Principles of training
Principles of training questions will always be applied. That is, you
will be expected to list and explain how you would use the principles
of training to benefit training and performance.
You will have a good knowledge of PoTs from GCSE – SPORT and
FITT.
A2 uses these and more- some of which that you will be aware of
already.
There are lots of marks available within this topic – a lot of which
you will have prior knowledge.
A typical question would be – How could a knowledge of principles of
training be used to improve performance.
Remember - you need to be able to:
- name the principles
- Explain how the principle would be applied
- Describe the benefit of applying the principle
13 Principles of Training (practice listing them) :
Specificity
Progression
Overload - Frequency – Intensity – Time - Type
Reversibility
Variance (replaces tedium)
Moderation
Periodisation
Testing
Warm up
Cool down
Specificity
Training should be specific to:
1. The needs of the individual – each individual has a different rate
of adaptation to different types of training. This is mainly due to
genetic difference e.g. muscle fibre type.
2. The needs of the sport/activity – which energy system(s)?which
fitness components are most important? Which movement
patterns/muscles and joints used within the sport/activity e.g.
Badminton – shuttle sprints – following pattern of movements (to
include backwards).
Progression
This describes the need to continue to overload the body systems
after adaptations have taken place. Progression should be gradual,
but progressive overload is necessary if further adaptations are to
be achieved.
Greater adaptations occur early on during training, slowing down as
training continues.
Overload
This is where the body systems are being worked harder than usual.
This leads to adaptations as the physiology changes to become more
efficient – to cope with the new work intensity.
The point at which adaptation occur within the Cardiovascular and
respiratory systems are known as training thresholds and training
zones. Examples of graphs showing these can be found on p396 of
the textbook.
Overload is achieved by using one or more of the FITT principles.
Frequency - How often you train
Intensity – How hard you work e.g.faster/heavier/less recovery
Time (duration) – how long you train
Type – Aerobic/anaerobic – Interval/fartlek/speed etc
Reversibility
If training stops or is reduced the adaptations that have taken place
will be reversed.
Muscle cell atrophy (muscles becoming smaller and weaker) occur
after 48 hours of inactivity.
Reversing of the adaptation takes three times less time than it took
to achieve the gain.
Adaptations made over a longer period of training will be reversed
more slowly than adaptations made after a limited period of training.
Long term training leads to more robust and sustainable adaptations.
Aerobic adaptations occur more quickly than anaerobic adaptations.
Variance
- Training should be varied to maintain motivation. Repeating the
same training over and over can become boring
- Repeating the same training can cause repetitive
strain/overuse injuries. Variety in your training whether it be
by changing the type of training or movement patterns can help
prevent these.
Moderation
Too much training (overload) can have detrimental effects, both
physically and mentally.
Overuse injuries can occur to muscular-skeletal tissue e.g. stress
fractures-shin splints or tendonitis-tennis elbow.
Too little overload (not exercising hard enough) will not cause any
adaptations to take place.
Somewhere between too much and too little is needed to remain fit
and healthy, but still benefiting from the adaptations that will occur!
Periodisation
This is the division of training into specific blocks, periods or
phases.
The objective is to ensure that athletes progressively develop and
reach their physiological, skill and psychological peak at the correct
time e.g. an athlete peaking for the Olympic Games.
At its most basic, periodisation divides the training year into three
phases: Pre-season, competitive season and off- season. Each of
these phases will have their own specific aims. As a result training
types, methods and focus will be very different for each season.
A more complex method of dividing up the training year has evolved,
by applying three basic structures within your planning:
Macro-cycles
A long term plan of training to achieve a long term goal.
Typically a whole year.
A macro-cycle that is based on planning over several years is known
as a mega-cycle e.g. 4 year period between Olympic Games.
A macro-cycle will be made up of a number of meso-cycles.
Meso-cycles
A medium time plan of training to achieve a shorter term goal
Typically 4 to 16 weeks (1-4 months)
The length and number of meso-cycles will differ depending on the
requirements of the sport. Athletics for example may have two
competitive seasons needing the athlete to peak twice in the training
year for a short period of time. A team sport player on the other
hand has only one competitive season, which lasts for 9 months.
Although you could say that in a world cup year, as we are in for
International rugby players; the players must peak twice- where is
the vital off-season?
A meso-cycle will be made up of a number of micro-cycles.
Micro-cycles
A short term plan of training.
Typically one week, but can be up to three weeks.
A micro-cycle is simply a training session (a number of repeated
micro-cycles make up a meso-cycle.
The micro-cycle will contain units. If an athlete trains three times a
week then each of the training sessions will be called a unit.
If the training session has two very different focuses e.g. flexibility
and strength – the session will contain two units.
Tip - To help remember the order of the cycles, look at the second
letter of the cycles: macro – meso – micro.
These are in alphabetical order!
Testing
Testing is used to assess the training needs of the individual so that
the training load is appropriate. This could be at the start of
training, returning from injury, or during a period of training to
assess whether adaptations have occurred. The result could be
upping the training for greater adaptations or lowering training to
prevent burn out.
Exam tip – although we focus mainly on four of the fitness
components, you still need to know the other components and their
tests.
Warm up
A warm up aims to prepare a person prior to activity or training both
physically and mentally.
3 phases of a warm up:
1. Pulse raising activities : Aerobic/sub maximal exercise aimed
at:
- Increasing temperature and elasticity of muscle.
- Heart rate, stroke volume and cardiac output are increase
-
Tidal volume, breathing frequency (depth and rate), and
minute ventilation increase.
- Result is increase in oxygenated blood to working muscles –
redistribution of blood to muscles instead of organs (vascular
shunt mechanism.
2. Mobilisation: controlled mobilisation of joints rehearsing
movement patterns from the activity – prepares muscles,
tendons and ligaments and lubricates joints.
3. Stretching: muscles to be used within activity should be
stretched. Within team sports, ballistic or dynamic stretching
is becoming more popular, replacing static stretching as the
main form of stretching.
Benefits of a warm up:
- Prepares cardio-respiratory and muscular-skeletal systems for
activity (particularly anaerobic activity).
- Increases muscle temperature which:
- Increases O2 dissociation
- Speed of nerve impulse and muscle contraction – increases
speed, force and reaction time.
- Increases enzyme actions- helping with energy production.
- Releases synovial fluid – lubricating the joints.
- Increases elasticity of muscle tissue, tendons and ligaments.
- Redistributes blood flow to muscles(vascular shunt mechanism).
- Reduces risk of injury.
- Delays the build up of lactic acid (OBLA) and early fatigue.
Cool down (active recovery)
A cool down speeds up the recovery process.
A cool down should consist of:
1. Pulse lowering activities: moderate/low intensity-aerobic
activities.
2. Stretching of muscles used during activities.
Benefits of a cool down:
- Maintains venous return, stroke volume, cardiac output, minute
ventilation and blood pressure.
- Gradual reduction of muscle temperature.
- Stretching returns muscle to pre-exercise length.
- Reduces risk of injury, muscle soreness and DOMS.
- Speeds up removal of lactic acid, by flooding muscle with
oxygenated blood.
- Prevents blood pooling.