General Physical Preparedness (GPP)

So I was surfing the web a few nights ago, and I came across the term "general physical preparedness" or GPP. I have read about it previously in some online journals and was intrigued because none of my classes, certifications, books, etc mentioned this novel and fairly obvious idea. I read up on it a bunch and here is the gist:GPP is the ability of an individual to do any physical activity required (voluntary or involuntary). The voluntary is fairly obvious, an athletic competition, exercise requirements, marathons, and things of that nature. An involuntary requirement would be something we hope probably never happens, like being chased by a bear, avoiding a car collision while running/walking, or being in a life or death situation...hey, it could happen right?The higher someone's GPP, the greater ability they have across the board in every measurable aspect of fitness, and the lower it is, the opposite is true. So think about someone who is an offensive lineman on a football team, you know the big guys who push other big mountains of men back a few yards and try to cream the defensive linemen to create a hole for the running back to run through, or protect the quarterback. These guys are very strong at their particular requirement, low speed strength. Think about it, they don't move very fast while pushing another 300lb guy, nor do they run for very long, so they can't sustain that effort for more than 20 seconds or the average time of a football play. So they would have a low GPP, unless they did some other non specific sport training. Is this a bad thing, or just a component of being very good at one thing?This is the question I asked myself. What if an elite football player, could also have great endurance, great jumping ability, and flexibility, even if it weren't a required trait of his position? This is of course one example, what if a marathoner had great strength and muscularity and sprint speed too, wouldn't that make them an even better athlete overall, without compromising their primary sport?The answer is yes. Through minimum non sport specific training, we can increase our overall GPP. Even better, is when we're not super elite athletes, and then everything should be GPP style training. We should strive for great endurance, great sprint speed, great jumping ability, great strength and muscularity, and great agility and flexibility. If we can attain great proficiency in all things fitness-wise, and we have no weakness, we are holistically in good shape, rather than having glaring weaknesses. This is where training and programming come in.Being a trainer is great, because I get to constantly vary my non athletic client's program in such a way to increase their proficiency at all things fitness related. People always ask for programs, like written down programs. And I've always said that a specific plan for workouts is a plan to fail. Coach Glassman confirmed this with this old quote of his:“Variances in effort, intensity, enthusiasm, and performance are an inescapable part of life. The belief that these natural variances can be planned for months in advance in order to optimize performance at a later date is hogwash.” - Greg GlassmanSo basically every time someone comes in, we're doing something different, whether the intensity, weight, duration, exercise, or interval changes, it's different, and that's how you get good at everything, or in other words your GPP increases.I would say increasing one's GPP should be the highest goal for anyone looking to achieve fitness across the board. Even if you are a competitive athlete, you should strive to be good at everything, so that in case the demands of your sport change suddenly, you are good to go. Think of a situation in which an offensive lineman has to chase down a defensive back who intercepted a ball. In most cases, the linemen are slow, and run out of steam quickly. However, if he had just spent a little time working on his GPP, he could probably accelerate fast enough to catch the DB and prevent the touchdown. And it's not like it’s that hard for an already athletic person to achieve this level of GPP. Just an extra session or modified training session per week that focuses on glaring weakness in a smart manner can yield great results in the long term, which is not even including the health benefits of having better heart and respiration, better oxidative capacity, and a reduced body fat.So the next time you think that just doing the stuff you're good at will get you to your goal whatever it may be (for instance, a runner running, or a cyclist cycling, or a bodybuilder lifting weights for size gains), think outside the box with your training and realize that something you stink at is good for you, and will help be a more well rounded person fitness wise, but probably also increase your proficiency at your main goal, which is something we're all striving for.

-Jordan Feigenbaum CSCS, HFS, USAW-Club Coach
Assistant Director O'fallon South
jfeigenbaum@dfmfit.com