Before designing a training program you must consider Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type also known as the components of F.I.T.T.
Frequency – We should train at least 3 times a week, and need times of rest because our bodies need time to recover between sessions over the week.
Intensity – We will not improve unless we make our body systems work hard enough so that the body systems adapt.
Time – If we are trying to improve aerobic fitness levels training sessions must continue to get longer and longer.
Type – This is very important for my particular circuit, the training you do must be of a certain “type” so that it improves the right areas relevant for your particular sport.
I must also look at safety aspects when doing my training program, it is important that no injuries are picked up. Therefore it is very important to do a full warm-up and warm-down. This includes increasing our heart rate at the beginning of the training session and stretching all of our muscles even the ones that we think will not be used in the training session. Due to my circuit being performed in my garden, the surface could become dangerous, it is important to wear the correct footwear for the varying surfaces. For example on a wet, damp and soft surface screws in studs are essential.
This is a precaution, which must not be overlooked for safety reasons.
Plan:
The main theme of my training will be a circuit, which I will design and should be completed once a day. There will be set days for rest, as the body requires recovery time between sessions. At the end of each week there will be a test, which will show if any improvements have been made as a result of the weeks training. This test will also be carried out before my training program begins to show what levels I am at before I started the training.
Before each training session the muscles that are going to be worked in the session need to be stretched thoroughly. Muscles should be stretched and held for about 12 secs. The muscles that are required to be stretched are: Hamstrings
Quadriceps
Gastronomies
Triceps
Deltoids
Trapezium
The circuit that I have designed will consist of 8 stations and this circuit will be completed on 3 out of the 7 days. There will be two days, which are set as a rest days and one day in which I will do a run, which over the six-week period will improve my stamina level. The runs length will become longer and longer throughout the six weeks. This is to ensure my body continues to progress. The remaining day will be set as a test day, in which I shall test to see how much I have improved over the week.
The test will be a 12 minute cooper run, of which I shall run around a set distance as many times as possible for 12 minutes. This will be performed before I start my six-week period of training to show what my current stamina level is.
Below I will explain the different stations on my circuit.
Station 1 - This station will be a mini “pyramid run”, in which there will be 3 cones spaced over a 30-yard distance. Each positioned 10 yards from the other. First I must run to the first cone, then sprint back to the start cone, then to the second cone, then back to the start cone, then to the third cone and finally back to the start cone, the pyramid will also be run on the return journey in reverse order. This will improve your speed, agility and muscular endurance of my hamstrings, and quadriceps.
Station 2 - This station is a sit up exercise. Perform as many as you can in 2 minutes.
This will help to build a better stamina level, as well as a better muscular endurance level.
Station 3 - This exercise concentrates on a player’s chipping ability and accuracy, the hoops should be placed 5m apart. Place a ball behind the line and chip it so it bounces in the first hoop, then chip a ball so it bounces in the second hoop. Then chip it so it bounces in the third hoop; next chip it so it bounces in the second hoop, then the first hoop. After each time you attempt a chip into the hoop, you must sprint and touch that particular hoop. This ensures that the body is constantly working throughout the circuit and continuously improving stamina levels.
Station 4 - This is a shooting exercise. Place two cones 5m apart, then line up five balls 10m away from the cones and one cone 2m behind each ball. Strike the first ball then turn around and sprint around the cone and strike the next ball then turn around and sprint to round the cone etc. This will improve muscular strength and accuracy. The number of successful “goals” scored should be counted and recorded. Again the sprinting involved helps with the stamina.
Station 5 – This station consists of a series of cones being set up in grid formation, I will run consecutively around the cones, going down to my chest at each cone. I shall do this for 3 minutes.
Station 6 - The exercise on this station are burpees, burpees are squat thrusts and star jumps mixed together. Do a squat thrust then stand up and do a star jump and then another squat thrust then stand up and do another star jump. This will improve your cardiovascular endurance and strength of the quadriceps and hamstrings. I must count the number of burpees completed in 3 minutes and record this number. By performing at this station for 3 minutes it means that the body is working hard for 3 minutes and essentially overloading.
Station 7 - The exercise on this station is kick-ups. Do as many as you can in 3 minutes. This will improve ball control, and cardiovascular endurance. The highest number of kick-ups completed without losing control of the ball should be recorded as your top score for the day.
Station 8 - Place six cones 1m apart then dribble a ball in and out of them and sprint back to the start, repeat this for 3 minutes. This will improve ball skills, speed and cardiovascular endurance. Record how many complete runs are completed.
Once the circuit it finished a warm down will take place, the warm down will consist of gentle jogging and stretching to remove the lactic acid that builds up in muscles while they are being worked. The warm down should help you perform better next time you exercise. The muscles that were stretched in the warm up should also be stretched in the warm down. The stretches should be held longer then they were in the warm up to prevent stiffness and soreness.
