Doing the fitness programme twice a week isn’t going to make a significant difference. I had School and Town rugby training sessions twice a week usually followed by a game on the weekend. In addition to that I had Circuit training similar to my circuit once a week. This would increase the frequency of activity and I would adapt to the workload given. I don’t think I over worked otherwise I would have not received any benefit from exercising.
Warming Up and Down: This was a crucial part of each session. This ensured no pulled or stretched muscles were going to occur during each session. When warming up I always start with a light jog to get blood flowing to all the muscles. Then I work on specific areas using isometric contraction. I usually start at one end of the body and work up/down the way. My circuit uses a lot of different muscle groups including the pectorals, biceps, and triceps so I need to stretch all of them.
When Cooling down I do a similar procedure to gradually drop the pulse rate. If I suddenly stop, the blood may ‘pool’ and cause clotting in the veins. Cooling down also removes lactic acid from the muscles so I will avoid cramps and fatigued muscles. If I did I would miss training sessions to recover and the workload will drop again. It is important to maintain fitness all the way through.
EVALUATING Evaluation 1: (On Paper with Mr. Williams) Evaluation 2: Now I have experimented with each activity and have made adjustments to suit the level I am working at. I have changed the Skipping and Shuttles around in the circuit. I can now confirm that the circuit is how I want it to be and the equipment and activities are suited to my sport. I managed to get my pulse rate up to 123 bpm and so by making these changes and working round the circuit at a faster rate I should be well into my training zone.
Evaluation 3: The Circuit has now been running smoothly and I have managed to reach pulse rates of 170 bpm. This is working well into my training zone. One problem I encountered was that some activities were crowded and so I had to skip it or wait. This was wasting time and not keeping the intensity up. For next time everyone should spread out so a good number are on each activity at the same time. Final Evaluation: When I started planning the fitness programme I decided on the activities based on my aims for Rugby Union. In the preliminary tests I got a score of 9.0 in the bleep test. From that that I made and aim of 10.0 + and make that the main target. I would be happy with any other improvements in the other tests as well including the Illinois test and 12 minute Cooper Run.
Using this information I thought I could cope with all the stations and a high intensity for a minute each without resting frequently, after working hard around the circuit there would be the passing station where I could rest once every 7 minutes. If I felt the need to keep the workload on I skipped the passing and continued with some harder activities. I applied the principles of overload and progression by keeping a constant pace around the circuit.
Every session I would stay on each station for a minute longer or stick to specific stations I thought I needed more work on. Towards the end I felt the tasks easier to cope with so there must be an improvement via the adaptation. On some stations I managed to improve explosive energy scores even when I was tired from previous rounds of the circuit. If I was re-tested on the bleep test I think there would be an increase. Most of the improvement would come from the shuttles because it is the same movement, also overall stamina from completing the circuit many times.
I had to alter the layout of the circuit twice before getting suitable for the activity. I felt that the changes enabled me to have no ‘resting stations’ and continuously work at a high intensity. My pulse rate was well in my training zone, and that achieved the main purpose of the circuit. It also achieves one of my aims and that is to improve stamina. I have felt differences while playing in games and I am generally pleased with the results of this programme.
Some improvements I would make are that there is always a wait in some activities until your turn. This cannot be solved because of the large numbers. Also I didn’t have a session where I could practice kicking. This was mainly due that there wasn’t anyone else doing it and it would take me away from the circuit too long. The circuit was indoors so the weather didn’t affect anything. I felt that I worked in the boundary of not working hard enough and stressing to hard. There wasn’t a time when I felt very fatigued and had muscle cramps, or when I wasn’t tired and under loading. From this I know I have made an improvement and I am pleased.