Principles of training
S
For any of the above exercises to be effective they have to be SPECIFIC to my sport and have to relate to my aims and objectives. With my training I must
exercise the muscles as I would and at the same intensity of which I would use them in a game situation.
P Each will week I should be finding it easier because I will have PROGRESSED and have slightly higher threshold than that that I will have started with. To avoid injury with progression I will need to overload my system slowly and not suddenly so that it can get used to the increased demands put on it. E.g. I mustn’t start with a really heavy weight as I could damage muscles. I need to build up to it gradually.
O Following on from progression I will need to OVERLOAD my system I need to push my self beyond what I would normally do so that I gain the higher threshold that I am aiming towards. This means applying more repetitions or lifting a heavier weight. Once I have overloaded my system I will achieve progression. I will overload my self each week by adding 10 seconds on to the time that I perform my exercise for. This will help me progress.
R Once I have completed all of the sessions I will need to make sure that I keep exercising all of these muscle groups so that REVERSIBILITY doesn’t take place, and I begin to loose what I have gained.
T Near the end of the circuits I will begin to become bored and TEDIUM will set in as it will have been the same for many weeks. I am looking for my partner to help motivate me as I will to them. If needed.
I already have a good standard of fitness as I play rugby most weekends. This is an 80 minute match on a Sunday and 2 to 2-1/2 hours of training on a Wednesday evening. This usually involves sprint training, agility, endurance and coordination skills, depending on what time of year it is. If it is closed season I wont be playing, this is between May and July, plus skills every week. If there is no match at the weekend I also train for 2 to 2-1/2 hours on a Sunday as this requires specific fitness skills I am specifically fit to play rugby as well as carry out day to day activities. I am also in the school rugby team and we train 1 or 2 times a week for 30-40 minutes plus 1 maybe 2 matches a week. I also run 400m in the summer in athletics but have not started to train for it yet. I do 2 hours of practical P.E a week. I run once a week about 4-5km this includes two steep hills. I also play on my drum kit for about an hour every other night. A month from when I begin my circuits I spent 2 weeks walking 15-23km a day. This may have improved my fitness aerobically but lost some of my glycotyic fast twitch fibres. This should have little effect other than I will be starting my circuit with a higher threshold than expected.
To measure my fitness I am going to perform a number of test before I begin. These will be:
Bleep test. A shuttle run of a bout 20m and as you run you have to get to each end on a beep, the longer you run for the shorter the time becomes between each beep. This is to measure my VO2 max, the amount of oxygen that I can take in when working aerobically, it will be a measure of my cardio vascular endurance
Resting heart rate this would be important for anything as the lower that my heart rate is i.e. less beats per minute, the fitter I am because the heart can pump much more oxygen round in one pump other than a not so fit person who wouldn’t be capable of pumping as much O2 round in one beat.
Recovery rate equally your recovery rate, the time it takes your heartbeat to return to rest, also determines your fitness. This test will need to be performed straight after each session to see if it has improved. This also links in with my resting heart rate.
Maximum strength I could use the hand grip dynamometer test, but this would only show my strength in my hand. So I will perform a one rep max test, where I start by lifting a low kg weight and every time I lift I will add another 5kg until I reach the max weight I can lift. I’ll have a 2-3 min break between each lift.
Abdominal curl test this test measures the endurance of my abdominal muscles. I have to see how many curls, going from flat on my back to upright, I can achieve, with light pressure on my feet, in 30 seconds. This will test my muscular endurance
Training zones
There are many aspects of fitness in rugby; this is because it requires a certain level of skill to play. You need to be quick, agile have good reaction time good muscular power and stamina.
Agility is crucial for a back in rugby as it is the ability to quickly change direction it also helps for back row forwards.
Strength is also needed in every part of my body so you can overcome other players in a ruck or maul, as it is the force that my muscles exert to overcome the resistance of the other players. Upper body strength will be used in tackling and I feel that I need to improve it.
Stamina is required so I can last for the full length of the game.
Rugby requires the use of every main muscle group that I have mentioned I am going to train these specifically to rugby so I can improve.
Station one station thirteen station twelve
Weights and stretches ladders
Mats
Station six Station eleven. Pull-ups
Station two shuttle run
2x benches
with mats
Station ten
Rest
Station three
Skipping ropes Station nine
stretches
Station eight
2x mats and
Benches
Station four
2x benches
Station seven
Mats
Station five
Rest
Station 1 – bicep curls 30 sec each arm
Station 2 – step ups 70 sec
Station 3 – skipping for 70 sec
Station 4 – dips using two benches 30 sec
Station 5 - rest
Station 6 – shuttle run 30 sec
Station 7 – sit ups 30 sec
Station 8 – press ups feet on bench
Station 9 – stretches
Station 10 – pull ups for 70 sec
Station 11 – Iggy shuffle up alternate high knees back
Station 12 – stretches
This first circuit seemed hard as I had never performed this set of exercises as quickly before. However I had nothing to compare it with. I found that I was eager to do my best and perform to my maximum. I think that I paced my self well as I didn’t really know how I should have and in most cases I found that the second set of repetitions was lower than that of the first, this was due to fatigue. This was normal because, as I have said, I have never performed this type of exercises before. At the end of the two circuits I felt extremely tired. I felt I had a high output of energy. The outside temperature was in the mid twenties and so I may have felt a bit more relaxed.
