7 Principles of Exercise and Sport Training

When you approach your multi-sport training, the best way to answer
your questions is to better understand the principles behind the work you
are putting in to improve. These are seven basic principles of exercise or
sport training you will want to keep in mind:

✔ Individuality

✔ Specificity

✔ Progression

✔ Overload

✔ Adaptation

✔ Recovery

✔ Reversibility
Individuality
Everyone is NOT created equal from a physical standpoint. Everyone is
different and responds differently to training. Some people are able to
handle higher volumes of training while others may respond better to
higher intensities. This is based on a combination of factors like genetic
ability, predominance of muscle fiber types, other factors in your life,
chronological or athletic age, and mental state.
Specificity
Exercise is stress and because the body efficiently acclimates to stress,
specificity is imposing a specific type of stress on the body repeatedly
and in a variety of ways. The Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands
(SAID) affirms that the body will improve its performance of a specific
exercise over time.
Improving your ability in a sport is very specific. If you want to be a
great pitcher, running laps will help your overall conditioning but won’t
develop your skills at throwing or the power and muscular endurance
required to throw a fastball fifty times in a game. Swimming will help
improve your aerobic endurance but won’t develop tissue resiliency and
muscular endurance for your running legs.
Progression
To ensure that results will continue to improve over time, the degree of
the training intensity must continually increase above the adapted work
load. Increasing weight is the most popular and most applicable method
of progression; however, progression can also be accomplished by
changing frequency, number of exercises, complexity of exercises, the
number of sets, and in any combination.
To reach the roof of your ability, you have to climb the first flight of
stairs before you can exit the 20th floor and stare out over the landscape.
You can view this from both a technical skills standpoint as well as from
an effort/distance standpoint. In order to swim the 500 freestyle, you
need to be able to maintain your body position and breathing pattern well
enough to complete the distance. In order to swim the 500 freestyle, you
also need to build your muscular endurance well enough to repeat the
necessary motions enough times to finish.
Overload
The overload principle is one of the seven big laws of fitness and
training. Simply put, it says that you have to gradually increase the
intensity, duration, type, or time of a workout progressively in order to
see adaptations.
Issues with the Overload Principle:
others may be too
embarrassed to say
something. Minor
injuries can worsen if
not treated.
Hitting a Plateau while Ignoring the Overload Principle
Overreaching and Overtraining Stress
Hitting a Plateau while Ignoring the Overload Principle
The obvious issue with ignoring the overload principle is the failure to
make gains. If you continue to do the same workout or train at the same
intensity and frequency, you will make gains only to a certain point.
After that you are not overloading the muscles and hit a plateau with no
further improvements or adaptations.
This happens because our bodies are very good at adapting to stress.
Overreaching and Overtraining Stress
On the other hand, if you use the overload principle in the wrong way,
say by increasing intensity too quickly, you get into a state of
overreaching or overtraining. Overreaching is a short-term problem, a
decrease in physical performance that takes days to overcome. Some
signs of overtraining you should watch out for include:

✔ Increased resting heart rate.

✔ Loss of appetite and weight loss.

✔ Difficulty sleeping.

✔ Emotional changes or mood swings.

✔ Fatigue.

✔ Chronic muscle soreness.

Adaptation
Over time the body becomes accustomed to exercising at a given level.
This adaptation results in improved efficiency, less effort and less muscle
breakdown at that level. That is why the first time you ran two miles you
were sore after, but now it’s just a warm up for your main workout. This
is why you need to change the stimulus via higher intensity or longer
duration in order to continue improvements. The same holds true for
adapting to lesser amounts of exercise.
Recovery
The body cannot repair itself without rest and time to recover. Both short
periods like hours between multiple sessions in a day and longer periods
like days or weeks to recover from a long season are necessary to ensure
your body does not suffer from exhaustion or overuse injuries. Motivated
athletes often neglect this. At the basic level, the more you train the more
sleep your body needs; despite the adaptations you have made to said
training.
Reversibility
Fitness improvements are lost when demands on the body are lowered. If
you discontinue application of a particular exercise like running five
miles or bench pressing 150 pounds 10 times, you will lose the ability to
successfully complete that exercise. Your muscles will atrophy and the
cellular adaptations like increased capillaries (blood flow to the muscles)
and mitochondria density will reverse. You can slow this rate of loss
substantially by conducting maintenance/reduced program of training
during periods where life gets in the way, and is why just about all sports
coaches ask their athletes to stay active in the offseason.
The benefits of training are lost with prolonged periods without training.
On the flip side, this also means that the detraining effect can be reversed
once training is resumed. Extended rest periods reduce fitness and the
physiological effects diminish over time which throws the body back to
its pre-training condition … reductions in performance can be lost in as
little as two weeks and sometimes sooner. Interestingly, training has a
lingering effect even when discontinued in that strength levels after de-
training are seldom lower than pre-training levels.
Note: The principles of specificity, progression, overload, adaptation, and
reversibility are why practicing frequently and consistently are so
important if you want to improve your performance. Physical
components of fitness are used in school, gym, and health clubs to
measure your level of physical fitness.
Generalization.
What is the importance of knowing and understanding the principles of
training? And how will you apply it to your exercise routine?
The principles of specificity, progression, overload, adaptation, and
reversibility are why practicing frequently and consistently are so important if
you want to improve your performance. Missed sessions cannot really be
made up within the context of a single season. They are lost opportunities for
improvement. Skipping your long ride on weekend A means you can’t or
shouldn’t go as far as originally planned on weekend B (progression &
overload). Skipping your Monday swim means your swimming skills and
muscles won’t be honed or stressed that day (specificity). Missing a week due
to a vacation sets you back more than one week (adaptation and reversibility).
Apply these principles to your training to get a better understanding of your
body and how to achieve success.

