Why Specificity Matters in Workouts

I love group fitness.

There’s nothing more motivating than an instructor in front of the class, telling you what to do, and a ton of other sweaty, awesome people all around you to keep you from quitting.

But I love running, and frankly, I love fitting into my jeans.

I love the feeling of hard work paying off.

Seven years ago, I hit my goals working out with a personal trainer, working out in a very specific system he’d designed that knew led to weight loss with his clients.

Three years ago, I did a partnership with Uplift, and I lost some weight — but more importantly, I got stronger and more confident from lifting and doing this consistently in conjunction with my running. It’s no coincidence that I got a big half marathon PR that spring, too. (To be fair, I was also unemployed and had all the time in the world to work out in between job searching.)

OK, yes, fine, I am sucking in some, but still.

So why doesn’t the ClassPass/on demand model work? Specificity. (Awesome article explaining it at length here.)

Want to run faster? You need to…wait for it…RUN.

Want to compete in a weight lifting competition? You need to train…for a weight lifting competition.

If you don’t have specific goals, planning your workout schedule by whatever class is open works. And don’t get me wrong — I’ve been a ClassPass member for years and I enjoy the service.

But today, I had a training session with Leanne at Uplift and she asked me what I was doing currently to work out. “I see your Instagram and I see you’re trying a million things…but what does your schedule look like week to week?”

Honestly, I told her, it was largely dictated by whatever cool press event I get invited to or whatever workout happened to be open or what direction the wind was swaying or who was available. (Or, if volunteers are needed to work out on our show at work. WHY YES I WILL ALWAYS BE TRIBUTE.)

But to lose a little weight/gain some strength like I’d like to, that’s not going to work. So I’m going to work with Leanne for a bit because, yes, I need some accountability, and I am the weirdo who LOVES being pushed really freaking hard by someone. (Leanne is also my friend and it was weird at first when we worked out a few years ago having her see me completely pushed to my max/a little angry at her, but I got over it.)

I’m going to work out with her for a while (disclaimer: we’ve done partnerships in the past, but this all on my own dime, though on their “happy hour” rate) and see what kind of results I get, along with some lifestyle changes like cooking more, wining less (oh, the usual…), etc.

Let’s see if there’s really something to this specificity. And you — are you training for something specific (weight loss goals, race, etc?) or working out just for fun? I’ve been in both camps — it’s just a matter of current goals.