Lesson video

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

I'm Mrs. Brookes, and today we're gonna be looking at principles of training and how we can apply them to our personal exercise programme, or our PEP.

I imagine you may have heard some of these words that we're going to talk about today, particularly if you are involved in an exercise environment or you're training.

However, if that's the case and you don't or you haven't heard these words before, please don't worry.

We are gonna try and make sure, by the end of the lesson, you are able to recall these principles of training.

So by that, understand what each of them mean and then make the application to a training and exercise programme to increase fitness.

So our keywords for today's lesson, there are quite a few, and you may want to pause the recording at this point and just take a note of these words.

However, we are gonna talk about them individually as these are all principles of training that we need to be aware of.

So we have individual needs, specificity, and progressive overload, and also overtraining and reversibility.

Likewise, please pause if you would like to just take a note at this stage.

So in order to really fully understand these principles, the first part of the lesson is where we're gonna look at each one individually, look at its definition and its description and then, with that confidence, apply them to an exercise programme in the second part of the lesson.

So let's get started.

I wanna introduce you to Sam.

Now, Sam is a games player and already attending a local gym to try and work on an exercise programme.

And what Sam is saying is they enjoy what they do, but not sure if they're following the right session and how to progress the sessions.

Now, do you have any advice for Sam? And if the answer to that is no, please don't worry.

What I would hope if you got that asked that question beyond today's lesson is you would, first of all, just introduce her to the principles of training.

And what they are are rules or guidelines that we follow when we design a programme, once it's designed, how we progress it so it's safe, and that it brings about that improvement in fitness.

Now, we have quite a few principles that we need to know, and we are going to use the letters ISPOROR to help us remember them.

And these letters in that order might just spark and make it memorable to what each of those letters mean.

And you could argue that sport is almost a word within those letters, and that is a word that we use frequently through our GCSE PE course.

Now, here they are for us in that order, and what we're gonna do is we're gonna just gonna take one at a time to make sure we really understand what that principle is.

So we're gonna start with individual needs.

So remember, it's a rule or a guideline that we're trying to follow to make the programme be as effective as it can be.

And what the I is representing is individual needs.

And just making it very clear from the outset that the training that is set does need to meet the requirements of the athlete.

Now, that feels quite obvious, doesn't it? But for a lot of athletes, a lot of sports, they all have very different needs.

So therefore, they do need to be considered to make sure they match the sport, match the individual.

So let's just unpick that a little bit further.

We've got three images here, all of which align with those individual needs.

Could you work out which each image represents? Now, the first one is potentially looking at the height of the athlete.

It could be how fit the athlete is or also if they have an injury, they're coming back for an injury, or it's all about trying to mitigate injury.

Now, that's not all of them.

There are some here, many of which are factors that you really do need to consider when you're planning the exercise programme.

As well as height, we could also consider the weight, and that will differ amongst a lot of sports.

The age that they're at.

Fitness can decline with age, so we need to be aware of the age of the individual when putting that programme together.

Gender.

How fit they are currently.

Are they already well experienced or they've very little experience with following this kind of programme? That links with their experience, particularly not only in fitness, but in their sport.

And also, if there is an injury, has been an injury 'cause that's important to make sure that the programme is safe.

Now, that leads quite nicely onto our S, which is specificity.

So as well as matching the needs of our individual, when that training is designed, it does need to be specific to the sport that you are training for or the fitness deeds that you are training for.

So by that, it could be what movements take place in that sport, what are the major muscles that are being used, or even whether it's aerobic or anaerobic energy.

And the key thing we're doing with this principle is we're making it relevant, all right? So it it has some purpose and is gonna be linked clearly to the sport.

So we just said there about the movements.

We mentioned the main muscles.

You've learned about all those muscles in that lower and upper body.

So clearly, it makes sense that if those muscle or muscle group is used in that sport that they're the ones that you train.

And also if you're a sport that's working on aerobic or anaerobic energy, the training very much needs to match that.

So just to give an example of that, we've got a photo here of an individual.

It looks to me like they're on a balance ball of some kind, and they're using dumbbells and just pushing them upwards, bringing them back down again.

So we refer to that as a bench press or a chest press exercise.

We can see there's an individual behind her, possibly spotting.

It might even be a personal trainer.

Now, my question to you is, what sporting movements might that exercise be specific to? Now, it could be that you said a chest pass in netball or even basketball.

All right, that is really following that similar kind of movement of the upper body and that extension of the elbow.

It might be if you are reaching your arms forward to grab a tackle in rugby.

It could be if you are rowing, and obviously, you lean forward to pull on the oars back and then push it out again whilst you're completing that rowing action to get a maximum pull through the water.

