Strength and Condtioning Training | Benifits

Train for Strength and Conditionig

Strength and Conditioning Benifits

• Overview

• What is Strength and Conditioning

• Benefits of Strength and Conditioning

• Summary

Overview

The term strength and conditioning suggests an association with the improvement of movement quality in general and injury prevention.

Enhancing movement quality isn’t aimed for only by athletes, but by anyone wishing to improve their physical skills, fitness and overall health.

While strength and conditioning might be seen as all those heavy Olympic lifts, hill sprints and endless cardio sessions, these are only some of the tools that can be accommodated to suit each individual and get them to their desired strength and conditioning goals.

Now, if strength and conditioning is NOT what is believed to be, then what it really is?

What is Strength and Conditioning?

Strength and conditioning training puts emphasis on two main things:

First, it emphasizes on improving the quality of movement. This is done through an insane wide selection of exercises that are built specifically to develop a set of skills – both physical and mental – that directly affect performance in terms of mobility, stability, strength, power, agility, speed and endurance.

And along the way to enhancing performance, muscle growth – hypertrophy – occurs.

Second, strength and conditioning training emphasizes injury prevention. This is really crucial for the longevity and acceleration of the athlete’s career, and for keeping a healthy functional body as well.

Injuries can be prevented through the development and employment of better movement mechanics; and again this can be accommodated to the athletes’ sports performances or to any other individual, say, patients working on their balance after an accident or because of aging.

Anybody wishing to improve their fitness or transform their bodies can resort to personal trainers, fitness instructors or strength and conditioning coaches. However, there’s one thing that only strength and conditioning coaches can help with and that’s enhancing performance in a given sport.

This is why most strength and conditioning coaches’ clients are athletes; because these people know that it's extremely important for them to improve their skills in a sport and develop a set of movement patterns that help them prevent any injuries that might hold them back from achieving success.

Of course I’m not saying that strength and conditioning coaches are exclusively for athletes; but unlike athletes, fitness lovers and gym goers tend to focus more on transforming their bodies rather than developing their performance, and therefore opting for personal trainers and fitness classes.

Now, bear with me, if an overweight person wants to transform his/her body in the sense that they want to lose fat, get toned muscles learn a bit about healthy meal prep, they would definitely get a personal trainer to achieve JUST that, right! They wouldn’t care about improving their movement mechanics or sports skills.

Disclaimer: I am not undervaluing personal trainers and fitness instructors, nor am I promoting strength and conditioning coaches. Both of these professional trainers and coaches are needed and complement one another.

Benefits of Strength and Conditioning

A great strength and conditioning program is designed to go with the individual’s abilities and goals to give them the benefits they’re after.

Knowing that strength and conditioning is a must for everyone, let us now discuss the top 9 benefits it offers.

Strength and conditioning training:

#1 Improves Overall health

It is well known and scientifically proven that any type of exercise is good for health, and strength and conditioning training - with a wide range of exercise selection that address both the mind and body - delivers endless benefits like improved cognitive functions, increased muscular as well as cardiovascular health, and enhanced psychological well-being.

#2 Improves Positive Mood

Being active is believed to stave off feelings of depression and anxiety to individuals of no matter what their age is, and strength and conditioning training does that and more. Actually, the more intense the activity is, the better effects it delivers.

#3 Increases Metabolism and Prevents Obesity

Training for strength and conditioning, muscle building is inevitable, and hypertrophy (Muscle growth) is undoubtedly linked with enhanced metabolism. More muscles mean more caries burning even when resting. Therefore, there is no chance to be overweight, meaning, adding more years to your life.

#4 Builds Strong Bones

Wile strength and conditioning training is shown by some studies to prevent bone loss, it is suggested by other studies to even build and strengthen bones. This can actually help to prevent osteoporosis in old people and bone fractures. 

Incorporating strength and conditioning exercising that involves weight bearing can trigger bone-forming cells and increase bone density and strength.

Strengthening your bones means slim chances of bone loss with age. You can also lift, move and perform your daily activities safely and with ease.

#5 Improves Posture

Posture is the number 1 image that projects your training ‘correctness’. In fact, before training for hypertrophy, correcting posture is must, otherwise more imbalances will pop up and with the imbalances injury occurs. 

A proper strength and conditioning program definitely prioritizes this and fixes bad posture before starting anything else.

#6 Prevents Injury

Athletes and amateurs alike would adhere to a training program that can guarantee injury prevention. Nobody wants to be away from training because of an injury especially athletes as this may be a career destroyer.

A well-designed strength and conditioning program takes this into account by working on strengthening muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints and also improving flexibility and movement patterns. All these together definitely decreases the chances of injury.

#7 Speeds up Recovery

Sometimes even with a perfect training program, injuries – usually minor – can still happen and here comes the role of a strength and conditioning coach. 

The coach determines which movement patters are out of bounds to the body and then prescribes exercises to rehabilitate and strengthen the injured muscle, tendon or ligament making them bounce back faster.

#8 Improves Balance

Strength and conditioning training makes muscles gain more control over the movements they perform. This results in a more balanced body which is more aware of its surrounding and its moves.

Therefore, falling or performing movements with bad form is less likely to happen. Yet, if they do happen, a strength and conditioning program prepares trainees in the sense that the injury will be less severe as in #6 and recovery will be faster as in #7.

#9 Improves Performance

Anyone following a strength and conditioning program will definitely improve their skills in a sport over time. 

Improvement in performance happens at the physical and mental levels altogether; enhancing strength, power, endurance, speed, agility and mental functions.

Summary

Strength and Conditioning training  with a balanced program is absolutely  the #1 factor that provides a strong foundation to develop and ameliorate the necessary skills in any given sport, or even to ease movement in recreational activities.

Any great strength and conditioning coach has two main goals in mind; the first of which is enhancing athletic performance through improving movement mechanics. 

The end result is better mobility, stability, strength, power, endurance, speed, and agility.

The second of which is reducing the chance of injuries and recovering faster from them if ever they occur. This is achieved by designing regimens to the end of strengthening and rehabilitating body parts that are prone to injury in any given sport.