Ryan Langdon
I am writing a Personal Exercise Plan (PEP) on my sport badminton. Competitive badminton is a highly explosive and skilled sport, and requires a good proportion of overhead shots. For that reason, I am aiming to improve my muscular strength, to therefore be able to smash harder and gain more points.
In badminton, the power of your shots would come from shoulders and forearms. This is because the overhead arm action used in badminton is more of a wrist movement then any other. So when weight training I will mostly concentrate on my forearms and shoulders.
I am also aiming to improve my speed. If I can improve that, then I will have a better chance of returning smashes and moving to play certain shots. Increasing the size of my leg muscles will help to improve my speed.
By the end of my PEP I would like to be able to be noticeably stronger at smashing, and also faster around the court.
I can do this by using certain training methods. I think that interval training will help me speed up as it involves periods of work and periods of rest repeatedly. Another training method that will help me to meet my goal will be weight training, as it increases muscle size and strength. This is needed to play harder and faster shots.
To test that my PEP has worked for speed, before I start it I will run 100 metres and take an average of my times. After my 6-week plan is over, I will then see how fast I can run 100m, and compare times to see if I have improved.
I will also note down the weight I am lifting now (as well as the number of reps), and compare it to the weight I am lifting after my PEP, to see if my muscular strength has improved.
Near to where I live is ‘Ribby Hall’. This is a holiday village that is also open to the public. This is convenient, as there is a gym and some badminton courts in the sports area. I could use this to my advantage when training. To build muscle on my legs I could also run. This is also convenient for me, as I live in a village and there is not much traffic to get in the way.
I will train on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. During these days I will aim to train at over 80% of my maximum heart rate. This is because I want to increase speed and muscle.
To work out my maximum heart rate (MHR), I need to take my age away from 220. Therefore my MHR is 205 (as I am 15).
As I will be training at 60 - 80% of my MHR, so I should therefore be working at about 154+ beats per minute. To make sure I am working hard enough I will take regular checks of my pulse.
Principles Of Training
Specificity – Making the training specific to the sport I am doing. Therefore I will be linking my training to badminton.
Progression – Progressing to new levels of fitness. Once the body adapts to the stimulus of one particular overload and learns to complete the task more efficiently, it will then settle down again. Therefore the degree of overload I apply during my training will have to be gradually increased as to prevent my body from becoming lazy.
Overload – Stressing the body beyond a level normally encountered in daily activity. For my PEP, I will be lifting weights that are heavier than I usually lift. This should make my body build up more of the correct fibres, which will allow me to lift the weight more easily.
Reversibility – Fitness decreases when you don’t train. Therefore I will make sure I don’t miss any of the 4 days a week I am supposed to train. This will prevent loss of fitness and muscle atrophy.
Thresholds of Training – a training session will only be of value if your Heart Rate is working within the Thresholds of Training. The Aerobic Training zone is between 60% and 80% of maximum heart rate, and the anaerobic training zone is 80% and above of maximum heart rate. When training I will do regular tests to make sure that I am working within 60-80% of my Maximum heart rate.
Frequency – How many times you exercise per week. It will depend on my fitness, the time that is available to me, and my daily exercise. The more demanding my training session is, the more time I will need to recover. I am aiming to train 4 times a week.
