The Greek physician Galen (AD 129 ? 210) is usually accepted to be the originator of formalized physical exercise, he even pointed the way ahead by stating,

&quot?movements which do not alter respiration are not called exercise&quot.

While he was chief physician to the Gladiators, Galen devised coaching drills to replicate movements from the arena, as seen in the 1960 movie Spartacus. Galen’s gladiator drills are now referred to as ‘sports specific’ coaching or occasionally the misleading term ‘functional’ coaching, that is, workouts consisting of movements that are specific to a activity. With practice we might get much better at doing these workouts but to date there is no evidence that this makes any distinction to sporting efficiency or normal everyday function of the muscle tissue particularly targeted.

‘State-dependent learning’ is a phenomenon in which the retrieval of recently acquired information is feasible only if the topic is in the same atmosphere and physical state as throughout the learning phase. That is, a skill learnt in one situation does not necessarily translate to an additional, for example, outcomes acquired from workouts designed to reinforce the ‘core’ muscle tissue might not change their efficiency under aggressive or even everyday conditions that differ from these of the specific physical exercise. Therefore, if coaching routines are to be beneficial they should replicate the enjoying conditions as carefully as feasible.

In expert activity a large proportion of coaching is taken up by physical exercise in the perception it will develop power, co-ordination and agility, but if these workouts are considered essential for a given activity, why does not the athlete develop these skills by actually participating in their activity? If an athlete lacks the power or agility considered essential for their game then both the perceived requirements are incorrect (and this occurs time and time once more) and the workouts are a waste of time or the athlete is not doing their activity in a manner considered to be right. If the latter is the situation then how can an athlete whose movement might be at fault be anticipated to be all of a sudden able of doing the prescribed workouts properly? If they do discover to perform the workouts ‘correctly’ can these new skills be transferred back again to the sporting arena?

Sports scientist Dr Michael Yessis writes:

What Makes an Exercise Specific? For an physical exercise to be specific it should fulfill one or more of the following criteria:

1. The physical exercise should duplicate the precise movement witnessed in a particular segment of the sports skill.

2. The physical exercise should entail the same type of muscular contraction as used in the skill execution.

3. The special physical exercise should have the same variety of movement as in the skill action.

So maybe the best activity specific physical exercise plan, by definition, is … enjoying your activity?

Roy Palmer is a Instructor of The Alexander Method and author of The Performance Paradox: Train Smarter to enhance efficiency and reduce damage. Much more information can be found at http://www.artofperformance.co.uk He works with sports people of all abilities to recognise and conquer efficiency-limiting habits.