Specialized Sports Biology

The core essence is an applied discipline that deeply binds general exercise physiology and anatomical laws with the unique action patterns, energy metabolism characteristics, and neuromuscular activation timing of a single sport. It is neither a paper theory divorced from practical practice in the laboratory, nor a "high-level metaphysics" exclusive to professional athletes. It is the core underlying tool for all people with fixed exercise habits to break through bottlenecks and avoid sports injuries.

When I was working as a scientific research supporter for the provincial sprint team in the past two years, I saw a particularly impressive case: There was a 19-year-old boy whose 100-meter time was stuck at 10.8 seconds for half a year. Pai came from a traditional physical training background and said he was definitely not strong enough, so he was asked to increase the weight of the back squat to twice his body weight first. He practiced hard for two months, but he was able to squat, but his performance dropped by 0.12 seconds. When running, he always felt that his legs were heavy and he could not move forward. Later, we used electromyography and high-speed photography to conduct special action analysis, and found that the problem was not in absolute strength at all: his hip fold angle during running was 8 degrees smaller than that of athletes of the same level, and the timing of concentric contraction of the hamstrings was 20 milliseconds later than others. To put it bluntly, the quadriceps strength developed by heavy squats was not used in the force sequence of running at all, and instead increased the weight-bearing feeling of the lower limbs. Later, we cut off his heavy strength training by two-thirds and replaced it with weight-bearing lunges with hip angle restrictions and special auxiliary exercises to quickly fold the legs on the spot. After 6 weeks, he ran 10.58 seconds, directly reaching level one.

To be honest, I used to think that this subject was used by college professors to write papers. It was not until I saw too many cases in the team that "practicing the basics is useless" that I realized that this thing is really practical. There is actually a debate over the boundaries of specialized training in the industry. One group is a supporter of "universal priority" and believes that no matter what the event, you must first build up enough basic strength and basic endurance, and your performance will naturally go up. The other group is a fan of "extreme specialization" and believe that all training that is inconsistent with special movements and energy supply modes is invalid training. They can't wait to do the same movements as in the competition even in the warm-up.

Objectively speaking, both of these views have applicable scenarios. For novices who are new to sports, their muscle mass and cardiopulmonary function are at extremely low levels. If you practice some basic skills, you can improve them, and the results will be quick if you take them to special events. I have seen children who have just learned table tennis before. They are not even good at swinging the racket. After practicing squats and skipping for three months, their movement stability and force consistency after getting on stage are much better than those of children who swing the racket in the gym every day. But if you still hold on to the "general first" mentality at the intermediate and advanced levels, it will be equivalent to wasted effort. Just like the young sprinter mentioned just now, he already has the basic strength to support a specific event. Squatting more weight will only improve the ability of squatting, and will not be converted into running speed.

However, there are many pitfalls in "extreme specialties". There are several senior marathon enthusiasts around me who believe that "the results will naturally increase if you run enough." They do no training except running. As a result, after two or three years of running, they will either suffer from iliotibial band friction syndrome or patellar chondromalacia, and they will not be able to participate in any competition. The essence is that the movement of running itself cannot train the small muscle groups of hip abduction and deep ankle stability. These weak points are not made up. The more you run, the more serious the problem of movement compensation will be, and in the end you will only get injured. Oh, by the way, there is another interesting thing. I have a friend who can score 330 points in the marathon. He has the best endurance among ordinary people. Last time we made an appointment to play half-court basketball. After running for 10 minutes, he squatted on the ground and was out of breath. To put it bluntly, he was a patient. Energy system mismatch: Marathon requires steady-state aerobic energy supply accounting for more than 95%, while basketball is all about short sprints, emergency stops, and take-offs. It is a mixture of phosphagen and glycolysis for energy supply. No matter how strong your aerobic endurance is, if your glycolysis ability has not been trained, you will still have to breathe when you should.

In fact, ordinary people don’t have to think that this thing is far away from them. I usually skateboard. I couldn’t jump high when I tried Ollie before. Everyone I checked online asked me to practice squats and calf raises. I practiced hard for two months. My jumping ability has indeed improved, but the board still can’t bounce. Well, later I slowed down the video of my movements and found out that after I clicked on the board, I retracted my ankles 0.1 second late. When the board bounced to the highest point, I had not retracted my feet. It was not a matter of strength at all. After changing the rhythm of retracting my feet, I was able to jump over two vertical obstacles in one week. There is also a friend who has been playing badminton for 5 years. His smashes have always been weak and he always suffers from tennis elbow. When he went for rehabilitation, he used electromyography and found that when he initiated the racket, the transversus abdominis muscle was activated more than 300 milliseconds later than the latissimus dorsi muscle. His core was not tensed at all, and his strength depended entirely on the hard swing of his arms. After practicing three weeks of special auxiliary exercises to pre-activate the core before triggering the racket, his smash speed increased by 12%, and the elbow pain disappeared.

To put it bluntly, sports-specific biology is never a boring subject that gives you a bunch of complex formulas and asks you to memorize the names of various muscles. It is essentially a tool to help you figure out "what exactly you need to practice for the event you are playing." Don’t be bound by various general training strategies on the Internet, and don’t stick to specific movements and refuse to make up for your shortcomings. The most useful training is the one that suits your own project. Really, practicing in the right direction is much more useful than spending time and energy on training.