Training Specificity for Athletes

Specificity has two components: the Strength-Endurance Continuum (S-EC) and Dynamic Correspondence.
The S-EC exists with high load, low repetition schemes for strength and high volume for endurance.
The S-EC is a repetition paradigm where high-load, low repetition is a strength stimulus and high repetition and low load is an endurance stimulus.
This paradigm is most seen when work isn't equated, using absolute loads in testing, and with a substantial difference in repetitions (e.g. 2-5 vs. ≥10).

Resistance training improves performance and health variables.
Improvements include increased maximum strength, rate of force development, power, and low- and high-intensity exercise endurance.
Leads to improved athletic performance measures like vertical jump and sprint times.
Underlying mechanisms include cardiovascular and microvascular alterations, increased lean body mass, increased muscle CSA, increased tissue tensile strength, and decreased physiological stress.
Appropriate training methods (periodization, programming) are important.
High-volume programs influence muscle CSA, body composition, health, and endurance factors more than low-volume programs.
Training mode (equipment type) influences adaptations.
Training alterations transfer to other aspects of sport, daily activities, and health.
Alterations of physical capabilities occur as a result of volume, intensity and frequency of exercise sessions.
The degree of “transfer of training effect” depends upon the training principle Specificity.

Limited to studies using free weights and strength and high intensity exercise endurance (HIEE).
HIEE involves exercise relying on phosphagens and fast glycolysis.
HIEE involves repetitions to failure, especially with squats, or high peak/average power outputs like Wingate tests.

Specificity: the degree of bioenergetic and biomechanical similarity between training and performance.
Adaptations differ based on genetics and training methods.
Differences occur even among strength-power athletes using resistance training differently.
Specificity is a key factor in physiological and biomechanical adaptations and performance outcomes.
Overload (training impulses) and development of “capacities” contrasts with specificity.

As maximum strength increases, more repetitions and total work can be completed at an absolute load:
$Load<em>{\text{relative}} = \frac{Load</em>{\text{absolute}}}{MaxStrength}$
Maximum strength, measured by 1RM, is important in altering HIEE.
Gains in maximum strength allow more absolute work to be accomplished.
Athletes training with low repetitions and heavier weights may be at a disadvantage in HIEE tests using a relative (% 1RM) method.
Isometric max strength is related to 1RM or HIEE alterations in trained subjects.

Optimal maximum strength gains require heavy loading.
Effect on HIEE and work capacity depends on the difference in repetition range (e.g., 1-3 vs. ≥10 repetitions).
Gains in HIEE may be due to total work volume, not just repetitions per set.
Increase in maximum strength is expected to be greater with the heavier loading lower repetition range group but the opposite for HIEE and enhanced work capacity.
Achieving more work by adding sets and increasing training frequency enhances HIEE.
Sets of ≥10 produce greater acute metabolic effects.
Higher repetitions per set have repeatedly been shown to produce greater acute metabolic perturbations compared to lower repetition sets.
Volume is more important than the rest period for eliciting a greater metabolic effect but differences in rest-periods elicit different acute neuroendocrine responses indicating unique physiological stimuli.
Training with higher repetitions (≥10) per set enhances HIEE and work capacity compared to lower repetitions per set.
Repetitions per set in the range of 8–12 produce a greater strength stimulus compared to repetitions above that range, thus, providing an additional stimulus for enhancing HIEE.
There is evidence that training with higher repetitions (≥8–12) per set may augment recoverability.

No evidence that training to failure produces superior gains in strength or power.
Training to failure may improve the ability to perform more repetitions and total work.
Training to failure may create greater metabolic perturbations, relating to greater induced adaptations in HIEE.
Slow-twitch Type I muscle fibers may be better targeted with higher repetitions and training to failure.

Equating workload during resistance training is not ecologically sound.
Time is an important consideration for each sport and individual athlete.
Researchers may mask the effects of truly optimal dosages and ratios of volume and intensity for targeting specific physical adaptations by continuing to compare training programming strategies by equating workload.

Strength-endurance continuum exists on an absolute basis.
- Higher repetitions per set produce higher metabolic stress, driving metabolic alterations for greater HIEE and expanded work capacity.
- Potential for better recovery due to greater metabolic alterations with higher repetitions per set.
- The continuum is ecologically sound.
- The continuum provides part of the basis for periodization protocols [32].

Resistance training aims to exploit the immediate, cumulative, long-term, and delayed effects of imposed training demands.
Performance alterations depend on the organization, sequencing, and manipulation of overload, specificity, and variation.
Transfer of training effects (ToTE) is important for athletes and coaches; strength should be developed within the context of the sport.
As training moves from extensive (accumulation) to intensive (transmutation and realization), considerations in workload shift from general to more specific.

Amplitude and direction of movements:
- Amplitude: range of motion (ROM) or degree of movement displacement.
- Direction: Forces in sport are often initiated by applying force through the ground, exercises initiating differently such as open kinetic chain, may not transfer.
Accentuated regions of force production:
- Explosive ballistic type training with high RFD's might be one of the most effective modes of resistance training to improve athletic performance.
Dynamics of effort:
- Force-velocity characteristics of training and relation to athletic movements.
- Heavy-load resistance training produces larger increases in maximal strength compared to low-load. Low-load, higher velocity may be necessary for well-trained athletes.
Rate and timing of maximum force production:
- Maximize force production during critical time intervals.
- Enhance the rate of force development (RFD) and use tasks that may have a similar time constraints to sports specific movements.
Regime of muscular work:
- The type of muscular contraction: concentric, isometric, eccentric, or stretch-shortening cycles (SSC).
Additional Considerations:
- Coaches must have a strong and clear understanding of the kinetic and kinematic relationships between specific training strategies and athletic performance.

Specificity has two major components:
- A strength-endurance continuum (S-EC).
- Adherence to principles of Dynamic Correspondence.