At the minute my general fitness is at average, as I am able to carry out everyday sort of activities like; run for the bus, walk the dog and carry out moderate swimming sets containing both aerobic and anaerobic activities in my swim team. With the swimming club I train an average of four- five times a week, although each session contains a variation of activities that work on different parts of my performance, e.g. one session of flexibility/technique a week. Within the week I also carry out one circuit programme inside school and gym work once outside school with the swimming club. I am not carrying any injuries at present so I should have no holdbacks in my programme.
Safety Aspects Working in the gym is potentially very dangerous. You should always have a partner or someone else with you when you are working in the gym. The main cause of injury is not doing a good warm up and then pulling ligaments and muscles. When you are using free weights e.g. bench press, you should always have a spotter in case the weight falls and injures you. To insure I don’t sustain any injuries I will do the warm up which falls.
Warm Up Pulse Raiser It is important that the warm up begins with a pulse raising exercise, as it increases blood circulation, in turn warming up the muscles preparing them for work. It is also responsible for kick starting the aerobic pathways, which will assist the delivery of oxygen to the muscles. It makes them more flexible and lowers the risk of injury. It warms up the synovial fluid and makes my joints more mobile.
The tasks I will incorporate in this phase of the warm up would be a light 5 minute jog and, to make it less boring, tasks such as touching the ground with each hand alternatively and jumping into the air like I am going to head the ball in football could be included. Stretching Your Muscles This stretching should be static and held for roughly 10 seconds each side and avoid injury by not bouncing. Stretching lengthens your muscle fibres and increases suppleness of the ligaments. This leads to increased mobility of the joints. Failing to complete this step could lead to injury such as, pulled muscles or muscle fibres and torn ligaments. I will start at my ankles and turn my feet so the side of my shoe is resting on the ground, then I will stretch the hamstrings by placing one foot in front of the other and pushing out my bum until I feel a strain. Next comes my quadriceps, I grab one ankle at a time and pull it up to my bum while keeping my knees together.
Now I move onto my upper body. I will start with the obliques. I stretch these by running my hand down the side of my leg as far as possible. I then stretch my trapezius by pulling one arm across the front of my body and put some pressure on it, the next stretch will loosen my triceps and deltoids. I then place one hand behind my head, between my shoulders and put a little pressure on the elbow of that arm. To finish I stretch my neck by looking to each side, up and down.
Mobilising the Joints Mobilising exercises should be slow, controlled and not ballistic. This increases mobility of joints and produces synovial fluids. It can often lead to better technique when performing certain skills e.g. high jump and javelin. Again I will start at my ankles and work up. To work the pivot joint in my ankle I will make circles (about 5 each direction). Simulating the action of kicking a football can warm up the hinge joint in my knee. To mobilise the rest of my joints, i.e. the pivot at the top of my femur, my hips and my shoulder, can all be mobilised by making circles, again about 5 in each direction. Do not make circles with your neck!
Specific Exercise This is done to get me in the right state of mind for the following exercise. I will be taking my warm up before I do weights so I will do 7 tuck jumps and 7 squats as I will be using my legs a lot. The Principles of Training Before designing my fitness programme I will need to consider the principles of training. These will allow me to design a circuit so that it acts upon the areas that I want to improve, and at a safe rate that will make sure that as many injuries are prevented as possible. To make sure of this we use SPORT- Specificity, Progression. Overload, Reversibility, Tedium.
Principle of Specificity Every exercise has a specific effect on your body. For example leg extensions with a heavy weight will strengthen your quadriceps. One with light weight will improve their endurance but neither will affect your upper body. This means that you must first decide what you want to improve and then choose the right exercises. To improve in a sport you must exercise the muscles and joints that you use in that sport, and at the speed that you use them. I will be working mainly on strength and power as a result of my tests; I will mainly work on my upper body as it provides most power but also my legs as I have a weak kick.
Principle of Progression To avoid injuries you should start off slowly and work your way up. Your body takes time to react to the increased demands on it. You will notice the biggest improvement early on in your programme. The fitter you get the harder it is to gain further improvement. I will be using the principle of progression but I will probably start of with the same weights etc. but just increase the amount of repetitions I do instead of increasing the weight etc.
Principle of Overload Fitness can only be improved by doing more than you usually do i.e. overloading your body systems. People can improve their fitness by basing their programme on FITT i.e. Frequency: how often you exercise? Intensity: how hard you train? Time: how long you work for? Type: the type of exercise you do? I will be using the principle FITT in my exercise programme. This is a very effective method. Principle of Reversibility This is why you need to keep exercising about three times a week or you will lose the benefit from the session before. If you sustain an injury and are out for a long period then when you start training again you will have to start at a lower level than you were at before.
You lose your fitness 3 times faster than it takes to build it up, so 6 weeks of training will be lost in just 2 weeks of no training. Principle of Tedium My training programme must be varied to avoid tedium- boredom. By using a variety of different training methods we will keep our enthusiasm and motivation. We can follow a long work out with a short one, a hard session with a relaxed one or a high-speed session with a long slow one. You may be able to change where you train and when you train. To avoid overuse injuries, simply vary the way you train. For example, shin splints can be avoided by running on grass rather than on hard roads. Overtraining Training more than you usually do will make you fitter, but it has to be done in moderation. Your body can’t handle too many sessions if you don’t eat and sleep enough.