What works for one coach, S&C or athlete may not work for another. And nothing happens, that is okey. For each context, a different reality.
An exercise can be used for different goals, just as one goal can be achieved with different exercises.
Classifications about exercises that you have not done, surely hide many unconscious details and nuances that can only be exploited correctly by whoever created that classification.
Recommendation: Create your own classification, with your own criteria. If you lack knowledge, keep learning; If you lack experience, ask for help or consult references. Only your model will be 100% adapted to your reality. We want to make clear that, if you want, learning is a process which never ends. Express your concerns, Everything that evolves is rebuilt.
Models, criteria and classifications are not static. They evolve based on experience, learning, needs and context. The same goes for the exercises.
Quantity of an exercise: the optimal dose. Quality of an exercise: always looking for excellence.
In training, performance or sport in general, there is no single way of doing things, you can reach the same place by different routes.
However, there are healthy executions, adequate movement patterns and join risk situations to avoid.
A training load/stimulation below what is necessary for that objective, converts an exercise into useless training, because the value of an exercise is not absolute, but relative.
A higher training load or dose than necessary makes exercise an unnecessary risk.
Each exercise has its right moment.
A little showy exercise can be very important and still be spectacular, if the athlete understands what he is doing.
The order of the exercises can alter the result and the adaptations that they generate.
Motor control is not an initial phase of a training period, it is the basis of any exercise. Forever.
Fatigue is an internal load parameter of an exercise in a specific context. Fatigue does not add value to any exercise.
The same exercise can be embedded in different levels of approximation depending on the metabolic orientation or the material used.
An exercise can be the protagonist at a certain moment, and then be part of a warm-up, or become a constant residual role, or become a specific resource.
When an athlete master an exercise, it is surely time to change something (without having to change everything), to continue generating adaptations.
You can modify an exercise simply by introducing significant variants, and cause totally different effects, without the initial structure.
If an exercise is not necessary, why do you do it?
The athlete’s needs are above what you put on a paper.
Being prepared to modify the initial exercise proposal is part of the training.
Complementary and compensatory exercises are not wild cards. Just because an exercise is not specific does not mean that it cannot be important and deserves the same level of respect.
Creativity in an exercise should not be above its usefulness.
More beautiful and more attractive, it does not have to be equal to better or more useful.
If you see an exercise, from a qualified coach, and you do not know why it is being carried out that way and what they are using it for, giving your opinion is free but you lack information.
Copy Get inspired by other professionals and adapt it to your reality.
When you see a good professional performing or prescribing an exercise, learn from him/her. If you want to compete, wait for the competition and/or compete against yourself.
Training and therefore exercises are a great opportunity to generate experiences.
Effectiveness in the Goal. Efficiency in the Movement.
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These thoughts are born from the review of many own contents, from the inspiration in many other contents, and as a result of many conversations and video call during the quarantine, some internally with the BTA Team, and some with other professional colleagues, with special mention to Montse Gallegos, director of REC Entrenamiento, a great professional as restless as she is humble. With all of them, taking advantage of the break that this lockdown has given us, with the aim of learning, questioning and improving everything we do, to benefit our athletes, since in the end all our work is for them.
In the same way that we started the lockdown, sharing ideas to adapt better and resources offered by other great professionals, we now end it by sharing many of the things we have learned, without pretending that you like everything and can be useful to you but with the door open to any professional to share, comment, and adapt it (or not) to your reality and context.
Thank you all!
