Specific Physical Preparedness

After the General Physical Preparedness (GPP) phase of training, training transfers to the Specific Physical Preparedness (SPP) phase.

This phase is focused on preparing for the movements of your specific sport. These movements include those that have direct correlation to improving your ability to perform a specific sport. The purpose of SPP is to be trained using movements that enhance strength, coordination, and skill required for a specific sport.

I’m going to use running a marathon as an example to show you how training changes from the GPP to the SPP phase. The GPP phase is training that you would have already done (potentially 5-12 weeks of training of GPP) before entering the SPP phase.

GPP

• Strength: in the GPP phase, you gained strength in all the below movement patterns to prepare your body for your specific sport.

  • A squat

  • A hinge

  • A vertical push and pull

  • A horizontal push and pull

  • Carries

  • Rotations

• Speed: In GPP, training your speed benefited your overall ability to produce power. You increased your speed by doing:

  • Hill sprints

  • 100/200/400m repeats

  • Jumps (box jumps, single leg hops, broad jumps)

  • Shuttle runs

  • Or applied these to any other sport such as cycling, swimming, rowing, etc.

• Endurance: In the GPP phase, endurance training was focused on building your aerobic base. This is your ability to do steady-state work over a period of time. This is an effort that you can maintain for a while, where your HR is relatively low and you are not building up more lactic acid than your muscles can flush out. Here are some example activities that you may have used for your endurance training:

  • Run

  • Bike

  • Swim

  • Row

  • Ruck

  • Kayak

  • Or any other activity that you can do at an aerobic pace

• Balance: is important in any sport as it allows you to maintain your coordination, use the amount of power or strength you intend to use, and helps reduce injury. There are many exercises to help your balance, but here are a few simple ones that you may have used in the GPP phase:

  • Standing march

  • Stand on 1 foot, raise your other knee

  • Sit to stand and stand to sit

  • Single leg Romanian deadlifts

• Mobility: the key to being able to adequately move your body the way you intend to. This is imperative in any sport. In the GPP phase, the focus was on the main mobility movements:

  • Deep squat

  • Touch your toes with straight legs

  • Bar hands

  • Lung stretches

  • External/internal hip rotations

SPP

• Endurance/Speed training (all running now in SPP to focus on specific sport)

  • Mostly aerobic runs: 45 min to 90 min

  • Long run session: 1 hour to 3 hour

  • Race pace session: a workout where you run at the pace you would like to run the marathon in. You can run this pace starting at a few miles and build up every week

  • Speed session: 100/400/800m repeats (5-15). Sprinting is important to build speed, power, get used to running hard, and improves your technique

• Strength training exercises (with typical sets/reps):

  • Squats: 3 sets, 3-5 reps

  • Deadlifts: 3 sets, 3-5 reps

  • Reverse step ups: 3 sets, 5 reps

  • Bulgarian split squats: 3 sets, 6-8 reps

  • Single leg Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets, 6-8 reps

  • Straight leg calf raises superset with bent leg calf raises, 2 sets, 20 reps each

  • Tibialis raises, 2 sets, 20 reps

  • Side plank leg raises (abduction), 2 sets, 8 reps + 5 sec hold

  • Core circuits

  • Leg raises, 2 sets, 10-20 reps

  • Pull-ups and push-ups superset, 3 sets 5-15 reps

  • Single leg jumps (front and lateral), 2 sets, 5-8 reps

  • Suitcase farmers carry, 2 sets 30 feet

  • Russian twists, 2 sets, 20 reps

• Mobility (Will have a leg focus but will be similar to the mobility in GPP)

  • Deep squat

  • Touch your toes with straight legs

  • Bar hands

  • Lung stretches

  • External/internal hip rotations

• Balance (will focus on running balance)

  • Standing march

  • Stand on 1 foot, raise your other knee

  • Single leg Romanian deadlifts

  • Explosive alternating lunges