{"id":835,"date":"2009-11-12T06:34:43","date_gmt":"2009-11-12T06:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/?p=835"},"modified":"2019-01-19T23:27:45","modified_gmt":"2019-01-19T23:27:45","slug":"exercise-vs-training-a-controversial-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/exercise-vs-training-a-controversial-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercise vs. Training: A Controversial Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Defining Training<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Exercising vs. Training is an interesting debate, as I find most people just \u2018exercise\u2019 without thinking about what they are doing.\u00a0 Before continuing, I should define the two and detail their differences:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Exercising\u00a0<\/strong>is about going to the gym and working out.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t really a rhyme or reason to what you are doing.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t build on the last workout.\u00a0 There may be a goal in mind (IE, fat loss) but the workout is more just a collection of \u201cstuff\u201d rather than something specific.\u00a0 Typically exercisers just love to sweat and know that they are working hard, as a \u201chard workout\u201d and \u201cbeing sore\u201d justifies the \u201cstuff\u201d they did the night before \u2013 whether it was beneficial or not is an entirely different story.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Training\u00a0<\/strong>on the other hand is about specifics.\u00a0 There is a goal, the program reflects that goal, and each session plays a distinct role in helping you move closer to that goal.\u00a0 Rather than doing \u201cstuff\u201d, the trainee goes to the gym with an objective in mind, or as I say a\u00a0<em>theme<\/em>(I\u2019ll talk about this in another article).\u00a0 They have certain things they want to accomplish that day and they make sure they take care of business.\u00a0 In addition, those that are \u201ctraining\u201d are very processes oriented and know that if today doesn\u2019t not feel like a great day, they can back off of the intensity a bit, because the objective is to be there at the end of the program and not just destroy yourself in one session because<em>\u201cif you don\u2019t work really hard and get sore after each workout it is a waste of time.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With those two definitions in mind, it\u00a0can be\u00a0pretty clear to see exactly where you stand.\u00a0 Are you a person that heads to the gym and does a bunch of \u201cstuff\u201d?\u00a0 Or, are you a person that heads to the gym with specific information to guide you in the training process?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fitness\u00a0for the masses<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t tell you how many times I am asked questions about things like Crossfit, P90x, Insanity, or the poorly thrown together bootcamp workouts that have been popular of late.<\/p>\n<p>These types of things (in my opinion) fall into the category of \u201cexercising\u201d.\u00a0 They have little to do with the training process and more to do with just giving you are hard workout.\u00a0 Whether or not that workout is beneficial to you (the individual) is moot.\u00a0 Rather, what is important is that you sweat a lot, get sore and<em>\u00a0perceive\u00a0<\/em>the workout to be hard.\u00a0 I emphasize\u00a0<em>perceive\u00a0<\/em>because these programs are nothing more than marketing hype.<\/p>\n<p>I have talked to a few people who are satisfied with their results on all three of these exercise programs.\u00a0 They lost weight \u2013 which was their main objective \u2013 and they were excited about that because for the first time ever, they actually stuck to a training program.\u00a0 This is obviously excellent and one of great things about these programs is that they actually get people up and exercising and moving.\u00a0 However, upon further inspection of what they are doing, you find that their exercise technique is really poor.\u00a0 They haven\u2019t learned anything because the program is constantly changing, and there is no time to build a foundation and adapt\u00a0<em>(Muscle confusion is idiotic and is nothing more than a marketing scam.\u00a0 Yes, the body adapts to training and yes you need to change things.\u00a0 But, you don\u2019t need to change things from workout to workout and you don\u2019t necessarily even need to change exercises, as any variation in training stimulus \u2013 repetition number, rep tempo, sets, rest interval, sequence, etc\u00a0&#8211; will provide a enough of a change to force an adaptation without performing a totally different workout and not taking the time to learn how to properly train.).\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Finally, their results are usually accompanied by some sort of ache or pain that has either (a) been there before the program \u2013 meaning the program didn\u2019t address this issue or (b) is totally new \u2013 meaning the program helped to create this issue (or the issue had already been created, but the inappropriate exercise selection caused the individual to be more \u201caware\u201d of the issue).<\/p>\n<p>Obviously there are going to be people who come back and say,\u00a0<em>\u201cI got great results and feel fine!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>There will be outliers with anything and programs developed for the masses will be appropriate for some and less appropriate (READ not appropriate at all) for others.\u00a0 One of the limitations is that there is no way to tell if this program is appropriate for you because there is no one there to assess you and get an idea of what a good starting point may be.\u00a0 The programs are simply designed to make people do work, and don\u2019t address anything more than that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fitness for the individual<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Training is an individual endeavor.\u00a0 The training program should address your limitations, your starting point, your goals and your needs.\u00a0 Most of the exercises in the programs I mentioned above are fine.\u00a0 In fact, I use a lot of them \u2013 squats, lunges, plyometrics, olympic lifts \u2013 in my training programs.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t the exercise that is bad, it is what you\u00a0<em>bring\u00a0<\/em>to the exercise that is the problem.\u00a0 If you have limitations and restrictions in mobility, if you are weak and unable to perform those exercises at the intensity that is being shown on the DVD or in the class, or if you don\u2019t even understand how to properly perform those exercises, you are asking for trouble!\u00a0 This is where the training program needs to stop, back up and say,\u00a0<em>\u201cWait a minute.\u00a0 This may not be right for you AT THIS TIME.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>You then need to determine what IS right for you at this time.\u00a0 Where is your starting point and where are you training to get to?\u00a0 This is the training process and this is how training should take place and evolve.\u00a0 Rather than just doing the workout of the day and throwing you to the wolves, we need to get down to the \u201cnitty gritty\u201d<em>\u00a0<\/em>and come up with something that is specific to you.<\/p>\n<p>I talked to one guy that told me his back has been hurting for 2-weeks since his last Crossfit workout, where they were doing an ungodly number of hang cleans in a specific amount of time (this in and of itself is a foolish application of a great exercise).\u00a0 He asked me what he could do for his back pain and one of the things I told him was to stop doing silly workouts.\u00a0 He said he loved the training because it was\u00a0<em>hard\u00a0<\/em>and best of all, he could go on the website and get the workout of the day FOR FREE!\u00a0 To which I replied,\u00a0<em>\u201cBack pain, FOR FREE\u2026AWESOME!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t tell you how many people we have seen come to our facility after going to\u00a0<em>bootcamp\u00a0<\/em>for months and yet they have general aches and pains from training and extremely poor exercise form.\u00a0 I guess exercise technique is only a minor detail when the real objective is to make people sweat and get sore?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Working out is fun and important.\u00a0 There is nothing wrong with intensity (when it is appropriately applied) and I applaud several of these training programs for getting people up out of their seat and moving.\u00a0 However, the program\u00a0should address your needs.\u00a0 Shy away from fitness programs designed for the masses and seek out something that is specific to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defining Training Exercising vs. Training is an interesting debate, as I find most people just \u2018exercise\u2019 without thinking about what they are doing.\u00a0 Before continuing, I should define the two and detail their differences: Exercising\u00a0is about going to the gym and working out.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t really a rhyme or reason to what you are doing.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-strength-and-conditioning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836,"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}