You may have picked ones that I didn't even mention there, but it was all about trying to match that action with sporting actions that we're familiar with.

So just to make sure we're happy with our principle of specificity, quick checkpoint here.

Which of the following are correct considerations when we're looking at that principle of specificity? Really well done.

Three out of the four are actually correct.

So it's about matching that energy, those movements, all those muscles to have that relevance that that exercise programme is matching that sport.

Now, we move on now to our P and our O, and we're actually gonna put them together, look at progressive overload.

So before we even really define them, what do you think that principle means? Now, Laura actually just talked about the progressive part, and she's sharing with us that she suggests that increase, like if we progress something we do make it better or make it harder, so I can see why she's making that link there, and then linking it to perhaps getting fitter.

And Jun is picking up on that overload part and agreeing with Laura but then saying that overload might be linked to the fact that it's harder or you're doing something more than you're used to.

So let's just take that a little bit further to our actual principle of progressive overload.

Now, it's described as that gradual, so I emphasised the word gradual there, where you do increase what you're doing in your exercise programme so those fitness gains occur.

However, you're doing it in a gradual way because you don't want to get hurt.

It needs to be safe.

You don't wanna do things, too much too quickly, and then that can cause an injury or some kind of pain.

And with the overload, that's kind of matching that gradual, but there will be an element of stress, it will feel not that normal, but that's not a bad thing because adaptation is gonna occur as a result.

So if we revisit what Laura and Jun said to us, Laura is absolutely correct.

It is that increase in fitness, but we've just added that word gradual, and it's all about not avoiding injury.

So if I give you an example here of a very common exercise that would take place in the gym using a kettlebell.

It's known as a kettlebell swing.

It's really good for those that gluteus maximus, those quads, those hamstrings, or quadriceps, sorry, hamstrings, and that upper thigh.

Now, if we wanted to apply progression, that athlete could do two things.

They could swing the next size weight when they're ready and that's the gradual, or they could maintain at that weight and just do more repetitions.

So repetition is the number of times that you would lift that weight.

Both of those things, when applied correctly, are going to cause an increase in muscular fitness.

But more importantly, by doing it gradual, there will be that reduction in that risk of injury to the lower back.

And I chose that exercise because that is quite common that if you try and lift a weight that is too heavy too early, you're gonna lift it with your lower back, and that can cause quite a bit of discomfort and pain.

Now, for the overload, Jun is also correct.

He mentioned about that feeling of stress or something that was happening a bit more than normal, and that's exactly what overload is in order for us to adapt.

So you may have done this exercise.

I know it's quite a common one, it's the plank position, and used quite a lot to develop that isometric muscle contraction throughout the muscles to hold that position, particularly in that core, in those core muscles, those abdominals.

Now, it could be that you are asked to hold that for 10 seconds to really work on that core muscular fitness.

And if we were to apply overload, it could be that you just then get asked to hold it for 10 seconds more.

So there's that gradual, it's not a big increase in time, but I imagine if you were to do that and then do it again and someone said, "Right, hold it for a further 10 seconds," you will have that real feel of stress.

It will feel more than normal.

However, that's a good thing 'cause it's trying to bring about that adaptation, in this instance, to that core muscle group.

So we have a true, false here, just to make sure we are comfortable with this description.

Progressive overload requires a high amount of stress being placed on the body to improve.

Is that true or false? Well done.

It is, in fact, false.

And the reason it's false is we want that overload.

We do need to bring about that fitness gains, but we wanna do it with without injury.

So that stress is a gradual amount according to our rule or our principle of overload.

Moving on to our R now in our letters.

And what this R represents is reversibility.

So think about a car.

If a car reverses, it's going backwards.

And this is exactly what this rule is reminding us, that we can be doing a programme, but if training stops or the intensity changes or has to decrease for whatever reason, there will be a decline.

There will be a loss in that fitness.

Now, we can see our footballer here.

That looks to me that there's been a potential injury, the way that he's holding his leg.

His left leg, in particular.

His arms were over his head suggests that he knows that he's been hurt.

And that is common in sport.

We know that's very common.

And as a result of that, often, in order to rest and recover, you have to stop exercising.

So that means the intensity that you are working at is no more.

Now, it's not just injury that would stop you from exercising.

What else might be the reason why you might not exercise anymore? Now, there are many examples here.

I imagine you may have written down or said a holiday, being ill, maybe even a bereavement, or if you are a female, if you've become pregnant.

It could be that you've lost that motivation and focus and don't want to go anymore.

So there are many reasons why training stops.

