My name is Jamie Warner and I am 15 years old. I have a substantial level of fitness and health to overcome the limits of my environment and the needs of my chosen sport – Orienteering. Health is a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of illness or injury. Though my physical welfare is not at its peak level, my mental health is at sufficient levels, so I can be stable in practising my activities.
I try fairly hard and I am motivated, though some things that I aspire to achieve are not generally fulfilled; my self-esteem is lowered as a result of this, thus my emotional health may perhaps not be at its zenith. However, it is enough to meet the demands of the activity, so there is no concern as to how it will affect my performance. I have sustained no bodily injuries, with no presence of infirmary, so my exercise plan will not be disrupted through this.
I try to keep my physical fitness levels up as high as possible, by working on my cardiovascular endurance, by taking as much exercise as I can each week. I do 20 minutes of jogging each day, mainly for aesthetic development and weight loss. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, I go out running to keep my stamina at its peak. However, I shall need to increase this with my 6 week exercise program, so I can apply each training principle, and allow my respiratory system to develop to alleviate the stress and increase my training thresholds in my orienteering. I do not practise this in competitive settings, though I have an understanding of basic rules and concepts, and often practise continuous training to increase my fitness.
My diet mainly consists of a balanced array of foods, so I shall not need to take any drastic changes to optimize the effects of my exercise program though diet. My levels of water and proteins are just under a substantial level, so I will need to increase this to fit my needs.
The focus of my exercise program is to allow me to become more adapted to my chosen sport, orienteering, and increase my levels of fitness to fit each individual component for the demands of the sport. As an Orienteer, I will need to improve my cardiovascular endurance to explore further into the realms of the site of Orienteering, and reach each individual objective faster than my competitors. Very little competency in muscular endurance is needed, though I shall need to also mentally prepare myself, outside of my training program, to be more mentally agile than my opponent, and to practise the skills of map reading, triangulation etc.
Warm up and Cool down: The time spent on warming up and cooling down will improve my level of performance and accelerate the recovery process needed before and after training or competition. As a result, the warm up and cool down phases must be regarded an essential part of both the training session and competition itself. It is very important to warm up in my training session to avoid injury, and improve my level of performance in a forthcoming event. Muscles stiffness is directly proportional to muscle injury, and therefore if I heat up my muscles, I greatly reduce this likelihood. Dynamic exercises are linked to this, though skill drills (static exercises) do not. These mentally prepare me for the game ahead, and will most likely improve my performance in an event. Map reading could be an example of this in my chosen sport.
Cool-downs are equally important. It should allow me to recover after the main event, perhaps in preparation for another event, or even to reduce the likelihood of pain later on in the day. Most cool-down processes should consist of reducing my body temperature and removing waste products from my muscles. Static stretches, however, are more appropriate to my cool down period, as they help muscles to relax, realign my muscle fires and re-establish their normal range of movement. These stretches should be held for approximately 10 seconds.