In any circuit you must equally space out your activities. This means you should never have two activities that work the same muscle in a row, spacing out leg, arm and abdominal exercises. Doing this:
- Prevents fatigue or injury in any muscle group through overworking it.
- It allows the certain groups of muscle time to recover, rather than working them to the extent.
- It also makes the circuit a lot more variable, easier to analyse and it becomes a lot more interesting.
Circuits also should involve a short time for recovery because the training then becomes more effective and the fluids (water…) can be taken.
The size of the circuit affects the decision on how much rest time should be employed. On a circuit with a lot of stations, say 20, you may want to have a rest after every circuit, but on a circuit of much smaller scale, you may want several repetitions of the circuit before a rest is needed.
Recovery periods should never be too long, no longer than 1 or 2 minutes, as you want to keep your heart rate going throughout the training. You would also want to keep your heart rate above the ‘at rest’ heart rate.
There are two types of training. These are aerobic and anaerobic. Most of the time your muscles are working aerobically. This means they use oxygen for energy. But doing bursts of all out effort (for example, a 100m sprint) the muscles work anaerobically. They don’t use oxygen, but they produce lactic acid, which tires them very quickly.
Effects of Aerobic training – On your heart and circulation
Yours heart grows larger. It can hold more blood and it contracts with a lot more power meaning more blood is pumped out with each single heartbeat. Your resting heart rate falls. This is because you are able to supply the same amount of blood with fewer heartbeats. The fitter you are the lower your resting heart rate becomes. After exercise, your heart rate returns to your resting rate a lot quicker. The volume of blood in your body increases. More red blood cells are produced and more haemoglobin to help with delivery of oxygen. The body's arteries grow larger and more elastic so the body's blood pressure falls.
Effects of Aerobic training – On the respiratory system
The rib muscles and diaphragm grow stronger, so the chest cavity gets larger when you breathe in. This means there is more room for the lungs to expand meaning they can take ion more air with every breath. With larger lungs, there are more alveoli available for gas exchange. Therefore more oxygen is picked up out of each breath and more carbon dioxide is removed. More capillaries grow around these alveoli and therefore more blood gets to them. This means oxygen is moved to the muscles faster, carbon dioxide is removed faster and you don't get tired as fast.
Effects of Anaerobic training
Your heart wall gets thicker to cope with the strain of all out effort on your circulatory system. Your muscles can tolerate lactic acid a lot easier and clear it quicker meaning that you can go all out for longer than you were able to do so before.
Most sports are a mixture of both the training types. For example, in football you may put all out effort in chasing with another player for a loose ball, and then slow down again when the ball is in possession.
It is general knowledge that the harder you work, the faster your heart, beats. So the heart rate is an indication on how hard you are really working.
The maximum your heart can beat is canned your maximum heart rate. This can be worked out by a simple formula.
Maximum heart rate = 220 – Your age
At the age I am at this present time, my maximum heart rate is 204 bpm (beats per minute)
Actual rate can be measured by taking the pulse rate. If you are working at about 60% of your maximum rate then you are probably working aerobically and anything round about 90%, then you are working anaerobically.
Every time I complete the circuit I will measure my heart rate to see how hard I was working and see if I was tiring in the second circuit, or improving.
Training Program Plan
Equipment Required:
Cones
Benches
Hoops
Skipping Ropes
Overhead Bars
General Apparatus
All of the above equipment is required to actively complete our circuit.
Safety
When forming my circuit there are a number of safety procedures that I must follow.
These are:
- When carrying apparatus around the given area make sure you are not directly affecting the other people who are taking part in the activities.
- When lifting equipment you must make sure you have a straight back and bent knees at all times. This is to prevent any permanent damage to the back or knee regions.
- Make sure all equipment is firmly in place and usable by the people about to take part in the circuit.
- Make sure you are sensible when you are doing a circuit to prevent any injury to yourself or to others.
- Use the apparatus only for the purpose for which it was designed.
Explanation of Stations
Shuttles
For this exercise I will be doing short sprints between two cones at a distance of 10 metres apart. This exercise will be using all of the muscles in my legs; my quads, hamstrings, gluteus maximus and my gastrocnemius. This activity will be using three of my vital body systems; my muscular system, my respiratory system and circulatory system. I need to have speed and stamina for this task and also I hope that this task will help me to further develop this.
Press Ups
To do a press up you must lie flat on your front and lift yourself up, not bending your back or legs - just using your arms. Your body must remain straight at all times. Doing a press up works a lot of the muscles in your body; your biceps, triceps, deltoids, abdominals and your pectorals. This exercise is working your muscular and respiratory systems. Doing a press up requires a lot of strength and a sudden burst of power. This will improve my upper body strength and will give me the ability to shrug off a player if I were playing football.
Pull Ups
You start by hanging off the pole with your arms straight and you should then pull yourself so your chin rises above the bar of the pole. Pull-ups work on biceps, triceps and muscles in your back and chest. Doing pull-ups works the muscular, respiratory and cardiovascular systems in your body. This exercise works my upper body strength.
