If you have ever wanted to improve your athletic performance on the football or rugby pitch, get better at golf, tennis, or swimming, or just generally ramp up your athletic prowess, sports specific training can help. Although some people prefer to work out alone, others swear by the advantages that this kind of regime can bring them.

All types of athletes rely on agility and strength in particular parts of their bodies to achieve excellence in their own sport and to perform at their optimum level. A sports specific training program is crafted carefully to focus on both mind and body conditioning to allow athletes to achieve excellence through each sport’s unique demands for speed, endurance, agility, recovery, and balance as well as injury minimisation.

Specifically designed to meet the unique needs of every athlete, this type of program incorporates exercises that train the individual in ways that enhance their athletic performance along with the implementation of a nutrition plan including which type of food to eat over a course of weeks and months to ensure maximum potential can be achieved.

There are many benefits that sports specific training can provide for athletes at every ability level, so here, we take a closer look at how this form of workout can improve athletic performance across the board.

Fitness Programs Based on Movements and Muscles

At The Fitness Room Honeybourne, we have trainers who specialise in this type of workout and have the necessary in-depth knowledge of muscle groups and the way in which those muscles are involved in improving each athlete’s performance. This means we can research and devise a fitness program tailored to your needs that include muscle exercises that you will benefit from the most.

This could work in practice by devising a workout that focuses on elements that are essential for your requirements. A workout that focuses on hitting for tennis players, for instance, would work the posterior muscle groups in the shoulders, while a golfer could benefit from a performance workout that trains the core using rotational exercises so that the muscle groups involved in their swing can become more powerful and strong.

Helping with Metabolic Conditioning

This type of performance enhancing exercise involves you being trained by your coach to be properly conditioned for your own sport. If that happens to be a team sport, you’ll be trained for your own specific role within that team. This form of conditioning works on the body’s energy level as well as muscle tissue. This means that you are better prepared for participating in competitions and attending training sessions.

Prevention of Injury

Each sport of course presents its own risks, and as an athlete, you must be aware of the common injuries which can occur while you train and perform. When left to work out alone, you can end up harming yourself accidentally. Our qualified personal trainers can look at the various statistics to find ways of preventing those injuries from occurring. A program can then be drawn up that prevents injuries from arising, especially in non-contact sports.

Intense Exercise Provides Physical Preparation

Although a young athlete will have plenty of energy and will have a shorter recovery time than an older one, they will often lack the strength, endurance, and coordination of a more mature athlete. As a result, mistakes can all too easily be made in terms of incorrect form or technique when you work out by yourself hour after hour without guidance. Also, it’s common to overlook health issues and complex injuries until they become significantly worse, and this could prove to be problematic for long-term career prospects.

To prevent this from happening, young people who are keen to embark on a sporting career should work with an expert specialising in conditioning to physically prepare their body for their specific sport. This will improve balance, speed, mobility, power, coordination, and skills in the long run so that they can excel in their field.

Older athletes too can enhance their athletic performance through specific programs. The personal training team at The Fitness Room Honeybourne can show you brand new skills which develop your performance’s mental side and not only your physical ability.

A Boost for Self-Esteem and Mental Health

With a program in place to improve your athletic performance through exercises and the optimal food to eat, you will gain greater confidence in your own abilities. As a result, you will feel more capable of pushing yourself to your limit and try things you believed were impossible. Your self-esteem will, therefore, get a boost and you’ll feel happier about yourself – something which couldn’t be more important for your mental well-being.

When resistance workouts are combined with a sport specific program, the result is a fun form of exercise that is enjoyable and entertaining as well as athletic performance enhancing.

Intense exercise needn’t be boring or tedious! With the right approach, it’s possible to help any athlete concentrate more effectively on their exercise regime by making it a fun activity. When a workout is entertaining and interesting it prevents you from becoming worn out physically and mentally.

A Boost for Speed and Perception

A non-specific workout may be adequate in terms of helping to improve health, boost oxygen levels and blood circulation, and increase fitness, but it can’t help to improve specific sport-related mechanics. Workouts that are tailored to meet individual needs aid athletes in building their speed and enhancing their existing techniques so they can become stronger and faster overall when they perform. At The Fitness Room Honeybourne, we can give you specific tips to hone your existing abilities so that various aspects of your athletic performance can be worked upon.

While developing more muscle and conditioning the body are important aspects to consider when it comes to this type of workout, a program that is tailored specifically to enhance your athletic performance in the field will also make you more mentally perceptive and help to give you a greater understanding of your chosen field so you can improve your performance still further.

Eating and Recovering for Performance

Not only does a performance improving workout regime involve working on the body’s muscle groups through intense resistance workouts, but it also involves a more complex program of a healthy diet and post-workout recovery to support the immune system, supply nutrition for the body, maintain a healthy body weight, and maintain peak fitness.

It’s important for anyone aspiring to improve their performance to consume healthy food as part of a balanced diet. The team at The Fitness Room Honeybourne can provide essential tips about important aspects of eating and hydration including the right macronutrients, minerals, nutrients, and foods to consume for optimal performance in the field.

Food represents fuel for the body, supplying energy to the muscles and providing the necessary protein, iron, calcium, supplements, vitamins, and minerals to prevent post-gym workout fatigue and enhance overall performance.

For the body to become strong and powerful and for the various muscle groups to be at the pinnacle of their performance, good nutrition is key. The food you consume isn’t just about maintaining the right body weight, it’s also about improving recovery times after a tough gym session, supporting the muscles, and boosting energy levels. We will ensure that you are eating the right macronutrients and foods with each meal and maintaining the optimal fluids intake so that you can fuel your body while you carry out your intense exercises.

A diet plan for each day of the week will ensure you eat foods and nutrients that are known to be beneficial for good performance including the right amount of carbohydrates (or carbs) to fuel energy levels, plenty of protein for the muscles, minimal sugars, and vitamin-containing foods in each meal so that each day at the gym will yield effective results.

By ensuring that you are taking the right vitamin supplements that your body needs each day, including vitamins and minerals like glutamine, glycogen, and magnesium, you can ensure that you are consuming the optimal nutrients and maintaining correct fluid levels for good overall well-being as well as for the best performance.

As well as putting in place a food, vitamin, and supplements meal plan to strengthen muscles, enhance muscle recovery, increase energy levels, and keep weight at the right level, we can also ensure that exercises at the gym are balanced out with effective recovery strategies. Rest and recovery are just as important to performance as the food you eat at each meal.

While balancing the synthesis of magnesium, sugars, carbs, protein, nutrients, fluid, and other types of supplements is important, it’s equally vital for muscle groups to recuperate and replenish their blood oxygen levels after working out. Working closely with us at The Fitness Room Honeybourne will ensure that you don’t spend endless hours and weeks focusing solely on muscle building without taking the time to rest and recover.

Striking a Balance

There are some trainers out there who believe that the best way to improve athletic performance is by becoming more powerful and strong overall rather than focusing on the requirements of a single activity. They think that, when power and strength have been increased through intense exercise, resistance training and cardio workouts they can then take those benefits with them into their chosen activity.

Many others, however, believe that the most important thing is to get the balance right between athlete specific and sport specific regimes to excel in a specific sport and we agree! The above advantages show that introducing sport specific training into your regime can give you performance enhancements that are well worth the additional effort that you put in.

For more information on sport specific training at The Fitness Room Honeybourne, please call us on 07540 060269 for a free consultation.