What reversibility reminds us though is if that happens, there will be declining in fitness.

Now, a really common phrase with this principle is use it or lose it.

And hopefully you understand now why that's used, because once you are training and those adaptations are occurring, if you are using them, they will maintain.

But the minute you don't use them, that will cause a loss.

And that real analogy there of that car moving backwards or reversing is a good way of remembering that reversibility.

Great question from Laura here.

So how quickly are those fitness gains lost? And I like that she's asked that because when you're doing an exercise programme, if you are doing it for yourself or someone else and they do have to stop, it's important that you know how much they're going to regress.

Now, there's no fast rule on this 'cause it will really depend on those individual needs and the age, experience, fitness levels.

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

So say, for example, you go through a six-week training programme and, for whatever reason, let's say injury, for example, you are forced to stop.

If you've built up an area of your fitness in those six weeks, according to our law of reversibility, that fitness can be lost within two.

So it is quite rapid, but we do just need to be aware that a beginner, for example, might lose those effects much faster than maybe a performer who's been training a lot or highly experienced or training at a high level.

Now, that is a nice link-on to our O, our second O in our letters.

Remember, our first O was linked to overload, progressive overload.

This O is talking about overtraining and just reminding us that when you do an exercise programme, if there isn't that amount of adequate rest and recovery, you might go into a period of being overtrained, and overtraining can have quite serious symptoms and repercussions.

You will really feel fatigued.

You could feel quite poorly.

As a result of that, performance in your sport will be decreased, and you will be at that increased risk of injury.

So the R is a nice little link to that in that it's making sure you, therefore, when that exercise programme is planned, there is that time to do some rest and recovery.

So those adaptations take time.

If you've gone through that progression and overload, you might need that rest day or days so that the muscles can recover, those micro tears can heal, and the muscles can get stronger.

And if you don't do that and you don't give those adaptations time, you might go into that period of overtraining.

So out of our principles here, which is the one that reminds us that fitness will be lost when exercise or training stops? Well done.

That is, in fact, reversibility.

So we're gonna go onto our first practise task.

Now we've looked at all our letters and what each of those principles are, I'd like to introduce you to Lucas.

Lucas is a hockey player, and we are being asked to describe the principles of training that he would need to follow in his exercise programme, bearing in mind he is a hockey player.

And the ones I would like you to look at are specificity and individual needs, progressive overload, and reversibility.

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

Welcome back.

How did you do? I imagine this might be slightly different in how you've said it, but hopefully, with the specificity, you linked that to relevance for hockey.

Very much the fact that hockey can be both aerobic and anaerobic.

And also, those muscles in the lower leg are used, you know, when running around the pitch.

But also, those arms might need some development, those muscles in the arm, for when you're doing the skills such as dribbling or hitting the ball.

The individual needs, for Lucas, he would might need to just take into account his age, what his current fitness level is, and maybe also that experience not only in hockey but in the type of training he is about to do so that he meets the requirements correctly, or, sorry, the training meets his requirements.

For progressive overload, we really picked on that key word of gradual, and it's very important that Lucas would be aware of that and know that there is some stress that he might feel while he's training, but that's good for that adaptation to occur.

But it's done in a way that he's safe and free from injury.

And for whatever reason, if he has to stop, it's just reminding that improvement in fitness will decline.

It could be three times as fast as it was gained.

And then when he does return to fitness training or return to the programme, the intensity might need to be regressed, so he won't be able to start where he left off.

He may need to go back a little bit to rebuild.

We sometimes refer to that as a regression.

So now we feel confident with these principles, we're gonna move on to the second part of the lesson and look at how we would apply them in a specific exercise programme to bring about that improvement in fitness.

So our first scenario for the sport this time is netball.

So we can see our netball athlete there doing just a simple skill within the game, but we're being told that she would like to work specifically on power in her arm muscles, and she wants to make that power more.

She wants to be able to generate more power, more force when she's passing in the game.

Now, before we even look at applying our principles, why would that be beneficial for her? And sometimes it's good to consider the why.

Why are we wanting to bring about that improvement in fitness? And for her, I imagine you might be thinking, well, it means that when she's passing to a teammate, it's definitely gonna get there.

If it's done with more force, it's gonna be harder to intercept.

And as a result of that within that game, hopefully, her and her teammates are gonna keep possession of the ball.

So now we know the why, we wanna consider our principles in terms of what questions we would want the athlete or what the athlete would need to ask.

We've got all our letters to reference here.

So I'll start first of all with our S and our P and O.

And specificity, because we now know it's power, particularly in her arms, we need to maybe consider those muscles in the arms where that power come from and also those type of movements that she might use in a game when passing.

