SPECIFICITY: THE EXERCISE YOU PROBABLY AREN'T DOING
WHAT IS SPECIFICITY?
Specificity is the practice of training a specific exercise or movement in preparation for the exercise itself. In other words, performing warm up sets of an exercise before the working sets begin.
Some examples:
-Bench press
-Squat
-Deadlift
-Curls
You may have heard the term “muscle memory” and shrugged it off as some gym “broscience” and written it off as so. However, muscle memory is indeed a real thing and can be used to your advantage.
Much like any other thing in life, the human body is great at adapting to situations. Stay in low light conditions long enough and your eyes will begin to adapt and you will be able to see much better than you previously had before.
Similarly, by practicing the same movements and exercises you will adapt to the specific movements and in turn, get better at them. While this is conventionally the case when following a workout program and repeating the same exercises week after week, you may not be taking full advantage of specificity.
WHy is it important?
While training the same movements week after week is great, you may not be doing a crucial element of it, warming up.
Warming up is a very important step that a large percentage of people neglect and not realize the true importance of. How many times have you started your workout and jumped straight into your exercises?
Even though it may not seem like a big deal, it can lead to slower results and injuries. Warming up is the process of filling the muscles with oxygen carrying blood and loosening up tendons and ligaments. By warming up through specificity you allow the muscles, tendons and ligaments to stretch instead of tear.
This process is know as dynamic stretching. By performing the specific exercise with light weight you are allowing the muscles and joints to go through the full range of motion and decreasing the chance for injury.
Not only will this create a stronger muscle memory, it will also allow you to perform higher amounts of weight than you would if you had just jumped straight into the working sets.
HOW TO TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF SPECIFICITY
As mentioned above, some examples of specificity are things like doing squats before squats, bench press before bench press, curls before curls, etc.
To achieve the best results, start with very minimal weight and perform at least 3 warm up sets at a low weight and increase. Or 3 or more sets of a moderate weight one after another. By going through this process you will also learn how properly to check in with your body. This will allow you to notice any aches or pains before the working sets begin.
Your body may be telling you that you need to decrease your expected weight for your working sets. Instead just perform maintenance working sets to reduce the chance of injury. Though this may be a disappointing set back towards your goals, a set back is better than a dead stop that may arise from an injury from not properly warming up.
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