It’s time for a little op-ed piece and as always, this is a discussion without judgment. That stated, the title begs the question regarding your choice of sport and fitness pursuits through the lifespan. Do you focus your training in mainly one area or do you diversify in the pursuit of a more well-rounded repertoire of movement options? This is the classic specialist versus generalist discussion, but in the sense of training for lifelong athleticism.
Training is the key word here because if you have a sport, or a passion, that you just love doing…you should do it for life. As long as you can. The subject I’d like to concentrate on is the training, or purposeful supportive exercise, that you might consider as you move along in your journey.
If I give that last point further consideration, we should first discuss what is known as supplemental conditioning in the athletic, or sports, training arena. The term supplemental conditioning is rather self-explanatory. It is training that we do as a supplement to our primary sports focus. It is designed to nourish, or support our athletic objectives. This can be broken down into a few key areas.
- Enhance the sports performance of the athlete by developing and refining qualities that are foundational in the chosen sport. For example, there are certain aspects of strength, speed, and agility that are necessary for a linebacker and training these areas will generally have a relatively high degree of transfer to on-field performance.
- Address identifiable or potential deficiencies and thus prevent injury and/or preserve long term performance capability. How does this unique athlete’s body function in his/her given sport? Can we improve certain aspects which, if left unaddressed, could limit performance and career longevity? An example here could be a runner with obvious technique flaws and strength/mobility imbalances which are negatively impacting efficiency and running economy.
- Because we consider supplemental conditioning to be secondary to primary sport practice and participation, we must ask ourselves how much is necessary in every athlete’s training mixology. Or, and perhaps even more importantly, how little can we get away with?
That’s a decent summation of the concept of supplemental conditioning. Our goal is to be as precise as possible. When we can determine the ideal type and amount of this supportive training, we can not only maximize the potential for peak performance…we can ensure, to the highest degree possible, that the athlete can continue to enjoy their sport for life. That’s extremely important.
The aforementioned model applies very well to the person who has that one major sport which they love doing with high regularity. They are probably very good at it. The sport is a big part of their identity. It provides meaning, purpose, value, enjoyment, satisfaction and a host of other elements to their lives. This speaks to the concept of being GREAT AT ONE THING. Our challenge in coaching, training, and program design is to help you to be great, and to facilitate you staying that way for life.
There are a few people who, because of their genetic gifts, can go through their entire lives, rocking their sport(s) of choice, and never need to do much in the way of supplemental conditioning. But they aren’t the norm. They’re the exception.
For the rest of us, we usually need to adjust and apply supportive training to allow us to keep our mojo going for life. The personal recipe for success will be very specific to the individual, yet it will probably dynamically shift as the athlete moves through the lifespan. Many, many of the clients with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working have fit this description. We’ve figured out how to not only design their sport-specific training optimally, but to make sure their supplemental conditioning is giving them what they need to stay healthy in that process…for the long term. Fun stuff, and very gratifying for both parties.
The single sport athlete is willing to give up a little capacity in other areas that don’t correlate highly with his/her goals. They like to dine on their favorite food (in this case their sport) all the time with little variety. We just make sure to give them enough in those relatively weak areas that the deficits don’t become exceedingly problematic. Encourage the yogi to lift a little. Have the runner work on multidirectional mobility. Get the lifter to do a bit of cardio. And so forth.
Let’s remind ourselves of the 5 Capacities of Athleticism. These are strength, speed, power, agility, and endurance. Every unisport devotee will have 1-3 of those capacities that need to be brought to maximum (a 3 rating on the Athletic Capacity Rating Scale) levels. The other areas that are not essential to their sport performance can linger at moderate (ACRS value 2), or even low (baseline, ACRS = 1) levels. They just can’t be allowed to disappear completely (a 0 rating on the ACRS) because if that happens, long term health and overall function will be jeopardized. In this sense, overconcentrating on the desired capacities, and completely neglecting the ones deemed less important, can eventually sabotage the single sport athlete and shut them down. Temporarily or permanently. So we always strive for just enough balance to keep them going. That’s rarely a 1:1 ratio of sport-specific versus supportive training. It’s often more like 3:1, 4:1, or even 5:1.
Slightly different from the single-sport specialist is the athletic generalist, or all-around fitness enthusiast. Not better or worse, just different. Whereas the single sport athlete strives to do as much in his/her sport as possible, and as little supplemental conditioning as necessary…the mix looks different for the all-arounder.
Now, we’re not talking so much about supplemental conditioning for peak performance in a single sport. It’s more about comprehensive longevity-based training which allows for relatively good performance in a variety of sports and recreational activities. The focus is less about the highest possible outcome in one area and more about being able to DO A LOT OF THINGS DECENTLY. And, to do so with a low injury risk and the ability to recover rapidly. More like a buffet if we use the dining analogy again.
To a certain degree, and within a very individualized context, the all-arounder strives to achieve a more generalized balance among those 5 capacities. While this could look like 2-2-2-2-2 (on the ACRS), or all moderate ratings across strength-speed-power-agility-endurance, there will often be a 3 or a couple of 1’s in there simply due to genetics and preferences of the athlete. That’s fine because they aren’t striving for their highest peak (usually in their genetic gift area but not always) in a single sport. Instead the mindset of this Lifetime Athlete is to be proficient in a variety of interests that may occur on a seasonal or even random basis. Thus, the all-arounder actually places more emphasis on the supportive training than the single sport athlete. This is because they either really thrive on seizing multiple sporting opportunities as they are presented, or they are very interested in not having any relatively profound weaknesses. Or both. In fact, in many ways, the training itself is their main sport. Nothing wrong with that.