Skipping
Skipping is holding the rope in both hands and flinging it around your body and jumping before it hits the floor and keeping it going in a quick flowing motion. Skipping is working all of the major muscle groups in the body, working all muscles in arms and legs. It works the muscular, respiratory and cardiovascular systems. This will benefit my all round performances in a competitive game of football.
Tricep Dips
Placing your legs on the floor and your arms on a bench performs triceps dips. You extend your arms then until they are straight lifting the whole weight of your body. This exercise is working your triceps and your deltoids and it only works the muscular system. Again working my upper body it will help me to throw in the ball when extending my arms.
Quick Feet
This exercise you are running in between small hoops in as quick time as possible. It benefits every muscle in your legs. Also working your muscular, respiratory and cardiovascular systems. It is helping to improve your timing, co-ordination and balance. This helps then to improve many aspects of my game in football. I can time a tackle much better making less fouls and my co-ordination will also help me to do things at the right time in a smoother motion. I will also have a lot more balance helping me shoot toward the goal with a lot more accuracy.
Bench Lifts
To perform a bench lift you must lift a bench above your head keeping a straight back at all times. This once again works most of the muscle groups in the body. Also once again it is the muscular system, which is being strengthened. A lot of strength is required to do this exercise. This means it is increasing the strength of my body, improving all aspects of my game.
Bench jump
Standing on one side of the bench, you jump over to the other side of the bench, with both two feet together. This is then continuously repeated. It is working the quads, hamstrings, gluteus maximus and gastrocnemius. It works the muscular system and requires a reasonable amount of power in short, sharp bursts – also, good balance is needed. This will improve my strength, mostly in my legs, and I will improve my jump.
Bench Straddles
To do a bench straddle, you must first be positioned with both legs on either side of the bench. You must jump on top of the bench with both feet, then jumping back to both legs on either side of the bench again. This works all the leg muscles and improves my ability to jump and gain bigger leg muscles.
Hack squats
Standing in an upright position, with legs apart, you should jump and switch the positions of the legs over two lines, one back and one forward. You repeat this motion as many times as you can for the given time. This part of the circuit (or exercise) works your quads, hamstrings, gluteus maximus and your gastrocnemius. It helps to improve your usage of your muscular and respiratory systems. Power and endurance are a big part in this exercise. This will mainly help to improve my stamina and running - short and long distances.
Monitoring – notes on sessions (results table next page)
In the first circuit session, I completed the whole circuit 2 times – with the exercises for 30 seconds each. Also, a two-minute break was employed after 1 whole rotation of the circuit. These recordings will be the start of my evidence to how my body will get used to the circuit as time goes on. I was doing my hardest for each of the stations and for every circuit I did over the time spent on this investigation. My hack squats, skipping and bench lifts were very good. My press ups were very poor. I did pull some muscles in these first circuits, this was because I didn’t warm up as well as I should have and also I tried really hard – where I was not used to doing this.
I was poorer on my second circuit as my body was tired after the first circuit and I was not used to overloading my body in the first circuit, so I had no energy left for the next circuit – even with 2 minutes rest in-between each circuit.
The second circuit session for week 2 was ok. The first circuit was good and I overloaded my body – I recorder high results. My body was still not used to the intensive training, so on the second circuit, I did poorer. I also had shorter rest – by ½ a minute. Both times my heart rate was higher than the first week. My body will slowly get used to this high rate of exercise.
The third week was a success. My body was slowly getting used to the training circuits. I had better results – even on the press ups – and I had a lower heart rate. This means my body was getting used to the circuit. My muscles were getting stronger and this helped my complete the circuit with better results. I could even cope with just 1 minute rest between each circuit.
At the fourth and final week, with the rolling clock between the circuits I was quite surprised at the results. The first circuit went as planned, with my results still getting higher. I was able to complete with circuit with ease as I was used to the circuit and my body was able to compete with the vigorous training. This is to be backed up with my low heart rate. At the second circuit, I was totally puffed out – I had no energy left. I would’ve thought I could have coped with it as my body had been working hard in these conditions. My only thought why this happened is that I had no break, so I had no time to regain my energy. This means my muscles were getting more and more tired and eventually they were too tired to work. I had used my bursts of lactic acid in my muscles in the circuit before, so this was all used up.
In conclusion, the overall success of this training exercise was good. I started off in the first week, badly, getting very tired and pulled muscles. Gradually, over the weeks, my body was coping with the overloading of my muscles and this made me capable to do the intensive training. For proof/evidence of this my heart rate went down and the recordings of the stations went up.