Physical Fitness Concepts and Assessments

Physical components of fitness are used in school, gym, and health clubs to
measure your level of physical fitness.
Physical fitness components are divided into two. Health-Related Fitness
(HRF) and Skill- Related Fitness (SRF)
HEALTH-RELATED FITNESS
The definition of health-related fitness involves exercise activities that you do to try
to improve your physical health and stay healthy. It has 5 components:
cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and
body composition.
CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE
Refers to the ability of the whole body to perform activities for a prolonged time and
have the circulatory and respiratory systems work efficiently. An individual who are
engage in aerobic exercises are the one who can sustain workouts for long period of
time without getting tired.
Ways to Improve Cardiovascular Endurance
1. Running or Walking
2. Aerobics and Aerobic Dance
3. Swimming and Bicycling
4. At-Home Exercises
MUSCULAR STRENGTH
Ability of the muscle to generate force. It is often measured by how much weight a
person can lift. Stroger muscles allow person to do more work, protect the joints
from possible injuries and makes bone stronger.
Ways to Improve Muscular Strength
1. Lifting Weights
2. Cycling
3. Hill Walking
4. Working with resistance bands
MUSCULAR ENDURANCE
The ability of the muscle to generate force repeatedly. Improved endurance allows
an individual to perform physical activities in a greater number of repetitions and in
ankle joints and will get them ready
for a strenuous workout.
The workout area should be clear of
anyone who does not have a direct
involvement in the routine.
First Aid - ensure that you have
knowledge and have a prepared kit
in case emergency happens.
Proper Clothing - It’s long been
advised to remove all loose jewelry
and belts before the class starts as
they can actually lead to injury.
Stretching & Warm-ups - It’s easy
to injure cold muscles. That is why
ALL levels perform simple
stretching exercises before working
out. Your class should be no
different. Start off with a few
stretches and some light physical
activity before you kick your lesson
into full gear. Be sure to allow time
at the end of the lesson to properly
‘cool down’ and stretch again.
Be Alert - It is important to be
actively vigilant with your class.
Look for injuries. Some students
want to keep performing despite
developing an injury, where others
may be too embarrassed to say
something. Minor injuries can
worsen if not treated a longer period.
Ways to Improve Muscular Endurance
1. Sit-ups
2. Press-ups
3. Squat Thrusts
FLEXIBILITY
Defined as the range of motion possible at the many joints in the body. When the
muscles are developed and lengthened through appropriate exercise, they allow the
joints to move through a wider range of motion.
Ways to Improve Flexibility
1. Tai chi
2. Yoga
3. Dance
BODY COMPOSITION
It is the ratio of lean body weight to fat. The main components under consideration
are fat mass, muscle mass, bone density, and water volume.
Ways to Improve Body Composition
1. Push-ups
2. Weighted Squat Jump
3. Explosive lunge jump
SKILL - RELATED FITNESS –
Skill related fitness is defined as working out to improve a specific skill. The six
skill-related components of fitness contribute to your ability to successfully
participate in sports and activities.
SPEED
Speed deals with the rate at which a movement is performed. This skill is applicable
in all sports.
Ways to Improve Speed
1. Squat
2. Deadlift
3. Broad jump
4. Sled push
POWER
It is the ability to apply force at a high rate of speed. Power is common among
weight lifters
Ways to Improve Power
1. Squat Jumps
2. Clapping Push-ups
3. Hurdle Jumps
AGILITY
It refers to the ability to change direction quickly and accurately during movement.
This skills is best applied in sports where stopping and changing direction is
constantly enforced.
Ways to Improve Agility
1. Ladder Drills
2. Hurdle Drills
3. Cone Taps
BALANCE
It is the ability to maintain equilibrium while moving or standing still. This skill is
needed for most of the sports especially skating and gymnastics.
Ways to Improve Balance
1. Squat
2. Tai chi
COORDINATION
It is the ability to use senses with the body parts to perform movement tasks. This
skill is best for hand-eye and foot-eye coordination
Ways to Improve Coordination
1. Jump Rope Drills
2. Target Practice
3. Dribbling
REACTION TIME
It is elapsed between a stimulus and the resulting response. This skill is best applied
in running especially sprinting.
Ways to Improve Reaction Time
1. Playing Table tennis
2. Dodgeball