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Information Gathering - Aims, Goals, Lifestyle and Motivation

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Information Gathering - Aims, Goals, Lifestyle and Motivation

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Brad Walker explains the FITT principle and its application to avoid injury.

The FITT Principle (or formula) is a great way of monitoring your exercise program. The acronym FITT outlines the key components of an effective exercise program, and the initials F, I, T, T, stand for:

F = Frequency which refers to how often you exercise

I = Intensity which refers to how hard you exercise

T = Time which refers to how long you exercise for

T = Type which refers to the kind of exercise you undertake

What is the Mainstream Recommendation?

The FITT Principle is most commonly used in the weight loss industry, although it is also used as part of the strength and weight training recommendations. The standard recommendation is as follows.

Frequency - 5 to 6 times per week

Intensity - Moderate to high

Time - Anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes

Type - Just about any exercise

The components

Frequency

Frequency is a vital component of the FITT Principle. Remember that it is essenital to know why you are exercising and what you wish to achieve before rushing into any exercise program. Adjust the number of times you exercise per week to reflect your current fitness level, the time you realistically have available, your other commitments like family and work, and the goals you have set for yourself.

Intensity

This is an extremely important aspect of the FITT principle and is probably the hardest factor to monitor. The best way to gauge the intensity of your exercise is to monitor your heart rate.

There are a couple of ways to monitor your heart rate, but the best way by far is to purchase an exercise heart rate monitor. These can be purchased at most good sports stores and retail from $50 to $400. They consist of an elastic belt with a transmitter that fits around your chest and a wristwatch that displays your exercise heart rate in beats per minute (bpm).

If you do not want to spend the money on a heart rate monitor, count your heart rate over a 15 second period. All you need is a wristwatch that has a "seconds" display. Feel for your heartbeat by either placing your hand over your heart or by feeling for your pulse in your neck or on your wrist. Count the beats over a 15 second period and then multiply by 4. This will give you your exercise heart rate in beats per minute.

Time

The time you spend exercising is also an important part of the FITT Principle. The time dedicated to exercise usually depends on the type of exercise undertaken.

For example, it is recommended that to improve cardiovascular fitness, you will need at least 20 to 30 minutes of non-stop exercise. For weight loss, at least 40 minutes of moderate weight-bearing exercise is required. However, when talking about the time required for muscular strength improvements, time is often measured as several "sets" and "reps." A typical recommendation would be three sets of eight repetitions.

Type

Like time, the type of exercise you choose will have a significant effect on the results you achieve. That is why it is important to know what you want to gain from your efforts.

For example, if you are looking to improve your cardiovascular fitness, then exercises like walking, jogging, swimming, bike riding, stair climbing, aerobics and rowing are very effective.

For weight loss, any exercise using a majority of your large muscle groups will be useful.

To improve muscular strength the best exercises, including the use of free weights, machine weights and bodyweight exercises like push-ups, chin-ups and dips.

How does all this relate to Injury Prevention?

The two biggest mistakes I see people make when designing an exercise program is firstly training too hard, and secondly, not including enough variety.

The most common problem is that people tend to find an exercise they like and very rarely do anything other than that exercise. This can result in long-term, repetitive strain to the same muscle groups, and neglect, or weakening of other muscle groups, leading to a very unbalanced muscular system, which is a sure-fire recipe for injury.

Keep the following FITT principles in mind

Frequency After you finish exercising your body goes through a process of rebuilding and repair. It is during this process that the benefits of your exercise are forthcoming. If you are exercising daily (5 to 6 times a week), then your body never has a decent chance to realise the benefits and gains from the exercise. What usually happens is that you end up getting tired or injured and just quit.

My frequency recommendation is - only exercise 3 to 4 times a week MAXIMUM!

This may sound strange and a little hard to do at first, (because most people have been brainwashed into believing that they have to exercise every day) but after a while exercising like this becomes very enjoyable and something that you can look forward to. It dramatically reduces your likelihood of injury because you are giving your body more time to repair and heal. Many elite-level athletes have seen significant performance improvements when forced to take an extended break. Most never realize they are training too hard, too often.

Intensity, Time & Type

The key here is variety. Do not let yourself get stuck in an exercise rut. Regarding intensity and time, vary your effort. Dedicate some of your workouts to long, easy sessions like long walks or light repetitive weights. While other sessions can be made up of short, high-intensity exercises like stair climbing or interval training. Remember, if you are not feeling 100%, then take the day off or schedule an easy workout. The type of exercise you do is also important.

Like I said earlier, many people get into a routine of doing the same exercise over and over again. If you want to lower your risk of injury, then do a variety of different exercises. This will help to improve all your major muscle groups and will make you a more versatile all-around athlete. Cross-training is an excellent way of adding variety to your workout schedule.

