I should divide my training sessions into four phases: 1. Warm up 2. Fitness 3. Skill development 4. Warm down /Warm up The warm up should include: A period of gentle exercise using the whole body, for example jogging. This will gradually increase heart rate and breathing, ensure blood flow to our muscles, prepares muscles and gets you mentally ready for the task. � Gentle stretching: I should work on the joints most likely to be used during the game.
Practice general skills and techniques, for example batting and chasing and throwing the ball in fielding. The fitness activities I use will depend on the demands of the sport. If I follow the warm up with a fitness session I must ensure that I’m not too tired for the skill development. It is better to do a fitness session after the skill development phase. The skill development stage is the time we develop to our particular sport. If we are team players we will need to develop our individual techniques. We also need to develop group skills and teamwork so small competitive games are useful for enhancing performance.
We should always finish a training session with a period of lighter exercise. Light exercise reduces the recovery time necessary to move carbon dioxide and lactic acid out of the body. This also ensures the blood keeps flowing properly. Starting my fitness program with a warm up: 1) Warm up for 10-15 minutes. Increase duration of warm-up when temperature is cold or when you are sore. 2) I shall warm up until I begin to sweat. The whole purpose of my warm up is to increase my body temperature by 1 or 2 degrees. 3) I shall let only a few minutes run from the end of the warm up until the start of the activity.
Jogging, sides steps one way and the other, twist ankles in a clockwise direction, knee lifts, hip rocks (in circles), shoulder roles, elbow twists, wrists, neck. The warm up increases the oxygen level to the muscles. It helps improve the speed of the nerve impulses. It improves the travel speed and efficiency of the muscles contractions. It stretches the muscles and moves the joints around. It increases heart rate, breathing rate, less lactic acid is produced in the muscles, reduces stiffness in muscles and increases their flexibility.
Proper warms ups help prevent injury. As you warm up the heart starts pumping faster, this means that it starts pumping more blood to the muscles so in a way the heart gets ready to do this in the long term which is in a cricket match. It is also known that the muscles reaction responses times are quicker at higher temperature. So as the muscles get more blood it will mean they are also getting more oxygen in the muscles.
Hamstring stretch This muscle group is called the hamstrings. Stand facing a chair or a low stool and place the heel of one foot up on the chair. Make sure you keep your hips and other leg square to the surface that you’re putting your foot on. Keep the knee of the leg that is propped up slightly bent and pull your buttocks back and chest up. You should feel a stretch in the back of the thigh of the leg that is propped on the chair. Remember, you’re not leaning over and trying to touch your toes; you’re pulling your buttocks up and back (see arrows). Hold the stretch for 30 seconds, and then switch legs.
Calf Stretch This stretch is for the muscles on the back of your lower leg. Stand facing a wall, about an arm’s distance back and place your hands on the wall at shoulder height. Place one foot back and the other forward as shown, and shift most of your weight onto the back (straight) leg. Roll that back foot to the outside so that there is more weight on the pinkie toe side than the big toe side of your foot. Don’t turn the whole leg out though the toes should still be facing straight ahead. Now lock your arch by lifting your big toe slightly and pressing your heel down (see arrows). You should feel the stretch in the calf muscle, just below your knee. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds, then relax and change legs. You’ll probably want to do this one several times a day for best results.
Triceps Stretch Bend the right elbow and use the left arm to bring the bent elbow up and behind the head until a stretch is felt on the outside of the upper arm. Repeat on the left side. Last but not least, the muscles on the front of your thigh. There are actually 4 distinct muscles that make up the quadriceps group. Stand next to a wall for balance, then either grasp your ankle with your hand, or use a towel roll as shown here. You should be able to maintain straight alignment of your hips, shoulders and knees. If when you grasp your ankle your knee moves forward of the other leg, then you’d be better off to use a towel and get your body alignment straight. Pull up on the towel until you feel a stretch in the front of the thigh and hold for about 30 seconds. Repeat the process on the other leg.
Here are some of the exercises I am doing in the weights room: Lateral Pull Down Grip the lat bar with your hands approximately 50 cm apart. Sit comfortably on the bench, with your thighs under the knee pads. Pull the bar straight down until it is level with the upper chest. Hold for a count of one, and then return the bar to the starting position in a slow, controlled manner. Stay put during the movement and don’t rise with the bar. Keep your back straight, and don’t lean too far back. Don’t use your momentum to pull the weight down.
Bench Press Lie on your back on the bench. Hold the barbell with your hands more than shoulder-width apart, over the centre of your chest. Keep your elbows locked out. Ask a training partner to release the weight. Lower the weight slowly until it touches the middle of your chest. Pause for a count of one, and then push the weight back up into the starting position. Hold the starting position for one second. Don’t arch your back. Don’t raise your hips off the bench. Don’t be tempted to start with a very heavy weight: you risk hurting yourself – and it won’t impress anyone in the gym if you can’t lift it!
Reversibility is when our bodies have adapted to more stress by becoming fitter and then lose gained aerobic fitness. My muscles could have quickly lost their ability to use oxygen, if mine or any one else’s muscles weren’t used. I did not let my work get reversed. The biggest deterioration occurs in aerobic efficiency, I won’t lose aerobic fitness by decreasing training. Tedium: By my fitness activities I could have been getting quite bored and de-motivated with my circuit and tedium could have set in. However I changed my circuit slightly and set myself challenging targets, .e.g. improving on my bleep test score. I will try to keep a plan for what exercises to do in a training session and adapt to that. Weights should be put aside and no where else unless a person is using it. During seated pulley rowing, you should keep your back straight. For each exercise I have picked I have assessed it on how it can help on each body part.
Improving fitness was one of my overall aims of my exercise programme. In order for anyone to improve general fitness we must raise our heart rate above 60% of our maximum for aerobic training and 85% of maximum for anaerobic training. Because of what I have previously said I had to change my programme in a few ways in order to improve general fitness and to prevent exercise being too easy. In the exercises I performed, my pulse rate did not rise significantly. I put this down to me not performing enough reps and therefore increased the amount next time. I came to the decision that it must be a lack of reps because my exercises were specific to my sport of Cricket.