Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

I'm Mrs. Brookes and I'm going to be teaching you today.

We're actually going to be looking at the principles of training and how we apply them to bring about fitness.

Now, these principles are a bit like rules.

And for some of you, you may have heard these terms, particularly if you are working in an exercise environment or you're currently training for your competitive sport environment.

You may have heard your coaches or people around you talk about these rules, and the reasons they're perhaps mentioning them is because they want your training to be as effective as possible.

So you get to your very fittest for the environment that you you're involved in.

However, if you haven't heard these terms, please don't worry.

But by the end of the lesson, we'll hopefully feel much more confident in what these rules are.

So our aim is that, by the end of the lesson, we'll be able to say what the terms are or the principles are and be able to recall what they mean.

And then when we've developed a confidence in that, we'll be able to apply them to different scenarios at different sports, all of which is about trying to bring about that improvement in fitness.

Now, we've got some keywords for today's lesson.

You can see the ones on the left there are actually our principles that we're gonna go through.

So you might wanna pause the recording at this point and take a note of what each of those principles mean or, if not, know that we're going to actually go through each one of them in much more detail.

So the first part of our lesson is very much where we're going to look at those rules that we've just seen on that previous slide and be able to define them.

And then when we've developed a confidence in that, we're gonna be able to apply those principles to bring about an improvement in fitness.

So let's have some fun and let's get started.

Now I'd like to introduce you to Sam.

Now, Sam's a games player and he's already working at a local gym to kinda develop that muscular fitness and strength for the game.

Now, what they are telling us is there's a real enjoyment in doing that, but not quite sure if they're following the right session and how to progress those sessions.

So at the minute, would you have any advice for Sam? Now if the answer for that is no, I'm not quite sure what to say, don't worry.

That's what this lesson is all about.

And what we would do with Sam is we would introduce the principles of training and the reasons we'd introduce them is because, like I said in the introduction, they're very much rules to follow when designing a training programme, but more important when progressing it and progressing it safely so that Sam would get fitter but they wouldn't be at risk of injury.

Now what we do to help us understand this is we use an acronym called SPORT.

Now, that's interesting 'cause we probably hear lots in these lessons around the word sport, considering what we're studying.

But right now we're using that as an acronym to help us understand and make these principles memorable.

So we're going to see this word a lot and we're gonna understand what each of the letters mean within that SPORT acronym.

So it makes sense that we start at the beginning, and we're gonna go with the S.

And our first principle is specificity.

Now what that's saying to is that when the training programme is designed, it needs to be as specific as it can be to the sport that you're training for.

So what we could do is we could use that word relevant.

All right, so you make it relevant to the movements that you do, the muscle, the main muscles that you use, maybe some of that energy, whether it's aerobic or anaerobic.

So there we are.

We've got that word relevance, okay, making it link as much as possible to the sport you're then gonna compete in.

So could be those movements as I've just said.

Could be those muscles.

We've learned about those main muscles in that lower and upper body, and whether it uses aerobic energy, anaerobic, or maybe both.

So let's look at this exercise here as a bit of a starter.

We can see there that a trainer is helping this athlete.

Looks like they're on a balance ball, but using some dumbbells, using some free weights, and just pushing them into the air doing this movement.

So I could push press or a bench press exercise.

Which sporting movements might this exercise be specific to, might be relevant for? What do you think? Now I suspect you might have said something like a chest pass in netball or basketball.

It could have been that when you're reaching out to grab in a tackle in rugby.

It could almost have been when you are moving the oars forward when you are rowing to then pull them back to keep the oars going as quickly as possible whilst in that rowing boat.

Now, don't worry if you said a different one.

What I was really kinda getting you to do is just kinda remind ourselves about some of the movements that we do when we're training.

If they are relevant to our sport, then they're having some kind of benefit.

So quick check on our word specificity.

Which of the following, A, B, C, or D, are correct when considering this rule of specificity? I'll give you five seconds to decide.

Well done if you identify that actually three out the four of these are all correct.

We spoke about how it's relevant to the energy, relevant to the movements, and also relevant to the muscles that are being used.

So let's move on on our acronym and look at the P and the O.

Now, what we actually do is we put them together to come up with this term progressive overload.

So what do you think that principle might mean? Now, Laura says about the progressive part that she thinks that that might be when you get an increase in training.

So maybe you do things a little bit more challenging So then you get fitter.

Jun is completely agreeing with Laura, but then talking about the overload part and thinking that that suggests that, by overloading, you might be doing things more than normal.

