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Specificity

Bryce March 7, 2024

The principle of Specificity proposes the question: “What are you training for?”

When designing a program, high-level goals and demands/requirements of the sport/activity should be your North Star and training should be adjusted accordingly. Obviously, this is easier said than done. 

If your goals are aesthetic, all of the primary training variables (i.e. volume, load, frequency) should be determined based on which body parts you want to improve and adding muscle to those body parts in the most efficient way possible. Unfortunately, many people hinder their progress because aspects of their training are not well-suited for their long-term goals. Trimming the fat from the program, emphasizing what’s going to deliver the most bang-for-buck, and keeping the direction of training aligned with goals is a science. Given that we’re focusing on hypertrophy, let’s look at some common mistakes of specificity that are made…

Technique:

Exercise technique is an area that many lifters, even advanced ones, should keep a watchful eye on. For hypertrophy, reps should be slow and controlled on the eccentric and powerful on the concentric. Jerking movements and use of momentum should be minimized or altogether eliminated. It’s easy to swing or bounce the weights to crank out an extra rep or two, but this can easily result in injury and/or much less useful (in hypertrophy terms) stimuli being generated than expected. 

The actualized stress should be aligned with the hoped-for stress, as dictated by the goals of the program — if they deviate, specificity has been violated.

Rep Ranges:

Most old-school bodybuilders are pretty close-minded as to what an effective rep range is. They live in walled-gardens of 6-12 reps, believing anything below is for powerlifters and anything above is for marathoners (or worse, CrossFitters). However, a growing body of literature shows that hypertrophy is very easily attainable in a much broader range — even within 3-30 reps — so long as the sets are taken to a similar intensity. 

However, a physique athlete must also be cognizant of the fact that they are NOT an Olympic weightlifter or powerlifter or strongman. Blending styles of strength training can be useful in certain situations but it often does little to optimize hypertrophy or aesthetics pursuits. For example, a weightlifter would incorporate Snatch and Clean variations in very low rep ranges with the goal being to move it as explosively as possible. While this sort of training style is excellent for developing power, it does little for inducing hypertrophy. Meanwhile, a strongman may incorporate long-distance yoke or farmer’s carries improving their conditioning and ability to bear weight — yet the ROM being applied to the individual muscles is insufficient to promote optimal growth compared to just performing isolation exercises in much lower risk/stress environments. Obviously, these athletes have impressive muscle mass and are capable of incredible feats, yet the idea of a strongman stepping on stage in a man-thong is pure nightmare fuel. And the reason is that these athletes optimize their training specificity for very different goals.

Exercise Selection:

Keep in mind that the exercises used in training are also crucial for efficient hypertrophic outcomes. It’s easy to buy into the idea that the Barbell Squat is the king of all lifts, and involves so many muscles that you barely need to include anything else for lower body training. And while this argument might have some validity when it comes to the quads and glutes, the hamstrings would get left out-to-dry. Thus, it’s prudent to dedicate at least one specific exercise per muscle to maximize growth potential. Unfortunately, this means movements like Leg Extensions, Hip Thrusts, and Seated Hamstring Curls may be necessary (at times) for complete leg development — whether Barbell Squats need to be a part of that picture is the topic of a separate essay.

On the flip side, an excess of exercises — even the right exercises — can also be a big problem. (Gaussian distributions are everywhere in training, which is why those who promote extremism are so often wrong.) For example, one exercise for quads per week is good but probably not sufficient for a trained athlete to grow. Two is better, and three might be better still. But at some point, there is a cliff in which efficiency drops off precipitously. More than five unique and specific movements for a muscle is certainly excessive within a program, even if other variables like volume and intensity are controlled for. Specificity relies on precision, so don’t carpet bomb your program with every exercise you can think of. Pick and choose selectively, because you just might need something in your back pocket later on (*ominous foreshadowing*)…


Specificity is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most important principle not only for hypertrophy but for all of strength training. It dictates everything within your program and establishes a clear direction for everything else to follow. Once you have the arrow pointed towards your desired goal, the next step is to apply the force that will move you closer to it.

Specificity-

A post shared by @progressiveperformancep2

Specificity Discussion- https://www.instagram.com/tv/CQUAfGfn02g/ 

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