With the evolution of the style and training methods of high-performance athletes, the importance of preparation and strength training for professional athletes has been a widely discussed topic.

To analyze this topic, we decided to invite a professional in charge.

Mário Simões is a specialist in high-performance preparation and training.

Mário is not only a successful athlete, but also has an impressive academic background, with a degree in Sports and Physical Education and a Masters in High Performance Training from FADEUP.

Mario Simões is, without a doubt, one of the best professionals in the area of ​​strength training for professional athletes, founder of the High Performance Center THE PEAK where he prepares several athletes from different sports.

What is the importance and benefits of strength training for the performance of professional athletes?

– We can group the benefits into several areas. From a performance point of view, studies show that stronger athletes perform better in tasks such as vertical jumps, for example; on the other hand, we know that stronger athletes have a lower risk of injury.

Investment in this motor capacity will obviously depend on the sport and the characteristics/needs of the athletes.

What are the most common challenges you face when training professional athletes in relation to strength training?

-With professional athletes, especially in team sports, the biggest challenge is fitting strength/power training into the competitive calendar. Nowadays, calendars are very busy, with football players, for example, playing twice a week, which poses major challenges to developing this ability throughout the sports season.

How do you assess the evolution of strength training in professional athletes in recent years?

-The biggest improvement is mainly in the ease of monitoring training, thanks to the technology currently available (at lower costs), such as force platforms, encoders to measure bar speed, mobile phones with apps/cameras that allow the evaluation of numerous kinematic and kinetic parameters, etc.

When we read the “classic” authors such as Verkhoshansky, Bosco, Komi, Zatsiorsky we realize that all the new “trends” in training are in fact decades old and the big difference is that today it is much easier to evaluate and monitor due to existing technology.

How does the approach to strength training vary between different sports and positions on the field?

-Different sports present different demands not only in terms of muscular strength but also in terms of all other motor skills such as speed, endurance, etc. The demands of the sport dictate the importance of different motor skills for performance.

If we compare football with rugby, we can easily see that the maximum strength requirements in rugby are greater than in football, justifying greater investment in this capacity.

Regarding the different positions, if we think about volleyball, for example, the libero (who only has defensive tasks) does not have the same explosive strength requirements as the attackers.

If we think about football, a midfielder vs. a winger/fullback have different locomotor demands, which affects not only strength training but also all skills, especially since they are interconnected (improving maximum speed depends on reactive strength, for example).

How do you assess the differences in mentality regarding strength training in the different countries where you work?

-There are no major differences today. Access to information is universal. The big difference is mainly in the possibility of working together with clubs abroad, which is not yet a reality in Portugal. With some athletes I work with outside Portugal, there is an exchange of information and cooperation with the club’s performance department. In Portugal, this is very rare, but it will be a matter of time.

What advice would you give to young athletes who want to improve their performance in sports?

-Firstly, dedicate most of your time to what is most important, the sport (e.g. football). Secondly, in addition to being a player, it is important to develop an athlete’s mentality.

This means that an athlete should not only dedicate 1 hour a day to training at the club, but also control the other 23 hours in order to optimize all the factors that influence performance and health (sleep, nutrition, etc.).

In the initial phase, strength training provides great benefits to the health and performance of athletes and should therefore be part of their routine (as well as other skills).

What are the main myths associated with physical preparation and strength training?

-At younger ages, the main myth concerns the potential harmful effect of strength training on the growth of young people, which is obviously false. Athletes who undergo strength training at a young age, provided it is under proper supervision, improve their health (improvement of bone mineral density, for example) and performance, positively interfering in their development and reducing the risk of injuries.

In more advanced athletes, it is often the myth that strength training makes athletes slow.

Studies show that in response to maximum strength training, athletes improve their speed. However, it is essential to consider two points.

Firstly, these improvements are mainly observable in athletes at lower competitive levels and/or with little exposure to strength training.

Secondly, it will essentially depend on the orientation of the work to be carried out.

It is possible that a poorly designed plan may cause the athlete to have a worse speed performance.