NSCA’s Performance Training Journal Volume 1 Number 4 | www.nsca-lift.org/perform7

Basic Principles of StrengthTraining and ConditioningJohn M. Cissik, MS, CSCS

hether you are a recreational

weight trainer, a weekend

athlete, or a strength coach

working with elite athletes,

it is important to be principled when designing strength and

conditioning programs. By adhering to certain fundamental

principles you will ensure that your workout programs pro-

duce the desired gains.

The principles that this article will cover are:

1. specificity;

2. overload; and

3. progressive overload.

The first principle deals with designing a training programso you get the kind of gains you want, because nothinghappens by accident. The second principle deals withmaking sure that you continue to make the gains youwant from one workout to the next. The final principlemakes sure that you continue to make gains over a life-time of training without becoming injured or burnedout.

The Principle ofSpecificity of

TrainingThe principle of specificity

is deceptively simple and itdrives all the gains that onemakes from a strength train-ing program. Specificity

states that the body makesgains from exerciseaccording to how thebody exercises. Thisprinciple is importantbecause applying it cor-rectly will allow one tohave a focused, effi-cient, effective pro-

gram that will lead to thed e s i r e d

gains.

W

Failing to apply it will result in wasted energy and time, andit will result in frustration as gains do not materialize.

When developing a conditioning program, you should con-sider the following:

! the movements to be trained;

! the muscles and joints to be trained;

! the energy system(s) to be trained; and

! the speed of movement.

Strength and conditioning programs can be designed toenhance movements that are performed in athletics. This isimportant because this may improve an athlete’s perform-ance. It may do this by strengthening the movement; it mayalso accomplish this by allowing the athlete to practice themovement with resistance. It is also important because it canmaximize an athlete’s training time and be used to help pre-vent injuries in the athletic event. A number of questionsshould be considered to help with this:

1. Is the activity performed standing?

2. What joints perform the activity?

3. Do the joints work together or sequentially? If sequen-tially, what is the sequence of movement?

4. What motions are performed by each joint?

For example, basketball players want to become better verti-cal jumpers. The vertical jump is performed stand-ing up. Both feet are in line and approximately hip-width apart. The descent is performed by pushingthe hips down and back, followed by kneeflexion until a quarter squat has beenachieved. There is little or no pause atthe bottom of the squat. The athletethen explosively extends the knees,hips, and plantar flexes theankles until he or she has leftthe ground. There are a num-ber of exercises that sharesimilarities with themovement that has beendescribed, these

include: the back squat, the front squat, the power clean, thepower snatch, and the jerk to name a few. While exercises likethe leg extension and the leg curl may strengthen the kneeflexors and extensors, they do not involve exerting forceagainst the ground and do not prepare the athlete to use hisor her hips, knees, and ankles together.

While movements are important, there are times when youmay want to address specific muscles or joints in a condi-tioning program. This may be to prevent injuries, to rehabil-itate injuries, or to achieve a certain appearance. For example,a baseball pitcher may want to train the rotator cuff muscles,or a sprinter may want to address the hamstring muscles.You may want to target certain muscles to make them hyper-trophy for appearance, for example a body builder’s biceps.While movements are important for designing a condition-ing program, addressing specific muscles or joints may benecessary at times.

Addressing movements, muscles, or joints assists with select-ing exercises. Things like workload, rest, and intensity aredriven by the energy system(s) that you want to train.Energy system training is critical to improving athletic per-formance. Often performance is limited by your energystores and your ability to replenish them, both of which aretrainable. You can design conditioning programs to enhancethe energy system(s) that are used in an athletic event. To dothis, consider the following:

1. How long does the event last?

2. Is the event performed continuously? Or does the athleteget to rest?

3. If the event is not continuous, howmuch time does the athlete actually spend

moving before he or she gets to rest?

Examining how long an event lasts willhelp you determine what energy sys-tem(s) contribute to performance.

For example, a sit up test that isconducted for two minutes will

rely heavily on glycolysis forenergy and performancewill be limited by the accu-

mulation of lactic

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acid. A hundred meter sprint that lasts tenseconds will rely heavily on the availablestores of ATP and will be limited bythe amount on hand.

