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Get Your GPP On

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post titled Picking The Right Tool For The Job – GPP vs. SPP. This post was a high-level discussion of when to incorporate General Physical Preparedness into your training and when to switch to Specialized Physical Preparation. Today, I want to look at what exactly GPP is and why it’s needed.

Defining GPP
GPP stands for General Physical Preparedness, if I haven’t mentioned that enough times. It is exactly what the name says: a general level of physical conditioning upon which to build sport specific skills. If one were to build a “Fitness Pyramid,” GPP would be the base. I really like the Ten Physical Skills that CrossFit uses, which I believe was developed by Jim Cawley of Dynamax. There are any number of “competing” paradigms, typically covering the same skills in some fashion, but this one resonates with me. They are:

• Cardiorespiratory Endurance
• Stamina
• Strength
• Flexibility
• Power
• Speed
• Coordination
• Accuracy
• Agility
• Balance

Any good GPP program should be addressing each of these skills. That is the failing of most people’s programs, especially non-athletes. Most people are focusing predominantly on two of these skills: strength and cardiorespiratory endurance. You know this training program. It’s something like, “Monday: chest and tris; Wednesday: Back and bis; Friday: Legs; Tuesday and Thursday: Run 5 miles”. Some people omit the running, some people omit the lifting, further reducing their overall capacity. But most people are neglecting to build all ten skills. They may look good at the beach, but their functionality is quite limited.

Why These Ten Skills?
As I said, these ten skills are just one example of how to define “fitness”. Basically, you can say that GPP is fitness. That’s essentially what CrossFit bills itself as: “The Sport Of Fitness.” I like these ten because it shows the need to be a well-rounded athlete, not just a super-strong behemoth that can lift 600lbs from the floor, but can’t run around the block or someone that can run for days but can’t lift a bag of cat food overhead (yes, those are intentionally exaggerated).

These ten skills illustrate that there is always some area that you can improve. So you’re strong, but are you powerful? You have speed, but do you have any endurance? (Oh wait, that last one is directed at me!) You’re a yoga god(dess), but what else can you do?

Having a strong base level of GPP means being able to handle what life throws at you. “What’s that Lassie? Timmy fell down a well? Good thing I have a strong base level of fitness so I can run the mile to get there and still have the strength and stamina to pull him back out.” A good fitness program means that when you shoot 1000lbs of buffalo, you’ll be able to carry more than 100lbs back to your wagon. And on top of that, being functionally fit typically means that you look good to boot! Sounds like a win-win.

How Much GPP Do You Need In Your Program?
Now this is an easy question to answer. Ready? The answer is *ahem* “It depends.” It depends on:

• Your Goals
• Your Current Fitness Level

Goals
How do goals influence how much GPP you should do? The way I see it, the main “goal” that influences your focus on GPP is “what level of specialization are you seeking?” If your goal is just to be in shape, a solid GPP program can make up the entirety of your fitness program. I’m partial to CrossFit, but any well-designed fitness program can cover those ten variables.

For most of the population, this type of program is all that’s needed. Most people need the strength, flexibility, stamina, and balance to operate successfully in normal life. Fitness is as, if not more, important to the elderly than to the young. The intensity may vary, but these areas are as important in maintaining independence into old age as they are in maintaining a high level of athleticism or the ability to carry a 225lb unconscious man from a burning building. To paraphrase Greg Glassman, “throughout life, needs vary only in degree, not in kind.” Granny doesn’t need to be able to deadlift double her body weight or crank out ten straight pistols. She does need to be able to stand up from a chair and walk down the hall without falling.

The second group of the population that benefits greatly from a high level of general fitness is the First Responder group. Law enforcement, EMTs, and military all need the capacity to handle whatever life throws at them. An officer needs to be able to chase down a criminal and then still have the capacity to subdue the guy. And there’s just not telling what situation a soldier may find him/herself in. There’s a reason that CrossFit is so popular amongst these groups.

But what about someone training for a specific event? Someone with a desire to specialize necessarily has to give up some level of general fitness. For instance, a marathon runner typically forfeits strength and power in favor of cardiorespiratory endurance. A powerlifter probably gives up cardiorespiratory endurance, stamina, and speed in favor of strength. We could continue picking specialists and seeing where their weaknesses are, but the key fact is that the further towards elite-level specialization that you go, the more glaring the weaknesses become in some of these ten skills.

While a specialist will spend more time focusing on his sport-specific skills, there is still a need to develop base fitness. I recall an article by Coach Rut in one of the CrossFit Journals that described the improvements in a group of high school powerlifters by putting them on a broad fitness program, CrossFit or some variant. Strength and power training benefit distance runners. Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell uses lots of sub-maximal speed-strength (or is it strength-speed?) lifting to develop insane amounts of pure maximal strength. So there is carry-over in that one skill benefits another.

Current Fitness Level
Current fitness level also has a big influence on how much focus you put on building your fitness base. An athlete that’s been training for years probably has a solid enough GPP base to spend most of their time focusing on their specialization. A sedentary desk jockey will reap greater benefits from building fitness across broad modalities than from building strength or endurance only. Even if the athlete hasn’t been focusing on anything but his/her sport, he will likely reduce weaknesses much faster than someone lacking across the board. As I said, one skill benefits others.

Scaling is a big area of concern when adopting a program as potent as CrossFit. You can burn yourself out and injure yourself very quickly if you just pick up the Workout Of The Day from the main page and go at it full-force, day-in, day-out. The average person lacks the fitness level to accomplish those workouts without destroying themselves. But scaled versions (an area that CrossFit doesn’t adequately touch on) with lower weights or modified exercises are accessible to everyone from the most athletic to the most sedentary. Your grandmother could develop essential fitness for normal living with a properly-designed CrossFit (or other form of GPP) workout.

So In The End…
GPP does not build better sports players. GPP will not necessarily make you a better basketball player. It will not necessarily make you a better football player. But a well-designed GPP program will make you a better athlete. And being a better athlete means you will be better able to leverage that into being a better shooting basketball player, a harder-hitting football player, a tennis player with an ace serve, or a gymnast with better strength and stability.

But the average person has little concern over punching power, shooting three-pointers, running through tackles, or throwing a shot put 70 feet. For most people, following a workout like CrossFit, scaled to their level of fitness, will yield far greater results for everyday living than will the programs most people are doing.

Let’s Discuss It
I’d like to see the trainers, the non-trainers, the athletes, the non-athletes, and everyone else (if you don’t classify yourself in one of the other categories) discuss three things:

• Is my description of GPP correct?
• Just how much focus on GPP should there be for a specialist?
• Does the normal person have a need (ignoring desires) for non-GPP focused work?
• How do you time GPP when working with an athlete and when do you switch over to SPP?

Obviously you’re free to discuss whatever else you want too.

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