Probably the greatest challenge for the all-arounder lies in achieving said balance in training among those 5 capacities. That’s because you can’t do all 5 justice at exactly the same time. There needs to be some rotation in emphasis throughout the year. One of the most clear examples here is the distinction between either strength and aerobic fitness, or that comparing speed and endurance. Physiologically speaking, those are somewhat competing entities on a metabolic, mechanical, and neurological basis. Thus, programming for the all-arounder can be more difficult than for the single sport athlete. By periodically shifting the training program, we can emphasize one capacity while keeping the others in maintenance mode. This can be a particularly artful juggling act.
Program design for any Lifetime Athlete should use the vision-goal-plan-program process which we discuss often.
As I mentioned earlier, this is almost easy for the single sport athlete. Determine the goal and peak sport season or target event(s). Create an annual training plan (ATP) that is in concert with the objective and timeline. Look at an off-pre-peak-post season model. Design the sport-specific workouts and use some microcycles to target key performance indicators (KPI’s) and to allow for periodic deloading. Insert just enough supplemental conditioning to address this athlete’s unique needs. Shore up weaknesses in the off-season and make training more general and volume-based. Lean into their strengths during pre-season and become more sport-specific and intense. Assess and adjust as indicated. Taper, peak, crush goals, and recover. It’s actually not quite that simple but knowledge, experience, and wisdom in coaching can work extremely well in these cases.
But designing a really good annual training plan for an all-arounder requires more finesse. Possibly wizardry. With a relatively young and inexperienced trainee, you could do almost any old mix of things, and as long as good technique was adhered to and workload was progressed appropriately, you’d get mediocre results. But as the athlete matures, and experiences some of the effects of modern lifestyles over decades (sitting, driving, stress, deconditioning, chronic suboptimal nutrition, sleep deprivation, accumulation of orthopedic injury, etc.), programming has to be very well designed and applied. To develop and maintain all 5 capacities within the organism we need to do most things right. When this is the case, the results are stellar. If we’re close in most areas, things turn out decent (there’s that word again). But if we flub it, very little results or even deleterious effects can be our outcome.
As we come back around to not having any judgment regarding single sport versus all-around enthusiasts, I can offer a few words of advice for each group.
Single sport athletes who want to be great at one thing may benefit from the following.
- Spend as much time as possible, or as much as you like, enjoying your sport.
- Become a student of your sport and learn all you can about technique, training, and equipment.
- Be a fan of the elite and professional athletes in your sport. Study what they do and emulate them where appropriate.
- Seek out a coach or trainer, at least on an intermittent basis, to help you with your process. The skilled coach’s eye can look at your form, or your training data and pick out flaws that can save you tons of time, energy, and potential frustration.
- Learn a lot about yourself. How do you move? What’s your genetic profile? Does your injury or training history reveal trends/patterns? What should you do differently?
- Design your programming with a horizon view. Make choices that will support you in being able to perform highly in your sport for the long term.
- With supplemental training, select what’s necessary and eliminate any fluff. Make it effective, but keep it highly efficient.
All-arounders who prefer to be decent at most things but not necessarily great at one might utilize some different viewpoints.
- Remind yourself that your process may not result in the highest specialized outcomes, but you may indeed be more versatile and durable than most others.
- Explore training in all 5 capacities. Notice which ones come more easily to you (everyone has a jam or two) and those which seem to take more work to bring up.
- Put your year together in a way that takes advantage of the calendar seasons and your preferences.
- Experiment with how your training affects the way you look, perform, and feel. There are many ways to accomplish this and it sometimes takes a bit of trial and error to find what works best for your unique being.
- Be willing to change things up as you progress through the lifespan. We want to avoid the ruts and traps as our bodies are changing. Routines shouldn’t become too ritualistic for too long. Being nimble of body requires the same attributes in the mind.
In my book AnimalFIT, I wrote about a lifespan training model which takes many of these principles into account. It has to do with the strengths and weaknesses we all have. With strengths, we are discussing primary attributes or genetic gifts in any capacity, not just that of force production. And weaknesses are secondary attributes that are not “strong points” in our personal performance matrix. The book has a table and a section explaining all of this but I can paraphrase it in a few sentences.
When an athlete is relatively young (you decide), highly motivated, and really interested in peak performance, they employ a maximum emphasis on their strengths and a minimal focus on their weaknesses. They devote most of their energy and time to being sport-specific and can usually get away doing almost nothing related to their weakness (which usually isn’t that weak yet anyway). This is a MAX-MIN approach to training.
Middle age (again, you can determine what you feel this is) presents a unique situation. You’ve been honing your strength(s) for a while. But the weaknesses may be starting to get more pronounced. This situation may necessitate a shift in training in which a moderate emphasis is placed on each category (MOD-MOD).
In the 4th quarter (or however you view this), those strengths are gonna be there. They’ve had much of your lifetime to build and you’re keenly aware of them. They actually can be maintained with a lower (yet still consistent) amount of training. But it’s those weaknesses which really begin to become problematic. They will demand more attention and if you don’t heed this call, things usually start to fall apart somewhere. Consequently, a MIN-MAX approach to training is often warranted. This methodology can have amazing results yet it is probably the most difficult for the majority of folks to get their head around. It’s normal to be stubborn and that can sometimes be a good trait, but when you start to recognize that what you’ve always done just isn’t working anymore, it’s probably time for a change.
Whether your goal is to be great at one thing or decent at most…it’s all good. I serve both groups. All within The Lifetime Athlete App. Single-sporters use our extensive advanced resources and the Personal Coaching Consultations to get help with the specifics of their program design and all the associated aspects. All-arounders use the Training Tribe system and leave (almost) all the thinking to our comprehensive fitness (and athletic performance) for life system. You can also switch up your focus any time you like. Dive into a sports-specific goal for a few months. Then settle back into a balanced approach for a while. Whatever your preference, the App might be a great tool for you.