Let’s face it – you don’t deserve to specialize.

I see so many people worrying about their (insert name of sport here) plan. Their BJJ plan. Their running plan. Their strength plan. To be brutally honest, unless you’re knocking on the door for a national title in a sport other than weightlifting or powerlifting you don’t need a specialized strength plan.

The reason you don’t need a specialized strength plan is simple – you suck. Specific training plans are for elite performers trying to get the last fraction of a percent out of themselves. Often in doing so they create all kinds of other problems thanks to their specialized training (but no one ever mentions that).

The idea that a relative beginner of mediocre talent/ performance needs a specific training plan is exactly the same as the questions I get from white belts about to go to their first competition about the best way to cut weight. Look, no one cares if you won the state medium heavy whit belt division that has 4 people in it.

What you should be focused on instead is sound movement, base fitness, minimizing injury risk during training, and eradicating weaknesses (including any food related weaknesses you have such as being overweight). Be a human being first before you worry about being a human doing. Most people I see worried about specialized training have already started to lose basic ranges of motion, they’ve lost the ability to perform across the three energy systems, and have usually also lost most strength outside of a few pet moves.

If you don’t get paid for your sport and won’t be lining up for a national title you can forget fancy specialized plans.