In order to get the most out of your training, you must follow some basic simple training principles which are overload, specificity, reversibility, and variance. Show
Overload means we must put our bodies under more stress than normal in order for adaptive changes to be made. Specificity relates to ensuring the training done is specific to the sport or activity. Reversibility means if you don’t keep it up you will lose it and variance relates to varying the training activities. What are the basic principles of training?The basic training principles for all physical exercise are: OverloadIn order to progress and improve our fitness, we have to put our bodies under additional stress. Applying this training principle will cause long-term adaptations, enabling our bodies to work more efficiently to cope with this higher level of performance. Overloading can be achieved by following the acronym FITT: Frequency: Increasing the number of times you train per week Intensity: Increasing the difficulty of the exercise you do. For example, running at 12 km/h instead of 10 or increasing the weight you are squatting with. Time: Increasing the length of time that you are training for each session. For example, cycling for 45 minutes instead of 30. Type: Increase the difficulty of the training you are doing. For example progress from walking to running. SpecificityThis principle of training relates to the type of training that you do. It should be specific to you and your sport. You should train the energy system which you use predominantly (i.e. don’t run 5,000 meters in training if you’re a sprinter!) and the fitness and skill components most important to your sport, for example, agility, balance, or muscular endurance. Another example is to swim a lot in training and then expect your running to improve significantly. Your general fitness will improve so therefore your running may also improve, not nowhere near as much as if you focus on running instead of swimming. You should also test the components which are important in your sport to see your strengths and weaknesses. With this information, you can focus on improving your weak points. ReversibilityUse it or lose it! Basically, if you stop training then the improvements you have made will be reversed. So if you are ill or have a holiday and do not train for a period of time (even as little as a week) you may not be able to resume training at the point where you left off. VarianceTry to vary your training. This keeps you interested and gives your body different challenges. Remember a change is as good as a rest with this training principle. Many professional athletes will play a completely different sport in-between their main season, to keep their fitness up whilst still having a rest! Training principles External links
Last Updated: 21 March, 2017 “Except at a military boot camp, it is very difficult to force anyone to train.” (Plowman & Smith, 2011, p.15). This article is organised as follows:
Part One: BackgroundIntroductionPositive benefits include an increased capacity to work for longer periods before the onset of fatigue and a rapid return to normal once activity has ceased. However, there is still much to be understood by sport scientists regarding training and, although new training techniques appear frequently, there are several fundamental, and well established, guidelines which should form the basis for the development of any training programme (Plowman & Smith, 2011). Ultimately, the only person who can force you to train is yourself. So, once you have got over the psychological barrier of wanting to place stress on your body you will need to consider how you are going to introduce that stress.
However, just ‘jumping straight into a training regime’ is likely to cause some injury to your body, either acutely (within the training session) or chronically (up to four weeks later). To aid in your fitness training, there are some principles of physical training which you may wish to consider. Australia’s Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines“56% of Australian adults are either inactive or have low levels of physical activity – that is more than 9.5 million adults!” (ABS, 2013).
Part Two: Principles of Physical TrainingThe principles of physical training are:
Principle 01: SpecificityThis principle, also known as the SAID (specific adaptations to imposed demands) principle, simply means that how you train will directly affect your exercise response. The more closely the training programme matches the following factors, the greater its chance for success:
Principle 02: Overload
Principle 03: Adaptation (Rest and Recovery)Adaptation (Appendix A below) occurs during periods of rest, when the body recovers from the acute homeostatic disruptions and/or residual fatigue and, as a result, may compensate to above-baseline levels of physiological functioning. This is sometimes called super-compensation (Freeman, 1996; Bompa, 1999). It is important that exercisers receive sufficient rest between training sessions, after periods of increased training overload, and both before and after competitions. Adaptation allows the individual to either do more work or do the same work with a smaller disruption of baseline values. Keeping records and retesting individuals are generally necessary to determine the degree of adaptation (for example through fitness assessments). Principle 04: ProgressionSport scientists suggest progression occurs best in a series of incremental steps (called step-loading), in which every third or fourth change is actually a slight decrease in training load (Freeman, 1996; Bompa, 1999). This step-down allows for recovery, which leads to adaptation. Each step should be small, controlled, and flexible. A continuous unbroken increase in training load should be avoided. Principle 05: Plateau, Retrogression and Reversibility
Principle 06: Maintenance/RegularityThe individual will have reached an acceptable level of physical fitness or training and the amount of time and effort required to maintain this adaptation will depend on the physiological systems involved. For example, more time and effort are needed to maintain adaptations in the cardiovascular system than in the neuromuscular system and, generally, intensity is the key to maintenance (i.e. as long as exercise intensity is maintained, frequency and duration of exercise may decrease without losing positive adaptations).
