Lesson video

Hi, everybody, and welcome to today's lesson.

I'm Mrs. Brooks and today we're going to be talking about the principles of training.

Now, I suspect if you are someone that plays sport or you go into an exercise environment, some of the words that I'm about to share with you in today's lesson, you may have heard before 'cause they're all linked to making sure training is done well, it's done safely, and it does cause improvements or increase in fitness.

So, we're gonna have lots of fun and we hopefully, by the end of the lesson, we will be able to say what the principles of training are, be able to describe them, but then more importantly, be able to apply them and understand how they are used in a way to make sure that there is that improvement in fitness.

Now, our key words for today's lesson are essentially the four principles we are going to learn about, so you may want to pause the recording at this point and just make a note of these, however, we are going to break them down one at a time as we move through the first part of the lesson.

So, we have two parts.

The first part is exactly that.

It's where we're gonna look at those words and make sure we feel confident in how to define and describe them, and then with that confidence, we'll then go onto the second part of the lesson and actually apply them to certain situations, scenarios, all of which are about making an improvement in fitness.

So, let's get started on our first part.

We have Sam here and Sam is a games player and already attending a local gym in order to develop that kind of muscular strength and muscular fitness, and what Sam's saying to us is, really enjoys what they do, but not sure if they're following the session right, and then how to make the sessions different, or progress, or increase the challenge.

So, at this point, do you have any advice for Sam? And if you don't, don't worry.

The idea is today's lesson is if we get asked that question again, we can go to those principles of training, and what those principles mean is essentially they're rules.

It's not rules that can be broken, but rules that act as guidelines.

So, help the process of designing a training programme feel easier and therefore become more effective 'cause what's been done is done in the right way.

Now, an acronym to help us remember those four words is SPOR.

Now, it's nearly like the word sport and we say that word regularly in everything we do in GCSE PE, so if you remember it as S-P-O-R or SPOR, that will really help you remember those four key principles, or as we've just said, as we've just said, like, rules or guidelines.

So, we're gonna take them one at a time and we're gonna look at that S first of all.

Now, that S is for specificity, and what that means is whenever the training is designed, it's important or it's advised that that training is matched to the individual, but also the sporting action that individual is doing.

So, essentially anything that is involved in the sport, what specificity is saying is, can we make it relevant, and that might mean that it has to vary so it matches the needs, the actions, the muscles, okay? It could also, not only the movements, but the muscles that are used.

Is their energy aerobic or anaerobic? So, it's all about that relevance.

So, look at this image here.

We have someone that's doing some work with some free weights, some dumbbells.

Looks like she's doing it on a balance ball and we can see there there's a trainer or someone behind them that's spotting her as she does that movement, so we've almost got this movement from the chest and those dumbbells are being pushed up into the air, so it's almost working that upper body, that shoulder, chest, and possibly muscles in the back.

So, what sporting movements do you look at that image and think they are specific to? Now, did you say a chest pass in sports like netball or basketball? It could be that you're talking about the rowing action when they have to reach out for the oars and then pull the oars back in and then reach forward again.

You may have mentioned when the arms go out in rugby to make a tackle.

You may not have mentioned any of those three things, but all ones where you've real got that upper body pushing the shoulders outwards, but also that extension of the elbow.

So, quick check at this point.

Which of the following are correct considerations when we're looking at that rule, that principle of specificity? Is it A, B, C, or D? I'll give you five seconds to decide.

Well done if you actually identified that three out of those four options are all accurate to that relevance.

So, that energy, is it aerobic or anaerobic? Those movements, we just looked at that example with our individual on that balance ball exercise, and within that also, the right muscles.

Now, just to build on that even more, we've got a sprinter, and look at this training.

This is all about training to optimise speed 'cause a sprinter wants to be as fast as possible, but also want to match some of those actions and some of those muscles used, and that all falls under this principle of specificity.

So, we can see there on that first image that very much is doing that sprint training, all right, and no doubt will be working anaerobically, but those muscles in the lower body need developing as well, so we can see this is an illustration of, you know, things like squats that can be done in that gym environment.

Reaction time is so important for a sprinter to get that real fast start or that explosive start, so that's gonna have to be featured in the training as well, but really developing that power in those lower, in that lower body region really helps with that increase in speed.

So, that's all showing how we've kind of adhered to that principle of specificity by making the training, the actions, the muscles being developed all relevant to sprinting.

So, we've then got progression and overload, and we've got a question here.

