Strength and conditioning (S&C) is about optimising the movement patterns of your body. It is a science-based approach grounded in exercise physiology, biomechanics and human anatomy which provided specialised programming and training unique to you.
Often, it’s for people who participate in sport to enhance their primary sporting goals. But it’s just as relevant for people who want greater movement in their daily life. So it’s perfect for athletes AND those looking to improve their functional fitness.
As a result, S&C covers a range of training approaches to challenge and develop our movement patterns:
- Foundation movement skill training as the platform which all other skills are built from, and covers our main movement pathways. To undertake these skills requires flexibility, mobility, stability, balance (proprioception), coordination and strength.
- Energy system training which builds our fitness through aerobic and anaerobic endurance.
- Strength training to produce force in sufficient magnitude and direction against an external resistance. Building on the foundation movement skills, it comprises of different components such as muscular endurance and explosive strength.
- Speed training including acceleration, deceleration and change of direction to help you cover a distance as quickly as possible. Producing unique physiological adaptations which not only support certain movements in specific sports but translate to others such as endurance running.
To achieve these goals, S&C use a range of methods and exercises, such as:
- bodyweight training (calisthenics)
- jump training (plyometrics)
- weightlifting (power lifting and Olympic)
- running (endurance, sprint work, drills)
In programming which methods and approaches, S&C training follows six core principles:
- the law of individual differences – everyone IS unique
- accommodation – every body will adapt meaning training needs to progress and evolve
- progressive overload – bodies are not machines, we need to dose and then allow the body to recover before increasing the load again
- reversibility – consistency is key. If we detrain, we will lose adaptations, meaning we don’t peak and stop, but find new ways to challenge the body.
- specificity – choose the exercises most relevant to the sport and the person to focus on the intended adaptation
- variation – prevent plateauing by varying the stimulus and thus the challenge.
S&C is not the same as personal training (PT). Personal training is focused on generalised fitness, while S&C is specialised, focusing on movement patterns and sporting performance (including injury proofing) as a compliment to other activities. While you’ll often find a S&C and Personal Trainer working together from the same location (like me and Dan @ the PT Pod) and both will support you to get fit, the goals and therefore services are different.
S&C is also not the reserve of elite athletes. In fact, it’s arguably more important for recreational athletes who don’t have the time to properly recover and therefore have a higher injury risk. With its total body focus, S&C improves joint mobility, heart, bone and lung health, body composition and metabolism and of course, strength – providing a one stop shop to keep you injury free and doing the activities you love.
S&C builds strength in the movement patterns we all need, particularly as we age. It becomes even more important for masters’ athletes to ensure longevity in their sport through increased resilience. So while S&C will often involve lifting weights, that’s not the only goal. My S&C clients do everything from hopping and jumping, to deadlifting max strength, to hanging from the air. Often in the same session, and occasionally at the same time.
So yes, strength and conditioning is often about weights, but it’s is so much more than that. Come along to one of my classes to see for yourself!
