Overload is the most important principle. You must increase the general principles (FITT) in order to increase to higher levels of fitness. As you progress, you need to train more often and increase the time you train. Unless you overload, your level of fitness will not increase. The result is an increase in your strength, endurance and stamina.
Specificity is training to increase a certain part of your body. I must decide what muscles and joints I want to increase, and then exercise them at the speed I am going to be using them. A training programme should be unique to the person it has been designed for.
My Statistics
My whole program is going to be designed according to my chosen sport; tennis. I will need to decide my aims.
Age: 14. It is important to remember that in a young adolescent the bones, muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons are not yet fully developed so extra care must be taken to prevent injury.
Physical health: In normal healthy condition.
Level of fitness: I already am quite fit. I play tennis three times a week and also take long walks/jogs every day with my Spanish Mastiff.
Every day I do many energetic activities during and away from school. These include:
- After school, I take my dog for a walk down the local river. I throw tennis balls for her and I also like skimming stones.
- My parents take me to school.
- I have sport studies lessons 3 times a week.
- I have an afternoon sports period once a week.
- I play tennis 3 times a week.
- Every lunch time at school, I play football.
- I swim once a week.
My Diet
Good nutrition is highly important for a healthy life. If you have a sensible balanced diet there is no need for vitamin supplements. My diet consists of:
- Wholemeal cereal and juice for breakfast and a yogurt.
- Freshly made sandwiches for lunch with salad and a piece of fruit.
- I have nutritious evening meals at home with plenty of fresh vegetables.
- I do not eat between meals but drink plenty of water throughout the day.
Aspects of fitness
Many aspects of fitness are needed in the game of tennis. These include:
Agility is ‘the ability to change the position of the body quickly’. This is very important in tennis as you never know when someone will drop you a short ball, lob one over your head or hit it by you. You need to be able to run forward, backwards and sideways with little warning.
Muscular endurance is ‘the ability of your muscles to maintain and repeat contraction over a prolonged period of time’. You must have the strength to be able to keep going when the matches go on for a long time. You need strong calves, hamstring and thigh muscles and also strong arm muscles to keep your tennis racket up throughout the match.
Flexibility is ‘the range of movement at a joint’. I need this in my tennis for the variety of shots that are used in the game and also for stretching to reach hard balls.
Co-ordination is ’the ability to perform different movements together with precision and accuracy.’ One of the golden rules in tennis is to ‘keep your eye on the ball’. Therefore, hand to eye co-ordination is vital in tennis, as the whole object of the game is to hit the ball over the net with a racquet.
Reaction time is ‘the time it takes you to react to a stimulus’. This is important throughout the game, as you never know where the ball is going to come. This is especially important for net play. Your reactions have to be extremely fast as you have much less time to react to the ball.
Power is ‘the combination of strength and speed ’. I use power when I hit all of my strokes balls in a game of tennis. I also need it to propel myself forward to reach a ball and especially for the service.
Speed is ‘the ability to perform a movement or cover a distance in a short period of time. I need this to be able to move quickly to the ball. Also, spurts of speed are needed for running to the net for a drop-shot.
Explosive and Dynamic Strength. I need explosive strength to hit all the shots throughout the game. Explosive strength is used a great deal when serving. This is an outburst of power. I need dynamic strength to move around constantly during the game.
Exercises
The following are my chosen exercises which I will use at each station in my circuit:
Dorsal Raises – These will increases the amount of strength and flexibility in my back and spine. This is very good for me, as I often need to reach for difficult balls and also for my serving.
Shuttle Runs – These will help me to run faster and change direction very quickly. I often need to run back and forwards rapidly to get a ball. These will also increase the muscular endurance in my legs as well as my stamina. My cardio-respiratory will also improve.
Dumb Bells – These will help to develop my biceps and triceps as I increase the weight and repetitions. This will also help to improve my dynamic strength.
Skipping – This will increase my endurance in my legs, my cardio-respiratory fitness, and my anaerobic fitness. Anaerobic fitness will improve as I will be skipping speedily for intense periods. This will help avoid cramps in my legs when playing long matches, a pest for a lot of tennis players.
Squats – These will work all three of my leg muscles at once. I will add a star jump between the squats as the sessions continue to get harder. This will also exercise my arm muscles increasing their endurance as well. Another very good exercise for my cardio-respiratory fitness
Sit-ups – These will increase the strength in my abdominals and my muscular / cardiovascular endurance. They support my trunk and help me to stand up straight. I will be able to pick up tennis balls easier.
The Circuit
I will be doing my circuit training over 6 sessions. Each session will last for about 30 minutes where I will do 3 laps of the circuit. I will be having 6 stations of different exercises. Between each station I will have 20 seconds of rest.
When designing my circuit, I must follow these guidelines:
- The exercises must not be too intense to begin with. Otherwise the muscles might get sore or strained. This will discourage the user. A circuit can easily be made harder, so it is important to start off to low than high.
- I must suit the circuit to the users needs. Or the sport they have engaged in. E.g. there is no point designing an endurance circuit for a weight lifter.
- You must overload your body. If you do not overload your body, you will not be able to reach higher levels of fitness. When overloading it is important to progress at your own pace. If not, you risk injuring your body, because the exercise is to intense. You overload you body by increasing the time you exercise for or the number of repetitions.
- The exercise must be in a sensible order. You should not put all of the same exercises of muscle groups together. E.g. Step-ups and squats. If you do this, your muscles will get tired or strain easily.
- I must warm up before starting to exercise. This involves pulse-raising activities and stretching. Pulse-raising can be jogging. Stretching elongates the muscle and loosens the joints (connective tissue – tendons, ligaments, cartilage).
- I must also cool-down. This involves gentle jogging or walking and stretching. Stretching releases lactic acid that has been built-up in the muscles. If the lactic acid is not removed, the muscles and/or joints will be sore after exercising.
- It is important to have rest between exercises. If not you will overwork your muscles and could damage them.
The Training Programme
Conclusion & Evaluation
I like the design of my circuit. If I wanted to continue training I could increase the reps/rate/time by the same proportions as I have increased them in the original circuit. Thus, continuing the overload workout and bringing my body to new levels of fitness.
I feel confident enough to design a circuit for another person who wants to train. Of course I would have to suit their requirements and design it uniquely for them. I will let them train at a pace they can feel comfortable with.