Principle 07: IndividualisationThe same training overload may improve physiological performance in one individual, maintain physiological and performance levels in the second individual, and result in maladaptation (Appendix A below) and performance decreases in the third. Such differences often result from lifestyle factors, particularly nutritional and sleep habits, stress levels, and substance use (such as tobacco or alcohol). Age, sex, genetics, disease, and the training modality also all affect individual exercise prescriptions and adaptations. Principle 08: Warm-Up/Cool-DownA warm-up prepares the body for activity by elevating the body temperature, in contrast to a cool-down which allows for a gradual return to normal body temperature. The best type of warm-up is specific to the activity that will follow and should be individualised to avoid fatigue. Principle 09: Variety/Tedium
Principle 10: Balance
Principle 11: Moderation
Principle 12: Nutrition
Principle 13: Sleep
Principle 14: Psychological AspectTherefore, any training programme should also have elements of fun and interspersing normal training sessions with games, variations and special events can help make sessions as enjoyable as possible. Part Three: Other ‘Models’ of the PrinciplesThere are two commonly accepted methods of using these principles, the first is the FITT Principle and the second is the SPORT Principle. These models are not holistic in nature, relating only to the physical aspects of training, omitting the nutritional and sleep elements. FITT Principle
SPORT Principle
Part Four: Pragmatic Principles of Physical Training
Part Five: MiscellaneousUseful Links
ReferencesABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2013) Australian Health Survey: Physical Activity, 2011-2012. ABS Cat. No. 4364.0.55.004. ABS: Canberra. Armstrong, L.E. & van Heest, J.L. (2002) The Unknown Mechanism of the Overtraining Syndrome: Clues from Depression and Psychoneuroimmunology. Sports Medicine. 32(3), pp.185-209. Bompa, T.O. (1999) Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Department of Health (2014) Australia’s Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/health-pubhlth-strateg-phys-act-guidelines#apaadult. [Accessed: 21 March, 2017]. Freeman, W.H. (1996) Peak When It Counts: Periodization for American Track & Field. 3rd ed. Mountain View, CA: Tafnews Press. Fry, A.C. & Kraemer, W.J. (1997) Resistance Exercise Overtraining and Overreaching: Neuroendocrine Responses. Sports Medicine. 23, pp.106-129. Kreider, R.B., Fry, A.C. & O’Toole, M.L. (1998) Overtraining in Sport: terms, definitions, and prevalence. In R.B. Kreider, A.C. Fry, & M.L. O’Toole (eds.). Overtraining in Sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, pp.vii–ix. Kuipers, H. (1998) Training and Overtraining: An Introduction. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 30(7), pp.1137-1139. O’Donovan, G., Lee, I-M., Hamer, M. & Stamatakis, E. (2017) Association of “Weekend Warrior” and Other Leisure Time Physical Activity Patterns With Risks for All-Cause, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer Mortality. JAMA Internal Medicine. 177(3), pp.335-342. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.8014. Plowman, S.A. & Smith, D.L. (2011) Exercise Physiology for Health, Fitness, and
Performance. 3rd ed. London: Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins. Rowbottom, D.G., Keast, D. & Morton, A.R. (1998) Monitoring and Preventing of Overreaching and Overtraining in Endurance Athletes. In R.B. Kreider, A.C. Fry, & M.L. O’Toole (eds.). Overtraining in Sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, pp.47-66. WHO (World Health Organisation) (2017) What is Moderate-intensity and Vigorous-intensity Physical Activity? Available from World Wide Web: https://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/physical_activity_intensity/en/. [Accessed: 20 March, 2017]. AppendicesAppendix A USEFUL TERMS EXPLAINED A1 PeriodisationA training programme should be implemented in a pattern that is most beneficial for adaptations and this is called the training cycle or periodisation (Plowman & Smith, 2011). Periodisation is a plan for training based on a manipulation of the fitness components and the training principles. The objective is to peak the athlete’s performance for the competitive season or some part of it. An individual training for health-related physical fitness can also use periodisation to build in cycles of harder or easier training in order to prevent boredom or to emphasise one fitness component or another. A2 Training AdaptationsTraining brings about physical and physiological changes typically labelled adaptations and training adaptations represent physical and physiological adjustments that promote optimal functioning (Plowman & Smith, 2011). Also, whereas exercise responses use resting values as the baseline, training adaptations are evaluated against the same condition prior to training. Training adaptations are evaluated by comparing variables of interest (e.g. heart rate) before and after the training programme during the same condition (at rest, during sub-maximal exercise or at maximal exercise). Compared with the untrained state, training may cause no change, an increase or a decrease in the measured variable. A3 DetrainingAs noted in the plateau, retrogression and reversibility training principle (Principle 05), training adaptations are reversible and this is termed detraining (Plowman & Smith, 2011).
