Training With A Purpose

Today's Training

Strength and conditioning for athletes has never been bigger. The amount of research that has been done to show how it can help to improve performance, and decrease the chance of injury is ridiculous. Gyms everywhere have group athlete classes the will make you "bigger, faster, stronger." So we write up a workout for these kids to do and they leave with their butts kicked and everything sore. Sounds pretty awesome and it is to a certain extent. The problem arises when Jim the shot-putter did the same thing as Sally the cross country runner. Initially it may not be too bad but after months of training their bodies are going to adapt to what they're doing and they both need very, very different things. Maybe bigger, faster, stronger isn't what you're looking for.

Different Goal Should Mean Different Stimulus

If you break down every sport to just series after series of muscle action it is much easier to see why everyone should be training differently. Take that same shot-putter and break what he does down. He throws only a couple times a meet but when he throws its absolute max force and max speed. He puts everything he's got into that one movement. Now take the cross country runner and tell me they should be doing the same thing.

They use different muscle groups, fiber types, energy systems, different everything! Obviously those are polar opposites and its not always that blatant but sports are a heck of a lot different than people think.

Importance Of Individualized Programs

Not only is every sport different, so is each position (WR vs QB vs Lineman) and each individual person. I can go on all day about this but I'll spare you the babblng. What we try to do at SPI is take each athlete and understand what they need to get better. That's why every athlete has their own program which is based on everything they do and need. I understand that exercise is exercise and anything is better a than nothing but sometimes it's not. The gym is a hard place to get yourself to go so let's try to make the time we're there as productive as possible.