Exercise Training and Techniques

Exercise & Training Techniques

Introduction

Research states that exercise plays an important role in a healthy lifestyle, allowing a daily energy expenditure in humans today. The reason being that individuals are less active both at work and at home compared to earlier days, and because today’s environment makes it easy for individuals to be inactive.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and American Heart Association (AHA), it is recommended that a person do 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity weekly. The duration should be at least 10 minutes or more per session.

 

 

 

 

3 MAIN BENEFITS OF EXERCISE

1.    Controls Weight

Excess calories are stored in the body as fat and this fat can be used as an energy source for the body. When you exercise, the body utilizes the stored fat, thus burning It out and allowing the individual to lose/ control their weight.

2.    Improves Mood

When you exercise, chemicals such as endorphins are released from the brain throughout the body. This chemical improves your mood and allows you to feel relaxed and reduces anxiety and depression.

3.    Combats Health Conditions and Diseases

Exercise can help manage and improve one’s health. It enables us to fight off diseases and strengthen our body systems and organs. Exercise can prevent or improve chronic conditions such as:

•          Heart diseases

•          High blood pressure

•          Stroke 

•          Diabetes

•          Arthritis

The Importance of Having a Training / Exercise Schedule

 An exercise plan is essentially a sketch or an outline that precisely pinpoints a series of actions an individual will need to take to reach their desired target or goal. Research has shown that goal setting greatly increases the chances of adherence and the achievement of outcomes.

Advantages:

·      Provides you with structure                            

·      Helps you achieve consistency

·      Ensures balanced workouts

·      Encourages commitment

·      Promotes progress tracking 

·      Prevents under or over training

·      Encourages incorporation of rest days. (Rest days are essential and give the muscles time to recover from physical activity.)

The Importance of Warm-ups 

Warm-ups are a preparation for physical activity, it helps prepare your body and mind to face the task ahead. Warm-ups help increase preparedness which is a psychological benefit of warming up. Warm-ups are also important because it helps prevent injuries and it also help with coordination.

Training Techniques 

There are different methods of training in exercise and physical activity. When applying these training techniques, they should be specific to the individual’s sport or goals. Examples of training techniques are resistance training, plyometric training, circuit training and Fartlek training.

RESISTANCE TRAINING 

Resistance training deals with individuals pushing against an external weight in order to improve power, strength or muscular endurance. The area of fitness developed is determined by resistance, sets performed and repetition. Resistance training can be carried out by using barbells, dumbbells, kettle bells resistance bands and even body weight. Intensity of weight training can be measured against the individual’s 1RM (one Repetition Maximum). One repetition maximum or 1RM deals with the amount of weight an individual can push for just one repetition. 

•          To develop power and strength you should do 3-5 sets of 3-5 repetitions at 85-95% of your 1RM

•          To develop muscular endurance you should do 2-3 sets of 15-20 repetitions at approximately 60% of your 1RM.

•          To develop muscular hypertrophy a person should perform 3-5 sets of 8-12 repetitions at 70- 80% of their 1RM.

CIRCUIT TRAINING

 Circuit training entails a wide variety of exercises at stations, being executed one after the other. Commonly circuit training involves 8 – 10 stations performed for a specific time or a certain number of repetitions.  When doing Circuit training one should be mindful to incorporate exercises that work all the different muscle groups in the body. Circuit training is time efficient; it can improve your cardiovascular and respiratory fitness and it can be done anywhere using dumbbell weights, resistance band or just your body weight.

PLYOMETRIC TRAINING 

Plyometric training has to do with explosive athletic movements to improve force production, strength and speed. It commonly involves hopping, jumping and bounding exercises with or without the use of weighted vests, medicine balls and box work. When participating in plyometric exercises keep in mind the surface that you are training on as well as the shoes being worn during exercise. When doing these types of explosive movements, training surface can either increase or decrease the load being placed on your joints. Plyometric exercises are very challenging and are usually completed 3-5 sets of 3-5 repetitions. 

INTERVAL TRAINING

This type of training method incorporates periods of effort or exercise followed by periods of rest, work to rest ratio is really dependent on your intended outcome. It is highly effective at improving recovery times, muscular endurance, speed and cardiovascular fitness. An example of this would be sprinting for 1min and resting for 45 with the intended outcome of improving recovery time.

FARTLEK TRAINING 

This is a Swedish word that means speed play and it is a form of continuous training where the activity that is being given places stress on both the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems in your body. This may involve phases of jogging and running. This training is very useful in improving Lactate threshold (amount of lactic acid you can tolerate), cardiovascular fitness, recovery times, and speed. This is one of the most demanding training methods due to its high intensities.

In conclusion, we can all agree that physical fitness contributes to a healthy body and a strong mind. With all the information presented, you can now understand why exercising should be of significant importance to you and the impact it can have on your life. Various combinations of activities allow you to meet the demands of your body. Increased physical fitness allows you to develop and become a better version of yourself.

Look out for more information on Exercise and Training Techniques to come. See you soon!