>>Who can say that walking, swimming, bicep curls, stair climbing, karate,
fencing and so forth are entirely non-functional for an athlete in a sport
such as football, powerlifting, wrestling or soccer?<<
How can a bicep curl be considered functional for a soccer player?
>>An exercise that is highly sport specific and “functional” at one time
might be equally “non-functional” at another time.<<
Can you give an example?
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*** Mel Siff:
1. Since the biceps flex the elbow, supinate the forearm and swing the arm
forwards (as during walking and running, together with corocobrachialis and
all of these actions occur in soccer, then any form of improving bicep
functioning ostensibly could be viewed as being relevant to soccer, provided
that one does not train it simply for bodybuilding aesthetics.
Now, I know that this remark of mine may well attract comments that one may
as well do a general weight training session using any old exercises and let
the sport itself attend to the specifics. Indeed, such comments would be
quite valid, e.g., for general physical preparation or for restoration at
other stages of training or competition, depending on how the various
exercises are used, but the same exercises would not universally be suitable
at all stages of training.
In other words, as I stressed before, functionality is context dependent and
cannot be regarded as a universal characteristic of given exercises or
regimes of exercise.
2. Any muscle group which is exercised or developed more than is necessary
for achieving a given sporting purpose can cause either structural and/or
functional “imbalances” that may be viewed as “non-functional” under such
conditions, often because of competing neural patterns (e.g. try to play
tennis, badminton and squash or racquetball effectively soon after one
another)..
Suppose that a gymnast or jumper does an excessive amount of hypertrophy type
exercises (e.g. because tests may have revealed that they have adequate
explosiveness, but inadequate hypertrophy), the added muscular weight can be
detrimental to any pulling movements with the upper extremities. This is one
reason why we struggle more to complete pull-ups as we gain overall muscle
mass.
Dr Mel C Siff