Principles of training

• Training


  Not just about running for as long as possible, or lifting the heaviest weights you can
• Reasons to train

  • Improve your health
  • Improve your fitness
  • Improve your performance
• Creating a personal exercise programme

  1. Be able to use the four principles of training

  2. Design the programme to improve whatever you want to improve
• Components of fitness that can be improved

  • General health and fitness
  • Particular components of fitness that will improve performance in a sport or activity
• Choosing the right training method

  1. Consider what aspects of your sport or activity you want to improve

  2. Consider which components of fitness are involved, and which parts of the body

  3. Consider your current fitness level

  4. Consider the facilities and equipment you have access to
• Four principles of training

  • Specificity
  • Progression
  • Overload
  • Reversibility
• Specificity


  Matching training to the activity and to the person
• Progression


  Gradually increasing the level of training
• Overload


  Working your body harder than it normally would
• Reversibility


  Any fitness improvement or body adaptation caused by training will gradually reverse and be lost when you stop training
• FITT


  • Frequency
  • Intensity
  • Time
  • Type
• Frequency


  How often you should exercise
• Intensity


  How hard you should exercise
• Time


  How long you should exercise for
• Type


  What exercises and modes of training you should use
• Training programmes need to be constantly monitored to ensure they are still producing desired results, and adjusted as fitness improves
• Your body adapts during rest and recovery
• Overtraining can cause injury by not giving your body enough time to recover from the last training session and repair any damage
• You need to balance recovery time with the effects of reversibility
• If you rest for too long, you'll lose most of the benefits of having done the training in the first place
• If you get injured, your fitness will start to decrease while you recover