What do we think these principles mean? Now, Laura's starting us off by saying she thinks progression must be linked to increase in some way, so you get fitter, and Jun is kind of saying he agrees and then developing that conversation by saying, well, overload suggests to me that you're doing something almost that's not very nice or that it feels more than normal and we're going to unpick that to see if Laura and Jun are actually correct, and we're gonna look at the P and the O from our SPOR acronym, and the P is the progression part, and just look at that description there.

You already can see overload in the description, which is why we're talking about these together.

But I also want you to, I also wanted to highlight to you the word "gradual." So, progression is, like Laura suggested, it's when there is that increase in exercise or increase in what you do, but that's done gradually so it gives the body time to adapt.

An overload applies to that because often by doing that, you are putting your body under a period of stress, and that stress is normal, it's not horrible, but it's allowing that training or that adaptation to take place.

So, we're gonna talk quite frequently about progression and overload working together 'cause that's exactly what they do.

So, Laura, remember, talked to us about progression and she is correct.

It's when you have that gradual increase so there is a gain in fitness, and more importantly, you're not doing it so it's going to cause injury or it's going to cause discomfort.

So, for example, this illustration here is just showing a really simple kettlebell swing exercise.

You can see from that illustration that the kettlebell starts between the legs and then it's kind of pushed forwards and it's a really good exercise for those legs in, sorry, those muscles in the legs and that lower body.

Now, if we were to consider how progression could be applied, according to this principle, what the athlete could do is maybe swing the next size weight when they're ready or stay on that weight and do a few more swings.

It could be if they were doing 10, they might do 12 or 15.

And both of those things will lead to a increase in muscular fitness, but more importantly, it won't be done at a rate where there's then that injury or potential injury to the lower back, and that exercise can lead to that if that progression happens too quickly.

Now, Jun was also correct about the overload, that kind of placing of stress.

Again, it's that gradual increase of stress so it matches with our progression, but it's all about bringing adaptation, so let's take for example this plank exercise.

I'm sure you may have done this exercise before and it involves that isometric muscle contraction and a lot of the muscles then, particularly in that core in the centre of the upper body, is having to work really hard to hold that position.

Now, it could be if we're going to apply overload that the athlete is told to just hold that position for 10 seconds more to really enhance that core muscular fitness, and I'm sure like me, if you've done a plank position like that and then all of a sudden you're asked to do it again but for 10 seconds longer, that does feel a little bit stressful.

You can sense that feeling of overload, but it's not bad for the body.

It's actually causing the body to go through this progression and hopefully then have some kind of adaptation, an improvement in that core fitness.

So, let's just have a quick check specifically about overload.

So, our question here is, overload requires a high amount of stress in order to improve.

Do we think that's true or false? Well done if you identified that as being false, and the reason being is that word, gradual, which I've tried to emphasise, and it is important that one, we do overload, but we do it in a way that's gradual so we have that increase in fitness, but we don't put ourselves at risk of being hurt or injured.

And finally on our SPOR, we've then got that letter R in our acronym and that is for reversibility.

Now, think about a car.

When it goes backwards, we refer to it reversing, and that's the best way of remembering this as a rule or as a principal, and it just reminds us that adaptations can occur, but if the training stops for whatever reason, then that adaptation will be lost.

So, we can see here, this footballer, to me, looks like potentially there has been an injury.

The fact that he's got his hands over his face suggests that he's aware that he's possibly had an injury during that game, and unfortunately injury is common in sports.

We learn lots about the types of injuries and how to mitigate them or prevent them, but what it does do often when we are injured is it forces you to stop exercising and training.

Now, what other reasons can you think of that might stop us from exercising? I would love to hear your discussions here and I'm imagining you may be saying things like being ill, illness, potentially holiday, could be a bereavement or if you are pregnant.

So, there are other reasons beyond injury where you potentially might not train.

It could be that you're bored and you don't want to do it anymore and you've lost that motivation.

So, what reversibility is is just to remind us that if that's the case and you do stop, there will be that loss in fitness.

Now, there's a really common phrase used around reversibility is that "Use it or lose it." So, you're going to go through those adaptations, but the minute you don't use them or you stop, then they will be lost.

And that car analogy, that moving backwards, reversing, is a really good one to link to our principle here.

Really good question from Laura here.

Well, you know, how quickly are those gains lost according to reversibility? Now, there's no set rule 'cause that will really depend on the individual, the age, how long they've been exercising, the type of exercise they do.

There's lots of factors, but roughly the guide is that fitness will be lost three times as fast as it was gained, so I always hold onto that, that if I do something over a period of six weeks where I have a particular focus, if, for whatever reason, I have to stop, those gains, those adaptations can be lost three times as fast, so I could lose them within two.

