Stretching exercises should be done carefully to reduce the risk of injury to the muscles or joints. A warm-up is the key to unlocking tight muscles, which is the cause of injury, therefore a warm-up is mandatory before any stretching of the muscles.
I personally prefer to stretch from the top of my body then townwards:
Neck
Turning my head to the right and hold this position for five seconds (repeat for the left). Looking up as far as possible and hold this position for five seconds (repeat for downwards).
Tilting my head to the right and hold this position for five seconds (repeat for left)
Shoulders
Shrug my shoulders up and then down.
Raise my elbows to help the shoulders to go higher.
Then shrug my shoulders in a circle - clockwise, and then anti-clockwise. Repeating each movement for roughly ten times.
Triceps
Put one of my hands over my head, reaching towards the ceiling.then bending that arm at the elbow, bringing my hand behind your neck.
I will use the other hand to push down on the elbow of my first arm, pressing that elbow towards the floor.
I will hold this stretch for ten seconds and repeat for the other arm.
Hips
I will stand with both feet firmly on the floor
Rotateing my hips in a circle – clockwise, and then anti-clockwise. Repeating each movement for roughly ten times.
Groins
Firstly I will sit on the floor with my feet together, bringing them close to my pelvis. Then grasping my knees with my hands, I’ll push them knees towards the floor slowly, trying to get them as close as possible to the floor.
I will hold the stretch for ten seconds.
Hamstrings
Whilst standing, I will lock my legs and extend my arms overhead, clasping my hands. Keeping my legs straight, I must bend over to try and touch feet
Hold for ten seconds
Then I’ll spread my legs, and grasp either the right or left leg.
Bring my torso towards the chosen leg, holding the stretch for ten seconds - repeat for the other leg.
Quadriceps
Standing upwards, I will balance on one foot with the other leg held straight.
Reach behind myself to grasp my ankle with the oposite hand.
Pull gently upwards on my ankle.
Hold this stretch for ten seconds, and repeat for the other leg.
Calfs
Face a wall and place my hands on it at about shoulder height.
Keep one leg pointed diagonally straight, and the other pointed vertically downwards but bent at the knee
Pressing my heel of the back leg downwards to the floor
Stretching each calf for ten seconds.
Ankles
Stand up straight while lifting one leg in the air, foot off the floor
Rotating the ankle at the joint in a circle - clockwise, and then anti-clockwise. Repeating each movement for roughly ten times.
Before starting my first session I will do a test run. This will enable me to find any possible faults in my planning, allowing me to improve my sessions, so, I will finish my training with an improved cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance.
Appropriateness of chosen exercises:
In total I have six different exercises to make my sessions challenging but certainly bearable.
BURPEES: I included this exercise in my programme in order to improve upon my all round stamina, cardio-respiratory fitness and accuracy if I choose to try and reach a mark on the wall while jumping and stretching upwards. I will be working for a short period of time, which will increase further into my programme, at a high intensity, improving my anaerobic fitness - a great benefit in a football game situation towards the end of a game, as my muscles will be able to tolerate lactic acid more efficiently
SKIPPING: This will (alike the Burpees - in short intense periods of time), improve my muscular endurance in my legs, stamina, cardio-respiratory fitness and anaerobically I should also improve. The same applies to me being able to more suitably tolerate lactic acid. There maybe on complication for me to increase the intensity, by swinging the rope faster, in the later sessions if the amount of exercise is to hard I may think it is mentally to difficult.
I have made my circuit relevant to me and my sport because in football as I play a defender it’s essential that you have good strength, stamina, flexibility, agility and great reaction speed; not to mention footballing awareness and skills – other areas of fitness help aswell.
In the circuit, dorsal raises will improve flexibility which will be used in a football match to stretch for the ball in various situations, sliding tackles and defensive headers. I will bench press 20kg as it is a weight that I can comfortably lift put is not considered easy, along with press ups which are in my circuit to help build my upper body strength which is mandatory for a centre back and even more so for my present physique. Sit ups will improve my stamina and better looking stomach muscles so I can play to my full potential for a longer without getting tired.
As I play a lot of sport, not to mention refereeing, I do regard myself as a fit and healthy person who relies on more than one time of specific fitness. Which is a main reason why circuit training is the type of session I’ve chosen, as I have to perform six different exercises that range from muscular endurance to shear strength; allowing me to basically improve my all round fitness and is most defiantly appropriate.
Use of principles of training:
I will be basing my ‘PEP’ on the FITT principal; frequency, intention, time and type. This allows me to gradually overload each area of my training in each session, to improve my muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness.
My fitness-training regime will last for 5 sessions; the first for 15 minutes long and the last for 21 minutes. In these sessions I will need to increase the intensity and the length of training as each sessions go on. This is significant as without working harder for a longer period of time I will not making any reasonable progress. It is physiologically essential that I begin my first session at the right intensity so I am able to do my best in the remaining sessions to achieve accurate results, as otherwise I may want to give up and not put as much effort in, as I would feel that the programme is to demanding. Physically aswell, muscles could be torn or strained or even far more serious injuries.
From my fitness test result I know I will be able to cope with at least 30 seconds to start off with at each station. To see if this pushes me at the 6 stations I will have a trial run to see whether my programme is to hard to consistently perform. If I feel the workout is too easy after 3 rotations then I can extend the time at each station, so that it is more difficult but still manageable.
