Anyone who practices any sporting activity (track and field, artistic gymnastics, martial arts, tennis, team sports…), whether at a professional level or as an amateur, should include strength sessions in their planning for multiple reasons, including mainly all of these:

• Strength is the most important physical ability of all because it is interrelated with the others. So, depending on how we schedule our sessions we can improve speed, resistance, agility and even flexibility.
• Strength training, if done correctly, also helps you improve your body posture and motor skills. Good posture always allows the technique of any skill to flow more efficiently.
• In relation to the previous point, your lung capacity will be greater since your chest expands and you will be able to take in more air and get less tired. This is especially interesting in endurance sports. And if you want to lift a heavy weight you are also going to need good lungs to take in a lot of air and hold it while doing your big lift.
• Strength training is essential to prevent injuries in your sport. We are not only strengthening our muscles with it, but also our bones and joints. Strong bones mean that they are harder and more resistant, making it very difficult for them to fracture. This is of great importance in high-impact and high-stress sports where running and jumping are done, such as track and field, basketball or martial arts.
• One of the main reasons why strength sessions should be included by any athlete who likes to do a lot of distance, such as marathoners, cyclists, swimmers or triathletes, is because it helps them maintain their muscle mass. In these sports in which an aerobic metabolism predominates, a point is reached where, after running out of carbohydrates and fats as the main sources of energy, the body begins to use proteins as fuel and its main reserve is our muscles. . There are many scientific studies that have shown that people who retain more muscle mass tend to live longer and maintain their level of autonomy to perform any basic task.
• And finally you will achieve good aesthetics and a good body contour. I leave this characteristic last because it is the result of all of the above and should never be the main objective for which we must put in force. For me, good aesthetics are what an athletic body represents and is a consequence of working on function and not isolating muscles as is done in bodybuilding. It is a side effect of strengthening our body as a whole by performing exercises that reproduce movements that are natural. While the body of an athlete is characterized by having hypertrophy within the limits of normality and maintaining a balance between the different muscle groups, the body of a bodybuilder goes beyond these limits with exaggerated hypertrophy and sometimes losing other qualities such as flexibility.

With everything I’ve told you so far, do you still think you don’t have enough reasons to incorporate a strength program into your sports planning that is focused on getting the best out of you on the court?