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Training Principles You Have To Live By : S.A.I.D

Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand (also known as Specificity)

in a nutshell this means that you will adapt to / get better at whatever you do. This is just how the human body works. Its not a suggestion but a law.

Evidence from neuroscience goes a step further saying that we are always adapting to our environment, in fact we adapt to everything we go through in our daily lives. How we adapt is by making the next time we do these particular activities a little easier. This means we are always trying to figure out ways to spend lass energy – which is good for survival but not ideal for our posture in todays society!

The S.A.I.D Principle does NOT necessitate that doing corrective exercises will magically fix your movement dysfunction. Glute Bridges will not necessarily make your squat better. Doing glute bridges will get you better at doing glute bridges only.

How Corrective Exercises Work:
A corrective exercise like the glute bridge works through understanding WHY you are doing them and how they feel, and then being able to apply that feeling into your squat.

A corrective exercise is a solution to a movement problem. Proprioception (or how your body feels) is how your transfer your glute bridge skill into your squat skill.

The S.A.I.D Principle is why in the gym you train fundamental movement patterns like the squat, deadlift, pull up and push ups etc. We always want to be perfecting these fundamental movements that are the basis for all the rest of human movement. The best athletes practice basic drills to perfection, so should you.

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Corrective Movement Strategy

Analyze + Correct + Retest = Improvement

A Corrective Movement Strategy (CMS) is an exercise/workout/movement program that is specifically designed to improve an individuals weaknesses and asymmetries.

CMS involves testing and retesting the athletes ability to perform certain movement patterns. Testing should be done by some sort of Functional Movement Screen (FMS).

These types of training sessions should be done either separately from, or just prior to harder strength training.

Major Asymmetries should be trained separately from or, or after harder strength training.

Exercise Selection should be careful to follow the Principles of:

i)Specificity
ii)Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand (S.A.I.D).

  • Which exercises you choose should be based on analysis of the athletes FMS and the coaches intuition as to what will work best for each individual.
  • Further assessments can be applied depending on the coaches knowledge and skill.

Basically,

> Whatever you suck at – do a few sets of 5 reps before your training session.

> If one side is significantly stronger than the other – do a few sets of 5 reps after your training session.

> If anything lacks mobility, get it moving before your training.

They KEY is balancing out your body through movement. If you are always in one position (aka sitting) then you need to move your body in the opposite direction. If you always move in a specific direction then you need to practice the other direction also.

Makes Sense.

But not as easy in practice!

This is because improvement is sometimes slow. Patience is needed. That being said, subtle improvements can be detected within a training session by retest the movement patterns in question as much as possible (multiple times a session).

Continuous testing and retesting should occur in order to determine which corrective exercise is producing the greatest results.

This process of testing, analysis, implementation of corrective exercises and then (re)testing is a great strategy for improving your movement.

Try it out, let me know what happens!

If you have any questions let me know