P= this is where things our introduced bit by bit so that the body can adapt to the changes. This is very important in order to avoid overload. If to much overload is introduced at one time the body will not cope. You are likely to pick up an injury or be so fatigued you will not be able to perform to your best ability. So basically introduce things one step at a time, as the body adjusts increase the demands. This way you will not injure your self. Another factor you must be aware of is plateauing. This is where you reach a certain level but seem not to be able to move on. This is very common and likely to happen and when it does you will need to be mentally strong to pass through. Don’t worry though if you keep training you will eventually pass through and you will improve.
O= Overload is where you push the body harder in order to improve it. You will have a capacity which is the normal level of which you train to. How to expand this capacity? To expand the capacity you must extend your work load. You can do this in many ways.
One of these ways is frequency, if you train more frequently, for example, you may only train twice a week to start with. Then this could be increased to every other day and then five days a week. Most pro athletes train on at least one aspect of their fitness every day. However although having training sessions every day is good, it is not advisable to have more than one training session a day. If you do this your muscles will become very fatigued.
Intensity, to increase your intensity all you have to do is work harder at training, for example if you are a striker you may want to decrease the size of the goal to improve your accuracy. Or you may want to increase your heart rate to a higher level to increase your endurance.
Duration, this could be linked to the amount of time your training sessions last, for example instead of training for one hour you train for two. Or this could be related to the length of time you exercise for, an example of this is instead of running 1500m you run 2000m.
By doing all or some of these things your body should respond to the overload by adapting to it and there for improving your performance.
R= Reversibility, easy come easy go, unfortunately that’s not the case, its more like difficult to get but easily lost. Just as progression can lead to improvement, if you stop or suspend your training programme you will to a certain extent lose what you have worked so hard to gain. All the good you have done will be lost, unfortunately sometimes this cant be helped. It is very common to pick up an injury or become ill. If either of these things happen it is unavoidable, and the inevitable will happen. An example of reversibility is when some one breaks a leg. The leg is put in cast so it cannot move, this prevents the muscles from being able to move properly. This means the muscles which are not used will quickly atrophy, so strength is lost.
Where in the season
This programme is a pre-season training programme. It is designed to build up my stamina and skill before the badminton season starts. Then I will be at my peak performance.
Circuit Explanation
- Stretching and gentle jogging on the spot, the point of this activity is to warm up your muscles. There is no measurement that has to be taken.
- Sit-ups with feet under the wall bars, this exercise works out the abdominal muscles. Record how many you can do within a minute.
- Press-ups, this exercise works out the pectoral muscles. Again record the amount of press-ups you do in a minute.
- Shuttle runs, the exercise help your stamina and speed. The aim of this station is to see how many times you can run up and down within a one minute timed period.
- Rope climb, the aim of this station is to see how far up the rope you can manage to reach, or if this is to easy how fast you can reach the top. This station works out most of the body but mainly the biceps and calves.
- Wall bars, on the wall bars you will perform chin-ups. These use your biceps the aim is to see how many you can perform in one minute.
- Skipping, this is a very strenuous activity and will take its toll the aim of this station is to see how many skips you can do in one minute. This will work out your quadriceps and hamstrings.
- Step ups, these will exercise your calf muscles, the aim of this station is to see how many you can do in one minute.
- Stretching and gentle jogging on the spot again to warm down. The point of this is to relax your muscles to reduce the risk of straining them.
Circuit records
Sit ups
Press-ups
Shuttle runs
Chin ups
Skipping
Step ups
Circuit Results in graph format
Beep test results
1st go= 10.2
2nd go= 13.1
Flexibility results
1st go= 60cm
2nd go= 62cm
Conclusion of results
Most of my results I was pleased with, as the all gradually increase and some even peak off meaning I have reached a benchmark. However there are a few dodgy results in the skipping and press-ups. These can be put down to a few things, fatigue, injury and motivation. If I were not fatigued, injured or motivated then these would not have occurred.
Overall the bleep test proves that the circuit as a whole has made me fitter. However the circuit I set out did not do much to improve my flexibility.
Warming up!
- First of all you need to start of with a light jog to loosen/warm up your muscles. Start off at half pace and run from one end of the room to the other, on the way back speed it up to about 3/4 pace.
- Next side step facing the left up and then facing the right when you come back.
- Now begin to gently roll back your arms in a circular motion, ten times one way and then reverse it to ten times the other way. This will loosen up your arm muscles.
- Now you are ready to begin stretching, it is advisable to start at the bottom and work you way up. So start by Calfs, hamstrings, quads, hips, adductor and gluteals. All stretches to be held for 15 seconds
- Again jog to the top of the room this time flicking your heels to your bum on the way there, and lifting your knees on the way back.
Once again hold stretches for 15 seconds.
Flexibility test
How to perform the flexibility test!
The first thing you need to do is gather all the equipment you will need;
- 1 meter ruler
- Pen
- Paper
- Baton
Now you are ready to begin, you will need to find a flat clean surface to perform this exercise. Once you have done this stand the ruler meter on end as in diagram below. Next lie on your front with chin on the ground. Lift up your arms as far as you can while your partner measures how far you got (make sure your arms are shoulder length apart when performing this exercise) For safety reasons take it in turns with your partner so as not to strain your muscles.
You should record your results in a table, this way you can easily see if you improve and how you compared with others. It would be wise to have a male and female column also because females are more likely too score higher.
The more times you try this, the better your results should become. This is due to – rest period, practise and warm up. Also if you do it in peer groups you are likely to score higher because you’ll try harder to impress your mates.
Evaluation
For my pre-test scores I believe that I chose the right test, I chose the bleep test to measure my endurance, as this is extremely important when playing badminton. I also did the flexibility test to measure my flexibility, this is also a vital attribute for being successful at badminton.
If I were to plan another circuit I would take the tests before I planned the circuit then I would be able to really focus in on the areas that need improving the most. I would also measure my average amount of sit-ups, press-ups and so on so that I could show the principals of overload training.
I only preformed my circuit once a week this was not terribly effective, in order to have more effect I would do it 3 or 4 times a week next time. I think the intensity was correct as I pushed my self as hard as I could every time, although if I was planning the circuit again I would make sure that each exercise lasted at least two minutes as this would help improve my muscular endurance.
The layout of my circuit was pretty much perfect, I planned it so that each exercise worked different muscles this was helpful as it gave each set of muscles a chance to relax, so that they were not fatigued and could perform to the best of there ability.
My circuit did not really adapt to overload training as I did not know what my average limit was, if I was to do it again I would test myself before setting times and targets. Although my training did not adapt to overload it measured progression quite well, as you can see from the results in my results table.
The manageability of my circuit was quite good, I was able to do my training at home without much space required at all.
One problem with my circuit was it was lacking in enjoyment, although I found a few ways to slightly improve this. One way I found that greatly helped was to do it with my friends as you had company. However people were not always available so my idea was music. This might not sound very interesting but it actually gets you in the mood and is able to motivate you, providing you are listening to the right kind of music.
