In my entire personal exercise programme I must make sure that I have kept the three main principles of training so that my programme is not just a waste of time. The principles of training are:
- Specificity, this says that any training done should be specific to the sport that the individual is training for and also the energy system/s used in this sport should be the one/s used in training.
- Progressive Overload, this says that for improvement and adaptation to occur the individual should feel stress and discomfort- this is the overload. Then the body will start to cope with the stresses and adapt so the intensity of the training should increase- this is the progression.
- Reversibility, this explains why performance deteriorates when training ceases or the intensity decreases. Seven weeks of inactivity has the following effects:
- Significant decreases in max oxygen intake, up to 27%
- Stroke volume and cardiac output decreases, up to 30%
- Strength deteriorates
- Heart rate and blood lactate increases.
Warm ups and warm downs (safety)
Before training it is imperative to perform a warm-up. A warm-up should make the body ready for exercise. It can prevent injury and muscle soreness. It also has the following physiological benefits:
- It enables the body to have greater amounts and increased speed of oxygen and blood delivery to the muscles.
- It increases the temperature of muscles, which increases muscle metabolism and therefore ensures that they’re an available supply of oxygen and through the breakdown of glycogen.
- Increased temperature also enables the muscles to have greater elasticity and extensibility of muscle fibres, which leads to increased speed, and force of a contraction.
- It makes us more alert, due to an increase in the speed of the nerve impulse conduction.
- It increases production of synomial fluid, this ensures efficient movement at the joints.
Warm-ups should be specific to the activity that is going to follow. Warm ups should follow these stages:
- This part is to increase their heart rate, which increases the speed of oxygen delivery, and resists the body’s temperature. This can be achieved by some kind of cardiovascular exercise e.g. jogging.
- Now stretching or flexibility exercises should occur, both static stretches and some callisthenic type activities where the muscle as working over its full range of movements.
- Then some activities should be done that are specific to the activity that is going to follow.
Taking all this into account for my training plan I have worked out this warm-up which I will use for every session;
- 5 minute jogging 60-70% of maximum heart rate.
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15 minute full body stretches. (See pages on stretching)
After exercise it is important to follow a similar process to that of the warm-up. It should involve some kind of light continuous exercise where the heart rate remains constant. The purpose of this is so that oxygen can be flushed through the muscle tissues, this will remove and oxidise any lactic acid. Then this will also limit the effects of Delayed onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS). Then some stretching should follow then flexibility will improve, as the muscles are very warm. My warm-up for each session, taking into account this information will be:
- 2-3 minute jogging 40-50% of maximum heart rate.
- 10 minute full body stretches.
Importance of stretching
These pages are about the stretches that I will do before and after each session.
When done properly, stretching can do more than just increase flexibility. The benefits of stretching include:
- Enhanced physical fitness
- Enhanced ability to learn and perform skilled movements
- Increased mental and physical relaxation
- Enhanced development of body awareness
- Reduced risk of injury to muscles, joints, and tendons
- Reduced muscular soreness
Proper breathing control is important for a successful stretch. Proper breathing helps to relax the body, increase blood flow throughout the body, and helps to mechanically remove lactic acid and other by-products of exercise. When you inhale, the diaphragm presses downward squeezing the blood out of the internal organs and their associated blood vessels. As you exhale, the blood vessels flood with new blood. This is the respiratory pump. This is important during stretching because increased blood flow to the stretched muscles improves their elasticity, and increases the rate at which lactic acid is removed (this is more important when stretching during the warm down).
A stretch should be held for at least 20 seconds. This is to give the muscle fibres time to be stretched.
When stretching you should not bounce, just hold the stretch still if it is a static stretch. Bouncing can cause micro trauma in the muscle, which must heal itself with scar tissue. The scar tissue tightens the muscle, making you less flexible and therefore more prone to pain.
Stretches
Neck stretches.
Standing up straight, twist your neck to the left and hold, then to the left and hold. Then do the same to the front and back. This has stretched the muscles in your neck now you should rotate your neck but not fully 360° only 180° at one time.