And also, he links that to bringing about some improvement.

So what I can share with you is our P and O from our acronym is exactly aligned with what Laura and Jun were telling us.

you do get that increase in fitness because you gradually increase the intensity.

Now notice I really emphasise the word gradual there, all right, because we want to do that in a way that we are getting fitter but we're not putting ourselves at risk of being injured.

All right, so it's that gradual increase in intensity to get those gains.

And then the overload part is linked to that again gradual, but you are gonna place your body under some element of stress, and that's not bad stress.

That's actually just working more than normal so that you get some adaptation, so that you see some change.

So, absolutely, Laura was correct 'cause of that gradual increase in intensity but trying not to make sure we don't avoid.

Sorry.

We do avoid injury.

Now, really simply, this is a kettlebell swing exercise.

All right, so really good exercise for those kind of major muscles in the lower part of the body.

Now, if we were gonna follow this rule of progression, what would we apply there? How would we increase the exercise so that we do get fitter? Now, what the athlete could be asked to do is maybe swing the next size.

So you can see she's holding a kettlebell there and they come in different weights and different sizes, so she could increase to the next weight.

Or, she could stay on that same weight that she's currently swinging and maybe just do more repetitions.

So by that, it means more times that she actually completes those swings.

And in both cases, she'll get some gains in her muscular fitness over time.

But more importantly, if that's a gradual increase, there won't be that issue or that risk of maybe injuring the lower back, which can happen with this kind of exercise if you don't do it correctly or you lift a too heavy weight too quickly.

Now, Jun is also correct in terms of the overload element.

Remember that's a gradual increase in stress.

So you are gonna work harder than normal, but if you do it properly, then that's gonna bring about some adaptation.

So let's look at this exercise this time.

This athlete is doing a plank.

You may be familiar with the plank.

Now, it might be that she's asked to hold it for 10 seconds initially to improve her muscular fitness.

And over time, she continues to do that 10 seconds.

And then the next time she does it, she might be asked to do it for another 10 seconds, maybe even five.

But the key thing there is that's a gradual increase that's gonna feel stressful.

It's gonna feel different.

It's gonna feel harder than what she's used to, but that's a positive thing 'cause it will bring about that adaptation, that development in her core fitness.

So quick check on our progressive overload.

Is this statement true or false? It requires a high amount of stress being placed on the body to be able to improve.

What do you think? Well done if you identified that as false.

That is false because we do want stress but not a high amount of stress.

That would suggest that potentially someone's gonna get hurt if you're making them feel really uncomfortable.

But if that stress is gradual and it's done in the correct way, then you're gonna bring about those fitness gains and not get hurt.

So moving on to our R.

We've done our SPO, and we're now looking at our R.

Now, that stands for reversibility.

I want you to think about a car, okay? When it reverses, what does it do? It goes backwards.

Well, this is what our reversibility principle is all about.

It's just reminding us that if we stop training for any reason, then we might go backwards.

We will lose those gains that we may have already gone through.

So let's look at this.

We can see there that that footballer looks potentially that there's been an injury.

I'm making that presumptions because of how his hands are on his head, which suggests that he knows that he's been hurt in some way.

And we know this is unfortunate, but injury is common in our sport.

We learn lots about the different types of injuries that can occur.

And what that does, because we have to go through a period of recovery, that does stop us exercising and being able to attend training.

Now, what other reasons could stop us from exercising? Injury is a good example, but can you think of any others? I agree.

You may have said holiday.

You may have said illness.

It could be that you might have mentioned a bereavement.

Pregnancy often gets mentioned at this point 'cause although that doesn't stop us exercising as females, that might mean that we have to tailor our exercise programme because our bodies are changing.

So there are many reasons why you might stop exercising, and what this rule does is it reminds us that anything we've gained will be lost.

It will go backwards just like we said with that car.

Now, a really common phrase that you might hear when people talk about this is use it or lose it.

And all that means is you have to continue to train to keep using it.

'Cause if you stop, there will be this element of reversibility.

Sometimes people refer to that as regression.

So regression is also another word to kinda go backwards.

You lose what you've gained.

Really good question here from Laura.

How quickly are those gains lost? And there isn't no hard fast rule on this because it will really depend on your sport, your current level of fitness, how much you're training.

But roughly, a guide is that fitness will be lost three times as fast as it was gained.

So for example, if you're doing a six-week training programme, you will go through some fitness gains in that time.