But we do need to remind there that a beginner will maybe lose those effects at a much faster rate than maybe an individual who has been training for quite a long period of time or training at a high level, but good question there from Laura.

So, quick reminder here.

We have a check here.

Which principle of training reminds us that fitness is lost when exercising or training stops? Think about our SPOR and which one is the correct answer here? Absolutely, it's reversibility.

It's that car going backwards.

So, that leads us onto our first task.

Lucas is a hockey player, so we've talked about a sprinter and we talked about Sam as a games player.

Lucas is specific to hockey and we're just being asked here if you can describe the principles of training for Lucas.

So, we can see there, we've got our sport, we've got specificity, progression, overload, and reversibility.

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

Welcome back.

How did you do? So, you might have said, particularly for specificity that it's all about that relevance.

So, in here, we've got an example of those, both aerobic and anaerobic systems, 'cause hockey does involve both of that explosive energy, but also that time to be able to move through phases of play and last the game, and also those muscles in the legs to be able to run, but also those in the arms that are involved with those skills such as dribbling, hitting the ball.

Progression.

I'm hoping that you got that key word in there about gradual and also the fact that it's got that link with overload for the adaptation, but to be safe and free from injury.

Overload could have been linked to kind of lifting or sprinting, but the fact that you will go through a period of stress to get through that adaptation, and finally, link in some of those things that might stop us from exercising or stop Lucas, such as injury or illness, and just be reminded that that can be lost three times as fast as it was gained, and there's a key word in there about regression, so there is a reminder that with reversibility when you do return to training, the intensity that you're working at will need to be reset or just go backwards in order for you to rebuild that fitness.

So, now we know our SPOR principles.

We're now gonna look at applying them to bring about that improvement in fitness.

So, for this sport, we're actually looking at a netball athlete.

So, you can see there just by watching what she's doing, she's playing netball and she's just doing a really simple dodging drill, but what we've been shared with here is that she's really keen to do some training to improve the explosive strength or that power in her arms to make the passes more powerful in the game.

So, we're being presented with a scenario, and sometimes it's good for that scenario to consider why would that be beneficial for her in the game? Awesome, did you say things like, "If she's passing with more power, it's definitely gonna get to her teammate"? "It could be that if it's got more power it's not as easy to intercept, and that as a result will mean her and her team are keeping possession of the ball." Now, the questions that we really want to ask though are those principles.

We can see there in that image, we've got almost what a chest pass might look like in netball, and if we use our SPOR acronym, some of those questions we would ask are, first of all, what muscles is she wanting to really work on and what are the types of movements she might use with passing? It might not be a chest pass.

It could be a shoulder; it could be an overhead pass.

We'll look at that progression and that overload together.

Now we understand how they are linked and maybe then considering how she might have that gradual increase in intensity so that her power does improve, and finally not forgetting that if there is an injury, and that is very common in sports like netball, what would happen? What would need to, what would her trainer or her herself need to be aware of in terms of those adaptations being lost and then that regression when she would be then returned to training? So, let's have a little bit of a think about specificity here, and we've got three images, sorry.

Which one of them would you say is more suitable specifically to a chest pass in netball? Did you go with A too, and we've seen that image before in the first part of the lesson, and it very much is that pushing action, which is the same kinda action you would do in a chest pass.

Now, the other two though, we do need to be aware, they would be great exercises in terms of working on those muscles, particularly those biceps and those triceps in the upper arm that are involved when it comes to netball passing, but this is the one that matches the sport in action more so.

So, just to build on that even more in terms of applying that specificity, we can see our netball athlete there is doing almost, like, a push or a pressure exercise using those dumbbells and it is that same movement as that chest pass action.

Now currently, she's using the 12.

5 kilogramme dumbbells in order to do that, or that little video you've just watched.

In terms of application of progression and overload, what would we need to consider here, and hopefully you all are shouting or saying to yourself, "Gradual," and that's right, and this is what our netball athlete did.

She started with those 12.

5 kilogrammes, and then by week three, so it wasn't instant, she needed to develop at that weight, those got increased to the next size weight, so there's that gradual increase, and then she was able to use the 15s.

That would've been difficult initially, it would've been that challenge.

It was that sense of overload and stress but it's all about to bring about, all about bringing about that adaptation.

So, with regards to applying progression and overload, we've given an example there of increasing the weight and doing it at the right time and in a gradual way.

Other strategies are time sometimes can be useful to apply this.

It could be that you give more time to be exercising or that time in between, that recovery time, is less.

Weights, as we've just already discussed, you can be increasing the amount of weight or it could be that you might change the reps and sets.

By that, we mean you might increase the number of times that you do a repetition, so that is one lift.

