Training vs. Working Out: What’s the Difference?

The weight room has become a staple in many young athlete’s lives. Often times, however, it’s seen as a secondary priority - and for good reason. Yes, it’s more important for a basketball player to be a good free throw shooter than it is for him/her to perform a proper lateral raise. That being said, I would make this argument: while it will always be secondary to actual sport practice, the benefits gained from training in the weight room can act as a separator between athletes of similar skill levels.

So, in reference to the title of this blog, what’s the difference between training and working out? It boils down to one simple concept: Training is planned & tracked. Working out is sporadic & random. In more words, training requires thought out programming, consistent progression and the discipline to find a routine and stick to it. Working out doesn’t require any of those things - rather, it means showing up when you feel like it to perform whatever exercises you feel like doing.

To dive further into this concept let’s take two high school freshman basketball players as an example. The first is named Jimmy. Jimmy’s dad took him to the local YMCA a couple times during the summer and showed him some example exercises that he used to do back in the day. Jimmy then follows suit, and whenever he’s feeling motivated, he’ll go to the YMCA and perform any random number of sets/reps of these random exercises, maybe he’ll even run a couple of sprints. He doesn’t track what weight he’s using, what exercises he’s doing, or how many times he’s performing each exercise. To make it worse, he doesn’t always feel motivated - some weeks he doesn’t even go to the gym at all!

Now let’s look at Joey. Joey decided to plan ahead, so he went to his high school strength coach, and together they developed a summer workout program to get prepared for the season. He has specific days & times to workout, he knows what exercises he’s going to perform before walking into the gym, and he even starts to track what resistance he’s using for each specific exercise. Not only is Joey making great progress because he’s showing up to the weight room with a purpose, but he’s also being efficient with his time. When an athlete is efficient with his/her time in the weight room, it gives them more time dedicated to practicing their sport. 

Now, I ask you, the reader - which athlete is more likely to gain more strength & athleticism in the summer leading into their freshman year - Jimmy or Joey? Which athlete is more likely to stick to what he/s doing, even when the busy schedule starts to fill up? Which athlete is going to have gained more confidence? You guessed it - obviously Joey. And, further down the line, if these trends continue, the gap will only continue to grow wider. 

Being able to make consistent progress in the weight room has a wide array of benefits for young athletes - increased athleticism, greater durability, rising levels of confidence - too many to go through in this blog. And in my three years of doing this, I have seen one consistent pattern - progress doesn’t come without planning. Don’t know where to start? Let Strength For Today take care of that part for you.