Tedium: In a training program variety is essential. If you lose interest in what you are doing you will gradually start to perform less. This can be avoided by mixing the activities you do. Instead of doing long distance running all the time you could go swimming. Instead of lifting weights you could do press ups.
In my P.E.P I am going to take into account all of these principles of training. I will ensure that the activities I am going are specific to the areas of my body I want to build on. I will make sure that I increase the intensity and time of my chosen activities and keep doing them on a regular basis but keep to a gradual increase and not go from one extreme to the other. Doing this will prevent reversibility from coming in to play. As for tedium I will try to eliminate this purely by increasing the intensity of what I am doing and seeing if I can rise to the challenge, this will keep my interest in the activity.
Components of Fitness
Components of fitness are the basics of your fitness broken down into different parts. These parts are:
Power
Coordination
Flexibility
Agility
Balance
Body Composition
Reaction Time
Endurance
Speed
Strength
Power is strength and speed together. A good example of this is sprinting.
Coordination is the ability to use your limbs effectively. This would be used in sports like tennis and cricket.
Flexibility is the amount of movement at a certain area of your body. This can be seen when doing gymnastics.
Agility is the ability to move and change direction on your feet, changing your body position. Squash is a good example of this.
Balance is the ability to keep an upright position. This would be used a lot in ballet.
Body Composition is the build up of your body e.g. the amount of muscle/fat/bone you have.
Reaction Time is how quickly you respond to a stimulus. A good example of this would be sprinters waiting for the shot to start.
Endurance is the ability to keep going for long periods, like a long distance runner doing the 1500m
Speed is how quickly you can put your body into action and how quickly you can cover a distance. 100m sprinters need this component.
Strength is the maximum weight you can lift or the muscular endurance you can endure. This can be seen in a body builder lifting their maximum weight.
The components of fitness I am hoping to improve on are:
Strength
Muscular and Cardiovascular endurance
Composition
To improve on my strength I am going to use resistance training. This will involve lifting 10kg weights every night and increasing the amount of repetitions I do.
To improve on my muscular and cardiovascular endurance I am going to use continuous training. This will mean doing long distance running and a sit up bleep test. I will slowly increase on the distance covered when running.
The overall effect of this training should improve my body composition, adding to my muscle and reducing the amount of fat.
Heart Rate
During my P.E.P I will record my heart rate at several key points during the activity.
Resting Heart Rate
Working Heart Rate
Recovery Rate
Resting Heart Rate is the number of beats whilst resting e.g. whilst reading
Working Heart Rate is the number of beats after you have performed an exercise e.g. after you have just played in a rugby match
Recovery Rate is the time it takes for your heart to return to its resting heart rate.
Target Zones
205
Anaerobic training zone (Insufficient o2)
200
170
Aerobic training zone (Sufficient o2)
130
Resting heart rate
70
I will take my resting heart rate before I do any kind of warm up or activity. I will then do the warm up and main activity and take my heart rate immediately after, every minute for five minutes before doing a warm down. I will be looking for an increase in my recovery rate and a possible decrease in my resting heart rate.
Performing the Activity
It is essential that, when I am performing my main activity that I execute a sufficient warm up and warm down.
A Warm Up: When exercising you need to do a sufficient warm up to warm the muscles. A warm up should not be a strenuous task, it should be something that takes little effort but gets your muscles warm, a slow job is a good example of this. After you have warmed your muscles you should proceed to stretching them. When stretching it is vital that you don’t force the stretch as this could lead to various injuries. A stretch should be held for roughly ten seconds before proceeding to the next. If a sufficient warm up is not properly done or not done at all then you risk serious injury.
A Warm Down: A warm down should be down after any main activity. It is done to remove the lactic acid from your muscles. Again it should not be strenuous, a light jog (or even a slow walk) is sufficient for a warm down. You should also stretch your muscles (in the same fashion as mentioned above). Failure to do this could result in fatigue and soreness for a few days after.
Main Activity: When doing a main activity you need to be aware of what your limits are. Pushing yourself too far can result in serious injury. Although testing your limits is advised breaking them is something that should always be avoided.
Stretches
Stretches need to be performed before and after any activity. This is done to avoid serious injury during the activity and to decrease fatigue after the activity.
These are the basic stretches used. It is important to stretch each muscle properly without straining or forcing the stretch as this could cause serious injury. A stretch should be held for 10-15 seconds. The main ones I will be using are the “Abdom” “Abductor” “Lower Back” “Calf” “Hamstring” “Chest” as these will be the most used areas during my P.E.P.
My Activity: For my activity I am going to firstly make sure I have done a sufficient warm up. This will consist of a steady jog of about 300m then stretching the main muscle groups, then a steady jog back to the starting point. After doing so I will have a short rest period then do a sit up multi level fitness test. This is where you do sit ups to a recorded bleep which speeds up as the levels increase. After doing this I will do a warm down. This will be a slow walk then doing the standard stretches and a slow walk back.
