Training For A Particular Sport

I started weight training when I was 12 years old to condition for baseball.  I was naive and ignorant about training back then.  I ended up doing bodybuilding and power lifting type exercises because that is what everyone else was doing. Back in the early 80's there wasn't much talk about sport specific training.  It seemed that most of the athletes were training like Arnold and didn't train for their sport.  During college  my concentration was on bodybuilding.  I trained specifically for bodybuilding and the results I desired developed.  Then one day a mother approached me in my college office  and asked me if I could help her daughter train for basketball.  The year was 1991 and the internet had not been developed yet. All we had was books in the library.  There wasn't much information about training for different sports. It seemed that most of the books were basic in ideology and concentrated more on calisthenics than weight training.  I took on the basketball player and decided to do some different things with her.  It didn't make sense to train her like a bodybuilder, so I trained her like a basketball player.  I took her to the track and had her do many different drills.  Sprinting, plyometrics, lateral work. In the weight room I had her doing exercises that would activate greater fast twitch activity for jumping and explosive power.  My experiment worked and she excelled the next season.  After working with her I got more clients. And they all had different needs. So I integrated the correct exercise prescription for each of them.  As the years passed sports conditioning has become the buzz in the fitness industry.  Little did I know that what I was doing with those athletes would be the gold standard of training athletes today.

The idea is not new, train for your sport.  I am a bodybuilder so I bodybuild. If you are a baseball player then you must train for baseball etc.  There are many athletes that are misguided and end up wasting time with training incorrectly.  I decided after my baseball career that I wanted to continue with bodybuilding because I enjoy the lifestyle and benefits.  I remember a conversation I had with Frank Zane.  He asked me what types of exercises I was doing.  I told him that I was experimenting with some gymnastic exercises in conjunction with bodybuilding exercises.  He said " are you a gymnist or a bodybuilder, you can't be both."  I then realized that he was correct. Gymnastic type exercises will develop the muscles differently than isolated bodybuilding exercises.  So needless to say I went back to strict bodybuilding exercises.

If you are a bodybuilder then train for bodybuilding.
If you are a baseball player train for baseball.
If you are a skier train for skiing. etc, etc, etc.
I THINK YOU GET THE IDEA.

TRAIN FOR YOUR GOAL AND TRAIN ACCORDING TO YOUR SPORT.

tags: bodybuilding, baseball, strength, nutrition, health, daryl conant, vince gironda, ron kosloff