A specialized strength exercise duplicates a specific joint action, or joints, as seen in the execution of a sports skill during competition.

For the first time that we are aware of Dr. Yessis breaks down the specialized exercises he has developed when it comes to sprinting and acceleration in his first CVCASPS presentation. He starts out with a brief run-down of the history of specialized strength exercises including where the ideas came from, the reason behind implementing them, how the exercises are developed, and why he has such a strong opinion of them. Doc also defines specialized strength exercise and why they’re important for athletes.

Next Doc touches upon on technique of the skill and the exercise, using the squat as an example. This discussion of technique is in both general and special exercises. This leads to a breakdown of how the part to whole method fits in great with developing exercises and progressing your way to more advanced means of specialized strength exercises.

Dr. Yessis critiques the technique of some of my athlete’s technique in special exercises, to be completely honest, he crushes how I used to teach these exercises but does an awesome job of breaking down the mistakes, how to correct them, and where we would go next. We look at knee drive at slow/moderate speed, full ROM at a faster concentric speed, explosive concentric knee drive with a pause in the back (this was our first time trying this and Doc breaks down all the mistake we made and breaks down the proper way of using this exercise), controlled eccentric with explosive concentric (here he and I discuss some concerns I had and he corrects my misinterpretations), explosive “plyo like” knee drive.

He finishes the talk by breaking down where his idea for the lunge with active cords came from and the technique used with the progression of the exercise.