If there was then the injury or the illness, what this guide is sharing with us is that those gains can be lost within two weeks 'cause that's three times as fast.

So it's not the nicest thing to hear, but it is a principle that all coaches need to be aware of.

What a lot of coaches are also aware of is it will really depend on what level you're at.

So maybe a beginner for example might lose fitness at a faster rate than maybe someone who's competing at a higher level and has been training much more regular for a much longer time.

And finally our tea in sport stands for tedium.

Now you can see there that, in terms of the definition, tedium is another word we refer to for boredom.

And what this rule or principle is saying to us is it is very easy to get bored if you do the same thing.

Okay? So we need variety so that an athlete doesn't get bored and therefore their motivation, their focus, their effort can stay as high as possible.

So let's look at a different exercise as a as an example of this.

So we can see here this athlete's doing a very simple forward lunge exercise, really similar to our kettlebell swing, really good for those lower leg muscles.

Now, if he was to do that exercise over, and over, and over again over a number of weeks in his programme, it is really highly likely that there could be an element of boredom.

So what this principle says is, okay, we don't want that to happen.

We need the motivation levels to remain as high as possible so that the athlete's putting in maximum effort.

So really simply, a lunge exercise like this could be varied, and we can see the athlete here is doing a really similar exercise but her rear foot, her back foot has been elevated, and we refer to that as a rear foot elevated lunge.

All right, so we can see there's this similarity but there's also variety.

Interestingly that's almost an element of progression and overload, like that's a bit harder.

So there's been a gradual increase in challenge there and also a little bit of stress, particularly on that back leg, 'cause it will feel a little bit harder because it's being elevated.

So a lot of our rules do kind of connect with each other.

Here's a really good example of a sprinter.

We know a sprinter wants to be as fast as they can, all right, but they might do a variety of exercises to help them with that but really to make them not get bored.

So we can see on the left there we've got those simple kind of sprint intervals.

It might be that they go into the gym and do some work, some power and some strength on their lower body, particularly, for example, squats.

It could be that they do some skill-based stuff where they work on their reaction time.

And also, they need that power in their legs and their arms to really drive them quickly to run as fast as possible.

So another quick check at this point 'cause we're learning about lots of rules here.

Which of these principles reminds us that fitness is lost when we stop exercising? I'll give you five seconds to decide.

Well done.

That was in fact our car, and that is reversibility, which is a really nice link onto our first task.

Now, I'm gonna introduce you to Lucas.

Lucas is a hockey player and we just need to describe the principles of training he needs to follow to improve fitness specifically in his sport.

So we can see here we've got specificity and progressive overload, and then reversibility and tedium.

So we've got our sport set out.

And in each of those bubbles, we just would like you to give it a brief description about what each of those mean for Lucas.

Pause the recording and come back to me when you're ready.

Welcome back.

How did you do? You could have said.

So for example, for specificity, remember we said that word relevance.

So for hockey we have got aerobic and anaerobic systems being used.

There is periods of sprint and intense effort.

There's also periods of maybe lower and moderate intensity.

All right, so that would make it relevant.

His training would need to match that.

You also need to consider those muscles in the legs that maybe he needs when he's running.

Also in the arms. We're not using the stick and hitting that ball.

Progressive overload, I'm really hoping you got in there that keyword of gradual, knowing that we need that gradual increase in intensity, that element of stress, but only enough that there is those fitness gains and we want Lucas to be safe and free from injury.

Reversibility, did you give some of those examples that might stop Lucas training? Injury, illness, holiday, and knowing that he might lose those gains three times as fast as these he did gain them.

And therefore, when he returns to training, that intensity will need to possibly be regressed or there'll need to be that acknowledgement that he has had to stop for whatever reason.

And finally, we want Lucas to be interested.

We don't want Lucas to get bored.

So it could be that he's training needs to incorporate some different ideas.

It could be that he brings in some hockey drills as part of his training to provide that variety and keep that focus and motivation levels high.

So now we know our sport acronym and we are happy with our definitions and we've done a little bit of examples of that too.

We're now gonna look at how we apply them to specific athletes to make sure that they get that improvement in their fitness.

So we're gonna start here with this athlete because we've got a netballer here.

She's doing a really simple dodging drill, but we're hearing that her scenario is that she wants to do some training and she wants to look at the explosive strength, so that power in her arms to make her passes more powerful.

Now, why is she wanting to do that? That's a really good point to say at this point.

