Correlation Between Sports and Weightlifting

Good evening fellow readers!

There's a purpose for everything that we do. You must have a clear picture of what you want to achieve ultimately and then develop a program which will map the journey towards achieving those goals.

So, how do we relate this to sports and weightlifting? You have got to train your muscles the right way so that it is able to perform at its maximum capacity and deliver the end results that you are aiming for. At the end of the day, it falls back down to what you want to do.

A good friend of mine asked me the other day...basically his question was how can weight training help to complement different type of sports (i.e. high intensity sports and low intensity sports) and how does this apply to individuals who are active in 2 or 3 types of such sports.

Well, to start off, let me clarify to those who are unsure as to what is a high-intensity sport and a low-intensity sport. High-intensity sport or training is basically one which pushes your heart rate up to 75% of its maximum capability whereas low-intensity sport is one which pushes your heart rate up to 50% of its maximum capability.

Sports like football (soccer), rugby and basketball are considered as high-intensity as it involves speed, sprints and strength. However, these sports demand different type of weight training for each and every one of them as the body and muscles are being used in a different way. For the purpose of this post, lets take a look at football and rugby in particular.....

Football or soccer is a sport which requires high level of agility. And to be agile, you have to be light and not carry too much of muscle mass. Muscle mass will make you bulkier and heavier which will consequently affect your speed and agility as a football player. As such, if you are serious in this sport, your weight training will have to be light weight & high reps. This builds up lactic acids in your body, increase your heart rate and gives the 'cut' factor which will make you leaner.

Having said that, strength training should not be totally discounted, as the sport also involves 'body contacts' of which your upper and lower body need to be relatively strong to give you a better balance. Therefore, I'd suggest that you include at least one weight training session in a week where you focus on building muscle strength rather than muscle endurance i.e. low reps & heavy weight. We're talking about 3-4 reps max here guys.

Supersets, trisets and giant sets are great techniques which you can incorporate into your training program for these kind of sports. Bear in mind, aside from weight training you must also not forget to incorporate agility training into your training program (i.e. short sprints, zig zag runs, sidesteps practice, agility ladder, etc).

As opposed to Rugby, Rugby is a sport which generally requires you to have the speed, strength and size. Strength and size are 2 crucial factors which a rugby player should have. As such, different weight training approach need to be tailored to this sport. Our objective here is to build size and strength rather than heavily focusing on endurance. Our reps per exercise should range from 6-8 reps per set, focusing on compound exercises.

Let me clarify here that I am talking about rugby in GENERAL and not into the specific position that you play. For example, 'Forward' rugby players will need to have more muscle mass, therefore your training technique will have to be as described above. Whereas, for the 'Backline' rugby players, you will need to also focus on agility, stability and flexibility, therefore, light weight & high reps (12-15 reps per set) exercises would do you justice.

Low-intensity sports on the other hand, like long distance running, would require you to be extremely lean and focuses more on stamina and endurance. Therefore if you are an avid long distance runner, cardio is KEY here. Your weight lifting program should consist of exercises that utilizes your body weight and free weights. You have to include "cardio-related" exercises into your routine such as step-ups, single leg squats, jumping rope, box jumps, single leg hops and also split lunge jumps.

To sum up, its back to what you want to be guys. With the focus, time and dedication that you invest in achieving your fitness goals, result will DEFINITELY come along the way. Be focused and work towards achieving them.

Hope this helps....thanks for reading.