Strength Training for Sports

The stress placed on muscles, tendons and ligaments from repetitive sports playing over the course of a lifetime is strenuous on joints. It’s not a coincidence that many still active baby boomers, as well as professional athletes are having to go under the knife to replace worn out knees and hips.

One of the ways you can try to prevent the need for surgery is to incorporate a strength and resistance training program into your workouts, if you participate in a sport.

Sport-specific training is essential to improving your game, whether it’s basketball, baseball, running, tennis, golf or figure skating. Working out off-ice or off-court, depending on your sport, improves endurance, increases muscle strength and power, and increases flexibility, which can add height to a jump, shave time off a race or power one’s golf swing.

The key is to train to enhance your game, not exhaust your body. Unfortunately the “no pain, no gain” mentality of the past is still present in fitness classes and on gym floors. Working to exhaustion in hopes of speeding up results depletes vital energy needed to play your sport. It also increases the likelihood of injury both on and off of the court.

A well-designed sport specific fitness program will reduce and even prevent injury both short and long term.

A well-designed program should include strengthening the musculature around all of the joints, which will reduce strain on the joint capsule, and surrounding structures including ligaments, tendons and bursas. Repetitive training injuries are usually located in one or more of these structures.

A solid strength-training program designed specifically for the sport can greatly reduce the strain placed on the body. The program should include:

• Pre-game/race/competition warm-up techniques

• Proper body mechanics for the sport

• Exercises that enhance the game

• Avoiding exercises that are counterproductive

• Metabolic training for increased clearance of lactate build-up to enhance endurance

• Stretching techniques for a mandatory cool down, something very few athletes do after a game.

In addition, many sports including figure skating, tennis, golf, baseball and basketball have a dominant side. This means that one side of the body is trained and developed to a higher degree than the other. Figure skaters jump to one side, tennis players and golfers swing with one arm as do pitchers throw with one arm.

A comprehensive training program should favor the non-dominant side so that the body becomes more balanced and stable. Train the non-dominant side more than the dominant side until it catches up in strength and power.

Ideally you should strength train two or three days a week, leaving at least one day of rest between workouts but no more than two for optimal results.

The best plan of action for following a sport-specific training program is to work with a personal trainer familiar with your sport. This person will be able to create a regimen geared just for you. He/she will be able to watch your form and technique and be able to progress the program in a sound and structured way.

If a trainer is not in your budget, search the web for training programs. You can do a search by typing strength training plus the sport, i.e. “strength training for basketball.” Use sound judgment when sorting through the myriad websites available. A good program will offer different programs for different athletic levels. Make sure to be realistic about your level. Better to err on the easy side than overdo it and be sidelined by injury.

Deborah Brooks is an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer and a Certified Fitness Instructor through UCLA. She is the co-owner of edgeworX sport-fitness, a company founded on the belief that there is an athlete in all of us. Deborah is also an International Adult Figure Skating Gold Medalist.