Table of my recovering heart rate:-
The second week felt much easier despite the fact I had I much higher rep count. I had more motivation from my partner and I feel that this encouraged me to perform better.
I also was more prepared for the circuit and knew what to expect. This encouraged me to perform differently e.g. conserving energy much more efficiently. The rep count on my fist station was lower than on the first week I didn’t improve on this. However this was the only station that I did not increase on. The weather was as hot as it was last week
Previous to this week on the day before I had played a rugby match this may have slightly hindered my performance, as my anaerobic system would still be recovering. My muscles still felt fatigue from the match and so my results were slightly affected. It was a bit cooler than the previous week
Prior to this week’s circuit I had pulled a back muscle and this contributed to a much harder output from me. It hasn’t appeared to have made a difference to my results. I felt I tried harder this week to compensate for my back and thus showing a better performance. It was only stations such as sit up and dips that my performance was worse this is because they were where I used my latissimus dorsi.
The weather had begun to cool down and it felt easier to perform.
This week had a considerable lack of motivation, not because of my partner, because I didn’t have one and there was only 9 people performing the tasks. This is because I had missed a week because of illness. So I had to carry out the circuit on a lunch time with little motivation and no one pushing me on.
Evaluation
My pre test scores show that I had a relatively high VO2 max and that I achieved a level ten dead on the bleep test. In my max rep test I lifted 37 kg bicep curling static weight. I had relatively strong arm muscles before the circuits. To increase this strength I had to overload my system with extra weights for station which required me to improve my upper body strength. For the stations that I had to improve my muscular and cardio vascular endurance I simply increased the time each week by 10 seconds, this is progression therefore increasing my strength and VO2 max as the post test scores show. Allowing overload I also rested each muscle group e.g. each exercise following the previous did not work on the same muscle group so after bicep curls I acted upon my muscular endurance by performing step ups. This allowed me to progress but not push my muscles to the point of fatigue.
Taking into account that I need to improve my upper body strength stations such as pull ups, bicep curls, sit up, dips and push ups will work on upper body whereas skipping and running will improve my cardiovascular endurance. Performances such as step ups and ladder drills and sit ups will improve muscular endurance. My circuit was easy to set up because it required the equipment that was already there and I had no extra equipment to obtain because it was all there. I did make one change to the circuit and that was only removing an exercise because at the time I felt that s.a.q hurdles wouldn’t have benefited me, now I feel that it would have worked on my cardio vascular endurance.
Recording my progress was simple because it only required me to write down the time next to the reps. I had to push my self harder each week because the time increased each week. Pushing my self required motivation, which I had from my partner, so after most sessions my muscles felt fatigued, however after the last circuit due to the fact that I had little motivation I didn’t work hard enough and so did not feel muscular fatigue. The first session left my muscles feeling more fatigued than after the other sessions. As the sessions went on I felt little different after each circuit because I was increasing the time. The bleep test shows that I did increase my VO2 max by quite a lot. Increasing the level from level 10 to 11.9 I feel that this was partly due to the circuit and the fact that I ran the first test on a Friday at the end of the day whereas I redid the test on a Tuesday morning. I increased my max rep test by 10kg so I was able to lift 47kg. I achieved 7 more sit ups taking my total to 43
These tests show that I progressed due to the circuits. If I carry on with some sort of circuit after I finish I will not loose what I have gained. However if I do nothing, reversibility will come into play and I will lose what I have gained. To continue this I will carry on with regular runs and will still be playing rugby. Shortly after I performed my circuits I had a knee injury which put me out of playing any sport or running for 3 months so the increase in Vo2 or endurance was partly wasted. Muscular atrophy is the wastage of the muscles and this occurred in my left leg because it was unable to bend so I could not exercise it. I continued to work on my upper body strength so I still have what I had gained.
With hindsight I would have changed my circuit by adding in where I had a rest station, using the s.a.q hurdles, I felt that it was important to have at least one rest station so that my muscles could rest ready for the shuttle run. Here it was important for me to keep my muscles warm otherwise they would have began to cool down and fill with lactic acid, I would have been more likely to damage them. So station 5 could have been a stretch station. I feel that only one rest/stretch station was necessary and at the other I would have included some sort of boxing bag and repeatedly punched it for 2 minutes every circuit. This would have helped my cardio and muscular endurance massively.
