Coordination
This is the ability to use two or more body parts together.
Power
This is the ability to do strength performances quickly. Power = Strength x Speed.
My first set of results
From the above table, I can see that I want to improve my cardiovascular fitness. Therefore I will do a Personal Exercise Program over 6 weeks to hopefully improve this, before I do another set of tests. The training program I will do is as follows:
Week One:
PE LESSON: Lap of the track, then 60 seconds rest. Repeat for whole exercise period (1hr).
FRIDAY EVENING: Dance mat workout 30 minutes
SUNDAY EVENING: Aerobic workout 30 minutes
Week Two:
PE LESSON: Skipping for two minutes, rest for 30 seconds. Hurdling for 2 minutes, rest for 30 seconds. Repeat.
Dance mat workout time increased to 35 minutes
Aerobic workout time increased to 35 minutes
Week Three:
Workout from week one, but PE LESSON rest time reduced to 45 seconds. Dance mat workout time increased to 40 minutes
Aerobic workout time increased to 40 minutes
Week Four:
Workout from week two, but skipping for two and a half minutes
Dance mat workout time increased to 45 minutes
Aerobic workout time increased to 45 minutes
Week Five:
Workout from week one, but two laps of the track in one go instead of one. Rest time stands at 30 seconds.
Dance mat workout time increased to 50 minutes
Aerobic workout time increased to 50 minutes
Week Six:
Workout from week two, but skipping for three minutes
Dance mat workout time increased to one hour
Aerobic workout time increased to 55 minutes
Week One:
Week one went well and was just the right intensity meaning I was working between 60-80% of my MHR. The track run was well timed, but was a little tedious. The aerobic workout and the dance mat workout however were very fun to do as well as being beneficial.
Week Two:
Skipping was fun in week two and was well timed and of the right intensity for me to improve. Switching between skipping and hurdles meant that I didn’t lose interest in the session, so it was a success.
Week Three:
On week three I did the workout from week one but with a higher intensity (shorter breaks in between runs). This was more challenging and I found it harder to do than the first week, suggesting I didn’t improve as much as I thought I would do.
Week Four:
In week four I repeated week two’s workout, except I made it more intense by skipping for a longer time. Also the aerobic workout and dance mat workout got longer which made it much harder. It was a fun workout albeit an intense one.
Week Five:
This was my final week of running around the track. I found it quite difficult as I had set the intensity too high. I found it hard to complete the training session. The aerobic/dance mat workouts were quite difficult as well; with the workout time almost double what it was originally.
Week Six:
The skipping and hurdles were hard to do this week, but mainly the skipping. I found it less intense than the running though which surprised me. The aerobic/dance mat workouts were difficult again this week. If I did it again I would definitely reduce the duration of both workouts.
My second set of results
My cardiovascular improved as you can see from the table. My bleep test result was higher than before. Some of my other results were higher also, but that may have been because I put more effort into the tests this time round. Or my PEP could have had a knock on effect on some of the other fitness aspects. My improvement in the bleep test shows that my PEP worked.
Overall Evaluation
In my Personal Exercise Programme I did training for 6 weeks, with 3 sessions each week. There are some things I thought went well in my PEP however some things went not so well and needed to be improved.
Firstly I thought I had planned and organised a PEP that was suitable for me which meant it had the desired effect of improving my stamina fitness. This was because it combined running, aerobic workouts and other exercises together ensuring the sessions didn’t get tedious but were productive. This is demonstrated by the improved result I got in the bleep test (a test of cardiovascular fitness).
However I did feel that a problem with my PEP was the intensity of the workouts. At first the intensity was appropriate, about the level of fitness I was used to. This changed as the weeks progressed as I found I wasn’t able to complete fully some of the sessions because they were too difficult, the progression didn’t match my improvement rate. If I were to do the exercise programme again, I would change it so the intensity of the sessions was less of an increase.
I did find that my PEP was timed rightly, with the right frequency of sessions per week (3). Also the variety in the sessions tackled tedium. The sessions were very close together though, with a session on Thursday, one on Sunday and one on Friday. This means that the exercise wasn’t spread out over the week so I had little recovery time. If I redid my PEP this would be something I changed, making the sessions spread out throughout the week so there was time to recover and less time in between sessions, perhaps ensuring that between each day of exercise there would be a rest day, so there wouldn’t be exercise on Thursday and Friday.
On the other hand, although my PEP became too intense, it did have overload and progression. The problem was that the progression was too much per week so should have been made less, increasing the work time by 2 or 3 minutes rather than 5/10 for example. The issue of overload was a problem in latter weeks because the intensity was too high, meaning although overload is a good thing in a workout (and is the only way you can improve your fitness) I found that there was too much overload in my PEP, meaning (as I have mentioned above) that I couldn’t complete some of the exercises.
Finally I found that my PEP could have improved other areas, not just cardiovascular fitness (stamina). This is suggested by some of the test results I gained second time round which had improved such as the bar test, a test of strength. Training could have improved several areas of my fitness or possibly my mental fitness and endurance so this was why I improved several of my marks. This means that my PEP could potentially be used as a cross training method for people who are trying to improve several areas. This would be a distinct advantage.
In conclusion I found that my PEP was very beneficial to my fitness as it improved my stamina which is shown by my test result. Unfortunately it was too intense and did mean that I struggled in some of the sessions towards the end of my PEP (weeks 5, 6). This meant it had a lot of overload, which although is good in principle made it too hard to complete some of the exercises. Overall I found my PEP enjoyable which is important so that interest isn’t lost.