Training for your sport

Principles of training. These are rules to follow when you design and use a physical activity programme.

How do the principles help? Everyone has different reasons for exercising e.g. - leisure, competition, improve fitness. Everyone’s fitness levels differ, so systematic training must take into account a person’s individual needs. For training to succeed, the degree of difficulty must be set at a personal level. This ensures that the training is safe for the performer. A level too low would not aid any improvement, and too high may result in injuries.

There are 5 principles of training: pecificity rogression verload eversibility edium avoidance P O R T

Specificity: Every person will need a different training programme – we’re all different and do different things. Train the right parts of the body for your sport – there is no point making a weight lifter run 10 miles a day – it won’t improve their weightlifting. Train to the right level of the person – if they are very unfit, don’t start them with a 5 mile run.

Progression: You need to steadily increase the amount of training that is done – but only when the body has adapted to the previous training. Your body will become used to the training & will no longer be improving , your body needs to be put under slightly more pressure to continue to improve.

Overload: You need to work your body harder than you normally would. You need to push yourself beyond the training threshold (The level of intensity at which training improves physical fitness). A person needs to train between 60 – 80% of their maximum. The total amount of oxygen needed is called the ‘VO2’. As the intensity of exercise increases, we need more oxygen to produce energy. There is a limit on how much oxygen we can take in, called the ‘VO2 max.’

The threshold of training decreases as you get older – working at 50% of maximum would be sufficient for an older person to work their CV fitness. You could use any of these things to overload your training: Train more often (frequency). Increase the intensity – lift heavier weights. Train for longer (time).

Reversibility: Your fitness level changes all the time. If you stop training, it will decrease. It takes longer to gain fitness than it does to lose it.

Tedium avoidance: If you are bored with your training, you are more likely to stop it. Use a variety of training methods to avoid this and continue to be motivated to exercise.

Why Warm Up? A warm up is essential to every training session & whenever you take part in sport! It increases the temp. of the body and blood flow to the muscles – so they can get the oxygen required to keep exercising. It stretches the muscles, moves the joints and increases the range of movement – so your ready to work and less likely to injure yourself. It gets your mind ready for exercise as well as your body. You should warm up CV system 1st – doing some gentle exercise until you are slightly out of breath before you stretch.

You should do some light aerobic work, followed by stretching. . Why Cool down? This enables your body to get back to normal. It helps to repay the oxygen debt in your muscles and remove the waste products, such as lactic acid. It gets rid of extra blood in your muscles, so stops blood pooling in your veins which can make you feel dizzy and weak if you stop suddenly. You should do some light aerobic work, followed by stretching. .

Fitness Testing Completing physical tests can help to build a person’s fitness profile. You need to ensure that the test you complete is related to the reason for testing. You need to test yourself first, before training, then again afterwards to see if an improvement in fitness has occurred.

What tests could you use? To test CV Endurance: Bleep test To test Muscular Strength: Vertical jump test To test Muscular Endurance: Press-Ups/Sit Ups Flexibility: Sit and reach test

Task: You need to create a training programme for the following person, think about the principles to make it specific to them and so they can improve. A 23yr old female Of good fitness level Plays netball for her local team Dances recreationally Wants to improve general fitness and muscle tone Enjoys working out to music – fitness classes Make sure you state your time scales, approx. weights if required & durations.

Example of professional training programme Football training programme from FA