Training
Chapter 8
Training consists in programming the performance of physical exercises as to produce a progressive increase of bodily work in order to stimulate supercompensation and therefore the growth or the maintaining of the athlete’s skills.
The Importance of Training
All athletes, independently of the sport they practice, must train constantly, so that they can express their abilities at their very best. This is true both for sports demanding the maximal performance of some conditional skills (such as athletics, cycling and swimming), and for “Open Skill games” (such as soccer, basketball, volleyball and tennis) in which technical and strategical elements are more important. In this type of sports, trainings aim to complement athletics skills with technical and tactical skills. In fact, no matter how good he is, a soccer player could never fully show his ability if he is incapable of tackling the opponents, running fast to catch the ball, or enduring the entire match. Therefore, the training of conditional skills is essential to get a good performance in every type of sport.
Conditional skills
Strenght, mobility, speed and endurance.
TARGETS
Get to know
The mechanisms involved in the growth of physical performances
Training principles and planning
Get to know how to do
Stretching
Jogging
In order to keep you fit, it is important to know the basic principles of training, as to plan a personalized training program: according to the Italian Ministry of Health, walking for 30 minutes every day is enough to burn exceeding calories.
It also states that you should consider the possibility of performing simple mobility or stretching exercises during the day, or just climbing the stairs and walking when you do not need to take the car or public transport.
Homeostasis
One property of the human body is the ability to maintain its internal functions constant, and continuously restore its balance: for example, when it is hot and the body temperature rises, specific nervous centers are activated to increase pulmonary ventilation and heart rate , as well as sweating and other functions, which helps to reduce body temperature. This activity is known as homeostasis.
While running, for example, muscles need more energy and the body makes the efforts to provide for it. Therefore, pulmonary ventilation, heart rate, blood speed etc. increase. This response to the new physiological needs can be called “adjustment”, because the body “adjusts” itself in order to satisfy its own demands. However, once you stop running, homeostasis will bring body functions back to their original level.
If you run habitually and you daily increase the distance and the speed, every adjustment that will occur, will also gradually modify some body structures: muscles are likely to grow bigger, arteries to become more elastic, the number of capillaries to increase etc. These changes are called adaptations, because the body “adapts” to constant demands of its performances.
Supercompensation
After giving a definition of homeostasis, adjustment and adaptation, it is now possible to understand the mechanism of supercompensation, which underlies training activity.
Supercompensation can be defined as the increase of the organic functions that occurs after performing an exercise, if it is followed by a suitable period of rest.
If you perform a specific exercise, such as three sets of ten repetitions each of weight-lifting with a 5kg weight, your muscles strength will be at the maximum level before the performance, but it will decrease as
Pulmonary Ventilation
Number of breaths in one minute.
Heart Rate
Number of heart
beats in one minute.
you repeat the push-ups until you cannot lift the weight anymore because your arm muscles have no strength left. At this point, a period of rest is needed.
At the beginning of the second set of repetitions, you will notice that muscles strength has improved in comparison with the beginning of the first set: this is the result of the mechanism of supercompensation.
The exercises practiced to stimulate supercompensation are to be chosen in terms of type, volume and intensity.
• Type. Refers to the type of exercise to be performed. For example: 30 m running, 30 kg barbell lifting, slow running, etc.; the choice depends on which conditional skill you want to train.
• Volume. Refers to the number of exercises to be performed.
For example: five 30 m runs, three 30 kg barbell lifting, etc.
• Intensity. Refers to how the exercise is to be performed, in terms of speed, heart rate, commitment etc.
Increasing the intensity means to improve the performance, while increasing the volume leads to the consolidation of the resulting performance. Varying intensity and volume of exercises, the coach can increase the athlete’s abilities before the competition (intensity), and stabilize them in the period between one competition and the other (volume).
Mechanism of Supercompensation
Stimulus Supercompensation
Level of spor t per for mance capacity
Supercompensation
Supercompensation
load rest load rest load rest
Training Principles
Training principles are valid both for obtaining better performances in sport, and for maintaining a healthy way of life. They are: specificity, progressive loading, reversibility.
• Specificity. The type of training must be adequate to the person, to his/her own biological age (which may be different from his/her real age) and to his/her physical level.
• Progressive Loading. Training loads must increase gradually in terms of intensity and volume in order to allow the adaptation of the structures to take place, which determines the increase of the performances. At a certain point, however, progressive loading stops and training focuses on maintaining the acquired fitness.
• Reversibility. If you stop training, this leads to a slow but progressive loss of the results achieved.
Planning the Training Program
Planning a training program consists in developing a working schedule divided into three periods generally termed as:
preparation, competition and transition (active rest).
• Preparation. This period aims to develop the sports shape (which means the ability to obtain the best performance), and it also consists in two phases, a generic and a specific one. During the generic preparation period, which is the longer one, generic exercises prevail, like slow and fast running, toning up the muscles, improving coordination, etc. In this phase, specific exercises play a minor role, while during the specific training period the trend is reversed and performing specific exercises is essential.
Specific exercises Preparatory exer- cises for a specific type of sport.
Josefa Idem
• Competition. The purpose here is to maintain the acquired fitness at its highest level as to reach the best competitive performance. That is accomplished through specific competition workout.
• Transition. The ultimate goal in this period is to stimulate the athlete’s psychological and physical recovery through different types of motor activity (rest but also saunas and massages).
The training of Milone from Crotone
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