Above is the circuit, which is to be completed on 2 of the days of the week.
Below is a table showing one week out of my six, it shows the trend of exercises that will be completed throughout the six week duration.
Equipment: 20 Cones
3 Hoops
5 Footballs
1 Measuring tape.
This is how a week will go. These will be completed for the entire 6-week program. I have made sure that I do not do the same activity for two days in a row, I have also entered a swim into the activity list, this will further help to evade tedium.
However before I start the exercise I will do the tests, which are normally completed on a Sunday, just to show what level I am currently at. The test that is to be done is:
Cooper 12 minute run
This test will show how I am doing and whether or not I am making progress in the areas that I intended to.
The Cooper run will show if my stamina level is improving. This MUST be done before my six-week period of exercise begins to show my current stamina level and will be used as a guide to show how much I am improving.
Performing:
This was the regime I intended to follow for the 6 weeks of my investigation. There were a few days in the 6-week period where the regime was not followed perfectly to plan, however for the majority of the 6-week period it was followed very closely to how it was planned. Days where the program was not followed correctly will be looked into with further detail in my evaluation. The 12-minute cooper run was completed 7 times in full, because I had to do one test before the investigation began to see what level of stamina I was at to begin with.
Below are the results for the first week of events for my circuit activities and the final weeks results of the circuit activities.
Week 1
Station 1- Pyramid run. This was completed successfully in week one, however I planned not to time this event.
Station 2- Sit-ups. I completed 67 sit-ups inside the 2-minute time allowed.
Station 3- Chipping event. This couldn’t be measured or recorded however did help with my stamina level.
Station 4- Shooting. In this week I managed to score 4 out of 5 goals.
Station 5- Grid run. Again this event couldn’t be measured however was beneficial to my stamina.
Station 6- Burpees. This week I managed to complete 108 burpees in the allowed time.
Station 7- Kick ups. My top score this week was 179.
Station 8- Dribbling. This week I completed 7 full lengths of the dribbling event.
Week 6
Station 1- This event was completed successfully, but as mentioned before wasn’t timed, however I did find the run easier and was not as tired as I was in the first week.
Station 2- I completed 74 sit-ups in the time allowed.
Station 3- Event couldn’t be measured, but helped with my stamina level.
Station 4- This week I only managed 2 out of 5 goals. This was the lowest out of all 6 weeks.
Station 5- Event couldn’t be measured but helped with my stamina level.
Station 6- This week I managed 111 burpees in the time allowed.
Station 7- This week my top score was 118.
Station 8- This week I completed 7 full lengths of the event.
The 2 weeks shown above show how my performance improved or if my performance deteriorated. I found that in events that were to do with stamina or muscular endurance, I found my performance improving as the weeks went on.
However in some events which were not entirely to do with stamina my performance varied, this can be shown in the scores for these particular events. I.E station 4 was a shooting station and I found that my results didn’t improve as the weeks went on, instead they just varied.
Diary of 6-Week Program
At the end of each week, I made a diary of how my body was feeling.
Week 1 - Tired, body aching and the rest day (Saturday) was very well deserved and welcome. It took some time for my heart rate to return to its resting rate after exercise.
Week 2 – Similar to week 1, felt very tired, and welcomed Saturday. Heart took a similar amount of time to return to its resting rate.
Week 3- I felt a little less tired at the end of the week and the training was beginning to become more of a routine. Heart rate however still took a very similar amount of time to return to rest.
Week 4- Now I felt less tired and I no longer thought of the training routine as a chore and it was becoming 2nd nature to me. I now feel a very slight change in the amount of time taken for my heart to return to its resting rate, it was becoming slightly quicker.
Week 5- I am now feeling normal the day after exercise and can notice a difference in the time taken for my heart to return to a resting rate, my heart rate does not rise as much during exercise now and I feel better.
Week 6 – Very similar all round feelings to Week 5.
Analyse
Below is a graph showing my test results over the previous 6 weeks. There are 7 scores, because the first score was taken before the training regime began. The test I carried out was completed on a Sunday evening, and I set out a grid of 20 metres by 20 metres. The test was the 12 minute cooper run, and each complete lap of my grid was 80 metres.
As you can see from my graph, overall from the first week to the seventh week there is a slight improvement. However my scores seem to be varying during the 7 week period. However I do feel that my score being so high in the final week was because I myself was much more determined to score highly in the final week.
Below is a line graph to show how my performance increased or decreased as the 7 week period went on.
Evaluation
As mentioned above in my analysis I feel that I have made an improvement overall in both my performance and fitness level, which is what I set out to do. The improvement can be seen in my graph, which shows that my test scores at the end of each week improve from the opening week to the final week. However there were slight variations in between. I also feel that my training plan should have been spread over a longer period of time, ideally 9-11 weeks, this would give a much better reflection as to improvements that I make. However in this case it was not practical to do the training program for so long.
