Specificity in Training for Performers (Intro)
Specificity in training:
Adaptations are specific to the type of training stress you expose the body to.
What this means is that the type of training or exercises you expose the body to will yield results in those specific parameters. For example:
The 100m sprinter is not going to be running 10k to prepare for a race. Instead, sprinters will break down the individual parts and moments that make up the 100m race: strokes, first 6steps, starting, arm swing, etc… in order to improve their performance on the track.
Now what does that mean for a dancer and/or singer when we refer to the specificity of their training?
Well to understand this better let’s break down the basic movement patterns. Arguably we have 5 fundamental movement patterns (fair warning you will hear different versions of these fundamental patterns depending on the fitness professional and his/her principles) that apply to all general movement and are what comprise the baseline.
Horizontal Push/Pull (push-ups, chest presses, any kind of rows, throws)
Vertical Push/Pull (pressing overhead, holding weight overhead, pull-ups/chin-up, any kind of pull down)
Squat (lunges, split squats, step ups, squatting, high knees, hip flexion, any kind of movement your hips move vertically)
Hinge (deadlifts, hip thrusts, hip extension, glute bridges, any kind of movement your hips move horizontally)
Core (arguably not a movement itself but a pivotal player in creating movement)
From here we introduce specificities of each sport, discipline, fitness demands, and individualization of the athlete or performer. Adding another four subcategories that speak to the specifics of being an athlete and its demands. However, it is important to note that these subcategories are a byproduct of two or more fundamental movements patterns that make up the baseline on which we want to build on.
Power (Force Absorption and Force Creation)
Rotational Movement
Gait
Bracing, Pelvic Floor and Breathing Patterns
Often when I speak with performers at the gym (or virtually during assessments) regarding the specifics and applicability of their workouts/exercises words like balance, landing, shifting weight, partnering come up. Those are very important words to address. You can agree that every dancer and performer can relate to them at some point or another in their career. So when you think about those words, you are now shifting even further into the specificity side of the spectrum, meaning those are movements that you would not necessarily hear someone who just wants to get fit, lose weight and look good talk about.
So then where does balance, landing, partnering and shifting your weight fall under if I want to train those things?
Those all are a result of competently combining your fundamental movement patterns with one of the 4 subcategories. If you take landing for example you are mechanically and physiologically referring to being able to squat competently as you descend and simultaneously absorb force, or power. Additionally, your core is actively bracing and stabilizing your hips and ribs via your obliques and deeper core muscles, so you can take the force absorbed, and much like a spring, turn it into force you can now use to either jump up again or change directions etc...
So while you may have been told before that in order to improve your single leg stability you had to stand on an unstable surface like a BOSU Ball balancing as you simultaneously perform another exercise because that way you will “train” your core, balance and single leg strength. The sad reality is that the level of specificity in doing something like that and its application to you as a performer to improve your performance is not any more or any less true than if you asked a soon to be mother to change a doll’s diaper while pushing a stroller, singing the ABC’s backwards and pumping milk as a way to prepare her for motherhood.
There are a lot of health professionals out there that although they have the best of intentions they base their principles on outdated data or keep their programs at the fundamentals side of the spectrum because those fitness programs are meant to address 90% of General Population’s needs.
Here comes the real kicker tho, on average performers — dancers and singers alike — are not well versed in fundamental movement patterns to begin with. Performing on and across the stage is not equivalent to moving well. As athletes and performers you are masters at disguising compensations that your body has developed to enable you to do what you do best. In fact, all the best athletes are masters at this. However, just because you are or have been successful working out(or not working out) the way you do and preparing for shows the way you do does not mean you do not need to learn the fundamentals nor does it mean you don’t need to address those compensations at this moment. Because the reality is that most performers have not been trained to be competent at the fundamental movement patterns which — if you recall how training specificity builds on being competent on both the fundamental movements and their subcategories — means that consequently your body is going through movements like landing, balancing, shifting weight, and lifting when partnering inefficiently and most likely by doing compensations that very often compromise your hips, ankles, scapular health, lower back, and hamstrings.
So, yes while you do need specificity in your training you also need to address fundamental movements. The key is in developing the ability to be able to move competently and efficiently from one side of the spectrum to the other in order to establish a balanced training and give your body the resilience, variability and longevity you seek.