Why does she want to get an increase in power? Why will that be beneficial for her? Now, hopefully, you said, well, her passers will be more difficult to intercept or it means if she's passing with that power, it means she can pass them over a larger distance or she's definitely gonna get them to her opponent.

So other questions we'd need to ask now link to our sport acronym, R.

For specificity, we'd need to think about those type of muscles in her arms, and the type of movement she's doing when she's gonna be passing.

And then for progressive overload, we'd need to remind ourselves that there is an element of needing to increase the intensity, but that it's gradual, so that power does increase.

A reminder that if she was to get hurt.

And netball, like a lot of sports, there is common injuries from that game and match play.

So we just need to be aware of what happens if that was to occur.

And we want her to make sure that she's at her highest motivation levels.

So how could we add that variety to avoid boredom? Now, notice in that image there, we have got really simply what a chest pass looks like.

So for our first check, sorry, which of these would be more suitable for a chest pass in netball? Do you think it's exercise A, B, or C? Now, this is interesting, isn't it? I'm hoping you went with A just because you really see that relevance there of that kind of pushing forward motion.

All right, and if you're doing that with weights, those arms are gonna get more powerful.

That being said, there's other two images there, they are still using.

So we've got our tricep extension and we've got our bicep curl.

They're still using the same muscles that would be useful for our netballer, but we've got a real kind of specific movement being shown so potentially is the most suitable.

Okay, and we see there with this similar netball athlete doing exactly that, so using those dumbbells and using that push press exercise which is really similar to the kind of chest pass action in netball.

Now how about if this athlete wants to use progressive overload? So currently, she has pushed pressing 12 1/2 kilogrammes.

Now, if we apply progressive overload correctly, it potentially might be that maybe by about week three, we need that gradual increase.

And to make that gradual, we don't wanna go too heavy, too fast.

It could be that she goes to the next size up, which is then those 15 kilogramme dumbbells.

Now, some other examples of how you might apply progressive overload and it really does depend on the sport and the type of training that the athlete is doing.

But just some examples here.

Time is a way of doing that.

So it could be that you work for longer or your recovery time is reduced.

So you almost have to get those fitness gains by having less time to recover.

As we just explained, therefore, a netball athlete, you could just simply increase the amount of weight that's being moved, or it could be that you use the same weight but maybe do more repetitions, so the amount of times that you lift, or more sets.

Now, a set is a group of repetitions.

So there are just a few basic examples there of how you might use that progressive overload.

So which principle of training has been applied here from increasing from 12.

5 to 15 kilogramme? Is it specificity, progressive overload, reversibility, or tedium? Absolutely.

We've just gone through that, haven't we, for our net baller? That is an example of progressive overload and that gradual increase.

Now, look at our athlete now though.

Still in the same gym environment but doing a slightly different exercise.

This is applying tedium.

So she's using a slam ball.

That ball there is quite a heavy weight, but as you can see, it slams on the floor.

And those the same arm muscles are being used.

However, this is probably providing varieties, it's still working on powering her arms, but it's doing it in a way that she's not gonna get bored.

Those motivation, those focus levels will be high.

And moving a heavy slam ball like that can really develop that increase in arm power.

So let's look at a different scenario now.

We've got a sprinter here, and the sprinter is saying that she wants to improve speed.

I think there'll be really obvious reasons why she wants to do that, but she's looking particularly over the first 30 metres of the race.

So kinda that start to the first 30 metres.

It's always good to ask ourself why they want that improvement in those fitness gains.

I'm guessing we're all thinking, well, she probably wants to win the race.

It could be that she wants to run it in a faster time, or it might be that she wants to go ahead of certain opponents that maybe are running a slightly quicker time than she is currently.

What's the most important questions though in terms of that? Well, how will we apply all the idea to our principles of training? So a nice way of showing this is to put our SPORT acronym down the side, and we can almost just remind ourselves of some of those questions that are key for our sprinter.

So what event is it? Well, it's really anaerobic.

It's all about explosion and power, and no oxygen is used, and you've got that real rapid leg and arm movements.

So that would make it relevant.

It really is probably quite common that a sprinter will do some of those sprint intervals.

So in terms of applying progressive overload, it could be that those intervals get slightly longer or you get that decrease in recovery time, and both of which will place that stress on the sprinter so that hopefully that adaptation will occur.

Remind ourselves that it will need to be regressed if there's any kinda reason to have a break or to stop training.

And then what kind of things could she do to avoid that tedium? It could be that she does some hill sprints or even use of some resistant bands.