We've got an example of that in our image on the slide there.

That's showing a chest pass.

Sometimes it could be a shoulder pass which is the one hand, or it could be a pass from over the head.

But you'd need to consider those muscles that are used in those movements.

With the progressive and the overload, we'd need to consider, once the exercise programme is in place, how you would apply that gradual increase, particularly when you want that focus of being powerful.

We also have our other letters.

So we might need to make sure we know how old she is, what her height and weight are if she's gonna go into that gym environment, how long has she played netball so she's really familiar with those movements.

And also does she have experience of going into that gym, which is highly likely where she would go if she's gonna be working specifically on power.

We can't ignore the reversibility.

So if she does get injured, particularly, you know, netball has got that high risk of injury, what would happen in terms of the exercise programme? And making sure, particularly if she's playing netball and she's playing matches, there's gotta be that sufficient time to rest and repair so she can go through the adaptations.

So it might be that looking at her overall schedule in terms of when she can train when she's playing and where that rest and recovery time will be placed to not then suffer from overtraining.

So lots of thoughts there, but all really accurate to our principles, and it's all about them making that fitness programme the very best it can be so she gets the most out of it in terms of being more powerful.

If we think about specificity though, which of those exercises that you are currently looking at would be most suitable for her and a chest pass in netball? Yeah, well done.

I agree A as well because that's very much doing that chest pass movement.

However it's important that we look at B and C 'cause they're good exercises.

They're really both working on those triceps in the back of the upper arm and those biceps in the front of the upper arm, both of which will be used to generate power when playing netball.

So all of these will be useful in our exercise programme.

But A in particular is matching that action of passing in netball.

So in terms of applying those individual needs, we've got a another netball athlete here in our little video and you can see that she's using dumbbells and doing a kind of a press or a push exercise.

And that, to me, looks like she's quite comfortable so that's appropriate for her as an athlete in that gym environment.

And as we've just kind of looked at in our checkpoint, that is applying specificity 'cause that movement is very similar to that chest pass action.

Now, you might have not seen it on the video, but she was actually lifting 12 1/2 kilogrammes.

So if we then need to consider how we'd apply progressive overload, what I can share with you is that she started at that, and then about week three of the PEP, she then decided to increase it, and that is a gradual increase, to 15 kilogramme.

So that's the next weight up.

And she did it not straight away, but when she was comfortable and that that was feeling like it wasn't easy but she was ready to then move on to the next stage, and that's that gradual increase.

Remember, it could be that she might have stayed on that weight, but then maybe lifted more repetitions or done more sets to really do that explosive movement.

Now, here are some examples of other strategies you could use to apply progressive overload.

Time is a good example, in that sometimes you might increase how long you're working for or, to make it even more challenging, reduce the amount of time that you get to recover.

We've just spoke about the example of increasing those weights.

And another option, like I mentioned to you, could be keeping the weight same but maybe do more repetitions, so that's how many times you do lift the weight, or the number of sets, and a set is a group of repetitions.

So which principle of training has been applied if we increase that weight gradually from 12 1/2 to 15 kilogramme? Is it specificity, progressive overload, reversibility, or individual needs? Well done, it is, in fact, that progression, being gradual, and that overload, feeling that kind of stress initially, but it's bringing about that increase in power.

Now, our same netball athlete now is here doing a slightly different exercise.

And this is an example of that application of those individual needs.

We identified that she felt experienced in that gym environment.

So what she's been asked to do as part of our programme is a slam ball exercise.

It looks a really good exercise to do as well, doesn't it? And it is because she's been doing fitness for a long period of time.

And this is good because it means it's meeting her experience, but she's also using those same arm muscles, and that meets her requirements.

And I imagine it's probably keeping her motivation and her focus high.

And in moving that slam ball because it's quite a heavy bit of equipment, you're doing it with strength because you're doing it quickly, we know that's our definition of power.

So that's going to meet that goal or that target of increased arm power.

Now, let's look at a different sport.

We have here a sprinter.

And her scenario is, obviously, she wants to improve speed, but she's been even more focused and setting a target of looking specifically at the start of the race, so that first 30 metres.

So like we did with the netballer, why would that increase in speed be beneficial to her? Absolutely.

It's gonna make her faster at the start.

It's gonna allow her to get ahead of her opponents.

It's gonna give her the opportunity to maybe run that overall race in a quicker time.

It's gonna allow her to finish higher, a higher position in the race.

So that why is useful.

And then the next thing we do, just like Jun's asking, okay, how is she gonna apply our key letters for our principles of training? and these are always good to break down in that order and then consider those questions that go with it.

