• COVID-19 Health Screening
  • Classes & Amenities
    • Riverwalk Features
    • Class Descriptions
    • Class Schedules
    • Pool and Swimming
    • Personal Trainers
    • Therapeutic Training
  • Membership
  • Fitness Blog & Events
  • Contact

The Difference between Training to Build Strength (Force Output) And Training To Allow Yourself To Train For Strength (Health and Symmetry)

February 3, 2014[email protected]Fitness

By: Anthony Campo

In the training world there is much time spent on exercise selection. Many coaches and athletes will talk and write about what exercises are great for building strength. I am here to tell you that when choosing an exercise, one of the most important things is to know why you are training that exercise. For example anybody who knows anything about training knows that the squat is a great exercise to build strength. The fact that the barbell squat can be trained and loaded at a high intensity, is a compound movement, and requires a large amount of muscular coordination and technique makes it a great choice to to train for maximal force output. It can be trained for maximal effort, dynamic effort, or rep effort to cause an adaption of the body that will directly build strength in the long run. This also means that the squat is a great measuring stick, and why it a staple lift in lifting competitions.
Now take for instance an exercise such as a good morning. This is an exercise that will help you train for symmetry and reduce injury. Many coaches argue whether or not the good morning directly helps you build strength, or whether it transfers over to competitive lifts or sports. I say that is the wrong argument to have. An exercise such as the good morning is an exercise that can help you indirectly build strength. If you are training the good morning, the purpose is not to build maximal strength through that exercise. Rather, the purpose is to bring up the posterior chain in an individual where this may be there weak point. So for example let’s take a quad dominant squatter. Let’s even say this individual is a top level competitor. I would highly doubt that in the short term the good morning would increase this individual’s maximal squat. Because of this the coach or athlete might think that the good morning is a poor exercise choice for them because they do not get any direct carry over. However, the more this individual builds this quad-dominant imbalance the more they become at risk for injury. If this individual tears an It Band, or starts suffering from chronic knee pain this can really inhibit their success.
So let’s take this same individual and have them incorporate a posterior chain specific exercise such as the good morning into their training. They might not see any direct carry-over to their squat, but the exercise will work to maintain symmetry and lower the risk of injury. This individual now can train harder and more consistent which means more progress over the long run.
Another example of this concept for the upper body is the overhead press. Many powerlifting competitors argue that they do not get any carry-over from the overhead press to their bench press. For this reason they choose not to train the exercise. While it is true that you might not get any direct carry-over from the overhead press to the bench press, the overhead press is a great exercise for building all around symmetry in the shoulder joint. Many powerlifters that train specifically for the bench press, and ignore the overhead press, build imbalances in their anterior shoulder to their posterior shoulder. They also often lose some scapular mobility and stability. Now these imbalances might initially actually help the powerlifters bio-mechanics for the bench press specifically. However these are the same individuals that end up having to retire because of beat up shoulders, pec and rotator cuff tears. If these same individuals implemented some overhead pressing exercises into their training even though there might not of been any direct carry-over to their bench, they could have built the symmetry needed to keep them healthy, injury free, and have much longer careers.

Recent Posts

  • January Membership Special
  • MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION
  • COVID GUIDELINES
  • Free “Stay at Home” Remote Classes!
  • February 2019 Newsletter

Archives

  • January 2021
  • September 2020
  • April 2020
  • February 2020
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • April 2019
  • February 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012

Categories

  • Announcements
  • Fitness
  • News & Events
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Riverwalk Athletic Club‎ | 225 Water Street | Binghamton, NY 13901 | (607) 217-5995
HomeClassesSchedulesEmployment OpportunitiesPersonal TrainersContact
FreshySites
Copyright 2015. Riverwalk Athletic Club. All Rights Reserved.