Guest Blog from TrueFitness: Train for your Sport

Today I want to discuss further in depth why training like a bodybuilder will not be beneficial to you as an athlete. The principles of overload and specificity simply don’t allow for our body to adapt in a way that will benefit our game performance by the methods used during a typical bodybuilder workout. The principle of specificity states we need to train as close to our desired goal in order to achieve that goal. This can be achieved through movement, speed of movement, coupling of joint movements, appropriate rest periods, proper selection of drills and many more variables that can be manipulated to develop athleticism. In bodybuilding, too much emphasis is placed on single joint isolation and muscular contraction. Lifting for body sculpting places all of the effort on feeling the muscle and squeezing the muscle to a pump. This is not the priority or even a desirable quality when training for sports performance. These are only a couple of reasons why bodybuilding is not for sports performance athletes.

Sports performance is about incorporating the whole body to develop a more powerful body. The body is one explosive unit during sport and the most specific appropriate way to train for sport is to train the body as one unit. Sport is about coordinating the chaos of multiple unexpected reactionary movements at the same time, different times and variable times. We need our bodies ready to react in different ways according to different stressors. In sport we do not react with a single joint or in a slow and controlled motion. Sport requires the movement to be quick, powerful and involve the whole body. An athlete needs to train in order to allow their body to become accustomed to the many variables involved in sport. Sport is not about repetition and repeated consistent movement. Sport is about unforeseen events unfolding in front of us as we react and expect our body to perform in the appropriate and most athletic way possible

Within the parameters of training for sports there are a few elements that are contradictory to bodybuilding training. Full range of motion is very important within bodybuilding training but less so with sports performance. Sport does not necessarily involve a joint being worked through full range of motion but instead short accelerated range of movements. Sports performance also uses variable speeds of movement to train our bodies for the speed of sport as well as getting our joints use to the jarring of movement. Bodybuilding is highly defined by reps and sets. Sports performance is defined by fatigue and rest recovery. Sports performance is about making sure you are exhausted and whether that happened during the first rep or thirtieth rep is unimportant as long as the exercise and reps are specific to your sport. Working to fatigue will allow your body to adapt and become more capable and resistant to fatigue during the game. Bodybuilding is about the feel of the movement. Sports performance is about the movement. These are just a few examples of the differences between training for sports performance and training for bodybuilding.

So as we are beginning to see, sports performance training and bodybuilding training are separate in approach and desired results. These two types of training are very good for the individual goal but are not compatible for the opposite goal. They are approached different and will desire different results. To be the best athlete you can be, do not approach your sports performance training as a bodybuilder but as an athlete.

For more info and education on sports performance training be sure to check out our group page on Facebook, TrueFitness Performance Conditioning. You will learn valuable lessons to be your best and improve your athleticism.
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Anyone in the San Diego area is welcome to drop in at our studio at 2949 Garnet Ave. 3rd floor, Pacific Beach, CA. We would love to put you through our workout. Please feel free to call or email Spencer Aiken,CSCS (951) 296-7993 email:spencer@truefitness.biz

Article written by Spencer Aiken, CSCS, CEO, TrueFitness