I enjoyed my six week PEP, I carried it out exactly as I had planned and I had to change a few things, I changed a few things because someone of them were to hard so I had to lower the target or it was too easy so I made the target higher, which was overload so it helped me greatly, I can say that I changed my targets in continuous training to lower targets, continuous training at home to higher targets and circuit training to higher targets also.
The first method of training I did was continuous, continuous is when you continually train and don’t stop until the exercise is over. I did the 12 minute run once every week for six weeks. I had set targets for each of the weeks which I wanted to complete.
On the first week I completed my target which was 1200m , I got out of breath a few times and I found it quite difficult, but I didn’t stop at any point, so I ended up keeping it at the same target on the second week, this time round I found it more easier to run the distance without getting out breath as quickly as I did last time, this would be due to my extra continuous training that I in the park at home, on the third week I increased my target by 100m, which is 1300m in total, this is because.
I thought that I was good enough at 1200m, I found 1300m was relatively moderate in difficulty, I didn’t get out of breath but I did run slow, I again, achieved this well. On week four and five I realised that my cardiovascular endurance was improving so I increased them by 100m; week five was difficult even though I had improved this is because it was 1500m so I kept it the same in week six, but it week six because I had added overload in week five I was able to do 1500m with no problems.
I was able to increase and complete the targets that I set for myself over a period of time this shows that I have improved my cardiovascular endurance quite a lot through the past six weeks, the running I did outside of school in the park made it possible, on the first week I did 20 minutes of running in the park, and I increased it by 5 minutes each week, but on week four I kept it the same as week three which was 30 minutes because it got harder for me to do, it wasn’t until the sixth week that I again increased the time by 5 minutes which is 35 minutes.
As the weeks went by and I added overload to my training it got easier to run for longer without losing my breath quickly. For continuous training I had to do warm up 2 which is displayed before, it involves jogging to raise the heartbeat and mainly leg stretches to make sure that I don’t pull any of my muscles. The second method of training that I did was circuit training, circuit training is when you perform a few exercises like five or six in a particular order called a circuit and resting in between each one.
I did circuit training once every week for six weeks, I planned these 6 different circuits at school to improve my muscular endurance and my muscular strength, they are shuttle runs, push ups, step ups, sit ups, bicep curls and skipping, each help in different ways. Shuttle runs and skipping help with my cardiovascular endurance, shuttle runs focuses on your legs and skipping focuses on your legs and arms. Push ups, step ups, sit ups and bicep curls help with muscular endurance and strength, push ups worked my shoulders and arms and bicep curls worked just my arms. Step ups like skipping and shuttle runs worked my legs and sit ups worked my lower abs.
I think that I did very well in circuit training, I felt that I found it more easier in some ways because I got short rests after each station, and I then got a longer rest after I finished all 6 stations each time. Each week I put the time that I worked on each station for by 5 seconds, this is overload and it really helped improve my overall fitness. I was the best at sit ups, I did 20 in 30 seconds in the first week, I also did really well in bicep curls, skipping , step ups and shuttle runs. I achieved high reps in the bicep curls and each week I got better at doing more reps, so I increased how much time I had to do them, this is progression and overload. I found the push ups the hardest; I did less that than the other exercises.
I also do some exercises at home these include doing 10 sit-ups, 10 crunches, 10 push ups, 10 lunges and 10 squats, after 3 weeks I increased how many reps I did by 5, this is also progression, and this means that I have improved my muscular endurance. During both types of training my resting heart rate at first was 80 beats per minute but during the final fourth, fifth and sixth weeks it dropped to 75 beats per minute, this shows that I have improved my heart rate by 5 beats per minute. My recovery rates also got better, at first, a minute after exercise my heart rate was 110 beats per minute even though my maximum working heart rate was 120 beats per minute, and slowly after 4 minutes is was back at resting heart rate.
In week five I improved a lot, 1 minute after exercise my heart beat was 90 beats per minute and after that it only took me two minutes to get back to my resting heart rate which was now 75 beats per minute. This is really good evidence of improvements in cardiovascular endurance.
In pre-pep tests that I did, I can see that my strengths in fitness are my cardiovascular endurance which I found out from the shuttle runs, but I still needed to improve it, I did 25 sit ups and 40 step ups and I’m also good at skipping, I did about 30 reps. My weaknesses are the push ups, because I only did 5 of them with difficulty, I also found the bench presses had as I could only do 10 reps. This shows that the strength in my arms isn’t very good, and if I improve that I will become better in all of my sports.
My post-pep fitness test after the six weeks has shown that I have improved a lot, my cardiovascular endurance is better than before because I did more shuttle runs in a specific set of time. I was able to do 35 sit ups and 45 steps this time, and I didn’t get out of breath when I was skipping.
My push ups improved a lot, I was able to do 20 reps, and this tells me that my muscular strength has improved. My pep worked out very well, the training that I have been doing have helped a lot of the sports that I am doing including fitness, trampolining which is cardiovascular endurance, and karate which is muscular endurance. The parts that were the most successful washe circuit training because I found it really enjoyable. Next time I might change the type of training that I do.