Strengths and Weaknesses

Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. The challenge is deciding whether to continue to improve your strengths and specialize in those areas or to bring your weaknesses up to par and improve more generally. This decision depends on your goals and your reasons for training.

A person who is trying to improve their overall fitness, lose some weight and generally look and feel healthier is probably better served by training to improve their weaknesses. If you determine that you are lacking strength, then by focusing on improving your strength you will look and feel better. Similarly if you lack endurance you probably don't feel able to move very far without running out of breath. By focusing on that as a fitness quality you can improve your overall fitness and continue towards your goals.

Athletes training for performance are different however. Although they need to reach minimum standards across the requirements of their sport, once those minimum standards are met they are best served by focusing on their strengths. This really goes against the most common thought of bringing up your weaknesses to become a more complete athlete but outstanding performance comes from being able to use your strengths to their fullest. Think of the most explosive and dynamic athletes, they are the ones who utilize their strengths the best rather than minimizing their weaknesses. They also take the chances required to win rather than minimizing the risk of losing.

Once again it depends on your goals as to which path you take but as an athlete it is better to excel at one aspect than be good at none.