Now, in terms of individual needs, I can tell you she is a sprint athlete, and she has got the experience in doing that sprint training.

We know sprinting is anaerobic, and it involves that rapid arm and leg movement.

So we would probably be able to identify the muscles that are used specifically when you're doing that leg and arm drive.

If she's doing some sprint intervals in terms of progressive overload, it could be to increase the amount of intervals or keep them the same and decrease the recovery time between each interval when she's ready to go through that progression.

Recognising that if she has a break, if she goes on holiday, if there's an injury, if there's an illness, that programme will need to be regressed because she will have lost some, or there will be that decline in her fitness.

And finally, looking at that schedule and realising there needs to be that sufficient rest and recovery so there's no overtraining.

So we've got three other sprinters here, Laura, Sam, and Andeep.

And one of them is describing individual needs.

So just checking that we're really understanding how we apply these principles.

So Laura's telling her as part of, oh, sorry, as part of our training, or her training, she's doing some intervals, and she's doing three sets of 20 metres, and then she's going to increase that distance to 25.

Sam is telling us that her sprint training is taking place actually on the track, and Andeep is saying that he doesn't have much experience of going into the gym to do that power strength-based work.

Five seconds, which do you think is describing individual needs? Really well done.

It's Andeep because he's talking about his current level of experience.

Laura, however, was giving us a really good example of progressive overload and making that gradual increase in terms of distance.

And Sam's actually saying that that's a good example of specificity.

I race on a track, so therefore, I'm gonna complete my training on that same surface.

So for the final task of this lesson, I would like you to pick your own sport.

We've looked at a real variety throughout the lesson, and hopefully, that's been useful, but can you pick one that you would like to talk about.

And in doing so, can you describe how you would apply the principles of training to bring about an improvement in fitness in that sport? When you've done that, can you then describe the benefits of using those principles or our rules? And finally, we're gonna have a question here that's actually only on one of the principles.

It's about specificity.

And we are being asked to analyse how that principle of training could be used and how it could lead to an improvement in performance of a long jumper.

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

Welcome back, so for the sport of your choice, this will really depend on the one that you decided to write about.

I have an example here of badminton.

And you can see I've listed it in the order that we learn our principles, INSPOROR.

So first of all, those individual needs, it is about asking those questions about readiness, age, height, weight, experience, any current injury.

Specificity, I guess that's really linking it to that badminton court environment and the fact there's loads of changes direction, and they will use a lot of those anaerobic movements, that kind of quick sprint and quick changes of direction.

Progressive overload, if you're gonna do those sprint intervals, having that gradual increase in that interval or reducing that rest time.

Again, being aware of reversibility.

There's that decline if there is a cease in training or the training intensity decreases.

And just having that time for that overtraining and that rest and recovery and making sure that that's planned into your schedule, which, for a badminton player, might involve gameplay.

So there is time for that recovery and those adaptations to occur.

In terms of the benefits, now, there are many, but a lot that we've talked about throughout the lesson is that's really about optimising that fitness, making sure that exercise programme feels right, appropriate, and relevant for not only the athlete but the sport.

And then once you're doing it, you feel safe, you're free from injury, but you're getting that adequate time to rest and recover.

And from all of that, one of those really overriding benefits is that the focus and the motivation should be high.

So whoever's completing that exercise programme is hopefully doing it to the best of their ability.

And to finish with, we just looked at a question specifically on specificity, and I hope that you may be answered something around the lines of the type of training that a long jumper might do.

So it could be that sprint training, or it could be in the gym doing some power-based work.

And that's because you've got that run-up and that takeoff in that particular sport.

And the impact of that, hopefully, will be, if they do that and the exercise programme is correct, they'll be faster on that run-up and they'll also be more powerful when they take off, which means they're gonna jump further, and they're gonna achieve that longer distance, which, for a long jumper, is what they're trying to do.

So in summary of our principles of training and how we apply it to that personal exercise programme, they are guidelines, they're rules, but they're really good rules to follow as part of our design, but to also make sure that it's progressed in an effective way.

Our INSPOROR letters, we started with individual needs, we then looked at specificity.

Progressive overload was the two that came together.

Reversibility and then overtraining and rest and recovery were very much linked in terms of making sure that that is sufficient and in place.

And each of those rules, each of those principles are about optimising performance, keeping safe and free from injury.

And as a result, those motivation levels will be high, and whoever's doing that programme will hopefully adhere to it.

I have really enjoyed taking you through our many principles of training.

I hope you found it useful, and I look forward to seeing you on the next lesson.