The first principle of training is specificity. This means that each exercise I perform from my circuit will have a specific effect on that part of my body. Because my chosen sport is football it is fundamental that I train my leg muscles as it would be inappropriate and pointless for me to train my upper body due to it not playing a major role in football. Overall specificity means it is important to ensure that each exercise is chosen is: 1. Working on my leg muscles as my chosen sport is football (Had my sport been netball then I would be concentrating on the muscle groups in my arms.)
2. Isolating the right energy system needed in that activity. How I have applied specificity in my circuit is to include exercises that will have an impact on my leg muscles. For example one of my stations is to go into the ‘ski-sit’ position. This will exercise my leg muscles and hopefully enabling them to carry on for longer next time. This will mean the muscle pair don’t tire as easily and can help me last longer during a game. If I were to build up my biceps and triceps it would not be beneficial for any relevant reason to football.
The next principle of training is progression. The body needs time to adapt to increased demands placed upon it. Basically the body cannot handle an overload of intense training so it needs to be introduced gradually. If I did not handle my progress well I would injure myself with a strain or damage to my ligaments. I have handled my progression well, for example, I have, over the five weeks, gone from carrying out 1 circuit to 3. Over the weeks I gradually increased the amount I did, to push myself and consider the circuit challenging.
I also carried out each individual station for longer, again using the ‘ski-sit’ example I went from doing it for 30 seconds in week 1 in one circuit to 45 seconds in 3 circuits in week 5. The third principle of training is overload. The body will need to adapt to the increased demands and strains put upon it. It will gradually do this and adapts itself as the demands increase. It is important to gradually increase how hard the body has to work in order to encourage improvement and avoid performance remaining the same.
There are different ways to overload the body. Frequency: Increasing the number of times you train a week. This did not play a role in my fitness programme as we only had one lesson a week and other factors effected it such as if I did any other activities like tennis. It would be hard to monitor and analyse with these influences. Intensity: This means the amount of times I repeat a particular exercise. This obviously is what type of overload I based my training on. This meant the number of times I performed a circuit or station.
It also means how long I spent on each station. We can clearly see that as I progressed I increased the amount of exercise I performed. Time: Increasing how long you perform each exercise or by decreasing how long you rest between each exercise. This was covered by intensity; it was very limited to how much time could be added as there was only one hour a week spent on it. Therefore we were restricted but managed to vary the intensity. Type: Changing the type of exercise you do so that it is more difficult.
This was done by changing stations like changing your hands on your hands to across your chest in a sit up. Another principle is reversibility. The physical benefits of training on the body are reversible and therefore not permanent. The reverse starts as soon as training stops. This means that after completing my training programme and evidently getting fitter, I could have wasted my time I were to not continue and go back to my normal state. It is lost faster than it is gained.
The only way to stop this is to continue training and carry on, it will also set me back if I do not remember my kit or do not participate. It is vital that training is continuous. The final principle of training is tedium. If training is boring the performer will give up. It needs to be challenging but not too challenging so that I give up. I need to be motivated and want to participate, I want to be challenged, so challenged that it is just achievable. I will have to pitch my stations at the right level, and as for motivation I could listen to music.