will return to training with:

• Less joint pain
• More muscle awareness
• Better proprioception
• New vigor for their sport

The long-lasting effect of this phenomenon is that it will make them a better, healthier, and, yes, a stronger lifter in the long run. To not view training in this respect is to neglect one of the most fundamental principles of human strength.

We can only accumulate for so long before we need a deload. This should happen on both micro and macro levels in your training. So let’s do ourselves a favor and use this time to do something we should have done a long time ago—stop overdoing the specifics.

If you are in New York, or are ever in the area, come by and see me at JDI Barbell, one of the only standalone barbell box gyms in the city.

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If you are a performance athlete, it is likely you are supplementing your sport-specific training with some strength and conditioning in an effort to get stronger and increase your overall fitness. I can guess the type of routine you’re in. You hit the gym, do 3-5 sets of 8-12 reps with a minute or two of rest, then switch to the next exercise. You throw in some bicep curls, possibly shoulder press, and some leg extensions – because that’s what people do, right?

What a lot of people don’t know is that gyms and weight training as we know it do not benefit the typical athlete. The training mentioned above is hypertrophy-style training, and is designed with one end in mind: to build muscle that looks good. Which is fine if you want to be a body builder. However, this type of training won’t necessarily help improve you in your sport. Here’s why.

It’s time to change your concept of sport-specific training.

The First Element: Stimuli

The first step is incorporating appropriate stimuli. The human body only adjusts to the stress it is exposed to, adapting to the movement patterns it is presented with and the amount of force exerted during them. So if you only train a certain movement at a certain weight, at a certain speed for a certain amount of time, your body will only adapt in a certain way, irrespective of numbers, weights or reps.

For example, if you do slow steady hamstring curls in the gym but your sport requires you to do explosive take downs, then that exercise will not translate well to your sport – though you may end up with nice looking hamstrings.

The Second Element: Strength

You need strength exercises that carry over well into your sport. It’s critical to be able to train your body to coordinate multiple muscle groups simultaneously. With their emphasis on pushing and pulling, compound movements are perfect for this. They mimic how your muscles function in competition, and unless you are targeting specific muscular issue or performing rehabilitation, these movements are preferable for athletes over isolation work.

“We need to incorporate movement patterns that are the same or close to those in your discipline.”

The deadlift is a great example: it incorporates the core, upper and lower back, glutes, quads, and hamstrings effectively to help you produce practical strength for your sport. This is favourable over an isolated exercise for the same area such as a leg extension, which provides an environment in which your muscles are trained as separate entities rather than connected parts of a movement machine.

An Opportunity to Get Creative

Outside of movements like the deadlift, we need to incorporate movement patterns that are the same or close to those in your discipline. This is an opportunity to think outside of the box and get creative. You could perform sprints, plyometric jump squats with a weight, or kettle bell swings. Barbells and dumbbells can be used.

Remember – strength training doesn’t need to be done in a gym. Getting outside and tossing around a weighted medicine ball is a great way to build general upper body speed and strength. Make it sport specific. If you are a judo or jiu jitsu athlete like me for example, performing pull ups with a towel is a great option to train your grip strength.

The Third Element: Stability

As well as compound movements, performance athletes must incorporate exercises that challenge balance and engage the core. Sports are not performed in stable environments. Sitting comfortably in a shoulder press machine will develop your shoulders, but won’t develop the core strength to keep your upper body stable while trying to launch a volley ball in the air. A leg press won’t help you maintain your balance as you propel your body forward on a rocky terrain in cross country running.

Consider your discipline carefully. What movement patterns do you need to work on?

Better options exist to build a more holistic strength base. A single arm shoulder press or a push up with single arm dumbbell row both force your core to engage and keep your body straight. These are excellent exercises to build on your upper body strength while activating your stabilizers.

A Systemic Approach to Training

The three elements are simple in implementation. In order to get stronger for your sport, we need to replicate its movement patterns as much as possible, and work compound strength movements incorporating your stabilisers to encourage the body to work systemically. This is the best way to train the body to deal with the unstable environments faced in competition. So the next time you hit the gym to get stronger for your sport – think about exactly what the movements are and what muscles are being used. Try to replicate your sports demands with heightened intensity for maximum adaptation. Work at the speed or range that your body needs on the field.

