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who needs exercise? "We have come to accept that in order to improve performance or get fit we need to perform exercises that often have little in common with everyday movements or even those of our sport." If
you are currently experiencing injury or discomfort during physical
activity it is likely you will at some point be advised to perform
remedial exercises to address the problem. If you are having difficulty
with a technical aspect of your game there are usually practice drills
to help you overcome it. If overweight it won’t be long before someone
recommends you take up or increase your level of activity that will
invariably involve exercise of some sort. Tired all the time or
depressed? Again exercise will be mentioned somewhere on the road to
recovery. The answer to all problems these days seems to be exercise,
but does exercise do anything to address the causes of the above? Why
and how do we get injured in the first place? Why do we struggle with
technique? How do we get to become overweight or overtired? For
many centuries ‘the way of exercise’ has been followed almost
without question, today’s exercises may appear more scientific but the
basic underlying philosophy has not changed. Hippocrates (460-370 BC)
advised that, “If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health” The
Greek physician Galen (AD 129 – 210) is generally accepted to be the
originator of formalised 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. There has always been debate in the world of fitness about
which type of exercise is best for particular sports, developing
strength or toning, but few question how we benefit from performing them
or whether we need to do them at all. We have come to accept that in
order to improve performance or get fit we need to perform exercises
that often have little in common with everyday movements or even those
of our sport. For example, how can anyone scientifically justify the
popular sit-up? Do we really improve performance in one activity by
spending more time doing another? If I apply this philosophy elsewhere I
would come to the conclusion that performing press-ups would improve my
sex-life! Sadly,
this dominance of ‘exercise culture’ in today’s sport and fitness
world has for many taken the joy of movement and spontaneity out of
activity that was present in our youth. The strict discipline of an
exercise regime can make us forget the very reason why we enjoyed sport
and activity. Young children love to run and jump. This free-play is
vital for developing their sense of balance and reflexes. When we are
young we do not need to know this, we play because it is fun and feels
good. So why question the way of exercise now? Recent scientific research in the field of human movement may suggest that the way we exercise could actually impede natural ability and therefore degrade performance and leave us susceptible to injury. 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 practise 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? Taking the definition of sports specific exercises to the extreme means performing the routines whilst playing the game in situ therefore negating the need to do any exercise at all! Agree or disagree? Let me know click here Want to read more? click here
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