Methods are many, principles are few, methods often change, principles rarely do.
One of my favorite sayings when I think about training, programming and what the latest technique or training method is. The Principles of training and exercise are solid foundations that really do not change. Today we’re going to discuss the differences when it comes to training athletes for athletic performance vs training general population for health and wellbeing.
Athlete programming is drastically different to general population programming. Athletes have performance that they need to be peaking for. They also have a yearly schedule to work around. Pre-season, in-season, competition peaking and post-season all bring their own complications and demands. For example, early pre-season is a great opportunity to do some hypertrophy training. This builds muscle size and helps lay the foundation for a long season. Later in the pre-season we have a chance to build some strength and power. However, you can’t really do a major hypertrophy block mid-season. The tissue damage needed to cause hypertrophy would have a detrimental impact to performance on the field and put the athlete at a big risk to injury.
Further off this point around different styles and windows of programming, many sports require the athlete to be of a certain strength level to be able to compete at the top level. Think of a front row in rugby, his strength levels need to be at minimum par with the average elite front row or he will get cleaned out in the scrum. On the other hand, there is no requirement for general population strength and no limit on the timeframe in which we can achieve that.
With all that said, programming for the general population isn’t easy either. Most of the time they have goals you need to work around and help them achieve while they also have many other things going on that can impact their progress. However, you’re often not restricted by certain timetables throughout the year so you can cycle through different training phases and make steady progress. If you’ve been a long term reader of the blog you’ll remember the one I did early on where I discussed training the general population. The biggest point of emphasis is often movement quality, in my experience athletes have better movement control, naturally. So the biggest job here is to improve the overall movement of the general population first.
Further differences appear when you think about it. When a member of the general population comes to me what are they looking for? 9 times out of 10 they want to feel better about themselves, lose fat and become a bit more toned. In terms of my job, it’s relatively simple, in theory. I come up with a programme that will focus on building muscle and aerobic capacity. Helping them get stronger and fitter while also equipping them with nutritional knowledge so they can help themselves away from me. The biggest changes in body composition will come from their nutrition and lifestyle habits.
Straight forward enough, correct? Now let’s talk about what has to go into my job when it comes to athletic performance.
· Strength development.
· Power development.
· Conditioning for performance.
· Injury limitation.
· Peaking for performance.
· Top end speed development.
· Acceleration development.
· Running mechanics.
· Change of direction mechanics.
· Nutrition habits and how to correctly fuel up.
· Hydration for performance.
As you can see there is a lot more that goes into the preparation of an athlete for sport performance than what goes into training a general population member for long term health and fitness. Does that mean one is more important than the other? Definitely not. The reason is because it’s not about me and what I value to be important, the average joe obviously values his health and longevity more than the athlete’s performance but to that athlete, how they perform as an individual and a team is the most important thing. My job is to give these people the best opportunity to maximize their potential through the means available to me. Can I make them a better goal kicker? Not directly, that job is down to the kicking coach. I can help with getting them stronger and more powerful so they may be able to kick the ball 5m more.
Methods are many, principles are few, methods often change, principles rarely do.
Hopefully now you understand that a lot goes into athlete preparation and the methods I use to prepare them may be different to the methods I use to help a member of the general population alter their body composition. But, the principles remain the same, the muscle works the same way whether you’re an athlete or not.
Be sure to check back in next week and share this week’s blog with anyone you think might find it interesting. If you’re a regular reader, subscribe below to have the blog sent directly to your email every Sunday. As always, reach out with any topics you want covered, I’ll do my best to research and give my opinion on the topic as long as it fits with my mission and values.
Catch you next week,
Rory.