Purpose & Intention for More Effective Physical Training

When you dive deep into human movement, you begin to learn some apparent principles that go a long ways to improving results. The following article comes from some thoughts I have put together during my work with Demotu while analyzing 100's of videos on the quality and effectiveness of people's movements during exercise.

Physical training effectively requires the application of a number of principles and characteristics that help make the routine change the human body. Out of the many key principles involved, one of the most important is that of "Specificity." Simply stated, doing exercises and routines specific to the goal you are pursuing. It seems like an obvious statement and for the most part people try to do their best in accomplishing this principle. Programming a routine to accomplish this gets complicated when the goal is more complex than simply doing "something". Even with a goal like losing weight or gaining muscle is not as simple as many articles and trainers claim. The application of specificity is putting the purpose into the training routine.? Without a purpose, it is difficult to tell if the routine is helping you achieve your goal in the most effective way.?

While there are many different sports or activities available to participate in, it is critical to remember that each requires a different program to adapt the body to the unique stresses required to perform the activities. This is why you don’t see many elite athletes crossing over between multiple sports very effectively. For example, let's take a look at a runner. To run efficiently, there are specific muscles, joints and stabilizing forces required. In the weight room, runners need to identify these different parts of the body, how they are interacting and executing and perform exercises that act as accessories in enhancing these individual pieces. Think about how deadlifting works the posterior chain musculature and translates into the runner being able to put more force into the ground being able to overcome greater resistance with their low back and hamstrings. This same principle can apply for different exercises that help enhance the runner’s muscles to strengthen their ability to run. It is important to say too, that you cannot substitute solid running workouts and training with weight room workouts, if you want to be a runner, you must run. But you can use the weight room in a specific way to compliment your performances on the track or road.?

On the other hand, too many runners look for routines and try to essentially make their weight routine a running workout. This is where purposeful training is a necessary concept to learn when looking for an effective routine. For a runner, weights can never mimic the repetitive nature of impact of the muscles and the propulsion created from ground reaction forces creating forward motion. Nor would you ever lift a weight in the same position as you would run (Lifting on a flat foot is proper form, but you want to run on the front 2/3's of your foot). As we stated before, lifting will never replace a sport specific activity, but like in this case of running, lifting does accomplish some very important goals for runners. Strengthens joints, increases power production and provides other Endocrine system benefits very advantageous to runners and other endurance athletes. Though the moves themselves are not "specifically" mimicking running, the result is “specific” to the activity.

Here are 3 key tips to help apply specificity to your routine:

1. Understand the exercise: What muscles are activated? What joints are moving? What range of motion in required?
2. Find your weak points: Is there any discomfort during the exercise? Can you achieve full range of motion? Are there any sticking points during the movement?
3. Add movements that make sense: Does the movement compliment the goal? How does the movement improve my weaknesses??

Even with non-performance based goals, like losing weight, resistance training routines are not all alike. The amount of clients asking for help losing weight and referencing Arnold Schwarzenegger or other top tier bodybuilders are unaware of the contradiction they have found. Bodybuilders are in the business of gaining size. getting bigger and bigger. the opposite of what the average person wanting to lose weight is looking for. The average gym goer and recreational athlete would not benefit using a routine from these sources because of the emphasis put on gaining size, weight loses would be minimized if even experienced at all.

Take a look at your goals when determining the routine you are thinking about following. Performance Based goals are going to require specific muscle groups specially trained to perform a specific task. Often requiring coordination and neurological adaptations to perfect technique making lifting more of an addition ON TOP of your performance specific training, not a replacement. Non-performance based goals can typically be accomplished by a range of exercises, however, the way the resistance is moved, the sets and reps, rest in-between intervals need to be such that the body adapts and changes in the way that the exercises are designed for. In the end, the way we move determines the way we look.

The moral of this story is that your resistance training needs to be specific to the purpose. Be wary of a lot of lifts that are not necessary for your progress, before you begin any routine, study it, criticize it, find what will benefit you and what won't. Consult a professional on the subject and nail your routine down to something that will work specific to what you are looking for. Moving effectively is much more beneficial than doing lots of popular movements for the sake of moving. The quality and type of movement will determine the effectiveness of your routine.