simeone says
At the start of every year, our gyms and our Instagram feeds are filled with the “New Years Resolutioners”. By March they are replaced with the “Spring Breakers”. With the warmer weather upon us we will ultimately see the emergence of the “Swim Suit Season-ers”. A lot of time the motivation for starting a fitness plan comes from the desire to change something about our physical appearance. As someone who works with and trains athletes, I find it interesting when people ask me for advice on a fitness program to start to because they want to “have abs”, grow their glutes, or attain some other goal that is focused on aesthetics. While athletes have some of the best bodies among the general population, that is a consequence of training..not a goal. There is no doubt Michael Phelps looks good in a Speedo. Now, if I ever meet him in person I will be sure to inquire and appropriately amend this claim, but it is doubtful having “beach bod” is the motivation for him to complete his grueling training regimen. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to attain a certain goal for your body based on appearance, physical change takes a long time to occur and can be subjective. Instead, I recommend using a different metric to motivate you if you are starting or continuing your fitness journey.
One of the training goals of athletes is to increase strength. Increasing strength is often times mistakenly confused for increasing the size of your muscles. Hypertrophy refers to the increase of the cross sectional area of the muscle resulting in increased muscle mass. Strength, on the other hand, is the ability to produce or generate force due to neuromuscular adaptations. Now, these two goals are closely related and certain sports require athletes to have training programs that focus on both of these goals . Training variables such as weight, set, reps, and rest intervals can be manipulated to influence which of these training goals are the focus.
When training athletes, there is more than just absolute strength the maximal force a muscle can generate. A strength base is used to develop power, the ability to generate a force quickly. There is also strength endurance , the ability to produce submaximal forces over an extended period of time. So whether you’re a college student who moves into (and out of) your third story dorm room or are worried about being able to push your car in the event that you run out of gas, strength will be a beneficial adaptation.
Speed is the ability to cover a certain distance as fast as possible. Though training for speed can be done on the typical cardio equipment such as the treadmill or elliptical, incorporating agility and quickness training is even more beneficial even for the non-athlete. Agility, the ability to accelerate, decelerate, stabilize, and change directions quickly with fluidity of movement, requires balance and body control. Quickness is the ability to react with maximum force production. Training for speed, agility, and quickness is a way to promote cardiovascular activity that improves coordination and body awareness. Additionally, it can help you reduce your chance of certain types of injury not to mention make you a better asset to your work dodge-ball team. Even if you are not looking to be the MVP of your lunch-time pick-up basketball team, incorporating speed, agility, and quickness training is more fun that simply running on a treadmill.
There is no doubt that athletes must be mentally tough to deal with the demands of practices, training, and competition. While a strength coach is looked to as the person to make an athlete “bigger, faster, and stronger”, a lot of the training is to teach an athlete to be mentally tough. Training is not easy. In order for changes to occur, you must do things you literally were once incapable of doing. Additionally, athletes who train develop discipline. I work with teams who wake up to be in the weight room at 6 in the morning because it is the only time they can train due to the various academic and sport-related commitments. Though the regular person may not need to wake up at the crack of dawn to fit a workout into their day, deciding to commit to putting in work and trying even when you feel like you cannot do something will strengthen your mental toughness which, in turn, will carry over to all aspects of your life
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This is a very short list that leaves out a lot of the other benefits of exercise that are independent of looks. When you start to focus on what your body can do and not just what it looks like you will learn to appreciate your body more, be more likely to fuel it with better nourishment, and be more likely to keep with your program.
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