Remember, the body doesn’t know reps and weights. All it knows is that it needs to adapt to the stimuli it is presented with, so make your training reflect the demands of your sport. When you present the body with the right stimuli, it will directly translate into your sport and increase your overall performance.

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Photo 1 courtesy of Sophia Drysdale.

Photo 2 courtesy of Shutterstock.

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There will be a few diatribes in this article, but necessarily so. Some of this research is a bit ugly, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn a thing or two from it. For example, the researchers called the high-intensity interval training program HIT, which is incorrect. HIT is actually something very different from what the researchers studied. That’s okay because this Swiss study perhaps suffered from a language barrier, but for the sake of clarity, I will refer to it as HIIT in this article.

The study is well designed, but the foundation of this research depends on a heap of assumptions, and some of them are dubious. The first assumption is that a ninety-second box jump test is a good test for judging ski performance. The second is that HIIT training will benefit box jump performance to an appreciable degree. The third assumption is that it’s useful for this increase in performance to happen in a very short time span.

A lot of these assumptions seem to come from the need to quantify things in a lab setting. In this study, the researchers used a box jump and only eight days of HIIT, probably because it made for a quick, publishable study. Studying actual skiing performance might have been better. Further, the idea was to improve performance by improving aerobic conditioning. While HIIT is okay for this purpose, it may have been better to compare HIIT to steady-state training, or at least see if longer training may be beneficial as well.

So let’s get to the results. After ten HIIT sessions over eight days, followed by a five-day rest, there was no change in performance on the box jump test. There was, however, a decent improvement in VO2 max during cycling, although it clearly didn’t transfer. Whether or not it would transfer to the actual sport of skiing – the only thing worth caring about here – is anyone’s guess. As one last note, the participants changed their box jump strategy for the final test, which could explain the difference in performance. This factor could also render the results more or less unimportant.

Earlier I mentioned that we can still learn from this study, so here are the lessons to take away. First, when looking at scientific studies, scrutinize them carefully and make sure you have a clear idea of the intended goals and underlying assumptions. Second, there are probably better ways to improve the aerobic component of your training, such as more steady-state training over a longer period of time. There’s no sense in rushing if you’re not getting results.

References:

1. Micah Gross, et. al., “High intensity training and energy sources during 90-second box jump in junior alpine skiers,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000294

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post How HIIT Affects Power Endurance in Skiers appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The program is broken down into a four day per week cycle as well. Each week there will be two upper body workouts and two lower body workouts. Again, the aim of this program is to gain overall strength, muscular endurance, and power, so having an upper/lower body split will help to accomplish this goal.

Week 5, Day 3

1. Floor Press- 4 x 3
2. Chin-ups- 3 x max reps
3. Neutral Grip Row- 3 x 10
4A. Plank- 3 x 45 sec.
4B. Reverse Cruch- 3 x 10

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Strength is vital to rugby players for a number of reasons. It allows them to create powerful running motions, perform effective tackles, burst through attacks from the opposition, and retain possession if tackled. Strength is also necessary for performing the key duties effectively, such as scrummaging, line outs, and kicking.

This program has been split into three days: squat day, deadlift day, and upper body day. The weight chosen should be challenging in order for the correct strength adaptions to occur. Aim to increase the weight each week without sacrificing correct form.

Week 6, Day 3

Medicine Ball Slams 5×5

Bench Press 5×5

Weighted Chins 5×5

Push Press 5×5

Side Plank 5×30 seconds (each side)

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Strength is vital to rugby players for a number of reasons. It allows them to create powerful running motions, perform effective tackles, burst through attacks from the opposition, and retain possession if tackled. Strength is also necessary for performing the key duties effectively, such as scrummaging, line outs, and kicking.

This program has been split into three days: squat day, deadlift day, and upper body day. The weight chosen should be challenging in order for the correct strength adaptions to occur. Aim to increase the weight each week without sacrificing correct form.

