Below follows a description of some basic exercise principles that needs to be understood before effectively engaging in any exercise program.
The main forms of exercise dealt with here are:
Cardiovascular exercise
Strengt training
Sports-specific training
Three basic principles
In order to be specific in your exercise goals it is important to understand a little bit about how exercise affects various systems in your body . The next section intends to explain some of the main responses in your body to different form of exercise.
There are three basic principles that needs to be applied to any form of exercise in order to be successful
These three main principles are:
Specificity
Progression
Overload
Specificity
The specificity principle can be interpreted and applied in many different ways depending on what you want to improve ,specificity can apply to muscle groups,energy systems or specific movements or activities.
You can break down and apply the principle almost any way you like to fit your specific goals within and exercise program. However, in its simplest most general form specificity means that in order to get better at any type of skill or activity you need to perform that activity, this means that if you want to get better at swimming you need to swim,if you want to be a better runner you need to run, throwing darts you need to throw darts etc..
Overload
The principle of overload states that a greater than normal load is required if adaptation is to take place. The body will then adapt to the increased stimulus of the specific tissue or system we want to affect. When the body has adapted, a greater and/or different stimulus is required to continue the adaptation process. In order for a muscle (including the heart) to increase in strength, it must be gradually stressed by working against a load greater than it is accustomed to.
Progression
The principle of progression refers to the rate of which overload is applied. In principle there exists an optimal rate of which to apply overload to achieve optimal results. Overload should not be increased too slowly or improvement will not take place. In the event that overload is increased too rapidly it will result in injury or muscle damage and most certainly no improvement. For example, an athlete that exercises only sporadically and with too much overload violates both the principle of overload and the principle of progression and will not achieve good results.
As you can see, these three principles are highly interconnected and are reciprocally dependent on eachother. They also relate strongly to additional principles like those of adaptation and individual differences.
Aerobic and anaerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise is a term used to describe the forms of exercise that utilizes oxygen as the main source of energy. Aerobic exercises are generally speaking exercises of a cyclical and repetetive nature over a reatively long period time, such as jogging, cycling and swimming.
Aerobic exercise makes the heart work harder to pump the required amount of blood through the body at a faster rate. This is a direct response to the working tissues increased need for oxygen . As blood is pumped faster through the body it must also be reoxygenated at a higher rate, which is why respiration frequency will also increase.
Aerobic exercise strengthens the heart muscle and increase the vital capacity of your respiratory system. Low intensity aerobics include walking and swimming. Running, tennis and dance are examples of high intensity aerobics.
Anaerobic exercise on the other hand consists of short duration, high intensity activities, which last up to about 2 minutes. There are two types of anaerobic energy systems, the ATP energy system, which utilize creatine phosphate as the main energy source, and the anaerobic glycolysis system that use glycogen when oxygen is not present. Intense exercise that lasts up to 30 seconds mainly uses creatine phosphate as an energy source and from 30 seconds and onwards the glycolysis system takes over. glycogen is mainly derived from carbohydrates and glucose. Examples of anaerobic exercises include weigth lifting, sprint and other non-endurance exercise activities.
Cardiovascular Exercise
Cardiovascular exercise refer to exercises that target the cardiovascular system. These types of exercises are mainly aerobe. Examples of cardiovascular exercises are running,cycling and swimming
Strength training
Strengt training is a form of anaerob exercise that has the goal of increasing the strength of skeletal muscles. It can be utilized for both rehabilitation and fitness purposes as well as in sports specific training. In this section follows a basic description of som of the main principles of strength training.
Strength Training Principles:
There are three fundamental elements to a successful strength training program
Overload: To experience gains in strength the muscle must be loaded more than it is accustomed to.
Progression: The active muscle must work against a gradually increasing resistance in order to meet the overload.
Specificity: Gains in strength are dependent on the muscle group used, and movement pattern performed
Gains in strength are not necessarily due to increased muscle size or cross sectional area. This is particularly true in the very first phase of starting a new strength training program.
The changes that takes place in this very first phase is mainly due to the nervous system adapting to new stimuli. The centers of the brain controlling movement learns to recruit the neural pathways of the specific movement more efficiently. As a results increased strength and load-bearing capacity is achieved . The principle of specificity particularly applies in this respect.
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