Sport Specific Strength

By Ryan Kelly

If you are training for sport specific strength, you must first evaluate exactly where your strengths and weaknesses lie and what bodybuilding moves will address those weaknesses. For example, many tennis players come into my gym, which is also a tennis club, and do a few sets of bench press and leave. What they do not realize is that the bench press works the body in a motion that is not used in tennis. How many times have you seen a tennis player push something forward with both hands? Never!

A tennis player, however, might consider doing pec flys because there are many times in tennis where you must extend your hand across your body. A tennis player might also consider doing extensive work on the shoulder joint as everything in tennis involves the shoulder.

A football lineman, on the other hand, would probably benefit greatly from an extensive bench press routine. Since a lineman has to constantly push against other linemen, the bench press movement closely mimics something that he will have to do on the field. A pec fly, on the other hand, may be useful to a lineman but not nearly as much as a bench press would be.

The bottom line: if you play sports be careful to chose exercises that match what it is you do in that sport to maximize your gains in the gym and your chance at winning. The sportsman who spends the most time doing movements that are similar to what he does on the field has the best chance at winning the game, which is what sports is all about!

Ryan is a 275 pound natural bodybuilder from Arizona. He runs the Muscle Building Section of Good E-Books.com, where he lists his favorite books for building muscle mass. Visit http://www.goode-books.com/gainmuscle.html today to see Ryan's picks!