When at home every night I will do 15 repetitions of my 10kg weights. For this I will first stretch my arms then proceed to doing the repetitions. Once completed I will stretch my arms again. This exercise should not be performed alone so I will always have someone with me when executing it. I will also be doing 100 sit ups. Both of these exercises will progress over time.
Technique: When performing my main activities I need to make sure I am using the right technique. When doing the long distance running I need to pace myself and remain at that pace for the duration of the run otherwise I will tire quickly. For the sit ups I need to keep my arms crossed across my chest and have a downward pressure on my feet, doing this every time will allow fair results to come through. For the weightlifting I have a poster that tells me the correct ways to lift the weights, this will help me use the proper technique and reduce the risk of injury. None of these tasks should be performed if I sustain an injury as it will only make it worse and prolong its effects.
Equipment: For my main activities I am going to need several pieces of equipment. For the long distance run I don’t particularly need anything but for the sit ups I need a stereo with tape playing capabilities and a tape of the multi level fitness test. I also need a mat to lye on to support my back. For the weight lifting I need my 10kg weights and the poster which tells me the correct technique.
Fitness Level
Before starting the 6 week training program I tested my fitness levels through a bleep test and a circuit. This is how we test the components of fitness.
Power: Standing long jump
Coordination: Bouncing a tennis ball off a wall alternating the catching and throwing hands
Agility: Slalom through cones
Reaction Time: Dropping a ruler and seeing at what measurement it was caught
Endurance: Bleep test
Speed: Shuttle run
Strength: Throwing a 3kg ball as far as possible from a sitting position using a chest pass.
My results are as follows:
Power: 180cm
Coordination: 18 catches
Agility: 8:20 seconds
Reaction Time: 15cm
Endurance: 7.5
Speed: 5.20 seconds
Max Reps: 15
Highest Level On Sit Up Bleep Test: 5.4
When I performed the bleep test I was suffering from a minor flu which has affected my score on the activity so this will undoubtedly improve on the second time around. As for the other results they should improve after my training period, mainly my targeted components. If they do not then my 6 week plan hasn’t been sufficient enough and I will have to look back at the frequency, intensity etc of the activities done.
My P.E.P
For my 6 week training period I am going to be doing a sit up bleep test every G.C.S.E lesson as well as a 100 sit ups at home every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Every night I will do 15 reps of 10kg weights. I will progressively build up the amount of sit ups and reps I do as well as trying to progress to higher levels on the sit up bleep test. On top of this I will be doing my usual schedule of rugby training. These training sessions are done on Monday, Tuesday and Sunday. If for any reason I feel I am not capable of performing an activity due to risk of injury then I will leave it for that session and see how I am feeling on the next session.
Here is a table showing what I have done over the 6 week training period:
Abbreviations:
G.P.E – G.C.S.E P.E
R.E.T – Rugby Evolution Training
S.R.T – School Rugby Training
D.R.T – Dunstable Rugby Training
Heart Rates
I took my heart rate every time I performed the sit up bleep test (once a week). I took my resting heart rate first, did the activity then took it every minute for five minutes afterwards. Here are my heart rates taken:
This is what they look like when presented in a graph:
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:
Week 4:
Week 5:
Week 6:
Overall:
As I wasn’t at school on week 4 due to half term I took my heart rate after doing my weights and sit ups on Wednesday. This explains why there is a difference in the recorded heart rate compared with the other weeks.
As the weeks progressed my heart rate didn’t really change. My recovery rate stayed pretty much the same through the training period.
Evaluation
Now that I have completed my 6 week training period I have looked back over my personal exercise plan and have found that, although it was hard work it could have been improved a great deal. Doing that many sit ups in a week put quite a strain on my abdominal region. It also got a bit tedious towards the end even though I was using music to keep interest going. Doing the weights every night was fine as it did not take very much time and would be something I usually do anyway. I really should have interspersed my weekly sit ups with some over type of training such as running or maybe cycling.
I did notice an improvement towards the end of my personal exercise plan. Sit ups became easier to do and I found I was able to increase the number of sit ups on a regular basis. The same goes for my weight training as I was also able to do more reps and increase it on a regular basis.
I think it would have been a good idea to base my personal exercise plan a lot more around my life. I think this because sometimes after doing a long session of rugby I didn’t particularly feel like doing 100+ sit ups and had to find extra motivation in myself to make myself do this.
Doing the sit up bleep test was a good way to measure improvement in myself. I made sure I didn’t do it more than once a week as this would only cause heavy strain on my abdominal area and could possibly cause some kind of injury or serious fatigue. My physical appearance hasn’t changed drastically but I think my body composition has increased in muscle and decreased in fat.
I will carry on with my personal exercise plan but will take in to consideration the alterations mentioned above to create a more balanced exercise plan.