Week 6, Day 2

Power Clean 5×3

Barbell Deadlift 5×5

Weighted Hip Thrusts 5×5

Single Dumbbell Farmers Walk 10 meters x5

Barbell Rollouts 3×4

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There’s no shame in that. The thing about mediocrity is that most of us are mediocre. For people who have never watched elite sports men and women do their thing live – or even better, watched them perform in the same setting as a recreational competition of the same sport – you’ll be in for some eye-opening feats. Like the time I walked into Phoenix Weightlifting, which is led by Robert Kabbas, an Olympic silver medallist from the 1984 games, and watched a seventeen year old kid weighing 70kg squat 170kg for a triple. Or the time I sparred an Olympic level Taekwondo player and literally got kicked by something I never even saw coming.

But for every one of these kids there were hundreds, if not thousands of kids who didn’t make it to that level for no other reason than lack of genetic talent. You can achieve a lot in this world through sheer force of will, but no amount of “wanting it badly” is ever going to make me run as fast as Usain Bolt. See, I just wasn’t born to run that fast, and neither was nearly the entire rest of the planet.

So where does that leave us?

I firmly believe that pushing kids hard in an effort to turn them into elites has a long-term negative effect. If kids spend their whole adolescence being told that the only thing that counts is winning and performing better, when the reality comes crashing down that they are, like nearly the entire rest of the world, just not cut out for elite performance what usually ends up happening is this – the child quits all organized sport. If your only grasp of health and fitness is competition, when you cease to compete you cease being invested in your own health and fitness. As the children grow up they become the ones who were so turned off sport and physical activity by over-zealous parents, burn out, injury, or plain old lack of self-esteem from their perceived “failure” to make it in the big leagues that they wind up overweight or obese. And we’ve got enough of that already.

A far better long-term approach, and one that many adults would benefit from too, is one of becoming the all rounder. I see many recreational triathletes who have followed the advice from professionals and abstained from weight training only to lose bone density and suffer multiple stress fractures or have terrible posture which impacts their breathing (and don’t you think that might be helpful for the rest of your life?). Or grapplers who want to train multiple sessions each day and then wonder why their backs hurt or they can’t touch their toes. These people are trying to be athletic without actually being athletes. They will benefit far more from going and rounding out their basic human movement skills, in terms of the pay off in the second half of their life, than they will from another speed session.

I see so many people get confused about their reality and their own perception of reality that it always amuses me. Unless you make a living from your sport it should be supporting you living a better and healthier life. At the very elite end of the spectrum, performance and health are usually not tied together – check the age of death of ex-NFL players for proof. But for the rest of us, isn’t having a healthy second half of your life a better goal than coming runner-up in the club championship white belt division and winning a two-dollar plastic medal but ending up with a neck so sore you can’t turn your head for days?

Our long-term health and fitness will be much better served from pursuing a wide variety of fitness activities. My personal wish list for the remainder of the year includes capoeira, private gymnastics coaching, and if possible a MovNat workshop. If I had unlimited time I’d add track cycling and rock climbing to that, as well as free diving.

Would I be any good at any of those things? Probably not, if comparing my performance to elite standards, but that isn’t the point. The point is that by being involved in a bunch of healthy and varied activities I’ll be forced to stay in shape, learn a bunch of new stuff, and avoid all the overuse injuries that come when people decide to go all out in a single endeavor.

There’s a lot to be said for staying a student as you move through life. There’s even research to show that staying focused on learning new skills as you age keeps brain chemistry “young.” The fountain of youth may not just be exercise but an ever-childlike exploration of our universe through movement. I’ll leave you with this:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” – Robert A. Heinlein

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Specialization Is for Insects: Why Mediocrity Beats the Elite appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In my day, sport-specific training – which I don’t believe was even a term at the time – meant becoming more physically fit by strength training, running, and performing wind sprints, along with hours upon hours of skillful practice of one’s chosen sport or activity.

I played basketball when I was a kid, so for me, it meant doing sprints with and without a basketball up and down the court, rebounding, shooting under game-time scenarios, and performing basketball related activities.

I did not mimic movements with resistance and I did not haphazardly jump up and down on boxes or run with a parachute on my back to improve my explosive speed.