The length of the event can bedeceptive, however. For example, afootball game might last two hours.Just looking at the length of timemight seem to indicate that theaerobic energy system needsto be trained for football play-ers. In this case one needs toconsider if the athletes aremoving continuously. In thecase of football the answer is no,the athletes rest between plays andhave a chance to recover their ener-gy stores. In this case one shouldconsider how much time the athleteactually spends moving before they getto rest. The average play may only lastfive or six seconds, which would indi-cate that the sport is primarilydependant upon the levels of ATPin the muscles.

Energy system training is animportant consideration becauseit helps to dictate how muchweight to use, how many repeti-tions to perform, and the amountof recovery time. If you areinterested in increasing thestores of ATP, then trainingwill involve heavy weight, lowrepetitions, and lots of rest.Glycolytic training will involvemoderate reps, moderateweight, and little rest.Aerobic training meanslighter weights, many repeti-tions, and no rest.

A final consideration withspecificity concerns thevelocity of movement.The gains from exer-cise are specific tothe velocities thatthe exercises are

performed at. If exercises are performed at slow speeds, thenwe become stronger at slow speeds; however, there is lit-

tle transfer to faster speeds. If exercises are performedat faster speeds, then we become stronger at faster

speeds. This is important for athletics because fewsports are performed

at slow speeds.

If one isdesigning aconditioning

program for asport that is

performed at highspeeds, then one will need to

include exercises that make ath-letes stronger at high speeds. These

include things like the variations of theOlympic-style lifts (the clean, the snatch, andthe jerk), plyometric exercises, and sprints.

The principle of specificity is importantbecause it dictates what gains are made. Thenext principle is important because it ensuresthat you continue to make gains from yourtraining.

The Principle ofOverloadThe overload principle states that in orderto keep making gains from an exercise pro-gram, you must find some way to make it

more difficult. This is because bodies adapt toexercise. The problem is that once yourbody adapts to a given workload, it will notcontinue to adapt unless the workload isincreased somehow. If you do not continueto adapt, then eventually you will plateauand regress.

Having stated that it is necessary to makeconditioning programs more difficult, onecaution should be kept in mind: you mustobserve specificity when applying theoverload principle. Performing a set of

twenty might be a way of making theworkout more difficult, but if you need

to enhance the phosphagen energysystem then you are violating speci-ficity.

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There are a number ofways to apply the over-load principle to astrength and condition-ing program:

1. increase the weightlifted;

2. increase the volumeof work;

3. change the exercis-es employed;

4. modify the order ofthe exercises; and

5. alter the rest periods.

Increasing the weight that is lifted will makethe workout more difficult. Heavier weightswill force your muscles, connective tissue,bone and nervous system to adapt. Liftingheavier weights will also cause you to initiallyperform fewer repetitions with the weight.

Increasing the volume of work—either num-ber of sets, number of repetitions, or somecombination thereof—will result in yourbody having to adapt to it. This is one of themain ways to elicit larger muscles and con-nective tissue adaptation from strengthtraining. One should be careful with thismethod of applying overload; a volume thatis too great will train the wrong energy sys-tem.

Changing the exercises employed is a way toincrease overload that many individuals arereluctant to use. Many people feel that theexercises they are performing are the onlyones that can elicit certain gains. This is notso. Changing the exercises has a number ofbenefits, including keeping the workoutsinteresting and requiring your body andnervous system to adapt to resistanceimposed in a totally different way.

There are many exercises that train the samemovement and the same muscle groups,

this means that youdo not have to relyon one exercise totrain a given area.

For example, theback squat trains themuscles of the hip,knee, and ankle ina manner thatinvolves exertingforce against theground, it loads

the bones of thevertebral column and

lower body, and is per-formed standing up. There are a

number of exercises that do the samething and that may be substituted forthe back squat:

! Pause squats;

! Eccentric squats;

! Front squat; and

! One-legged squats.

Any of the above exercises may beused to increase lower-body strengthin a way that also loads the bones ofthe spine and lower body and is per-formed standing up.

