Other forms of training

Pure strength training contrasts most markedly with the low-force, multiple-repetition work just described. Though increasing the bulk of the muscles and the maximum loads which they can handle, it adds little or nothing to their endurance. However the more commonly undertaken ‘weight training’, in which less extreme loads are worked against, with several times as many repetitions during the course of each gymnasium session, imparts ‘strength endurance’, a balance between the two extremes which arguably develops the most useful form of fitness for everyday life. Speed training, or ‘plyometric’ (resilience) training, and flexibility training are other forms in which it is possible to specialize: in particular, yoga places a degree of emphasis upon flexibility which most other schools of physical educators would consider disproportionate. Nevertheless a program of muscle stretching and joint flexibility should be part of the regime of every sports person seeking to improve not only performance but resistance to injury. Finally, between speed and endurance comes ‘anaerobic endurance’ : the ability to maintain a power output only a few per cent below flat out for several tens of seconds (as in 400 meter running) or to repeat short bursts many times in a period of about 90 min (as in hockey, soccer, and other ‘multiple sprint’ sports).