I didn’t do anything except work at getting my entire body stronger using what was referred to as the Nautilus Training Principles and then being very specific to my practicing my skills.

A Personal Experience

I played basketball my entire young life and back in the late 1970s weighted vests became popular, so I purchased one. I wore that thing all the time because in my mind, I was going to improve my jumping, my speed, and my quickness.

Well, so I thought. I ran, jumped, and practiced shooting every day with that vest on. In the beginning I had trouble making most of my shots, my running stride was out of whack, and my timing was way off in all aspects of my game. Why? Because I was learning new motor skills.

After about a week I started making my shots and to get my timing down. After that week I decided to go play some pickup games sans the vest and to my surprise, I couldn’t make a shot to save my life.

My timing was way off, my stride was not right, and I mistimed my jumps. Why? I had developed new learning skills with the vest that did not cross over to my needs on the basketball court. I dropped the vest and after a couple of days got my timing back and never wore the thing again.

Sport-Specific Training – Today

Currently, the term “sport-specific training” has taken on a completely different connotation, largely in part because of the commercialization of the strength and conditioning industry.

At the present time, the idea of sport-specific training is touted as being able to duplicate or imitate a specific skill or aspect of one’s sport or activity in the weight room atmosphere.

Sport-specific training in its current concept is a means of simulating a movement or exercise in the weight room with the intention of it transferring to the playing field, regardless of what that field is.

It, at times, is also a protocol of lifting fast to become fast, using low repetitions to bulk up, and performing explosive movements to become explosive.

Of course, these are not all of the perceived concepts attached to sport-specific specific training, but enough to make one question what the hell someone is thinking when they argue these points.

The term “sport-specific” in my definition of the term means “specific to one’s sport or activity,” which means the individual should be engaging in perfect practice to improve their skill.

If someone wants to improve their golf swing then they should take golf lessons from a qualified coach and then practice, practice, and practice some more. Swinging a weighted object of any kind in place of the golf club will not develop club head speed or improve their swing.

What it will do is create new mechanicsfor their body to learn and then distort their regular swing. Plain and simple, there is no transference from one activity to another, which is why movement is specific.

It’s Not Just About Strength

The same holds true for developing explosiveness and speed. These skills are developed by becoming stronger, practicing proper skills and techniques, understanding and studying one’s sport, having acute auditory and visual skills, being perceptive, and of course, let’s not forget genetics.

I remember watching the great Dick Butkus when I was young (yes, I know I’m dating myself here) when he played for the Chicago Bears. You could see him watch as plays evolved and then react with such tenacity and speed.

Was it because he was doing power cleans or lifting fast? No, the man knew his sport and his competition and put himself in the right place at the right time.

He was strong, determined, understood how to read plays, and was an animal on the field. That’s what made him great, and this was all without the benefit of strength training because at that time he didn’t believe in it.

Have you ever experienced or witnessed an individual avoid a car accident merely because they see the accident unfolding as it is about to occur, and while observing their surroundings, they react instantly?

Is it because they work out on a balance board or maxed out on their squats? Nah, I doubt it. They used their auditory and visual skills, maybe even some experience and knowledge of how to handle a situation as this. So, my confusion lies with the idea of transfer – transfer of performing one movement or skill to another.

If a power clean is identical to performing movements on the football field then I should be able to eat soup with a fork because it’s the same movement as if I were to use a spoon.

If you believe that one needs to stand on an unstable surface to become stable, then that leads me to reason that you wouldn’t mind a house built on sand.

Why put someone on an unsecured surface to develop stability? Why have someone risk falling, twisting a knee or ankle, or worse, so they can develop balance? And when was the last time you saw anyone play a sport on an unstable surface? Lift fast to be fast? I disagree.

Using momentum and gravity to move the weight is not going to force your muscles to do all the work. Think about this, does it make sense to unload the muscle to develop strength and speed?

If you give it a moment’s thought you’d realize that the muscles need to do the work to become stronger and just throwing a weight around doesn’t mean you are becoming stronger or becoming faster – it just means you are throwing a weight around. Consider developing strength more than displaying strength.