Rotation of the shoulder.
Firstly with the right arm rotate it about the shoulder joint, firstly 10 times forward then 10 times backward. Do the same for the left arm.
Tri-cep stretches.
Take one arm and hold it across your chest as seen in the picture but keep your arm straight. Do the same for the other arm.
Now take one arm and put it behind your head, bent at the elbow, and hold with other hand at elbow as shown in the picture. Do the same for the other arm.
Rotation of hips.
Hold your hands on your hips and rotate 20 seconds one way and then 20 seconds the other. Making sure that you rotate to the full extent of the hip joint.
Lower back stretches.
Lying down with your back on the floor, straighten one leg, while bending the knee of the other leg, and trying to bring the thigh of your bent leg as close as possible to your chest. Hold it there. Then cross your bent leg over you’re straight leg and try to touch your knee to the floor (while trying to keep both shoulders on the ground). Repeat this same procedure with the other leg. Then, bend both knees and bring both thighs up against off your chest, keeping your back fully on the floor. Hold it there. Then, put both feet on the floor but keep the knees bent. While trying to keep both shoulders on the ground, roll your legs over to one side and try to get your knees to touch the floor beside you. Hold it there and then do the same but on the other side.
Groin and inner thigh stretches.
Sit down with your back straight and bend your legs, putting the soles of your feet together. Try to get your heels as close to your groin as you can as is comfortable. Now push your knees to the floor as far as you can using your elbows (see picture). Keeping your knees where they are bend your chest over, trying to get it as close as you canto the floor. Hold it there.
Quadriceps stretch
Stand up straight and bend one knee and bring that foot as close as you can to your gluteus maximus. You should have the knee bent as straight as possible not bent to one side. Also you should hold your ankle and not your foot with your hand so not to put too much strain on your ankle. Hold it there. Now do the same for the other leg.
Hamstring stretch.
While lying on the floor put on leg in the air and support it on a wall (see picture). Your leg should be high enough so you feel a pull on your hamstring but it should be comfortable. Hold it there. Now do the same for your other leg.
Calf stretches.
Put one leg in front of the other with both your feet pointing forward. Now push against a wall. You should feel a stretch on your gastrocnemius but if you don’t then move your back leg further away. Hold it there. Now do the same to your other leg.
Rotation of ankle.
Standing straight lift one leg in the air and rotate your ankle joint both ways for 10 rotations either way. Do the same for the other ankle.
Session outline
- 1 minute on each station.
- 30 seconds rests in between each station.
- 2 times through each circuit with 1 minutes rest between each circuit, but still moving so that my muscles do not tighten up.
Stations
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Step-ups: This will help me improve my explosive push off, this is needed to quickly move around the court. This action works on my quadriceps.
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Dumbbells: This will work on my biceps and triceps. This is specifically for the clearance shot from the back of my end to the other side of the court giving me time to recover, hence height is required in this shot so more power is needed for that as well as reaching the back. Also the block shot against the smash tends to be underarm since the opponent smashes to your feet. So this will help me with recovery shots that gain height and length requiring power again.
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Squats: This will work on my quadriceps and abdominals and just like above will help me to return a smash from the opponent.
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Lateral press: This will work on my biceps and triceps, building up my level off power by using control to raise and lower the bar and building muscle fibre to strengthen them.
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Jogging/sprinting: This will mainly work on my leg muscles but will have a general affect on my body on the whole. This is jus to strengthen my leg power and endurance to keep going through a match or even tournament without tiring to quickly. In badminton a lot of the body movement is fast, hence sprinting to all the areas of the court. So 30 metre and 10 second sprints will be done and jogging for 1 minute at a reasonably quick pace.
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Sit-ups: This will work on my abdominals. This is again for endurance more than anything else and flexibility.
