Training vs. Testing....do you know the difference?

Somewhere along the way these two things became synonymous. And they’re not. 

Put simply, training is what we do for an event (the test.) 

This can come in many shapes and forms. 

Example: you'd train to perform your best at a powerlifting meet (the test), but this doesn't mean you'd test your squat, bench, and deadlift every single week. 

You’d train various aspects of strength like explosive strength & maximal strength- as well as repeated effort work to bring up limiting muscle groups. 

Another example that you may not think of this way is trying to look your best for beach season (the test). 

Leading up until beach season you'd 'train': getting more strict your nutrition, going into a calorie deficit, and maybe using more hypertrophy methods like 6-12-25 in your training, but this certainly isn't what you'd do year round. 

The training in this case is what gets you to the 'test' of looking your best.

In CrossFit many train for the annual CrossFit Open (the test.) This doesn't mean they should solely perform Open workouts year round. 

A better way would be training to get strong and more well-conditioned, with Open 'tests' peppered into the training to see where your fitness is and if you’ve improved.

Training should seek to improve the qualities of fitness you need to improve at your 'event' (the 'test.') 

If you're like me and training to look good and feel good year round, then 'testing' yourself every so often- every 16 weeks or so- is perfectly fine, but it doesn’t need to happen weekly. 

Instead, track things like HRV, resting HR and progress photos to keep you accountable. 

Moral of the story: 

If your training is all testing, you negate important drivers of progress like progressive overload. Training on the other hand encompasses both auto-regulation and progressive overload-- a recipe for improvement.