So, for our netball athlete, she could've stayed at that weight and maybe rather than lift 12, lifted 15 repetitions, or it could be the sets, which is a group of repetitions, so rather than lift two sets, it could be that she, again, gets asked to do three.

Okay, so which principle of training has been applied here when we increase that weight from 12.

5 to 15? And well done if you did that link in terms of we've got the two principles.

That is both progression, but also that overload as well.

And for our athlete, you're just seeing her now doing a very different exercise, but hopefully you're seeing that and can understand how that's applying specificity.

She's using that slam ball, it's quite a heavy bit of equipment, and pushing it down onto the floor, so all those arm muscles that we've just referenced are being used and what I like about this exercise is there is the relevance, but also it's different for her, so there's that opportunity to keep her motivation and her focus high.

And by moving that heavy slam ball, that's really gonna increase that development in arm power, which was what our scenario was that we were applying these principles to.

So, let's change track now and look at a sprinter, and our scenario this time is that the sprinter has asked to improve speed, but wants to look particularly over the first 30 metres of the race.

Now remember, it's always good to just think about the context.

Why would that, why would that increase in speed be of benefit to her? Hopefully, you've said if it is over those first 30 metres, it's about getting that positive start, getting ahead of the opponents, running the race in a quicker time, achieving a personal best depending on what her goals are, but what we wanna do is apply that SPOR, the acronym.

So, to make it specific, it's anaerobic and it will involve that training of those leg muscles, but also those arm muscles to get that rapid arm action.

With that progression, it might be that if she's doing some sprint training, she's doing some intervals and there'll be that gradual increase in maybe distance, or if she's doing, if we're applying overload, it could be that they might wanna decrease the recovery time.

So, keep the distance the same but have a shorter recovery time between the intervals, and then not forgetting that that exercise will need to be regressed if she stops training, or has a holiday, or is ill for whatever reason.

So, we have three sprinters here, just for another check.

Laura is going to tell us that she is doing three sets of 20-meter intervals and then she increases it to 25, Sam is saying that she's doing her sprint training on a track surface, and Andeep is saying that he's now back in the gym doing some muscle work, muscular fitness work, after a period of illness.

Which of our sprinters is describing specificity? Well done, it is, in fact, Sam.

Andeep is that rule of reversibility, Laura was that progression and that overload by that increase in distance, and Sam was actually talking about specificity, so matching the training with the actions of the sport and using the right surface in order to complete that training programme.

Which moves onto our final task.

What I would like you to do is, first of all, choose a sport of your own.

We've given multiple examples throughout the lesson, but you pick one that you would prefer to talk about.

Describe how you would apply our SPOR in order to increase fitness in that sport, describe the benefits of using these principles, and finally analyse how specificity, so this question is only on one principle, but how would it cause an improvement in performance of a long jumper? Pause the recording and come back to me when you're ready.

Welcome back.

How did you do? So, for our first question, it really will depend on the sport that you've chosen, but I'd like to share with you an example from badminton and a racket sport, and you can see here we've got our four principles from SPOR and each of which has been linked to badminton, so whether it's specificity, doing the right type of distance on a badminton court to mimic that movement, those short, sharp movements, that progression in terms of that would be gradual on those sprint intervals, overload potentially could be that reduction in rest time between each interval and just being reminded that there's that loss in fitness if training has to stop.

Now, the benefits of using these.

We've spoke frequently throughout the lesson around there are very much rules to make sure fitness to be at its best, but relevant, safe, and then free from injury, and also there's that element of if you know you're following the right training programme, your motivation, your focus is going to be high so you're then gonna work to the best of your ability.

And that last question was just reminding us that if we get a question on one of the principles, we link it to the sport.

So, in this instance, it was a long jumper, so you know, it is really important that there is sprint training that happens for a long jumper because of that run-up element of their sport, and if they do some sprint training or they do some work in their legs to make them more powerful, that is very much making that relevant and matching the actions of the sport, and the impact of that is hopefully gonna be faster, more powerful, and then you're gonna be able to take off better and hopefully jump further to achieve that longer distance.

And we did that with our sprinter and our netballer.

We really considered why they want to adhere or apply these principles of training.

So, in summary, our principles are guidelines, or rules that we follow, not only when designing, but when progressing a training programme.

Our SPOR acronym helps us remember these.

So, we had specificity, progression, overload, and reversibility.

And it's really is about that optimising fitness and performance, increasing their fitness at the right rate, making sure they're free and safe from injury, and those motivation levels will be high so that hopefully that individual will adhere to that programme.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

I've really enjoyed taking you through our principles of training and I look forward to seeing you on the next lesson.