And actually, again, both of those could apply to be progressive.

Sprinting up a hill is much more challenging and the resistant band does create some resistance for a reason.

It almost places that stress on the body.

So we have three sprinters here, and they're going to share with us something about their training.

As our checkpoint, we need to work out which one of them is actually describing tedium.

So Laura tells us that she's doing three sets of 20-meter sprint intervals, and then she's gonna increase that amount to 25 metres.

Sam says that the sprinting will take place on a track surface.

And Andeep is saying that, as well as doing his sprinting, he's also in the gym doing some strength and power work in his legs.

So five seconds to decide which sprinter is describing tedium.

Well done.

It is in fact Andeep.

All right, we can see Andeep is talking about that variety.

So as well as doing some work on the track or outside, there's that variety in the gym so that those boredom levels will hopefully be kept to a minimum.

Out of interest, did you pick out that Laura is actually giving us some examples of progressive overload, so increasing that distance.

And Sam's talking about specificity, so making the sprinting and the running relevant to the competitive environment.

So training on the track.

Okay, now, this leads us to our final task and what I would like to do is pick a sport of your choice.

We've given some examples today of some sports.

You may want to use one of those or you may choose a sport that you feel more confident talking about.

And when you've made that decision, can you describe how you will apply the principles of training to increase fitness? Now, following on from that, I want you to kind of acknowledge what those benefits would be of using those principles.

And then for our last question, we're actually being a bit more specific here, even though we're using the word specificity.

But this question is showing how you use analyse and is actually saying specificity.

So we can only talk about that principle and how that will improve performance in a long jump.

So the sport, the activity has even been given to us in the question as well.

So we need to link specificity the to the long jump.

But because it's asking us to analyse, what's the impact of that? How will that lead to an improvement in performance? Pause the recording and come back to me when you've done these three questions.

So how did you do? Now, I know this will really depend on the sport that you've chosen.

But for badminton, I'm just gonna give you an example of how that could have looked.

So you would go through your sport acronym in order.

So for a badminton player, for specificity, it could be that they acknowledge that they need to do those short sprint intervals with lots of changes of direction, 'cause that really kinda mimics the movements in games.

And a lot of that is very much anaerobic based.

For progressive overload, if they're doing those sprint intervals, it's basically they would link to how they might gradually increase those.

And it could be, if they don't wanna increase the distance because the badminton court is what it is, and doesn't extend, it stays that way, they then might have that reduction in recovery time between each interval, which will also mimic some of that gameplay.

Use it or lose it.

If it does have to stop for whatever reason, then they need to be aware of that regression in the fitness.

And finally, to avoid boredom, it could be that they incorporate some of those badminton skill drills into that training, or use some of that gym-based work to work that kinda strength and power in the legs and arms. So that's our description of how we would apply them.

Did you then say what the benefits of those would be? I mean the main things are that we've shared throughout the lesson is it's all about optimising the fitness.

So being as fit as you can be, make it relevant for your sport, but also being safe, and that you are free from injury.

And some of those principles also allow the motivation levels to remain high and allow you to stay focused, particularly if you're not bored.

But also if you're seeing the benefits and you're feeling safe, that's gonna be the best it can be, and therefore you're gonna work to the best of your ability.

And the final question, this was a real specific question in terms of using our analyse, given that actual principle and also given the sport, which we do need to prepare for.

And really simply, I hope that you kinda linked specificity to the long jumper by saying that it's pretty important that they develop that speed for the run-up, but also that power in the legs to be able to take off and jump as far as they can.

But to meet that analysed commands, did you then link to the impact? How would that cause an improvement in performance? Well, if they do the right training and they follow these principles, arguably, that run-up will be faster and they will have that more power in the takeoff.

So the impact of that is they're gonna jump a lot further.

They're gonna get that larger distance, which is, for a long jumper, that's what they're trying to achieve.

So, well done on completing our final task.

Let's summarise what we've now learned in this lesson.

We know now that these principles are guidelines or rules, and it's all about making the design a good programme, but more importantly progressing it well.

We learn this through our SPORT acronym.

Alright, so a really good way of keeping it memorable.

Remember our S for specificity, our P and O went together, our R was for reversibility, and last but not least was our T for tedium.

And we know each of these rules very much support an athlete in optimising their performance, increasing fitness, but being safe and keeping those motivation levels high.

Thank you so much for joining me on today's lesson and I look forward to seeing you on the next one.