A stretch should never be forced; it should be taken to the point of tension and held for 10-15 seconds all measurements should be taken so elbow and knee joints are not locked.
There are three types of stretches
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Static: This is probably the most common, mainly because it is effective and safe; to do a static stretch you put your body into the required position and hold for the desired amount of time.
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Passive: This increases the range of movement through and external force i.e. partner, wall or floor. These stretches can be very useful in developing a stretch, but it is easier to force a passive stretch than a static stretch, and it must remain in the comfort zone at all times.
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Ballistic: These stretches use some momentum, for example a leg swing. An athlete has far less control over these stretches and therefore causing potential risk of injury. Ballistic stretching is probably most relevant to athletes such as gymnastics.
There are also different stages of stretching:
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Preparatory: Warm up stretches. These are used to stretch the muscles to the length that will be required during training. A good athlete should combine static,
Passive and gentle, controlled ballistic stretches to be in good preparation for a training session.
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Maintenance: Warm down stretches. These take the muscle back to their pre-training length, so some shortening will have occurred during training, theses kind of cool down stretches are often ignored as athletes are tired, however a few stretches focusing mainly on the main muscles groups used within training or the most injury prone muscles or muscle groups to ensure these are fully cared for.
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Development: From time to time athletes may need to work on their mobility as it is not what it should be to ensure they are giving their full potential in a training session, developing stretching is used to increase flexibility in areas where mobility is lacking this is mainly in hamstrings and hip flexors. To do these stretches properly an athlete will stretch to the point of tension NOT forced, hold for a few seconds and then, when the tension eases stretch a little further, ensuring no pain is being caused as this shows the stretch is being pulled too far. The total stretch time should be 30 seconds.
Stretches should always be done after a cardiovascular warm up, as the muscle needs to warm up before it is stretched. The muscle fibre coating (collagen) will restrain the stretch if the muscle is not warm enough.
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Stretches
Neck. Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Keeping your body upright, tilt your head to the side whilst keeping the rest of your body stationary. Hold before returning to the upright position and repeating on the other side.
Shoulder Rotations. Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Keeping your body upright, roll your shoulders in an anti-clockwise direction, trying to create as large a circle as possible. Repeat this five times before changing direction and performing clockwise rotations.
Upper Arm (Triceps). Stand with feet hip width apart, knees slightly bent. Place one hand flat between shoulders blades, keeping the upper arm close to ear. Using the other arm apply gentle pressure onto the elbow to push hand down back thus assisting with the stretch.
Sides (Obliques). Stand with feet apart knees slightly bent. Place left hand on left hip. Reach up then over with right arm. Avoiding leaning forwards or backwards, lean over to the side keeping arms straight. Repeat other side.
Upper Back. Stand with feet hip width apart, knees slightly bent. Reach forward with both arms and link hands at chest height. Push arms forwards, to stretch upper back
Pectoral Muscles
Stand with feet shoulders width apart. Keeping your body upright put the palm of your hand against a wall, so that it is behind you. Gently push your shoulder forwards to create the stretch. Repeat with your other arm.
Back
Stand with your hands by your side, palms down, lie on your back and lift your feet above your head. Push your feet as far back as if trying to get your feet to touch the ground behind your head.
Lower back and Gluteus maximus
Lie on the floor, keeping your back flat, bring both knees to your chest, and with arms linked behind knees apply pressure, bringing knees closer to chest.
Gluteus maximus
Lay flat on the floor, raise right leg so the knee joint is bent at 90°, keeping shoulders and back as flat as possible to the floor, gently drop knees towards the floor on the left moving over the other leg, repeat changing legs.
Hamstring
Lie on your back and lift your left leg towards your chest, holding your calf, until you feel the stretch in your hamstrung. It is important that the leg is straight, but that you do not lock your knee.
Legs (Quadriceps)
Bring one foot towards your gluteus maximus, clasp with one hand, keep knees together and support leg slightly bent. Keep back straight and upright. Ensure support foot is facing forward. You can use your free hand to help support you against a wall.
Calf
Step left leg back and bend right front knee. Ensure both feet are facing forward and push back heel into the floor, keeping your back straight. Repeat for other leg.
Adductor
Sit on the floor with the soles of your feet together. Keeping your back straight, push down on your knees with your elbows, to stretch the muscles on the inside of your upper leg.
WEEK ONE
Warm Up:
I will be doing a 5-minute jog to increase my temperature and I have increase my heart rate slowly allowing the correct exchange of oxygen from haemoglobin
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What is fitness?
To work on you fitness, you need to know and understand every aspects of it so it is clear what you need to do to improve.
