Critical Question 1: How does training affect performance?
Principles of Training
Progressive Overload
If athletes want to continue to experience improvements as a result of their training they must incorporate progressive overload. Training alters the body and when these changes occur, the training must to be increased to ensure that the body is consistently and continuously challenged so that further gains can be achieved.
To ensure that training does not result in injury or fatigue, a steady increase is necessary. Overload can be obtained by boosting the duration, repetition, resistance, intensity, frequency and other elements of exercise. If the training load is too high there can be a faster onset of fatigue and a higher risk of injury. If the load is too low improvements to fitness may stall or even decrease.
The benefits of progressive overload may not be immediately apparent with endurance training having the slowest results.
Specificity
Exercises should target the muscles, energy systems and movement patterns specific to an individual’s sport. The activities should reflect the goals and needs of the athlete. Incorporating exercises which mimic movements of the activity or target the muscle groups most commonly used will result in the greatest gains in performance.
Reversibility
Once training is over the adaptations that were made are susceptible to a reversible effect. What occurs is a de-training effect, which causes the physiological gains of training to be reversed. Think of the popular phrase, “use it, or lose it”.
Endurance results often remain for longer than gains in strength training. The reversibility principle typically affects athletes during off-season, injury or extended breaks in training.
Variety
It is important to include variety when training by mixing different types of activities, settings, drills and training types. For example, by mixing, aerobic exercises with resistance training. If athletes perform the same exercise over and over, it can cause boredom and demotivation.
Training Thresholds
Thresholds are the upper limits of each training zone. When an athlete overcomes threshold they can advance to the next level of training. For example, the aerobic threshold occurs when an athlete achieves 70 percent of their maximum heart rate (MHR), which is sufficient to result in improvements. The aerobic training zone is situated between the anaerobic and aerobic thresholds.
The anaerobic (Onset Blood Lactate Accumulation or Lactate transition 2) threshold sits at about 85 percent of an individual’s MHR. Workouts with higher intensity than this stimulate the production of lactic acid in the body, resulting in fatigue, which may cause the athlete or coach to terminate the session earlier than intended.
Aerobic
Training
Working at the anaerobic threshold increases the capacity and function of the cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory systems.
Strength Training
Strength gains are made when resistance is progressively increased. Training for absolute strength – threshold represented by high resistance/load ensuring that only few repetitions can be completed. If training for strength endurance, threshold is represented in terms of quality, with high number of reps being required
to effectively challenge threshold
Warm Up and Cool Down
Warm ups typically last for about 20 minutes, incorporating a basic warm-up then a more specific one. The goal is to prepare the body mentally and physically for the activity ahead.
A basic warmup may involve running, dynamic stretching or aerobic activities. An effective warm up will include activities, which target and prepare the muscle and cardio systems which will be used by the athlete when competing.
Performing cool down exercises facilitates the process of active recovery. Typically, a cool down will involve a low-intensity exercise so that blood lactate levels and the risk of muscle soreness are reduced.
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.
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:
Overload
In 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.
Specificity
This 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.
Reversibility
Use 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.
Variance
Try 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
- Sports injuries at Sportsinjuryclinic.net