I will use overload by increasing the amount of time I spend on each exercise every other session, this will allow me to physically adapt each time, ensuring I don’t cause any soft tissue injuries whilst raising the intensity and receiving better results. By using this technique I will be able to steadily progress my fitness, as the session before the duration is improved should feel easier, showing a clear indication that I am physically improving and the next session must be slightly harder. I have granted myself a 10 second rest period between each station but this includes traveling from each exercise, so each workout will be rather intense. After each phase I will have just one minute of resting time, which will be after skipping – three extra minutes a session in total
Monitoring
Before my circuit session I complete a gentle jog for 5 minutes to begin my basic warm up. I then lightly stretch to avoid any form of injury. Following with another jog for 5 minutes then stretching once again, all the areas of the body described earlier at a higher intensity.
For an exercise circuit a warm up should include a pulse raiser, usually a jog, lasting about 5 minutes and then stretch out all the muscles in your body that are going to be working as this will save you from severe injuries.
The results: I found that my fitness had gradually improved through-out the entire programme. I feel that this is surely evident as after each time period, before it had increased a further 10 seconds, the amount of exercises I had performed were generally higher. Although, this particular programme does not show a defiant overview in which I can prove that my fitness has improved, as the for the time in which I trained from the beginning was shorter than the last session – 6 minutes different (20 seconds added on in each exercise)
I now feel marginally fitter as I appear to run for longer in football training without getting tired, or reach any stage near the signs of fatigue. I therefore personally believe my fitness has improved from this training programme.
Evaluation
Evaluation of the planning of the programme:
I feel that when planning my circuit training program, I included the basic elements of the various specific fitness’s which I felt I needed to improve; making my plan considerably consistent and accurate to my sport of football. But more importantly I feel I have achieved what I was able to do in my circuit at the end.
I did stick to all my plans and recommendations during my circuit, so I was sure that no injury would occur when doing it.
I feel the intensity of my programme was slightly too high at the first couple of sessions, as I was simply un-prepared for the tough workout. But the more sessions I completed the more mentally prepared I was, and towards the latter sessions I felt more physically developed as I wasn’t as tired at the last station in my sessions. I therefore think that the resting period between each station could have been increased slightly to maybe 5 seconds extra, just so I could have recovered and got my breath back suitably, I should have thus decreased the amount overload I used. But I feel my training progression was to the right level, even though an improvement was hard to see. Moreover, for the first session I feel a 20 second resting period between each station would have been necessary and still allow me to obtain an effective amount out of the session.
I do not think that the order I placed all of the stations in were the correct position. Firstly, by placing ‘dorsal raises’ which is an exercise that doesn’t raise your heart/energy level considerably at the beginning of the session, just after my warm-up, appeared to lower my heart rate slightly making my body seem less prepared.
Finally, I think that placing the ‘burpees’ station straight after bench pressing 20kg was a strain on my arms, biceps and triceps in particular. If another type of exercise was placed between the two, preferably ‘sit ups’, then my muscles could have recovered which would have improved my performance.
Evaluation of performing the programme:
The purpose of my personal exercise programme was to mainly improve my muscular endurance and cardio-vascular fitness. I feel that from every station I performed, 90 in total, I improved in these areas of fitness significantly. But intentionally, I also expected to improve my arm strength, as initially before the programmes I was lacking in being a physical force. This is why I added three stations which are based on using my arm muscles, but they also improved my general fitness. Consequently, every station supplemented to my overall fitness as I worked at a high intensity on them to achieve the highest score possible.
The only aspect I found distinguishably difficult was the area in which I performed my circuit training. As some of the exercises required a softer surface, like ‘dorsal raises’, I could not train in my garage on concrete. This opposed a problem as my bench and weight rack where in the garage, so I had to quickly move from there to the grass area in my garden, just to prevent me from sustaining any injuries.
The training fitted into my life – after school. My longest session only lasted for just over 20 minutes so it didn’t exactly take up any of my free/leisure time. This acted as a stimulating daily routine for me, as I could work off any stress that I had gained from a long day at school. I therefore found it easy to motivate myself and thoroughly enjoyed each of the sessions.
Evaluation of the monitoring of the programme:
I felt that there was only one necessary change to make during performing my programme, and that was to elongate the resting period between each station. This was because I found that my results where slightly higher and it didn’t seem as difficult or intense during the next station - after I had a longer break of only 5 additional seconds.
I have noticed that my resting heart rate is now averaging 65bpm which is a decrease of 3bpm before the training programme; highlighting a defiant increase in my overall fitness. I had fully expected to feel in a better physical state after my training programme but I thought, towards the latter stages of each session, that I would tire a maybe reach fatigue; but instead, my results show that I had kept a steady performance through-out the entire sessions.
Final evaluation/appraisal of the programme:
After completing my 6 week personal exercise programme I have notice to my surprise that my recovery rate has decreased, this is due to me exercising regularly at an intense level that is bearable. I have also noticed that I am working well within my target zone.
My cardiovascular fitness has increased in what I fell the most, as my resting heart rate is now averaging 65bpm.
I now feel physically fitter and stronger, so I can now challenge the tall centre-forwards and win the ball of them; I have found it somewhat easier to shield the ball from going out for a goal kick, as my upper body strength has considerably improved. I now feel more confident in my ability which has added an extra expectation to my game. I now feel I can travel from ‘the back of the field’ to further ‘up the park’ and then travel quickly back to my position; as I feel my cardio-vascular fitness has improved to my delight, and benefits me in just about every sport.
I am happy to see that my fitness has improved over the 6 week programme as it proves that it is a successful plan.