some exercises may be better for rehabilitation (modest muscle activation with low spine load) and others for athletic training (higher muscle activation resulting in larger spine load).

As you can see, using general exercises to get bigger and stronger does help you improve your overall athletic ability and functional capacity. But this approach has its limitations, which is why the functional-spectrum training system also incorporates specific exercises—to produce benefits in the areas where the general exercises fall short.

Compound exercises can be classified as general exercises because they don't necessarily reflect any specific force-generation patterns.

Total-body power exercises are categorized as specific exercises

Working on sport skills with specific exercises is not the same thing as working to improve specific force-generation and neuromuscular coordination patterns

because these exercises do not necessarily reflect the specific force-generation and neuromuscular coordination patterns of many common move-ments in athletics, their positive transfer into improved performance potential is less obvious.

General exercises are essentially conventional strength-training exercises and may consist of either compound or isolation movements using free weights, cables,

The simplest and most straightforward way to implement the principle of specificity is to select exercises similar to the target activity with regard to the joints about which movement occur and the direction of the movements. In addition, joint ranges of motion in the training should be at least as great as those in the target activity

Med ball overhead