I am going to organise my plan and then perform a personal exercise program. The overall aims of my personal exercise program are to: 1. Improve specific and current fitness levels required for my sporting activity Cricket e.g. Cardio vascular endurance 2. To improve fitness levels so I can concentrate more on my techniques and skills in the cricket arena 3. To increase my power in batting to hit those big shots in a cricket match and all-round body strength.
From last year I didn’t bat much but I can stay at the crease for long periods of time. However I cannot score runs freely in a match. I would attempt to complete this by working on my upper body in particular my shoulders, biceps, triceps and arms right down to my navel and the lower body including the legs. At the moment I would say I’m trying to work on my fitness levels. However in order for me to be successful as a good tail-ender and as a fielder I need a higher level of fitness which is specific to cricket. Hopefully by the end of this P.E.P this specific fitness will have been improved. Here’s a table which outlines how much physical activity I undertook in a typical week excluding Saturdays and Sundays which I don’t do any physical activity.
My week is packed when it comes to summer-time as I have cricket training every day for the A team and for my cricket club, Chessington. I have suffered from illnesses during September but I’m back on track. Now I can do as much work as possible to gain extra strength and power for batting and all round body strength. My endurance is at a good level however my strength is poor. From this table, I have to be able to make a graph to show my level of fitness and then the level which is needed for my sport.
It also shows what level I want to be at the end of my P.E.P. To summarize these I want my upper body strength and all round body strength to be very good so I am looking for an increase in the weight which I can bench press. For lifters looking to create the “He-Man” physique, the single most important upper body workout is the bench press. The bench press builds the upper arm, chest, and shoulders. The muscles here have a great impact on making it look like you possess great strength, which is an important factor for many lifters.
Cardiovascular endurance (stamina) It is the ability of the heart and lungs to keep supplying oxygen in the blood to the body to provide energy to maintain physical movement. It requires you to keep moving for quite long periods of time. It is important to record your heart rate as this is one of the basic ways to measure and test endurance. Muscular Endurance It is the ability of a group of muscles to keep working against a resistance. The only way to improve muscular endurance is to increase dynamic strength. This can be done by using weight training methods. You can do press-ups to test muscular endurance.
Muscular strength It is the capacity of your body’s muscles to generate extreme amounts of force in a short period of time using anaerobic energy. Speed There are two factors which contribute to this: reaction time and movement time. Reaction time is how quickly a performer can respond to something. For example, it could be a batsman reacting towards a cricket ball coming to them. Agility This is a combination of flexibility and speed as it is the ability to move quickly, changing direction and speed whenever necessary.
Strength Training Strength relates to the ability of the body to apply force and strength is also the maximum force that can be developed in a muscles or a group of muscles during a single maximal contraction. Strength and muscular endurance are similar. Strength is needed so the person can hit shots and throw the ball from a far distance. Speed is the ability to put the body parts into motion quickly, or the maximum rate that a person can move over a specific distance. Speed is important as it helps try to chase the ball down to stop runs scored and running between wickets. Flexibility is the range of movements around a joint. It is determined by the elasticity of ligaments and tendons. If a batsman hits the ball through a gap then a fielder will try to dive and stretch to stop it or catch it so flexibility is important.
I will carry out this type of training to gain more muscle strength, which is a fitness requirement I feel needs improving. To do this I will carry out weight or resistance training which is known as plyometrics. This will help develop strength and explosive power. Because I am working on muscle strength I will need to perform 3 sets of 10 repetitions at 70-80% of maximum strength, with full recovery between sets. Key points for power development are: a) That the movement and contraction period is explosive to ensure the muscle works rapidly.
b) To use very high loads or resistance which will encourage the muscle to gather all its motor units c) To ensure the muscle recovers fully between sets, enabling the appropriate energy system to recover. Safety Aspects When carrying out my training sessions I have to make sure that all the exercises are carried out safely with equipment set out correctly, especially when using the weights. When carrying out the weight lifting training sessions I have to make sure I am doing the exercise in a well carried out and precise manner.
Apparatus There are many safety factors which need to be taken into consideration when I am using the weights. Firstly all loose equipment like jewellery, watches etc. should be taken off and put into a valuables case. I was very pleased with what I did this week but thought that I could handle more lengths than what I had done. The exercises that I did were quite demanding but I thought they would be easier to handle next week and was looking forward to the challenge.
Progression – The progression for my training programme will be more obvious in the beginning. The progression of my endurance will probably make me feel healthier in myself, and after a few training sessions, I probably could feel as though I could train for longer or at a higher intensity (overload). When I first start training I will make the muscles in my legs stronger. At first it will probably make my legs ache as usually I don’t train hard specifically on my legs, so the time, intensity and frequency of training should be low so mentally and physically I am able to do training. When my legs become used to the training as in my cardiovascular training I can start to progress in my training by overloading.
Progressive Overloading – To improve my cardiovascular endurance and muscular stamina I will have to overload. This means pushing myself harder than easy training. A few extra jumps or an extra few metres when you are jogging each training session can make a huge difference over a few weeks, because this is overloading making you fitter in specific parts of your body. When I am training to improve stamina I will e.g. go jogging or swimming. After I have done a number of lengths each day I might be finding it easy and not a challenge. This is when I would start to overload to improve my stamina and progress in my performance. To overload I would maybe increase the amount of lengths I did. Then I would do this in a faster time, increasing my heart rate up to 75% of my maximum heart rate.
If I have done this successfully I may want to increase the frequency (amount of lengths), time (speed) and intensity (heart rate level) of the exercise. I may want to increase all of these at the same time and keep trying to achieve a certain level each time I do a section of the training programme. I should make sure that I alternate my training programme because if I exert myself to strenuous exercise too soon I could damage my muscles and mentally and physically exhaust myself. Before I do any exercise I will have to warm up and when I have finished training I will have to cool down.
When I am training to improve the muscles strength in my legs, using weights at the gym I will have to make sure I warm the muscles I am working up thoroughly so that I don’t damage them and do something e.g tear a ligament. Also when I am using weights I have to start from a low weight so that I don’t strain anything, this is why I will have to periodise and use progression rather than start on a high weight, it is better to start low and progress than start high and struggle. At the moment, I only use low weights, never high weights but hopefully I can get up to that.