Defining Strength and Conditioning - what does that mean?
What does Strength and Conditioning mean? What is it? Who’s method is it and is it a trademarked thing?
The beauty of Strength and Conditioning is that it is many methods and scientific principles put together to be an all encompassing style of functional, physical training.
Is it athletic development? Yes, this is where it started. Just 10 years ago if you said you were a strength coach, that 100 percent meant you worked exclusively with athletes.
Is it powerlifting? No, but powerlifting is part strength and conditioning. Many of the aforementioned strength coaches (including myself) dabbled in powerlifting to learn the principles needed to build maximum strength.
Is it Olympic weightlifting? No, Olympic weightlifting is actually a sport. However, in Strength and Conditioning we can use Olympic weightlifting as a way to train power, explosiveness and skill.
Is it functional fitness? Yes, it can be. But some functional fitness methodologies aren’t Strength and Conditioning.
Is it calisthenics? Well, calisthenics, or bodyweight training certainly falls under the Strength and Conditioning bubble.
Is it yoga? No, but there are many similarities between the two. Specifically, the need to create and maintain total body tension while moving and breathing and using fundamental shapes and positions.
What about Barre? No, Barre doesn’t use full range of motion, or progress people in a linear or nonlinear fashion to train for specific adaptations. Meaning you can get stronger doing Barre, but it’s a side effect rather than the objective.
Is it CrossFit? No, but CrossFit is Strength and Conditioning. CrossFit used Strength and Conditioning movements, and equipment (barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, sleds, etc.) to create their own methodology of training which evolved into a sport.
Remember in middle school how you just had science class, which covered a wide variety of disciplines? Think of Strength and Conditioning as that. When you got to high school you dove deeper into more specific subjects of science. Classes like chemistry, biology, physics and anatomy. Strength and Conditioning is the overarching thing that unites many of these methodologies.
Strength and Conditioning doesn’t follow one methodology or program or only use a specific type of equipment. It uses scientific principles to physiologically adapt to a certain stimulus. The first thing they teach you in Strength and Conditioning 101 is the S.A.I.D. Principle; Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. Generally, for us that means we want to build strength, promote lean tissue growth, improve joint range of motion and improve cardiac health. How it is implemented is up to each coach or program. Gain isn’t franchised or trademarked because the style of programs we write is something I learned through 10 years of doing this.
There are dozes of ways to reach those goals, but not being tied to a specific methodology, or trademark or franchise allows us at Gain to pave our own path. We use our scientific knowledge in combination with our real-world experiences as coaches to create an effective Strength and Conditioning plan. Based on each individuals needs, we can add some of this or some of that to get the specific response needed.
Not being tethered to certain methodology allows us to use the right tool for the job. Maybe you want to get really strong, so we can use some powerlifting principles. Maybe you’re a former athlete who likes to push hard, in that case we can use some CrossFit workouts to provide a tough cardiorespiratory stimulus. Whatever the problem is, or the goal, we can adapt our training plan based on the needs of each person. Strength and Conditioning transcends fitness methodologies and is in a class of its own.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain
