What is exercise?
-A component of physical activity that is planned and structured for a specific purpose or outcome (i.e. improving physical fitness)
What are the health related components of fitness?
- Cardiorespiratory fitness
- Muscle strength
- Muscle endurance
- Flexibility
- Body Composition
What are the skill related components of fitness?
- Agility
- Speed
- Balance
- Coordination
- Reaction Time
- Power
What are the foundational principles of exercise training?
-Specificity
-Overload
-Progression
-Initial Values
-Individualisation
-Reversibility
-Overtraining
o Optimal training must balance out all the principles, maximising the positive training adaptations whilst minimising the negative effects of excessive training loads
Describe the overload training principle
-Assigning a workout or training regime of greater intensity or load than the athlete is accustomed to
-Overload can be achieved through:
o Increases in the frequency, intensity, and duration of aerobic exercise
o Muscle groups can be overloaded through increases in the number of repetitions, sets, or exercises in programs that improve muscular fitness and flexibility
Describe the principle of progression
-Increasing training intensity to promote long-term training benefits
o You must progressively increase the training volume, or overload, to stimulate further improvements
o Progression needs to be gradual because doing too much, too soon may cause musculoskeletal injuries. This is a major reason why some individuals drop out of exercise programs
o Also known as Periodization
Describe the principle of initial values
-Individuals with low initial physical fitness levels will show greater relative (%) gains and a faster rate of improvement in response to exercise training than individuals with average or high fitness levels
Describe the principle of overtraining
-Excessive training leading to prolonged fatigue, frequent illness and poor performance = ‘burnout’
o Rest is required between sessions and between exercises in a given session
Describe the principle of specificity
-The body’s physiological and metabolic responses and adaptations to exercise training are specific to the type of exercise and the muscle groups involved. Thus, the training needs to be specific to those needs
o Stretching exercises develop range of joint motion and flexibility
o Resistance exercises are effective for improving muscular strength and muscular endurance
o The gains in muscular fitness are specific to the exercised muscle groups, type and speed of contraction, and training intensity
Describe the principle of individualisation
-Individual response to exercise training varies greatly amongst individuals Depends on:
o Age, initial fitness level, health status
o Design exercise programs with specific needs, interests and abilities of each client
Describe the principle of reversibility
-Physiological adaptations are lost when regular exercise is ceased (detraining)
-Detraining begins within days of cessation and within a few months, most of the training improvements are lost
-A study confined subjects to bed for 20 days
o VO2max decreased by 25%
o Maximal aerobic power decreased 1% per day
o Cardiac stroke volume also decreased 1% per day
o No of capillaries in trained muscle dropped 14 – 25%
-In older subjects 4 months of detraining completely negated previous training adaptations on cardiovascular functions
Describe frequency in the FITT principle
-The number of times exercise is performed in a given period (typically one week)
o Research shows exercising 3 days per week is sufficient to improve various components of fitness
o Related to duration and intensity of exercise
o Depends on clients: goals, preferences, time constraints, and functional capacity
-When the goal is improved health, ACSM recommends:
o 3 days a week of vigorous intensity exercise OR
o 5 days a week of moderate intensity exercise
o Daily physical activity is ok BUT vary the type of exercise to lessen the risk of overtraining
Describe intensity in the FITT principle
-The amount of effort that should be invested in a training program in any one session
o Exercise intensity dictates the specific physiological and metabolic changes during exercise training
o Related to duration and frequency of exercise
o Depends on clients: goals, age, capabilities, preferences and fitness level
Describe time in the FITT principle
-The time (mins) of each bout of exercise
o Duration and intensity of exercise are inversely related
o Depends on the clients: health status, initial fitness level, functional capabilities and goals
-When the goal is improved health, ACSM recommends:
o Every individual should accumulate at least 150 min/wk of moderate intensity OR
o 75 min/wk of vigorous intensity aerobic exercise.
o This can be achieved in either daily continuous bouts (e.g., 30 min moderate-intensity exertion 5 days/wk) OR
o In multiple bouts of shorter duration throughout the day (e.g., multiple 10 min bouts in a day)
Describe type in the FITT principle
-The nature of the exercise, i.e. aerobic vs anaerobic / cycling vs jogging
o Depends on clients: goals, capabilities, preferences, functional capacity and fitness level
Describe rest during exercise training
- Exercising too frequently and too intensely hinders the body’s ability to recover and adapt
- As a rule of thumb, the harder you train, the more recovery you should allow for
Describe the initial conditioning stage of exercise progression (goal, how long it lasts and what exercises it should include)
-Goal = Primer to familiarize the client with exercise training
-Lasts 1 – 6 weeks
Exercises should include:
o Stretching
o Low-intensity aerobic exercises
o Low-intensity resistance exercises
-Progress clients slowly by increasing exercise duration first, followed by small increases in exercise intensity
Describe the improvement stage of exercise progression (goal, how long it lasts etc)
- Goal = To reach the clients fitness goal
- Lasts 4 – 8 months
- The rate of progression is more rapid than in the initial conditioning stage
- During this stage, the frequency, intensity, and duration are systematically and slowly advanced, one element at a time, until the client’s fitness goal is reached
Describe the maintenance stage in exercise progression (goal)
- Goal: Helps clients to preserve the level of fitness they achieved at the end of the improvement stage
- Continues on a regular, long-term basis
- The amount of exercise required to maintain the client’s physical fitness level is less than that needed to improve specific fitness components
- The frequency of a specific mode of exercise used to develop any given fitness component can be decreased and that mode replaced with other types of physical activities
Why do you need to warm up?
-Prepares athlete physically
o Increased muscle temperature, HR, blood flow, respiration, perspiration
-Prepares athlete mentally
o Performing skill and coordination activities mentally prepares athletes
-Reduces the likelihood of injury
-General Warm Up
-Specific Warm Up (skill rehearsal)
o Sports that require accuracy, timing and precise movements benefit from specific warm up or ‘formal’ practice
-Warm up should progress gradually
o Provide sufficient intensity to increase muscle and core temperature without causing fatigue or reducing energy stores
-The actual activity should commence within several minutes after the end of the warmup
Why do you need to cool down after exercise?
-Active recovery from vigorous activity
-Allow blood pressure and HR to return to normal and avoid blood pooling in the muscles
-Cool down
o ~5 minutes of light- moderate intensity exercise
o Stretching
What is dynamic and static stretching?
- Static Stretch: A static stretch is slow and constant, with the end position held for 30 seconds
- Dynamic Stretch: A dynamic stretch is a type of functionally based stretching exercise that uses sport-specific movements to prepare the body for activity
Why do you stretch during a warm up?
- Stretching During Warm-Up
- Research suggests dynamic stretching is the preferred option for stretching during warm-up
- Frequency, Duration, and Intensity of Stretching
- Acute effects of stretching on ROM are transient For longer-lasting effects, a stretching program is required
Why should an athlete stretch following practice and competition?
- Post-practice stretching facilitates ROM improvements because of increased muscle temperature
- Stretching should be performed within 5 to 10 minutes after practice
- Post-practice stretching may also decrease muscle soreness although the evidence on this is ambiguous