A4 OvertrainingThe results of exercise training can be positive or negative depending on how the stressors are applied. Fry et al. (1991), Kuipers (1998) and Rowbottom et al. (1998) suggest that training is related to fitness goals and athletic performance on a continuum that is best described as an inverted U (Figure 1). At one end of the continuum are individuals who are undertrained and whose fitness level and performance abilities are determined by genetics, disease, and non-exercise lifestyle choices. Individuals whose training programmes lack sufficient volume, intensity, or progression for either improvement or maintenance of fitness or performance are also undertrained. The goal of optimal training is the attainment of peak fitness and/or performance. However, if the training overload is too much or improperly applied, then maladaptation may occur. The first step toward maladaptation may be overreaching, a short-term decrease in performance capacity that is easily recovered from and generally lasts from a few days to two weeks. Overreaching may result from planned shock micro-cycles, as described in the periodisation section, or result inadvertently from too much stress and too little planned recovery (Fry et al., 1991; Fry & Kraemer, 1997; Kuipers, 1998). If overreaching is planned and subsequent recovery is sufficient, positive adaptation and improved performance, sometimes called supercompensation, result. If, however, overreaching is left unchecked or the individual or fitness professional interprets the decrease in performance as an indication that more work must be done, overreaching may develop into overtraining. Overtraining, correctly termed the overtraining syndrome, is a state of chronic decrease in performance and the ability to train, where recovery may take several weeks, months, or even years (Fry et al., 1991; Fry & Kraemer, 1997; Kreider et al., 1998; Armstrong & van Heest, 2002). Understanding stress enhances our understanding of exercise, training, physical fitness and recovery. As emphasised previously, both acute exercise and chronic training are stressors. Thus, from this viewpoint, physical fitness may be defined as achieved adaptation to the stress imposed by muscular exercise. It results as an adaptation from a correctly applied training programme, is usually exhibited in response to an acute exercise task and implies avoidance of the overtraining syndrome. A5 Physical Activity
A6 Sedentary Behaviour
A7 Metabolic Equivalents
A8 Intensity of Physical Activity
A9 Moderate Intensity Activities
A10 Vigorous Intensity Activities
Which principle of exercise training states that the body needs to be stressed to improve physical fitness?Overload. The exercise science principle of overload states that a greater than normal stress or load on the body is required for training adaptation to take place. What this means is that in order to improve our fitness, strength, or endurance, we need to increase the workload accordingly.
What are the principles of physical conditioning?The principles of specificity, progression, overload, adaptation, and reversibility are why practicing frequently and consistently are so important if you want to improve your performance.
Which principle of training states that the body requires recovery periods between exercise training sessions in order to adapt to the exercise stress?The principle of rest and recovery (or principle of recuperation) suggests that rest and recovery from the stress of exercise must take place in proportionate amounts to avoid too much stress.
Which principle of conditioning states that a period of rest is essential for achieving maximal benefit from exercise?Principle of Recuperation
In fact, a rest period, usually 24 hours or more, is essential for achieving maximal benefit from exercise. This needed rest period between exercise training sessions is called the principle of recuperation.
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