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Weights on shoulder: This will work on my deltoids. This is for power and strength in my shoulders, which is the weakest area in my body due to long term problems that did at one stage have a lot of treatment done on it by physiotherapists. My shoulders tent to ache a lot once I’ve played a match and doesn’t help me for my next match say in a tournament. The only way for this to get better is to strengthen it. The pain will never go.
Session 1
First I will do my stretches, which will take up about 2 – 3 minutes. Each stretch will be applied for about 10 – 15 seconds and done a few times each to prevent injuries during my actually work out.
Then I will begin my circuit, spending 1 minute on each exercise with a 30 second rest in between to recover and prepare for the next exercise. I will have water for refreshment and will keep my self moving and not static so that my muscles don’t begin to tense up and affect my work out.
Order of exercises in the circuit:
- Step-ups
- Sit-ups
- Squats
- Jogging/sprinting
- Dumbbells
- Weights on shoulder
- Lateral press
- Jogging/sprinting
(The circuit gets done twice)
Then I will do my warm down consisting of the same stretches as in the warm up and for the same length of time. The reason for why I have done jogging/sprinting in the middle of the circuit is because I feel it gives my muscles a sensible break from strenuous work and I have put it at the end too because I feel that would be the best time to test my endurance levels and prepare my body for warm down.
After thoughts on session
I feel my warm up and warm down was well thought out and doesn’t require any changes. I was ready for the exercises and didn’t find my muscles tense at any time until later in the evening slightly. I should think as the sessions go on this tenseness and slight pain will gradually go. Although this tends to be a good sign because it shows that the muscle fibres are building and so the muscles themselves are gaining strength.
In terms of the order of my exercises I feel that they were well organised. But I do think that as session’s progress more than a minute will be needed at each exercise for a better end result.
Session 2
I don’t see the need to alter my stretching regime and so am going to do the same as session 1, which will take up about 2 – 3 minutes again. Again each stretch will be applied for about 10 – 15 seconds and done a few times each to prevent injuries during my work out.
Then I will do the same circuit as session 1 again but cut down my rest time for in-between the exercises to 20 seconds. The only problem is if I will have enough time to prepare my self in time for the exercise without having to rush. If I rush I think I will get a bad start. Again I will keep moving as much as possible between the exercises so I don’t tense up.
Order of exercises in the circuit:
- Step-ups
- Sit-ups
- Squats
- Jogging/sprinting
- Dumbbells
- Weights on shoulder
- Lateral press
- Jogging/sprinting
(The circuit gets done twice)
Then I will do the same warm down as in the previous session. I may need to warm down for a slightly longer period of time though due to working slightly harder because of the shortened rest periods.
After thoughts on session
Once again I feel my warm up and down was good and am going to stick to that regime throughout the rest of my sessions unless they require changing. I felt quite tired afterwards and did feel more pain in the evening and some in the morning the next day than session 1. I think this was due to my shortened rest periods and so I will go back to the 30 seconds again and see if that is the actual problem in my next session.
In my last session I felt as if an increase of time could be made to the work out per exercise but after this session I feel as if I should temporarily leave it as it is.
Session 3
First I will do the same warm up, 2 – 3 minutes again. Each stretch applied for about 10 – 15 seconds and done a few times each to prevent injuries during my work out.
Then I will do the same work out as in session one. Reverting back to 30 seconds rest periods to see if that caused my tenseness. I am hoping to be able to extend my work out time from a minute to 1 minute and 10 seconds after this session but keep the rest period to 30 seconds. So I need this work out to feel easier on my muscles and feel like less effort was required due to already have done session 1 and 2.
Order of exercises in the circuit:
- Step-ups
- Sit-ups
- Squats
- Jogging/sprinting
- Dumbbells
- Weights on shoulder
- Lateral press
- Jogging/sprinting
(The circuit gets done twice)
My warm down will be done 30 seconds after the last exercise jus like normal and in the same order of the exercises in my warm up, also for the same lengths and a few times over.
After thoughts on session
It is unfortunately clear that I have lost more of my fitness then I thought due to taking a season’s break. Although I did feel easier during the work out that in the previous session. Again I feel like my warm up and down is well thought out and more than sufficient.
