How Specific is Specific?

Are you doing the right training to elicit the results you desire? Is your training specific enough to your goals? In a time poor society we are always looking to get the biggest bang for our buck! Making sure your training is specific to your goals can help! Lets look at the principle of specificity to see how we can modify our training to achieve our desired outcome.

If you want to get better at running it makes sense that you need to run! The adaptations our body makes are specific to the training stimulus we provide it with. The scientific term used to describe this stimulus and response relationship is the SAID principle - Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands. For example; if you want to become stronger you need to do strength training, or if you want to improve your cardiovascular fitness you have to complete cardiovascular training. Fundamentally we must stress the specific system related to the specific outcome.

In a sporting scenario the best way to get better at the sport is to do the sport! However it is also important to this about how we can supplement this training. The key points of considerations are:

1) The energy system used in the sport

2) The muscle groups required for the sport

4) The speed of the movements required in the sport

3) The skill of the sport

We must hit all of these key points in our supplementary training in order to develop as a performer in our sport. The key thing to remember when looking at specificity in sport is we're looking for transferability here, we are not looking to replicate the movements performed in the sport, just the systems used. It is difficult to load and monitor exactly replicated movements of the sport.

How can these key points of specificity be applied us, everyday athletes, not necessarily training to become a better sports person? Our goals might be to get fitter or stronger, to gain muscle or to lose weight!

Lets have a look at our first key point of consideration: The energy system used. If we want to get stronger we need to look at the primary energy systems we use in resistance training; our anaerobic systems (the phosphorus-creatine and lactic acid). We must therefore look at the ways our training can target this system. Short bursts of high intensity activity would work! Alternatively if we wanted to get fitter from a cardiovascular point of view, we may be more specifically looking at developing our aerobic system, which is general used in longer, lower intensity activities. When we are looking at energy systems we also must consider rest periods between sets in our sessions; our anaerobic systems would require longer rests than the aerobic system due to system recovery times.

Next lets have a look at the muscle groups required. In order to improve our cardiovascular fitness or even for lose weight, we would want all of our muscles to be as efficient as possible. Muscles are where all the action happens in terms of calorie burning and energy production. Therefore, workouts should focus on working as many muscles as possible through compound exercises. However, If our goals revolve around improving strength or increasing muscle size we may need to be more specific in the muscles we are training. Lets think about how we are going to measure strength; through a squat or bench press? We need to target the muscles used during these exercises. If we wanted to gain muscles size we would similarly need to specifically target the muscles we want to grow!

Point three; the speed of the movement is perhaps less important for weight loss or cardiovascular fitness goals but, when it comes to strength and growing our muscles we must consider time under tension: the length of time it takes to complete a rep. Research has show slower reps lead to greater adaptations in muscle size and strength. This is definitely something to consider when programming your workouts!

Finally lets have a look at the skill required. If we want to increase our cardiovascular fitness we may want to look at a more specific goal such as; do we want to be able to run 5 kilometres, cycle from John O'Groats to Land's End. We may consequently start to look at running or cycling economy (the technique), in order to become more efficient at the skill. With regards to strength, we would be looking at the technique of the movements we are using to measure strength. Improved technique translates to greater movement efficiency, this would ultimately allow us to lift more weight.

It is easier to programme using the specificity principle if a specific goal is set initially. This should therefore be the first consideration when putting together a programme.

What are you specific goals? How have you made your programme specific to target these goals?