Being fit is vital to our health and to our sense of well-being. Health and fitness mean a lot more than just the absence of illness. If we are healthy and fit then all the physical, mental, social and spiritual aspects of our lives are working well together and we feel good about ourselves, an absence of any of these factors could affect both our health and fitness:
However, fitness is crucial to succeed in a sport. It is essential for us to look at the particular demands of our specific sport and identify in what ways we need to develop our fitness, or if we are wanting simply to develop our fitness, our weak spots must be focused on..
For me personally to be fit, I think I only need to improve on my physical fitness because I am in good health, this meaning:
· I eat sensibly.
· I do regular exercise.
· I get enough sleep a night, assuring my body has enough time to “recharge”.
· I have a small, controlled intake of alcohol.
· I do not smoke tobacco or any other drug.
· I can easily cope with stress.
Physical fitness is what I need to improve; Physical fitness is the ability of our body to carry out everyday activities with little fatigue and with energy left. Fitness is a combination of a number of physical qualities; we all vary our needs for these specific qualities. There is a minimal level of fitness, which we all need to have good health, this is called “heath related fitness.”
Health related fitness is split into four different areas, this are-
· Aerobic capacity- this means that we are able to work for relatively long periods without becoming overtired.
· Strength- this means we need to be strong enough to carry out all our everyday tasks.
· Body build- this means that we need to carry the right amount of fat and the right amount of muscle.
· Flexibility- this means that we need to be able to move our joints as far as we are meant to be able to. This helps us use our body in the way they were designed to be used.
The other type of fitness is sport related fitness;
This is split into seven areas. To be successful in most sports you need to be as fit as possible in all these areas:
· Coordination- is our ability to perform complex movements with ease.
· Balance- is our ability to retain stability when stationary or moving.
· Muscular power- is our ability to contract the muscles with speed and force in one explosive act, in order to carry out an action.
· Agility- is our ability to change the direction of the body at speed.
· Reaction time- is our ability to react to a stimulus quickly.
· Speed- is our body’s ability to move all or part of our bodies a quickly as possible.
· Muscular endurance- this is part of strength. Our ability to work out muscles very hard for a period.
Week One This week I am concentrating on my stamina level. I could do aerobic training this week because it is intense and good for improving stamina as it is continuous, working at a durable rate will also increase muscular endurance.
Session One
- Warm up - To get blood moving, muscles warm.
- Stretch - get muscles ready and flexible for an activity and assure they are not pulled or torn during exercise.
- A 3 mile run around Richmond - to raise stamina and overall fitness, as Richmond is built on three hills this will assure my body is pushed. I will first aim to do this in 30minutes and to progress I aim to do it in a shorter time but keeping to the same route to ensure I get an accurate time to prove I have improved.
- Warm down - remove lactic acid build up.
Session Two
- 500m jog - warm up to prevent injury and assure muscles are fully warmed up.
- Stretch - muscles mainly upper body e.g. deltoid, biceps, triceps, pectorals
- A bike ride around Richmond ensuring I include hills and different terrains; I can then time how long it takes to cycle 4miles and to progress on that work next time at doing it faster.
- A short walk with my bike will cool down my body.
Session Three
- 600m jog - to warm up body.
- Doing 40 laps of Richmond’s 25m swimming pool, continuously taking about an hour. To progress this I will try and do 40laps in 45monutes to help improve my stamina
- Warm down - removal of lactic acid
All these activities show specificity as they all relate to stamina. As this is week one, I will do my three sessions Monday, Wednesday and Friday, to help my body get into the routine of exercise helping to prevent injury. I will do 50sit ups each night as I have been doing prier to starting this exercise plan.
Week three
This week I will concontrate on working my different muscle groups and improveing muscular strength and muscular endurance.A good way of doing this is using the circuit train ing method. And weight training.
Session one:
- Warm up all parts of the body, so I will run round the gym, touching the floor at times, side stepping, jumping.
- Stretches ensureing all muscles are fully stretched.
- I will then spend 45 seconds on each station of the circuit (draw over the page). To progress on this I will half the number I did then do that many and move on the the nbext station, when I have complete the whole circuit I will see how long it took me and work on decreasing that time.
- Warm down- a walk around the gym
Session two:
- warm up by walking on a running machine for 5-10minutes, And doing a few minutes on an esy setting on a rowing machine to warm arms up.
- Stretch again all muscle groups again, using static, passive and a fewballistic.
- I will then do a few weight training exercise in my local gym after ensure I am doing the right loads by talking to a train instructor. To progressively overload my body I could do repeats after resting and try to increase the number of repeats but also ensuring my body gets the correct rest between each repeat, a good way to do this method is shown below. For example bench press 40kg:
- Warm down, on a running machine and a few static stretches.
