Resistance Training—General vs Specific Exercises

Resistance Training—General vs Specific Exercises:


I just came across this article and it struck me as very important perspective at this time of year going into the fall especially for endurance athletes.  And especially because there are soooooo many buzz words out there that can confuse or mislead athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike.  One that always torques me is from some infomercial that states, "get a strong, sexy core!"  WTF?!  Really your "core" can be sexy!  Isn't that the impossible by the general definition of core being the innermost part of something or at the center and when it relates to your muscular core; its the same.  You can't see most of those muscles as they are your pelvic floor, multifudus, transverse abdominus, and other spinal flexor/erectors.  Sounds sexy huh!? Don't get me wrong some externally visual muscles like your obliques, abdominals, glutes, etc. can also be part of your "core" because the muscles work synergystically to support you and any one can't do it alone.


But I digress...back to the General vs Specific stuff.  In the article; the author Nick Tumminello does a fine job of defining and weighing out positives and negatives between the two when it comes to sports specific performance.


In short, general exercises are those that are foundational movements like the bench press whereas specific exercises are those like cable assisted single arm press.  The first you are supported by a bench, can support most of your body and isolate the bench press movement for maximal strength at that joint.  And the latter is more about balance and support muscles while performing a similar range of motion. You see the difference?  Ok, hope so!


I have seen many trainers, people at the gym (well I haven't been to one in a while), and even athletes use so many specific exercises that the negate the fact stated in this article that often the sheer load that you can achieve is lessened with the specificity.  So you can lift less weight and thus gain less strength for a given training session.  But you might ask, "but this movement is specific to my sport, so shouldn't I do it?"


The answer is meh, maybe!  I often tell many of the endurance athletes I coach not to get your sport mixed up with the goal of getting strong.  How many gym exercises can you do that approach the speed of movement required for the normal average cycling cadence of a ride or your running stride rate?!  Can you pump out 80 to 90 reps per minute?  If you are then you are a speed demon.  The closest you can often get is plyometrics but that's another topic.


When I prescribe strength work to an endurance athlete, I go straight to the goal to gain General strength and let the specificity come from the sport itself.  If that athlete has time in their schedule then some Specific exercises can be added in as accessory moves, as part of a transition phase or maintenance phase, but the key is in the fundamentals.


The take home here is going into the off-season, focus on the fundamentals first vs all the fancy moves and work on getting stronger.  Especially if you have some time before any competitions are looming. You'll get some benefit from putting on some heavy plates on the basic moves making a gym workout short, sweet and powerful.  And then get some time with your sport of choice turning the sheer strength gains into sport specific improvements.




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