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Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Improving Your Training Plan
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are several principles to training that we must learn as professional fitness trainers. Today, I’m going to share those principles that apply to those of us I like to call ‘fitness enthusiasts. I won’t saturate you with every little detail, but I do hope that you find something useful and applicable to your situation.
- The Principle of Individual Differences
Each of us is different and we respond to exercise in different ways. Your training program should take a couple of key things into consideration
· Women generally need more recovery time than men · Older athletes generally need more recovery time than younger athletes · Large muscles heal slower than smaller muscles
- The Principle of Overload
What this means is that in order for training adaptation (change in your bodies makeup) to take place, a greater than normal stress or load must be placed on the body.
- The Principle of Progression
There is an optimal level of overload that should be achieved and an optimal timeframe for this overload to occur. Overload should not occur too slowly or too rapidly. Too slowly negates improvement and too rapidly increases the chances for injury or muscle damage.
- The Principle of Adaptation
Your body can and will remember activities, movements or skills. Adaptation means the body adapts to the stress placed upon it and the skill becomes easier to perform. At the time that the body adapts, you must learn to push a little harder
- The Principle of Use/Dissuse
“Use it or lose it”. It really is that simple. Your muscles grow with use or shrink with disuse.
- The Principle of Specificity.
To become better at something, you must do that thing. Runners run, cyclists ride. Your training must go from general training to hightly specific training.
These are the principles we use to push ourselves to the next level. Good Luck and Great Training
