Many Sports and Strength Conditioning Specialists focus on strength training to condition their athletes to compete.

The better Sports and Strength Conditioning Specialists focus on the strength and flexibility training needs of their athletes.

The best Sports and Strength Conditioning Specialists focus on the symmetry of their athletes’ strength development and the symmetry of their Range of Motion (ROM) around each of their athletes’ joints.

The GREATEST Sports and Strength Conditioning Specialists do ALL OF THE ABOVE.

PLUS, they continuously monitor and track any “WEAK LINK” that may appear in any of the 12 IFPA Components of Fitness:

• Strength
• Speed
• Power
• Anaerobic Endurance
• Aerobic Endurance
• Agility
• Balance
• Coordination
• Flexibility
• Body Composition
• Symmetry
• Biochemical Balance

To become a truly great Sports and Strength Conditioning Specialist (or Personal Trainer), you will need to test and re-test your athletes periodically to ensure all 12 IFPA Components of Fitness are developed symmetrically and balanced with each other. This keeps your athlete (and personal training clients) at peak performance and prevents imbalances in:

• Strength Ratios between Agonist/Antagonist muscles
• Fully functional Ranges of Motion around every joint
• Sport-specific/position-specific energy system contributions
• Loss of strength/speed/power production
• Loss of Agility, Balance, and/or Coordination
• Unwanted changes in Body Composition
• Loss of Biochemical Balance and/or Overtraining

If you are an experienced Sports and Strength Conditioning Specialist or coach, you may be thinking: “I’d love to do all that, BUT, what can I do when the Team’s coach decides he needs his players on the field and limits my time for conditioning?!”

I feel your pain! I have “been there, done that” too!

My approach is to do as much pre-season conditioning as possible and turn over the best-conditioned athletes I can. Then, I have a “heart-to-heart” chat with the coach, going over all the data I’ve collected on each player, regarding their 12 Components of Fitness.

I explain that while I understand the team’s activities will be field-focused, I just want the coach (and the athletes) to understand that as their conditioning deteriorates, their peak performance will decline, and their risk of injury will increase.

If I am allowed a few hours per week, and if the athletes do some “homework” on their own time, I can prevent a severe drop in performance and reduce injury risk. With documented data, I show the coach how I can maintain peak performance and keep the team injury-free.

Most experienced Sports and Strength Conditioning Specialists know how to perform strength testing, but it’s essential to regularly review procedures to avoid bad habits. Reviewing the IFPA Personal Trainer Certification or Sports and Strength Conditioning Specialist Course can help.

Range of motion (ROM) is often overlooked by specialists. Each athlete’s ROM should be documented for each joint. Averages for joints are just that: averages. Certain athletes, like gymnasts, wrestlers, and ballerinas, often need greater ROM than the average.

It’s essential to review IFPA Guidelines for safe and effective flexibility testing and training in the IFPA Personal Trainer Certification Course.

Symmetry:

Imbalances between agonist-antagonist muscle groups can lead to joint instability, muscular dysfunction, and increased risk of pain and injury. The goal of professionally managed sports and fitness programs is to ensure athletes’ bodies are developed in complete balance, addressing all 12 IFPA Components of Fitness.

More frequent fitness assessments, beyond just a 1-RM Bench Press, are required. Muscle balance ratios differ between muscle groups and are affected by the force velocity at specific joints. While isokinetic dynamometers are ideal for testing, most trainers use 1-RM testing for each muscle group. It’s important to ensure that the strength of contralateral muscle groups does not differ by more than 5-15%.

Strength training can help correct muscle imbalances, whether between contralateral sides or between upper and lower body muscle groups. For example, the bench press strength-to-body mass (BM) ratio should be 40-60% of the leg press strength-to-BM ratio. If muscular dysfunction is discovered due to imbalance, prescribe 2-3 sets on the weaker side to restore balance.

Injuries due to Lack of Symmetry:

Muscles, like ropes, can only pull, not push. Our daily activities, such as typing and driving, often cause internal rotation muscles to become stronger and tighter, while external rotation muscles become weak and stretched. This leads to imbalances, such as shoulder misalignment, which may eventually cause pain and require surgery if left unaddressed.

The better approach is to prescribe exercises that strengthen weak muscles and stretch the hypertonic side before any dysfunction or injury occurs. Proper fitness assessments can identify joint weaknesses before they become painful, allowing for quicker and more effective corrections.

Balance:

People tend to lose balance after age 40, though inactive individuals can lose it sooner. An easy test is to have a client stand on one foot for one minute—less than 30 seconds is cause for concern.

Maintaining balance is crucial, as loss of balance can lead to premature aging, disability, and death. Seniors, for example, may sustain fractures from falls that ultimately contribute to life-threatening complications.

For athletes, balance is foundational to agility. Incorporating balance training into warm-ups and exercises is essential to improving both balance and agility while preventing injuries.

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