It can be seen on my graph that from week 1 to week 2, my test score decreased, this could have been due to me missing 1 day In this the opening week, because of me taking a day trip away, I missed one of the training days, this might have been the reason that my score decreased slightly on this occasion. Also on the Thursday of week 1, after doing my swim I felt a severe cramp as I got out of the pool, I thought that I had fully recovered from this, however felt a strain in my calf, the following day and a very slight strain was still there on the day of the cooper run test.
However for the majority of my training program an improvement can be seen, also for the majority, the improvement can be seen on a week-to-week basis. I think this is because my body becomes used to the exercise it is being put through and copes better with the exercise, I felt less fatigued after the sessions as the weeks went on, this is also a sign of a better fitness level. I thought that my training plan was set up very well overall, because there wasn’t a single occasion were I felt the activities became tedious, had the activities become tedious it would certainly have affected performance.
After the first few days after starting my training plan, I felt very tired, and certain muscles were aching, however it was an unusual positive feeling, and although it was a very tired feeling it actually felt good. Gradually as the weeks went on I felt less and less tired after each session, and toward the end of the 6th week I was beginning to not feel very tired at all, had I done the plan for longer it would have been at this stage where I no longer felt tired, I introduced something to progress the program, either make the runs longer, or the swimming sessions longer, or just something which was a bit more demanding because in order to improve you must continue to overload your body.
My program was designed specifically for cardiovascular endurance or stamina and all the events included are included because they deal with cardiovascular endurance and improve it! This is very important, when designing a training program it is important that all the components included within it are specific to your particular sport or the particular thing you wish to improve.
The next thing was that you must continue to progress in a training program! After a certain time of the same amount of training your body will become used to that amount of training and able to cope with it, there for you should make sure that if you get to this stage, you increase the work load so you continue to improve. In my investigation, I never reached this stage, due to my training plan only lasting 6 weeks, had it been for longer, I would have been forced to increase the work load of things in order to keep on progressing.
Leading on from “progression” is overload, which means that you must keep overloading your body in order to improve. So when your body becomes used to a certain distance run, you should increase the distance to overload your body. Again due to the program only lasting 6 weeks, there was no need for me to employ this into my program, but had the program lasted longer, I would have needed to increase running distances, swimming distances and repetitions in order to continue to overload my body.
I had to be careful of reversibility, when doing my training plan, reversibility is when you reach a certain point and no longer improve when this point is reached the body is no longer improving and the training program becomes useless! It is at this stage you should use “progression” and “overload”. However as mentioned before my training plan didn’t last long enough for this to have effect.
The final element I had to look at when planning and performing my training plan was tedium! At first my program was:
Which has 2 circuits training sessions to begin the week, which could become tedious, especially being one day after another!
So I altered my training program slightly, to get rid of any tedium that could affect my performance, when taking part in the training program. It was altered and then looked like this:
Now this training program doesn’t have the same exercise for 2 consecutive days. Thus reducing any effects of tedium that might have affected my performance.
Also when I was actually performing my program I made sure that I took different routes on my run each week. I changed the route but kept the amount of time the same!
My improvement was clear to see, my pre-test score for the cooper run was 2480 metres and my final score was 2880 metres. Thus giving a clear indication that some improvement was made. The improvement would have been clearer to see had the training program been over a longer period of time, for example 10 weeks.
Overall I felt that my Training program was a success and I also enjoyed carrying it out, and truly believe it has improved my fitness level! At first I felt, it was rather difficult and I found it tough to get into the routine of the training program, but I stuck at it, and after a week it became second nature to me, and I had no problems with doing the exercise that was set for that particular day!
The only thing that I’d change given the chance to do my training program again would be to extend the length of the training program! I would increase it from 6 weeks to 10 weeks this would give clearer indication of the improvements made and also allow me to introduce “progression” and “overload”.
Also if I had only dealt with improving my stamina level, the results would have been clearer and more of an improvement would have been made. However tedium would have played a bigger part, for there are fewer activities that I would have been able to take part in. This would result in me feeling bored and unmotivated, results would be hindered.
My body didn’t change very much anatomically due to the fact I already participate in a lot of sporting activity during the week, so my muscles, tendons and ligaments would not have become any larger. Perhaps if the program was to be done over a series of 2 months, I would have noticed a change in the strength of muscles, tendons and ligaments.
So the main change I would adopt given the opportunity to carry out this program again would be to lengthen the time period it was conducted over. I believe it should have been 12 weeks, this amount of time would give a much clearer indication of any improvements and would have allowed me to see improvements that were made anatomically!