Session three:
- Warm up by again, doing a walking pace on a running machine and a few minutes on the rowing machine.
- All stretches and ensure muscles are fully stretched and warmed up.
- This is another example of weight training to improve muscular endurance, where a lighter resistance (weight) is used but a bigger number of repetitions are carried out. For example: bench (chest press) 2 sets of 15 repetitions using 20kg weight resistance. To use progression I could increase it to 4 sets of 15 repetitions, with a rest of 2-3minutes. So overload is achieved.
- Cool down to help lower heart rate and contract muscles.
This week has showed specificty as it is all based on increasing my muscular endurance and muscular strength. I have only got three sessions again this week as I had a very busy week last week and don’t want to cause myself injury although I have doubled to to 100 sit up s night an included 20 press ups.
This week I am working on collecting results from different training methods to help me work out my improvement at the end of the six week plan.
Session one:
- Warm up- mainly legs so a brisk walk around the sports hall.
- Stretches concentrating on legs however still ensuring other muscles are warmed.
- Bleep test (a test where you run 20 metre shuttles in time with a bleep, which over time gets faster) I will try my best to get the highest level possible, so when I next come to do it I will be able to try and beat my last score to show improving my level of fitness.
- A cool down by walking around the sports hall.
Session two:
- Warm up again maingly legs, so a brisk jog around the astroturf.
- Stretches again concentrating on legs but ensuring rest of the muscles are also warmed up.
- The coopers run (a continuous run around the atsro for 12minutes) this is not a way to increase fitness as such but more a way of helping see improvements within fitness, however each time I do it I should still be aiming to improve my score.
- Cool down-brisk walk around astro.
Session three:
- Warm up again a brisk walk around the astro and moving into a jog.
- Stretches to ensure all muscles are warmed up.
- I could use the aspect of interval training to give me an idea of my fitness, by sprinting to one side of the astro and walking/jogging back and counting that as one, and seeing how many repetitions I can do in the hour lesson or before I get too tired my sprinting is no longer a sprint.
- Cool down to ensure my muscles done get a lactic acid build up.
Session four:
- Warm up- brisk walk.
- Stretches
- Cross country run, a timed run around the school, this will help me to then do the same run again after the six plan and see if I can run it faster.
- Cool down.
Sessions five:
- Warm up by a quick cardiovascular walk.
- Stretches, although the abdonimal muscles are the main muscles I will be working, all muscles should be warmed up
- Sit up test (a tezt similar to the bleep test but instead of running in time with a bleep, I will be doing sit ups in time with a bleep), I can take my level when I do it this week and then repeat the test on the final week and note my improvement.
- Cool down-try and avoid too much stomach cramp.
Session six:
- Warm up-of a walk to increase cardiovascular system .
- Stretches to warm up muscles.
- See how many press ups I can do, and how long it takes me, as my upper arm strength is my largest weakness, so its something I want to build up. I will then do the same at the end of the six weeks and hope I can do more in that space of time.
- Cool down to prevent injury.
All my activity are specific to what I want to achieve because they all test different aspects of fitness helping to to easily see my improvments at the end of my training program. I will also do 75 sit ups and 10-15 press ups.
Week Four: this week I will be again doing work on my stamina to try to improve how long I can continue with exercise, I will be doing the same activities as week one to try and improve them, but using the progression Ideas I stated in week one.
Session One
- Warm up - To get blood moving, muscles warm.
- Stretch - get muscles ready and flexible for an activity and assure they are not pulled or torn during exercise.
- A 3 mile run around Richmond - to raise stamina and overall fitness, as Richmond is built on three hills this will assure my body is pushed. In a faster time than previously achieved.
- Warm down - remove lactic acid build up.
Session Two
- 500m jog - warm up to prevent injury and assure muscles are fully warmed up.
- Stretch - muscles mainly upper body e.g. deltoid, biceps, triceps, pectorals
- A 4 mile bike ride around Richmond ensuring I include hills and different terrains; trying to achieve a shorter time that in week one, or perhaps if I feel I could without over doing my body go for 5 or 6 miles.
- I short walk with my bike will cool down my body.
Session Three
- 600m jog - to warm up body.
- To do 40laps of Richmond’s swimming pool in 45monutes to help improve my stamina, or if I feel I could without doing damage to my body do more than 40.
- Warm down - removal of lactic acid
All these activities show specificity as they all relate to stamina, and show progression and overload as I am trying to improve on my last efforts. I will also continue to do 100 sit-ups and 25press ups.
Week five: As week, three this week I will again do work on my muscular strength and muscular endurance. I will do the same activities as week three