Sport-Specific Training – Conclusions

If you are working with young athletes, set them up for success by including the following in their program:

• Implement a safe, efficient, and effective full-body strength program two to three times per week. Have them work on all the major muscle groups and include exercises specific to strengthening the hands, calves, and in particular, the neck. Use a high level of effort with controlled movement. Include 7-10 exercises per workout and have them move quickly between exercises.
• Additional conditioning work is optional when the athlete is strength training intensely a couple times per week and practicing his or her sport. Conditioning, if needed and included, should be broken out in a structured manner. Over conditioning an athlete can lead to injuries and burnout very easily.
• Practice, practice, practice, but make sure the athlete is practicing properly. You can practice all day long that 2+2=5, but you’d be wrong every single time. Make sure what your athletes are practicing is correct.
• Have them become a student of the sport. Make sure they watch other athletes on all levels so they can learn more about the game and particular situations, so they can further their understanding of the sport.
• Have your athletes work on their auditory and visual skills as well. Being able to watch plays unfold and communicate will improve their skill set and effectiveness tremendously.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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In order to perform at the player’s potential, they need to be light and strong. The more weight that you are carrying on the court, the more you have to work. Swinging a racket and sprinting to balls will raise your heart rate. If lactic acid builds up, the player will become slower and the tennis strokes will lose control.

Because many matches are played in the summer time, low body fat and a good respiratory system are important. Very often, players will have to play two matches in one day or a match a day for a whole week. These factors make recovery important and VO2 max needs to increase.

The most important shot in tennis is the serve and like baseball, a tennis player has to have good shoulder mobility and a strong rotator cuff. If a player can increase his upper body strength in the “pushing” and “pulling” departments, the groundstrokes can become more powerful and volleys will have more control.

Lastly, tennis puts very high stress on the joints of the body. The pounding, jumping, twisting, and bending on hard courts can take it’s toll on the player and the training needs to be designed to respect this. I love using the bike, treadmill, swiss balls, medicine balls, and dumbbells to train the player in very safe, simple, and effective manner.

Week 8, Day 1

A.

10 Mins Treadmill Warm Up at 60% Max

2 Mins Jump Rope

Side to Side Lateral Bound

20 secs on 10 secs off x 6

B.

1. Barbell Bench Press: 12 x 2
2. Swiss Ball Fly: 12 x 2
3. Side Plank: 30 secs x 2
4. Dumbbell External Rotation: 12 x 2
5. Inverted Bosu Ball Pushup: 12 x 2

The post Sport Specific: Tennis – Week 8, Day 1 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In order to perform at the player’s potential, they need to be light and strong. The more weight that you are carrying on the court, the more you have to work. Swinging a racket and sprinting to balls will raise your heart rate. If lactic acid builds up, the player will become slower and the tennis strokes will lose control.

Because many matches are played in the summer time, low body fat and a good respiratory system are important. Very often, players will have to play two matches in one day or a match a day for a whole week. These factors make recovery important and VO2 max needs to increase.

The most important shot in tennis is the serve and like baseball, a tennis player has to have good shoulder mobility and a strong rotator cuff. If a player can increase his upper body strength in the “pushing” and “pulling” departments, the groundstrokes can become more powerful and volleys will have more control.

Lastly, tennis puts very high stress on the joints of the body. The pounding, jumping, twisting, and bending on hard courts can take it’s toll on the player and the training needs to be designed to respect this. I love using the bike, treadmill, swiss balls, medicine balls, and dumbbells to train the player in very safe, simple, and effective manner.

Week 3, Day 1

Upright Stationary Bike: 10 Mins

RPM: 80 – 90

Heart Rate: 50% of Max

Intervals:

5 Rounds – 30 secs on, 30 Secs off:

RPM: 95 – 105

Heart Rate: 80% Max

1. Dumbbell Chest Press: 14 x 2

2. Rotational Horizontal Cable: 14 x 2

3. Dumbbell Shoulder Raise: 12 x 2

4. Medicine Ball Throw Standing Rotational Wall: 16 x 2

5. Overhead External Rotation Dumbbell: 14 x2

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