What is the goal of a strength and conditioning program? Several coaches and athletes would say their goal is to make the athlete bigger and stronger, and for this reason many strength and conditioning programs are rooted in bodybuilding or powerlifting. But heavier squats or bigger muscles aren’t always an indicator of improved performance. There are even times where these outcomes are counterproductive.
It isn’t enough for an athlete to lift weights. Weight training needs to be looked at as preparatory work. Stimuli applied in the weight room rarely live up to the demands of sport. It is therefore a conditioning tool used to prepare the body for stresses and loads more specific to performance training.
Sport exists in a multiplanar, high impact, and highly reactive environment. In contrast, weightlifting consists of a learned and controlled set of motor patters that may only resemble parts of athletic movement. If an athlete is to succeed in their sport, they must incorporate things like medicine balls, sprints, change of direction, and jumps on top of skill and tactical training.
Bodybuilding bears no resemblance to sport. Its endgame is one of aesthetics. Any gains in performance or strength are merely consequential. For all intents and purposes, it’s a beauty pageant with muscle. Muscles are not trained with the intent of improved efficiency or power output nor is there any concern for the elastic properties of muscles and tendons. Bodybuilding doesn’t care about any of these things, yet they are integral to the success of most athletes. At best, it builds resiliency to muscles and gives the athletes who need it some weight to throw around.
In contrast with bodybuilding, powerlifting at least cares for the strength of the athlete. There are also things successful powerlifters do that are similar to team sports and track and field athletes, but at the end of the day their goal is a display of strength in three very specific skills; the squat, deadlift, and bench press. All staples of many training programs, but none of which guarantee athletic performance.
Strength, despite its importance, is but one piece of athletic performance. If strength were all an athlete needed powerlifters would be the fastest sprinters and highest jumpers. At the very least they’d be able to hurl a shot or disc better than anybody else. Yet none of these things are true. Strength, while important, is only part of an athlete’s groundwork. Solely focusing on strength inevitably robs an athlete of speed and explosiveness. A slow-footed immobile athlete, no matter how strong, is basically useless.
It is worth an athlete’s time to consider the demands of their sport. Elements of powerlifting and bodybuilding can be excellent addition to a training program, many athletes can enjoy the benefits of being bigger and stronger, but they must not interfere with the athlete’s needs. Straying too far from the demands of the sport for too long will impede performance. The goal of a strength and conditioning program should not be looked at as size and strength, but to improve whatever physical traits are necessary for the athlete’s success.
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