Although I did have some after pain and tenseness, it went away relatively quickly this time. So I feel I have progressed and can extend by 5 seconds instead of 10 for now but still keep the rest periods the same time of 30 seconds.
Session 4
I will begin with my usual warm up for the same times as before and doing a few times over.
I have decided to keep to the same order of exercises and remain with the 30 seconds rest periods. But I feel as if I can progress to an added 5 seconds on my exercises making them 1 minute 5 seconds long.
From here on I will be looking to carry on added 5 seconds whenever I feel ready so I can try to reach the 1 minute 15 seconds mark. I will have increased my work out time by 25% by then and feel for now that is a good target to I'm for.
Off course I will be constantly strolling around making sure I don’t tense up.
Order of exercises in the circuit:
- Step-ups
- Sit-ups
- Squats
- Jogging/sprinting
- Dumbbells
- Weights on shoulder
- Lateral press
- Jogging/sprinting
(The circuit gets done twice)
My warm down will then be done as normal. I may have to stretch for slightly longer though due to the increase of time for each exercise.
After thoughts on session
I am very pleased with this session because I managed to cope quite well with the increase of 5 seconds on the exercises. I didn’t feel much tenseness later after the work out either. Although I have made progress, I don’t want to push myself too much at this stage and so I will do this session again and then see how I feel.
I did stretch for longer for my warm down because although I felt fine with no tenseness or pain at that stage, I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel later on in the day. I didn’t feel any pain or tenseness later so I was pleased with the way I organised the timings and extra warm down.
Session 5
This session I will keep everything the same as in my previous session because I felt that went very well and I don’t want to push myself too much since I haven’t played regular competitive sport in a while.
Although I am remaining with the same work out as before I will be looking to see if there is a possibility for me to further progress to 1 minute and 10 seconds (increase of 5 seconds again).
Still I will have to remain focused on not staying still for too long if not at all.
Order of exercises in the circuit:
- Step-ups
- Sit-ups
- Squats
- Jogging/sprinting
- Dumbbells
- Weights on shoulder
- Lateral press
- Jogging/sprinting
(The circuit gets done twice)
Again my warm down will then be done as normal. I may have to stretch for slightly longer again though just in case my body begins to feel the change.
After thoughts on session
I managed fine with the regime being the same as session 4. I didn’t feel pain in my muscles or tense. So taking this into consideration I will increase my individual exercise time to a further 5 seconds more making it 1 minute and 10 seconds.
I think I may struggle in this session with the change, even it doesn’t seem like much. It is actually 8 times the total increase of 10 seconds. That is a total of 1 minute 20 seconds (80 seconds). So I will be going from 8 minutes to 9 minutes 20 seconds from start to finish (exercises only off course).
Session 6
The only change in this session is off course the 5 second increase again. One thing I have not had to do until now, but think I should begin to, is to focus on the last 10 seconds of each work out carefully and push as hard as possible, but I will be looking to see if I need to pull out at any time to eliminate injury.
I will begin the session with a slightly longer stretch. The last thing I want is an injury by pulling or straining a muscle when the new season is up coming shortly.
Off course I will have to keep myself moving all the time and make sure I don’t stay still for too long.
One thing I have not yet mentioned but feel I should think about now is cramps. Generally when I go all out during a run that is long distance I get cramp immediately. I never normally got it during badminton though. But I feel that now the time has increased to 1 minute 10 seconds I may get a stomach cramp in the jogging/sprinting exercise.
Order of exercises in the circuit:
- Step-ups
- Sit-ups
- Squats
- Jogging/sprinting
- Dumbbells
- Weights on shoulder
- Lateral press
- Jogging/sprinting
(The circuit gets done twice)
Just like my warm up will be extended, so will my warm down.
After thoughts on session
I am actually quite shocked at this session because although I had made sure I thought about all the possible worries, none of them seemed to cause any trouble at all during the work out. I didn’t feel tense or pain and didn’t get any cramps either.