The order that exercises are per-formed is another way to provide over-load. By changing when exercises areperformed, you make some exercisesmore difficult to perform and otherseasier. For example, in your currentworkout your exercise order may looklike this: bench press, incline press,dumbbell flies. Now, let’s change theorder of exercises so that the newworkout looks like this: dumbbell flies,incline press, bench press. The resultof this change is that you will be ableto lift more weight on the dumbbellflies and incline press, because they

are performed while you are fresh-er. You will lift less weight on the

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bench press, because it will be performed while you arefatigued. Not only will you become stronger on the first twoexercises, but you will also keep your workouts interestingand this will also help your body to adapt in a different man-ner because you are focusing on the first two exercisesinstead of the bench press.

A final way to provide overload is to modify the amount ofrest. This must be used carefully to ensure that you areobserving specificity. By increasing the amount of rest inbetween sets, you allow your body to recover more complete-ly. This means you will be able to lift heavier weights with agreater number of repetitions. The benefit oft this approachto training is that it allows you to increase your strength onexercises. Conversely, if you shorten the amount of rest inbetween sets, you do not allow yourself as much recovery. Itbecomes more difficult to lift a given amount of weight.While this does not do as good a job of increasing strength,it does force the muscles to grow to adapt to the rest period.

Overload is not something that only needs to be applied on adaily basis, it must be applied over a lifetime of training. Thefinal principle deals with the importance of applying over-load logically over time.

The Principle of ProgressiveOverloadProgressive overload involves two areas:

! The exercises that are employed in a training program;and

! The total amount of work that is done in a training pro-gram.

The exercises that are performed by an individual beginninghis or her training career should be less complicated than onewho has been training for a longer period of time. A begin-ner should be expected to master certain fundamental skillsin the training program. Once those skills are mastered, theymay be applied to more complicated exercises. Failure tomaster these skills may result in injury, wasted time in theweight room, and incomplete development. Two examples oflearning fundamental skills before progressing to more com-plicated ones concern the back squat and the Olympic-stylelifts:

! The back squat is typically learned before the front squat,overhead squat, or other variations. This is because theback squat teaches correct posture when squatting, footplacement, keeping the heels on the ground, squatting bypushing the hips back and then flexing the knees, ascend-ing with the hips and shoulders moving up at the samespeed, etc. If one does not posses those skills then the

front squat, overhead squat, pause squat, eccentric squat,etc., will be much more difficult to learn.

! Generally the Olympic-style lifts are learned from the topdown. This breaks down a complicated exercise andmakes it easier to master. For example, by learning thepower clean initially with the bar above the knees, welearn to explosively extend the hips while shrugging theshoulders up and plantar flexing the ankles. We learn toreceive the bar in a quarter squat and how to recover fromthat position. This is difficult to learn. Adding correctstarting posture with the bar on the ground, lifting thebar from the ground to the knees, getting the bar aroundthe knees, and then explosively extending the hips whileshrugging the shoulders up and plantar flexing the ankleswill prove too much for many to master initially.

In order to make gains from training over time, you must finda way to perform more work. This may be more weight lift-ed, more repetitions performed, more sets, or some combina-tion of the three. As we discussed in the overload section,this is necessary to keep your body making adaptations. Thisalso needs to be conducted with caution, as progressing tooquickly can result in injury and burnout. The best way to dothis is to apply some type of systematic approach to training.The one most commonly used is periodization of training,which essentially consists of breaking the training processdown into smaller, more manageable units. Periodization is away to organize your training over your career; this includesthe weight lifted, the volume of work, the exercisesemployed, rest, recovery methods, etc. All of this is done in away that ensures that you are in the best possible shape whenit counts—during the competition.

The principles of exercise that this article have covered arevery important for making sure that you get the most out ofyour strength and conditioning programs. Applying speci-ficity means designing conditioning programs to elicit thedevelopment of desired qualities. Applying overload meansthat strength and conditioning programs will be difficultenough to be effective. Applying progressive overload allowsfor strength and conditioning programs to be effective overyour training career.

About the AuthorJohn M. Cissik, MS, CSCS is the Director of Wellness Services atTexas Woman’s University. He also owns and operates Fitness andConditioning Enterprises, which provides speed and agilityinstruction primarily to children and teens. He is the NationalStrength and Conditioning Association’s State Director for Texas.

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