Sports conditioning vs. lifestyle conditioning

Sports conditioning is similar in concept to lifestyle specific conditioning, in that both are trying to maintain or gain certain levels of capability. An athlete may lose his job if he is not conditioned properly, but anyone can lose the capability to live life the way they know it to be if they don’t maintain their strength. 

Exercise, building muscle and strength has many times gotten some scorn over the years. Some contempt has probably been deserved because of those who take it to the extreme, get themselves looking like misshaped Tonka toys and seem to have no life beyond the gym and food. 

Muscle conditioning and strengthening, however, is applicable to everyone who wants to continue to do things for themselves. These are our activities of daily living (ADL’s), and they can range: from a very demanding physical job, to a person that has very limited physical mobility. ADL’s are what we need to keep strong if we expect to continue being able to do things on our own.

Strength and conditioning can be lifestyle specific, whether it’s an athlete doing it for a particular sport, physical job, etc. and is simply what helps us get from A to Z in our individual respective days without so much of a struggle. 

If we can keep in mind the functional movements we are doing now and the movements that we need to be able to do in the future, then simply strengthen these movements, we can empower our lives by protecting and strengthening our capabilities. 

This is applicable, whether someone is a world-class soccer player, all the way to someone that does not want to live their life stuck in a corner being dependent on others. The key is making sure that our personal functional lifestyle movements stay strong.

For example, if we walk up a hill every day, we can use this same hill to strengthen ourselves for a hiking trip. To strengthen these muscles further, carry some hand weights along. This could be anything that adds weight, such as two buckets filled to desired level with water. Since muscles adapt to new stresses, after doing this for a while, this will become easier. Walking the hill without weights will become really easy. 

If we want to get up out of a squatting position, practice doing this. When it becomes easier, do this while holding hand weights, which will condition these particular muscles even further. 

If you get winded easily, simply do the things that cause you to get winded and work up to faster and longer periods. This will strengthen your heart and lungs, along with your blood and oxygen delivery system. When your cardiopulmonary strength is built to match the rest of your physical strength, this equals quality strength and conditioning.

Sports conditioning, if done properly, will push an athlete further then his or her prior conditioning level. This is why, along with skill training, he or she can be better when the next round of competition or sports season begins. This same thing applies to each of us in strengthening our weak points or gaining strength for future needs. 

If we keep in mind the movements we need now, the ones we need in our future, and simply strengthen these functional lifestyle movements, our physical capabilities and our quality of life can become so much better and will give us a good economy of movement. 

Our body and its physiology were designed with adaptive capabilities to new stressors that mankind will never be able to duplicate, but is ours to enjoy and to deploy!