Article Reference

This article first appeared in:

WALKER, B. (2004) The FITT Principle -- in relation to injury prevention. Brian Mackenzie's Successful Coaching, (ISSN 1745-7513/ 15 / September), p. 1-3

Page Reference

If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:

WALKER, B. (2004) The FITT Principle -- in relation to injury prevention [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/scni15a1.htm [Accessed

About the Author

Brad Walker is a prominent Australian sports trainer with more than 15 years' experience in the health and fitness industry. Brad is a Health Science graduate of the University of New England and has postgraduate accreditations in athletics, swimming and triathlon coaching. He also works with elite level and world champion athletes and lectures for Sports Medicine Australia on injury prevention.

Related Pages

The following Sports Coach pages provide additional information on this topic:

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The FITT Principle ... in relation to injury prevention

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Brad Walker explains the FITT principle and its application to avoid injury. The FITT Principle (or formula) is a great way of monitoring your exercise program.

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The Science Behind Sport Specificity - Relentless Athletics

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"Sport Specific Training" seems to be all the rage in the sports world. From weighted bats to banded ladder drills, the sports world has seen its fair share of "sport specific movements". But just because these movements LOOK like the sport, does it mean they are the most effective modalities?

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Hans Selye, MD, PhD (1907 - 1982), the "Father of Stress", was a Hungarian endocrinologist and the first to give a scientific explanation for biological "stress". He actually borrowed the term "stress" from physics to describe an organism's physiological response to perceived stressful events in the environment.

"Every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older." - Hans Selye, MD, PhD

He eloquently explained his stress model, based on physiology and psychobiology, as the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), stating that an event that threatens an organism's well being, a stressor, leads to a three-stage bodily response:

Stages of GAS

1: Alarm

Upon perceiving a stressor, the body reacts with a "fight-or-flight" response and the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated as the body's resources are mobilized to meet the threat or danger.

2: Resistance

The body resists and compensates as the parasympathetic nervous system attempts to return many physiological functions to normal levels while body focuses resources against the stressor and remains on alert.

3: Exhaustion

If the stressor or stressors continue beyond the body's capacity, the resources become exhausted and the body is susceptible to disease and death.

Evolving the Definition of Stress

As I enter my 14th year of practice I am convinced that the traditional of definition of stress, simply geared towards a physical event or a mental state requiring the body to respond just doesn't cut it anymore. We live in a society where there are stressful influences coming at us from all different directions. These stressors are multiple and confounded. Making the issue worse, is the way I see patients choosing to respond to their perception of stress. The increase use of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, sugar and energy drinks in response to dealing with everyday stressors is creating an even more stressful situation in the body. Whether the stress, perceived as good or bad, or it is passive or active, the response by our bodies is intended to preserve life; it is a survival mechanism.

The Human Stress Response

The human stress response involves many components, as Selye's work portrayed. First, the brain initiates the most immediate response signaling the adrenal glands to release epinephrine and norepinephrine. Then, the hypothalamus and pituitary activate another part of the adrenals, releasing cortisol. This is followed by the nervous system initiating behavioral responses like alertness, focus, reduction of pain receptors and the inhibition of reproductive behaviors and desires. The sympathetic nervous system then kicks in to increase the heart rate, blood pressure and release fuel to help fight or get out of danger as it redirects blood flow to the heart, muscles and brain, away from the gastrointestinal tract and digestive processes. To accommodate these demands there is a vast increase in energy production and utilization of nutrients and fluids in the body. Once the stressful situation has passed, the brain signals the responses to be "turned off" and finally recovery and relaxation allow the body to re-establish balance in all systems, replacing lost nutrients and eliminating waste products accumulated during the process.

The Missing Response Stage

The key element in this stress response that is missing in our modern day stress paradigm is RECOVERY. While there are usually recovery times for life threatening events like getting chased by a polar bear, there are few for the recurring events like backed up traffic, relationship troubles, financial pressures, job stresses, negative self-talk and image, poor physical conditioning, artificial lighting, malnourished diet, inadequate sleep, genetically modified foods, environmental toxin accumulation and so on.

In fact, these types of stressors each day can string themselves together rendering the stress response to be "turned on" all of the time. In 2007, the American Psychological Association (APA) commissioned its annual nationwide survey to examine the state of stress across the country. The key findings were noted as "Portrait of a National Pressure Cooker" with almost 80% of the people surveyed reporting experiences of physical symptoms due to stress. I believe that modern day stress is the up stream culprit of many of the down stream chief complaints I see every day in my practice.

As practitioners, I believe we have to have a healthy respect for the great work of people like Dr. Selye and his General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) and treat what we know as clinical influencers in our modern day. Perhaps "GAS" could also stand for Guidelines Against Stress and could help our patients maintain healthy stress levels and responses by encouraging and educating each patient to identify and decrease unrelenting stressors. Also, we can help by re-pleating stress-induced nutrient depletions including vitamin C, pantothenic acid, calcium, and magnesium as well as supporting healthy detoxification pathways and adrenal function.† Herbal adaptogen options such as Rhodiola rosea and Holy basil. further support the stress response.†

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General Adaptation Syndrome Stages | Integrative Therapeutics

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Hans Selye, MD, PhD (1907 - 1982), the "Father of Stress", was a Hungarian endocrinologist and the first to give a scientific explanation for biological "stress". He actually borrowed the term "stress" from physics to describe an organism's physiological response to perceived stressful events in the environment.

