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sports specific exercise
The
Greek physician Galen (AD 129 – 210) is generally accepted to be the
originator of formalized exercise, he even pointed the way forward by
stating, “…movements
which do not alter respiration are not called exercise”.
Whilst he was chief physician to the Gladiators, Galen devised training drills to replicate movements from the arena, as seen in the 1960 film Spartacus. Galen’s gladiator drills are now referred to as ‘sports specific’ training or sometimes the misleading term ‘functional’ training, that is, exercises consisting of movements that are specific to a particular sport. With practice we may get better at performing these exercises but to date there is no proof that this makes any difference to sporting performance or normal everyday function of the muscles specifically targeted. ‘State-dependent learning’ is a phenomenon in which the retrieval of newly acquired information is possible only if the subject is in the same environment and physical state as during the learning phase. That is, a skill learnt in one situation does not necessarily translate to another, for example, results gained from exercises designed to strengthen the ‘core’ muscles may not change their performance under competitive or even everyday circumstances that differ from those of the specific exercise. Therefore, if training routines are to be beneficial they must replicate the playing conditions as closely as possible. In
professional sport a large percentage of training is taken up by
exercise in the belief it will develop strength, co-ordination and
agility, but if these exercises are considered necessary for a given
sport, why doesn’t the athlete develop these skills by actually
participating in their sport? If an athlete lacks the strength or
agility considered essential for their game then either the perceived
requirements are wrong (and this happens time and time again) and the
exercises are a waste of time or the athlete is not performing their
sport in a manner considered to be right. If the latter is the case then
how can an athlete whose movement may be at fault be expected to be
suddenly capable of performing the prescribed exercises correctly? If
they do learn to perform the exercises ‘correctly’ can these new
skills be transferred back to the sporting arena? Sports
scientist Dr Michael Yessis writes:- What
Makes an Exercise Specific? For
an exercise to be specific it must fulfill one or more of the following
criteria: So perhaps the best sport specific exercise program, by definition, is …. playing your sport? Agree or disagree? Let me know click here Want to read more? click here
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