I feel as though I have made good progress over the last 2-3 sessions, increasing my exercise times and not struggling a lot. Due to this I will go for the 1 minute 15 seconds time on each exercise in my next session to make an increase of 5 seconds again and try to reach my target.
Session 7
I will be wary of all the possible worries that I was in session 5 and will definitely be very cautious.
I will do the extended warm up again jus like before. I will push myself as hard as I can specially in the last 15 seconds of the exercises.
I will be looking for any possible time I need to pull out and cramps in the jogging/running exercises. I did do a few minute warm up last night to gain as much confidence as possible going into the work out. I am aiming to make this session my last. I hope it goes well so that I will have reached my target in a well-paced progressive fashion. But I will do another session to verify my target has been reached if I feel unsure of the work out.
Order of exercises in the circuit:
- Step-ups
- Sit-ups
- Squats
- Jogging/sprinting
- Dumbbells
- Weights on shoulder
- Lateral press
- Jogging/sprinting
(The circuit gets done twice)
I will be doing the extended work out again jus like in the previous session.
After thoughts on session
The session went well, with no problems at all. Later in the evening I didn’t feel tense or any pain in my muscles, and I didn’t get cramp in the jogging/running exercises.
I will not be doing another session because I feel confident that when I do the fitness tests, that I done at the start of my project again, I will verify this session’s progress.
Evaluation
Overall I felt that my P.E.P. went well and to an extent was very successful. I found this useful as a sportsman because now I really know now how to train properly and effectively. This will help me a great deal in the future when training.
Before I started my PEP I felt tired in the morning and didn’t really wake up until late morning. When I started to do my PEP in the morning I found it woke me up and made me feel better for most of the day. This is because with exercise endorphins are released by the nervous system, which causes the brain to become more active.
I have learned how to evaluate training sessions and my performances more accurately and this feedback helps me constantly keep on improving. Evaluating each session has made me more aware of different aspects of training.
I think that now I have finished the 7 sessions I will try my best to keep the programme going. I doubt it will be to the same intensity and probably not as frequent since I have the whole summer before the season begins. I think carrying on is important because of the reversibility training principle. This would mean that if I stopped the training in a few weeks all the hard work that I have put in would be for nothing since my fitness levels, that did increase, will drop back to the original levels. Although I have made good progress, I still feel I would need to be a lot fitter to try to reach the standard of play I once was at my peak a few seasons ago.
I have not attempted to train on all of the fitness tests because not all of the tests were relevant to the aims of my P.E.P. So I only did the tests that measured my speed (along with acceleration), power and endurance. It would be pointless carrying out tests to measure my reaction time, balance or co-ordination because these were not aspects of fitness that I aimed to improve while doing my P.E.P. Also these are more genetic aspects of fitness, skills you are born with and can hardly be changed by training.
Have any improvements been made?
Fitness retest results
The sit and reach test should show an improvement because I have been stretching before and after each session. The test only measures the leg and lower back flexibility but does show a substantial increase.
In the vertical jump I feel I have a larger improvement in my leg power but the test doesn’t show this. Technique plays a big part in the vertical jump and so it may mean that I have bad technique.
The pull-up and sit-up tests show very little increase because of how short the programme was. A 7-session programme cannot have large improvements that would show up in these sorts of tests.
The bleep test measures the VO2max, which is the maximum volume of oxygen that can be consumed and used by the body per unit of time. I was expecting a very small change if any at all. But I was impressed with my improvement considering the higher-level you are at the harder it is to improve on.
Unfortunately my retest results do not show much improvement, but to an extent I was expecting this since my P.E.P was only 7 training sessions long. On the other hand a substantial improvement would have been understandable since my current fitness levels are far below my peak.
Although the difference in improvement hasn’t been much I do generally feel a lot better about myself and more confident when I am playing in any sport now. I am currently playing football and basketball games on a regular basis and I feel I can go into the match with more than I had before in terms of confidence and energy.
