Why Sport Conditioning is for Everyone
Sport conditioning can be equally beneficial for athletes and non-athletes alike. The term sport conditioning describes a particular way of training the body, not that it isn't necessarily just for elite athletes.
This approach to training is excellent for everyone because it is functional, practical and can be very enjoyable.
How to Make Sport Conditioning Part of an Exercise Routine
Sports Specific Training is Functional Conditioning
Sport Conditioning uses dynamic exercises to facilitate improvement in one's strength, balance, and stabilization. It focuses on weight bearing exercises that specifically target the muscles of the abdominals and lower back. By strengthening the core, individuals are able to perform daily activities and sports with greater comfort, ease, and a less likelihood of injury.
Our bodies move in three anatomical planes of motion – frontal, sagittal, and transverse. By incorporating resistive exercises in each plane of motion, improvement in overall muscular balance and joint stability can be established. In the gym, training these natural movement patterns can be completed with cable pulley machines, dumbbells, resistance bands, Bosu, wobble boards, medicine balls, and stability balls.
A Practical Form of Physical Activity
All of the exercises one performs should be in line with the goals they are striving to reach. For example, a football player will have a completely different exercise program than a marathon runner. Regardless of whether an individual is training for a sport or not, their program must be specifically designed for their goals. Individualized programs help ensure that all exercises being performed are practical and integrate the important elements of core stability, flexibility, balance, strength and power. Within the field of sport psychology, goal attainment has also been proven to increase levels of efficacy, confidence and motivation.
Sport Conditioning Makes Being Active Enjoyable
Sport conditioning can be an enjoyable and effective type of training for everyone; it demands innovation, creativity and variety while always producing positive results for those performing its principles correctly.
To reach one’s goals and peak performance, the body and all its muscle systems need to be continuously overloaded. Periodization training is a perfect way to consistently accomplish this, as the muscles need to be stressed in new and various ways fairly often.
Once the muscle has adapted to a particular stress or load (i.e., resistance), then it is time to switch the exercise. If an individual does not switch up their exercises after the muscles have adapted, they will go into a maintenance phase called a plateau and no longer experience improvements.
This training demands variety, which makes it exceptionally effective for producing results and decreasing the likelihood of boredom, burnout or overuse injuries.
