Training for What You Want: Why Specificity Matters in Fitness

We all know someone who’s great at push-ups. Maybe they crank out sets like it’s a warm-up. But put a barbell in their hands and ask for a heavy bench press, and the story changes. Or take someone who crushes lat pulldowns with 150 pounds, yet can’t do more than two pull-ups. What gives?

This isn’t a flaw in their training. It’s a feature of how the body works.

ALL TRAINING IS SPECIFIC

Your body adapts to what you repeatedly ask of it. If you run often, you get better at running. If you lift weights, you get better at lifting weights. If you do CrossFit-style workouts, you get better at surviving those workouts. But these adaptations are movement-specific.

Push-ups, pull-ups, bench press, and lat pulldowns all demand different mechanics. Push-ups require core stability and shoulder control in a horizontal plane. Bench press emphasizes maximal force production with external support. Pull-ups challenge grip, scapular control, and bodyweight coordination. Lat pulldowns let you sit and pull a fixed load with less demand on stabilizers.

THE ILLUSION OF TRANSFER

It’s tempting to assume strength in one movement automatically boosts performance in another. But these are different patterns. The amount someone can do in each exercise varies based on body type, limb length, muscle distribution, and where they naturally carry strength.

Now, here’s the caveat: if you’ve been training bench press or lat pulldowns for years with extreme loads, think 300-pound bench, 200-pound pulldowns, that horsepower will carry over. You’ll likely crank out more push-ups or pull-ups than the average gym-goer. But even then, if you haven’t practiced the bodyweight version, your efficiency and endurance may lag compared to your raw strength.

REPETITION BUILDS PROFICIENCY

The more you repeat a movement, the more efficient your body becomes at executing it. Your nervous system refines the pattern. Your muscles coordinate better. Your joints adapt to the range. But stop practicing that movement, and the edge dulls. You might still be strong, but you won’t be sharp in that specific task.

TRAIN FOR YOUR ACTUAL GOAL

What’s your goal?

If your goal is to improve a specific movement—push-ups, pull-ups, running—you need to train that movement consistently. Not randomly. Not occasionally. Repetition is your ally.

But if your goal is broader, like mine and my father’s, it changes the strategy.

Our resistance training isn’t about mastering one movement. It’s about building strength across all major muscle groups. We train for muscle mass, resilience, and long-term health. At our age, that’s a tall order. Sarcopenia doesn’t care how motivated you are. You have to fight for every ounce of muscle.

So we train the whole body. We rotate movements. We prioritize joint-friendly variations. We don’t chase PRs in bench press or deadlift. We chase consistency, recovery, and progress that actually matters for our lives.

FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH VS. SPORT-SPECIFIC SKILL

If you’re training for a sport, specificity is king. You need to mimic the demands of your event. But if you’re training for life, mobility, strength, immune health, injury prevention, you don’t need to specialize.

You need to be strong everywhere. You need to move well. You need to recover well. You need to build a body that supports you, not just impresses others.

That’s the kind of training I believe in. Not flashy. Not trendy. Just effective.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Your body adapts to what you do often. So train for what you actually want. If you want to be great at pull-ups, do pull-ups. If you want to be strong overall, train your whole body. Don’t confuse movement similarity with guaranteed transfer.

And don’t let ego or comparison steer your goals. The best training is the one that serves your life, not just your Instagram.