In the world of fitness, it's easy to get caught up in specialised training—whether it's focusing on strength, endurance, or skills for a particular sport. However, one crucial element often overlooked is General Physical Preparedness, or GPP. This concept can enhance your fitness journey regardless of your goals, leading to better performance, injury prevention, and well-rounded physical capabilities.
What is GPP?
General Physical Preparedness (GPP) refers to a broad base of fitness that covers multiple physical attributes, such as strength, endurance, mobility, agility, coordination, and speed. Unlike Specific Physical Preparedness (SPP), which focuses on the skills and qualities necessary for a particular sport or activity, GPP is more about building a foundation of overall fitness.
Think of GPP as the building blocks that make you capable of handling various physical challenges. For example, even if you're a strength athlete, having a good level of cardiovascular fitness and flexibility will help you recover faster between sets, reduce injury risk, and improve your performance. GPP is also valuable for beginners who want to create a well-rounded fitness foundation before moving on to more specialised goals.
How Can GPP Aid Your Workouts?
Incorporating GPP into your training has multiple benefits that can enhance your workout performance and overall physical health:
- **Injury Prevention**: Focusing solely on specific skills or movements can lead to imbalances, overuse injuries, and weaknesses. GPP helps counteract these issues by addressing a wide range of movements and muscle groups, thereby balancing your overall development.
- **Improved Recovery**: A higher level of general fitness enhances your body’s ability to recover between workouts or sports events. Better aerobic conditioning, for example, can speed up recovery by improving blood flow and oxygen delivery to your muscles.
- **Better Performance in Specific Areas**: By building a broad base of fitness, you create a stronger foundation to improve in specific disciplines. For instance, developing better cardiovascular health through GPP can enhance your stamina in weightlifting or high-intensity sports.
- **Increased Work Capacity**: GPP workouts often involve circuit training, bodyweight exercises, and multi-functional movements that can enhance your ability to perform more work over time. This directly translates into better endurance during intense workouts or sports.
- **Versatility and Functional Fitness**: GPP training involves exercises that improve your ability to perform real-world tasks, making you more functional in day-to-day activities and unexpected physical challenges.
How to Incorporate GPP into Your Workout Schedule
Adding GPP to your workout routine doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your existing program. Instead, it involves integrating specific workouts or exercises that focus on overall fitness, rather than just specialised skills or muscle groups. Here’s how you can get started:
- **Dedicated GPP Sessions**: Set aside one or two days a week specifically for GPP work. These sessions should include a mix of different exercises that challenge your strength, endurance, mobility, and coordination. A sample GPP workout might include:
- Dynamic warm-up (mobility drills, dynamic stretching)
- Circuit of bodyweight exercises (push-ups, lunges, planks, burpees)
- Conditioning (sled pushes, battle ropes, jump rope)
- Agility drills (ladder drills, cone drills)
- Cool down with stretching or foam rolling
- **GPP as a Warm-Up or Cool-Down**: Incorporate GPP exercises into your warm-up or cool-down. For example, use agility drills or mobility work before your main workout, or finish off with some bodyweight conditioning exercises like kettlebell swings, burpees, or jump rope.
- **Active Recovery Days**: On days when you’re not doing heavy lifting or intense workouts, use active recovery sessions focused on GPP. These can include low-impact activities like swimming, cycling, or bodyweight circuits that promote overall fitness without overly taxing your body.
- **Variety in Workouts**: Rotate GPP elements into your regular workouts. For example, if you're primarily focused on strength, add in some high-intensity interval training (HIIT) for cardiovascular endurance. Conversely, if you're an endurance athlete, include some functional strength exercises like kettlebell work or loaded carries.
- **Periodization**: If you have a specific athletic goal (like running a race or competing in a strength event), you can use the off-season to focus on GPP. This helps build a broad base of fitness that prepares you for more specialised training as your event approaches.
Sample Weekly Schedule Incorporating GPP
Here’s how you might structure a weekly schedule that balances specialised training with GPP:
- **Monday**: Strength Training (Focus on compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, and presses)
- **Tuesday**: GPP Session (Circuit training: bodyweight exercises, kettlebell swings, sled pushes)
- **Wednesday**: Skill Work or Sport-Specific Training (Agility, speed, technique drills)
- **Thursday**: Strength Training (Focus on accessory lifts and functional movements)
- **Friday**: GPP Session (High-intensity conditioning, such as HIIT or metabolic circuits)
- **Saturday**: Active Recovery (Low-intensity cardio, stretching, or yoga)
- **Sunday**: Rest or Mobility Work
Final Thoughts
General Physical Preparedness is an essential but often overlooked aspect of fitness. By incorporating GPP into your routine, you create a solid foundation that supports your more specialised goals, improves your functional fitness, and helps you maintain a healthy, injury-free lifestyle. Whether you’re an athlete, a weekend warrior, or just getting started, GPP can help you unlock better performance, improved recovery, and a more well-rounded level of fitness.
Flex Factory Top Tips
- Start easy - don't commit to 30 minute HIIT sessions or hour long sled drags. Just grab a kettlebell at the end of your workout and do a few swings or grab a medicine ball and slam it on the floor for a minute. These are small things but they all add up greatly over time.
- Don't think of these days as a 'wasted weights session'. These promote greater and faster recovery. So the weight session you may miss this week, will be nothing other than a blip in the future.
- Bands, kettlebells, sleds, these are all great, easy fun, ways to improve your GPP.