Results
30 secs 30 secs 30 secs 30 secs 30 secs 30 secs 30 secs 30 secs
Station 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
Quick
Steps 14 12 15 14 19 16 19 12
Hack
Squats 77 74 79 70 82 76 80 70
Skipping 56 55 57 50 60 57 57 50
Pull ups 17 12 19 13 21 14 22 18
Press 5 2 7 3 8 2 9 1
Ups
Shuttle 11 10 11 10 11 10 12 10
Run
Tricep 20 15 21 14 22 13 23 14
Dips
Bench 18 16 20 17 21 17 22 16
Straddles
Bench 44 40 47 41 50 43 52 39
Lifts
Bench 20 19 22 19 21 15 23 14
Hops
Heart 126 121 134 129 120 118 118 138
Rate
Week 1 : 2 minutes rest between stations
Week 2 : 1.5 minutes rest between stations
Week 3 : 1 minutes rest between stations
Week 4 : Rolling clock between stations
Evaluation
Week 1
In week 1 I worked hard, but not as hard as I could, as my body wasn’t used to the intensive work. My results are the lowest out of all the other results on the 1st circuit. This is obvious, as I will improve during the 1st circuits to come – this is because I will be used to doing the tests and pushing myself to that level of exercise. My second circuit results for this week were quite close to my 1st circuits results as I had 2 minutes rest between stations, this was enough to get my heart rate back to normal after the last station. My average heart rate for this week was 123.5. I think I did my best on the stations in this circuit. I f I had longer time between each station, I think I could have done a bit better on the experiment. I had picked up a few pulled muscles on this circuit as well, basically due to the overloading of my body. The strain should not affect my next tests in week 2.
Week 2
In week 2 I definitely worked as hard as I did on the 1st week - trying to get good scores and show off my full potential. My results for both first and second circuit were better than my results in week 1. I think this is due to the fact my body has got used to the higher level of training and was prepared for this next test. The evidence to support this was that my results were better than the prior weeks results, even with 30 seconds less rest after each circuit. I found this week’s circuits were easier than the last week’s circuits. My heart rate increased during week 2, but this is no surprise as it is early on in the training and overloading by body. My body could have just thought this training was a one off. My average heart rate was 131.5.
Week 3
This week my results grew a lot from last and 2 weeks ago – this was a surprise, as I did not expect my body to adapt to these higher levels of exercise and overload so quickly. I didn’t have to try as hard as I normally would have done as all this overloading of my body got me used to this training. My heart rate started to decrease this week – lower than any rate before. This overloading of my body must have made me fitter – this is why I had a smaller heart rate. My average heart rate was 119. My body still didn’t have to work as hard as I did the first week of overloading to get good results – my results were better. I only had 1-minute break after 1 circuit this week – another 30-sec’s drop from last week. This was evidence that I was getting fitter as I had less time to recover after 1 circuit, and still had a lower heart rate that week 2.
Week 4
This final week I had no break after my first circuit. This was very hard to cope with, as you can see from my results. I was going well at the first circuit, getting better results than before and also sustaining a good heart rate. When it came to the second circuit I was ½ way through it and I was very tired and warn out. My results for the 2nd circuit were appalling because I had no energy and a lot of lactic acid in my muscles. I don’t think my body was up for such a big step (no rest after 1st circuit) after only a few weeks of overloading.
In general my circuit program was successful, it tested each area of fitness that I wanted it to. Although it was successful, because there were so many people doing their own circuit program there wasn’t enough equipment, groups had to be formed so the equipment could be shared.
I thought the layout of this experiment was a big factor in the outcome of my results. The layout was set in a certain order – with the bicep equipment in one place and the leg equipment in another. I think this is very bad as it wears out that certain area of the body quickly and can cause injury. I think the same testing equipment should have been put in different areas of the circuit.
If I kept this overloading up, I could get even better at this circuit and my results would keep improving. Eventually though, the circuit must be made harder, because if I come to a stage where I am not overloading myself my body will stop improving in the areas of muscular endurance and anaerobic respiration. The body must also train to prevent reversibility. This is when the affects of training decrease and the benefits are lost.
This training/overloading program was very much suited for football – it trained me in every aspect of the game, such as quick feet, upper and lower body strength and mainly fitness. The training choices were the right choice and they were a challenge; not too easy so I can’t overload myself.
If I were to do this again, I would make sure that the different types of equipment to train different parts of the body were separated out to prevent injury and to make it a more enjoyable course. I think I made a lot of progress over this exercise period of 4 weeks.
The way in which we overloaded our body was not very obvious. This was the repetition of muscle groups in the circuit, for example, station two was skipping. Although this didn’t work them as much, skipping involves a lot of work on the arms to follow this we had to do pull-ups, which predominantly worked the arms and legs and it is a very muscular/powerful exercise. To follow an exercise like this, we would expect a cardiovascular exercise to follow; like shuttles, as our arms would be very tired and in need of rest. Instead of a cardiovascular exercise to follow we did press-ups, again a very muscular/powerful exercise on the arms (like skipping.) This was a repeat of an arm exercise, so this means that we could never perform to our best level on the press-ups.
There were also too many things that were motivations throughout the four-week period. The first was a partner that did the circuit with me. My partner was always there urging me to finish the stations to the best of my ability and if I got tired, then he would force me to continue working hard. Another way that my partner turned out to be a motivator was the fact that we could compete to see who could get the most points on each station this obviously made me want to beat him. Another motivation we could have had was music, this would keep our minds off the station ahead. The music acted as a comforter, it took my mind from the tiredness of my body. Music acts as a motivator as a lot of people regularly listen to it e.g. in the gym.
ham