FITNESS Training for specific sports

Getting down to specifics


Personal trainer
Paul O'Brien

TO GAIN health benefits from exercise, the general rule is to perform aerobic exercise four to five times a week for about 45 minutes each time, together with a couple of sessions of resistance training for muscle toning. However, does this general rule still apply when you are training for a specific event?
I would say there are two approaches here. If you are training just to complete and enjoy an event, then basic training following general guidelines will suffice. After all, your goal is to finish the event comfortably if possible.
If, on the other hand, you are training to beat a personal best or to advance in your sport, then training takes on a different emphasis. The ‘specificity of training’ principle will need to be applied.

Specificity
According to the specificity principle, proficiency in any given movement requires practising and training in that movement. In other words, you won’t reach peak running fitness by jumping rope, doing aerobics or lifting weights. To achieve peak fitness for running, you must run. This may seem obvious, but yet the principle is little understood.
An example to illustrate. Take a Gaelforce competitor, who must complete four disciplines during the event – running, cycling, kayaking and climbing. On the face of it, running and cycling may appear quite similar in that many of the same muscles are used during these disciplines. Yet, you will often find athletes who can cycle endlessly yet seem not to have the same capacity for running. The reason is the principle of specificity. An athlete who is well trained for cycling will have a high aerobic capacity when cycling, but not when running. To have a high capacity for both, the athlete must train in both.
However, this does not mean that this same competitor should not do anything except cycle and run. Weight training should still be used to help enhance performance. However, the principle of specificity should still be followed here. Weight training should be structured to break down the movements of the disciplines involved in the sport and train these, particularly where weaknesses are identified. Performing other activities in cross-training is also important in order to offer variety, decrease the risk of boredom, aid recovery and help avoid injury.

Next week The benefits and uses of cross-training

Paul O’Brien is a certified personal trainer with the American Council on Exercise and a qualified life coach. He runs his own business in Westport and is the creator of Bootcamp West, an exciting and challenging exercise programme in Westport. For details of upcoming classes, visit www.bootcampwest.com or e-mail paul@bootcampwest.com or telephone 086 1674515.