Basic Training Principles by John Josephs, MS
Filed under: Exercise Science
A few general principles should be considered when planning to start a training program. The primary goal of designing a sound program is to increase performance through structural and functional adaptations derived from training. By alternating frequency, duration and intensity, an individual's goals can be safely attained with careful planning and attention to these training principles.
Individualization
A well-structured training plan is devised to meet an individual's needs. Every person is physically and psychologically unique and will present different strengths, weaknesses, and challenges. The training goals should be based on these factors as well as the individual's work and social schedule or time allotment, financial situation, physical limitations and their commitment toward improvement and level of involvement. This information can be obtained from a pre-training personal interview. Baseline testing and assessments should be performed to establish beginning fitness levels and to individualize training goals, to monitor future progression and determine the success of the exercise program.
Progression
Training programs must offer gradual increases in the exercise workload for optimal adaptation to take place and to achieve the desired goals. These progressive increments must be small to prevent overtraining and injury. A good rule-of-thumb is to increase volume by no more than 10%/week. Logical progression should follow a periodization schedule with cycles of progressice overload and planned recovery.
Overload
The body must be physically challenged and put under a physiological stress in order for adaptation to occur. This workload must be slightly higher than the person's current fitness level and cause fatigue. Alternating increased workloads with rest and recovery will lead to increased physiological changes. If the training load is too high, overtraining or injury may occur. However, if the training load is too low or discontinued and/or decreased for an extended period of time, the training gains achieved will be loss and lower levels of fitness will develop.
Specificity
The workload applied in training must be closely related or identical to the requirements of the training goal. In order to improve participation in a sport or performance in an activity-related skill, it is important to train the identical components and skills related to the specific task involved in the sport's activity. Specific attention should be made to train the muscle groups involved with the same virtual speed and/or motion and also to train the energy systems needed to provide energy for the activity.
Type or Mode
Training must be similar to the identical nature of the activity you are planning to participate. This is a parallel principle to specificity in that training stress should replicate training goals.
Reversibility
Reversibility
If you don't use it, you'll lose it. To improve fitness, training needs to be consistant and follow the above mentioned principles with amply rest and recovery period to prevent burnout and injury. Therefore following an "A" event and/or the end of a macrocycle of training, athletes are encouraged to take a break before transitioning to another training cycle. A discontination of training will detrain an individual by 5% 10% per/week. Therefore, coaches should monitor their athlete's transition phase and encourage cross training mixed with time off for recovery.