Timestamps:
0:00 Intro & updates
2:40 “Sport Specific” training misconceptions & what the point of strength training really is…
Summary Takeaways On “Sport Specific” Exercises:
• The gym & lifting weights is meant to provide the body with everything that can help support performance *outside* of what sport practice itself provides. It is literally meant to “fill in the gaps”….NOT add more cumulative stress to the same movement patterns and positions you are already working for 1000+ reps a week.
• If anything, it is *better* to utilize movements in the gym that that don’t hyper-replicate the exact same patterns as your sport so you can avoid overuse injury from only moving in the same patterns & directly fill in the gaps in your overall training so that your body is exposed to ranges and positions beyond what is most identical to your most common competitive environment movement.
• Overloading the same sport movement patterns too directly can sometimes just disturb your technical skills anyway as loaded movements that resemble your skilled movement too much too often can interfere with the quality of your motor patterns accordingly to some research & anecdotal experience when this is taken too far.
• Not to mention, these movements can’t even be progressed properly 90% of the time as they are moves that don’t lend themselves to loading in the first place and thus can’t even actually improve the outputs the gym is supposed to provide you with progressive overload.
• The point of a strength & conditioning program is to develop the *underlying* qualities that express themselves in our sport outputs when skilled movements are performed - usually focusing on those that are not fully developed by the sport training itself. These are things like motor unit recruitment, hypertrophy (muscle + connective tissue), rate of force development/contraction speed, joint durability, energy systems, mobility, and some general health practices.
• The SAID principle (Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands) is being taken too far and out of useful context when it is applied in sport training to only utilize gym movements that mimic corresponding sport skills. Accepting that there is value in the using gym itself over more sport training is accepting that a divergence from the most specific training possible (playing the sport) is useful.
Thus it is logical to assume that divergence from the exact movements used in sport is not going to harm an athlete and won’t result in a lack of transfer but will likely provide athletes with a more diverse, robust, and well developed set of skills & ability.
• Special development exercises that fit into a “grey” area here can have a place in some athletes training…however the existence of these protocols doesn’t mean that “non-specific” training for athletes is inferior OR less important - especially since those general exercises are likely *more* important to long term success.
See here for more information:
18:45 Q&A
Foot & Ankle Agility post:
Hybrid Performance Podcast Q&A #4 - “Sport Specific Exercises Are Bullshit” + “Fixing” Flat Feet Etc