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You need to train specifically to develop the right…
muscles – if your sport requires a lot of running, work mainly on your legs.
type of fitness – do you need strength, speed, stamina or a combination?
skills – you need to practice any relevant skills like kicking, serving and passing.
Remember that:specific individuals respond differently to the same exercise. Training may need to be adapted to suit the needs of different participants.
Fitness can only be improved by training more than you normally do.
Overload
Unless the body is subjected to increased demands, improvements in physical fitness will not be made.
If a physical fitness programme is to be effective, it must place increased and specific demands on the body. If training levels remain the same, then the programme will only be maintaining the participants level of fitness, not improving it.
How often you should train depends on what you wish to achieve.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence suggests that to maintain health, you should do 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 times a week.
However, if you wish to become an intermediate or elite competitor in any sport, you will need to train much more frequently.
Elite rowers often train twice a day!
Training is best done regularly, rather than at random intervals.
Aerobic respiration – means respiration ‘with oxygen’. When exercise is not too fast and at a constant, steady rate, the heart can keep the muscles fully supplied with oxygen.
Anaerobic respiration – means respiration ‘without oxygen’. If the exercise is fast or intense and done in short bursts, the heart cannot supply oxygen to the muscles as fast as the cells are using it.
80% to 90% of MHR – Training in the anaerobic zone increases strength and power.
As you approach 90% of the performer’s maximum heart rate, training time will have to get shorter and it will take more time for the performer to recover.
This is because anaerobic exercise produces lactic acid, which builds up in the muscles. When there is too much lactic acid, the performer must stop.
60% to 80% of MHR – Training between these levels will improve a performer’s stamina (or aerobic fitness) levels.
Lactic acid is not produced during aerobic exercise. Performers can train aerobically for much longer periods.
Intensity will affect the time (or duration) of each training session. The length of session required to achieve improvements depends on how hard a performer is training.
To achieve improvements in aerobic fitness, you should aim to spend at least 20 minutes per session in the target zone.
However, time will vary greatly depending on the activity the performer is training for.
If they are training for a marathon, they may need to spend several hours at a time in the aerobic zone.
A sprinter, on the other hand, will need to spend relatively little time actually exercising – their sessions are likely to consist of many short, high intensity bursts with lengthy rests in-between.
If your aim is simple health related fitness, then the type of exercise you do does not matter very much – it just needs to raises your pulse into the aerobic zone for about 20 minutes.
You could even include activities like gardening, walking the dog or just dancing round your kitchen!
However, if you are training for a specific event or competition, then the type of exercise you do is very important.
Overload can be achieved by changing the type of exercise – for example, you could lift the same weight but in a different way and using different muscles.
Fitness will be lost if the training load is reduced (meaning overload is not achieved) or if a performer stops training, for example, if they are injured.
Coaches need to ensure that long periods of inactivity are avoided when possible.
Unfortunately, most of the adaptations which result from training are reversible.
This simply means that unless you keep training, any fitness gains will be lost.
Endurance can be lost in a third of the time it took to achieve! Strength declines more slowly, but lack of exercise will still cause muscles to wither (atrophy).
Progression means gradually increasing the amount of exercise you do.
When a performer first starts exercising, their levels of fitness may be poor.
If a coach increases the training too quickly, the body will not have time to adapt and this may result in injury. Slow and steady progress is the best way forward.
For example, if you were training for a 10 km run, you might start by going for two 30 minute runs a week.
You could then increase the time you run for by 3 minutes each week.
Moderation means achieving a balance between not training enough and overtraining.
Achieving the right balance is very important.
Without proper rest and recovery time, performers can become too tired to train effectively and become stressed and irritable.
Even worse, overtraining can lead to injury. This can occur through overstressing joints and tissues, or through poor technique resulting from exhaustion.
3. John has decided to take his cycling more seriously and is planning a training programme to improve his performance. As part of his training he goes to the gym.
a) Which of the following cardiovascular machineswould be most appropriate for him to use?
Rowing machine Treadmill Exercise bike
b) Which principle of training does this relate to?
4. Katie is 16, and plays hockey to a good standard. Read the following extract in which she describes her training.
At present, I am training three times a week, every week, but at first I only went once a week. I use a couple of different methods of training, but I make sure that I focus on tasks appropriate for my activity. At the end of each session, I plan the next one, gradually increasing the amount of work that I do when I think it’s becoming too easy.
a) State four principles of training she applies.b) For each of the principles you have identified, give
an example from the extract to support your answer.