Why slow, controlled strength training still wins for your sport.
Whether it's tennis, rowing, golf or netball, you want your strength training to make you better at the thing you love. So you've probably seen the box jumps, the medicine ball slams and the wobbly Bosu squats, and wondered if you should be doing them too.
Here's what the research says, and why we train the way we do at Salus.
Skills are more specific than they look. Your body learns movement very precisely. Practise a movement one way and you get better at that exact movement, not at something that just looks similar.
A classic example: baseball players warming up with a heavy bat. It feels like it should help. But you can't swing a heavy bat as fast as a normal one, so your body learns a slower swing with different mechanics. That's not what you want on game day. The same goes for the gym. Adding weight to a sport movement doesn't sharpen your skill. It can quietly change it.
Faster lifting isn't better lifting
"Explosive" training is often sold as the key to power. The evidence doesn't back that up.
When baseball players were split into slow, controlled strength training or explosive medicine ball throws, only the strength group improved both throwing speed and bench press strength (Newton & McEvoy, 1994).
A 2022 study comparing fast, velocity-based training with traditional strength training found no difference in gains in strength, power or sprint speed (Orange et al., 2022).
In other words, lifting fast doesn't give you an edge. Getting stronger does. Stronger muscles produce more force, and that's what carries over to your sport.
You don't need to train on a wobble board
A strong trunk matters. It's the base every movement and every bit of force comes from. But balancing on unstable equipment mostly makes you better at balancing on that equipment, not better on court or in the boat (Fisher et al., 2011). Balance doesn't transfer well from one task to another.
Slow, controlled exercises with direct resistance strengthen your muscles through their full range of motion. That's strength you can use anywhere.
First, do no harm
When a weight is moved explosively, there's a big spike in force at the start to get it moving, then momentum does the rest. That spike places extra stress on tendons, ligaments and joints. Studies of fast Olympic-style lifting have reported wrist, elbow, shoulder and lower back injuries.
For competitive weightlifters, those lifts are their sport, so they train them. For everyone else, the risk isn't worth it when a safer option delivers the same or better results.
So what actually works?
It's refreshingly simple:
Practise your sport. That's where your skill improves.
Strengthen the muscles that drive it. Slow, controlled, full range of motion.
Recover well. Rest is where your body adapts.
That's exactly what every Salus session is built around: evidence-based strength that makes you better at everything outside the studio.
Got a sport you want to train for? Reply to this email and tell us.
We'd love to help you build a programme around it.