STRENGTH-HEALTH TRAINING VS STRENGTH-SPORTS PERFORMANCE TRAINING

In previous posts we have been commenting on the benefits of strength training in different special populations, trying to highlight their characteristics and goodness, followed by a small practical application.

Today we are going to deal with another topic which we find interesting, and that is the difference in the type of strength training when we do this with purely healthy objectives, to when we direct it exclusively to sports performance.

Footwork drill by Kyle CC BY 2.0

As a number one point, we would like to make it clear that performance-oriented sports training is NOT a healthy practice. Today, many non-professional athletes are training themselves as elite athletes, which is resulting in a superlative increase in the number of overload injuries, ligament ruptures, muscle breaks, overtraining syndrome, etc.

Therefore, we must make an enormous separation between the way we train, as well as the training load depending on what our objectives are; health vs. performance.

When we orient training towards health, as we have already commented and will continue to do so through different publications, its effectiveness in preventing different diseases (coronary heart disease, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, hypertension, etc.) has been amply demonstrated (Pollock, M.L. and Vincent, 1996) (Colberg et al, 2010) (Garber et al., 2011) (Petersen, Hastings, & Gottschall, 2017) (Brochu, Ades, Dvorak, DeNino, & Poehlman, 2000) (Gottschall, Jones, Mills, & Hastings, 2013).

However, when this training is geared towards sporting performance, the considerations and consequences are quite different.

Once we are clear that performance and health are separate concepts, and understanding sport as an element that promotes injuries with injury rates that can reach 53 injuries per 1,000 hours of sports practice (Ciro et al., 2007), we are going to point out some concepts to train and improve safely, and above all, functionally, making the most of each training.

We think, coinciding with the position of the famous physiotherapist and sports trainer Michael Boyle, that the key is precisely there, in carrying out the training in a functional way. To do this, we must answer these three questions: 

1. How many sports are practiced seated? The answer is clear; very few (rowing), so training in this position (in machines) will not be functional.

2. How many sports are played in a rigid and stable environment? The answer is none, all are practiced in sports fields, where stability is provided by the athlete, adapting to the environment, so training in machines that stabilize motor patterns will not be functional in any case, and, although it may seem that training in machines produces a lower number of injuries, in the long run these injuries that do not occur training, will occur during the development of the game, for not having worked the patterns necessary to support the forces exerted in competition.

3. How many times does a joint act in an isolated way to perform a sporting gesture? Again, the answer is never. Therefore, performance-oriented functional training should focus on multi-articular movements.
(Boyle, 2014)

Once we have these concepts clear, to develop a correct training plan applied to performance, we must take into account the different parameters and characteristics of both the sport and the athlete himself, not training in the same way a popular athlete, without previous experience, than an Olympic athlete with years of experience, although some exercises may become similar. But always, above all, we must pay attention to the principle of individualization, not using pre-established training programs, but creating and adapting each program to the specific needs of each situation. Once this is clear, it will be time to start planning.
As a conclusion we can emphasize that:
1. Performance is not usually related to a healthy sports practice, and we must inform those who want to devote their lives to competition.
2. Competitive training does not pursue the same objectives as health training, so your exercises and planning should be very different.
3. In both cases, we will seek to make the training as functional as possible, adapting this functionality to the requirements of one or another population (in the case of an elderly person, the functionality we seek can be to climb stairs without fatigue).

Finally, we add this video summary of what functional training is. We hope to have clarified some concepts, and that you continue practicing sport in the way that best suits each of you.





See you in the next post.

May the force be with you!

REFERENCES

Boyle, M. (2014). New functional training for sport.

Brochu, M., Ades, P. A., Dvorak, R. V, DeNino, W. F., & Poehlman, E. T. (2000). Effects of Resistance Training and Endurance Training on Insulin Sensitivity in Nonobese, Young Women: A Controlled Randomized Trial1. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 85(7), 2463–2468. https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem.85.7.6692

Ciro, O., Alberto, J., Rodríguez, C., Paola, M., Arango, V., Giraldo, P., … Cristina, I. (2007). Lesiones deportivas. Iatreia, 167–177.

Colberg, S. R., Sigal, R. J., Fernhall, B., Regensteiner, J. G., Blissmer, B. J., Rubin, R. R., … Braun, B. (2010). Exercise and type 2 diabetes: the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Diabetes Association: joint position statement. Diabetes Care, 33(12), e147-67. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc10-9990

Garber, C. E., Blissmer, B., Deschenes, M. R., Franklin, B. A., Lamonte, M. J., Lee, I. M., … Swain, D. P. (2011). Quantity and quality of exercise for developing and maintaining cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in apparently healthy adults: Guidance for prescribing exercise. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 43(7), 1334–1359. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0b013e318213fefb

Gottschall, J. S., Jones, J. L., Mills, J., & Hastings, B. (2013). Group fitness is effective in reducing cardiovascular disease risk factors in healthy. Open Journal of Preventive Medicine, 3(1), 132–140. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojpm.2013.31017

Petersen, B. A., Hastings, B., & Gottschall, J. S. (2017). Low load, high repetition resistance training program increases bone mineral density in untrained adults. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 57(1–2), 70–76. https://doi.org/10.23736/S0022-4707.16.05697-8

Pollock, M.L. and Vincent, K. R. (1996). Resistance training for Health. The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Research Digest.