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Stages of Change, also known as the "transtheoretical model" is a means of examining the various stages that someone goes through while dealing with an addiction and working to change their addictive behaviour. The originators of the theory James Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente also identify 10 processes of change, which are used throughout the stages.

Most people who are trying to end an addiction or change a specific behaviour go through the various steps in the Stages of Change model many times before they are able to successfully end their addictive behavior. Obviously, the young person may not know about or understand the model himself or herself, but the staff use it to help evaluate an individual's readiness for change, so that appropriate interventions are used as effectively as possible. Prochaska and DiClemente state, "we have determined that efficient self-change depends on doing the right things (processes) at the right time (stages)".

"So the pre-contemplative is when a youth is not quite ready to come forward and have insight about their addiction. So our goal there is to give them as much information as possible, around addiction services and discussion around-'This is the behaviour we're seeing is going on.' Contemplative, we're starting to see them [say], 'Ok, maybe I do have an addiction issue' and at that point we start saying 'Are you ready to get connected to work on these issues?' Move into Action, and then Maintenance and then we see the Termination. Any time within there we can see a relapse, so we're always watching out for that. The youth here, when we work with them we can definitely see when there's some struggles going on. Our goal is to get that relationship going in order for them to come to us saying, 'I'm struggling right now.' And then we work on, 'Well what do you need?' Most of the time some of the youth already have the connections, but they've disengaged, so it's just getting those connections back. " - Lisa Ronaldson, Case Manager, Covenant House Vancouver.

Both locations embed their evaluation methods in this theoretical approach. The Outcomes Star and The Youth Engagement Scale (discussed in the Evaluation chapter) tie in this theory to the way in which a youth's progress is measured. This means that program milestones, youth engagement markers and other indicators of success are not based only in the need for evaluation measures but in a concept that explains and elaborates upon a youth's behaviour. It allows staff to more fully understand why a youth does something, what that behaviour would look like at each stage and to guide the youth in a more positive direction.

While the youth themselves may not always be aware of the theoretical models being used, they are impacted by them. In talking about relationships with staff Kevin says,

" For me, I don't really have too many people out here, and just having so meone that I could look up to, s omeone who understands some of my life experiences, and yeah, obviously judgment is the biggest thing. Like, you know, staff that [says] 'Hey, you know what, you made a mistake, that's fine. We're not here to judge you, we're just here to help you'. " - "Kevin", 26, former ROP participant, Covenant House Vancouver.

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Stages of Change, also known as the "transtheoretical model" is a means of examining the various stages that someone goes through while dealing with an addiction and working to change their addictive behaviour. The originators of the theory James Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente also identify 10 processes of change, which are used throughout the stages.

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In this article, I'm going to teach you how to go about progressive overload - the most important law in strength training. Perhaps you're new to lifting and you're wondering exactly what progressive overload is. Well, progressive overload simply means that you're doing more over time. For example, you could be adding some weight to the bar, doing more reps, and/or having more productive training sessions. You won't find many comprehensive articles on this topic as it's pretty difficult to write an all-encompassing article pertaining to progressive overload. Due to the large variance in the fitness abilities of people when they first embark on a training regimen, it's a little more complicated than simply telling someone to "add 10 more pounds to the bar each week," or "do 2 more reps with the same weight each week."

Unfortunately, I can't give you a precise prescription. In order for me to know exactly how you should progress, I have to be with you, watching you train. Since I can't be there with you, I'll give you some advice to adhere to, which should make your life easier. Here are the ten rules of progressive overload:

Let's say you're brand new to a particular exercise. You've seen all sorts of Youtube videos of strong lifters hoisting hundreds of pounds. You think you're a strong cat, so you load up the plates and find that the exercise just doesn't feel right. It feels awkward, unnatural, you don't feel the right muscles working, and it even seems jarring on the joints and potentially injurious. This exercise is definitely not right for you, right? Wrong! The exercise is probably right for you, but your approach was all wrong.

Do not concern yourself with what others use for loading. When you begin an exercise, start out as light as possible and gradually work your way up. Let me provide you with two examples - the starting point for the weakest non-elderly and non-injured beginner I've trained as well as the starting point for the strongest beginner I've trained. Chances are you'll fall somewhere in between these two individuals.

The weakest beginner I ever trained (a middle-age woman who had been completely sedentary for around 15-years) had to start out with bodyweight high box squats on the adjustable step-up platform so that she was only descending around 8 inches before sitting on the box. This same client also performed glute bridges, step-ups from a 4" step, and hip-hinge drills - all done with just bodyweight.

But guess what? She was squatting, hip thrusting, step-upping, and deadlifting. Granted, she was performing the most remedial variations of those exercises, but this is what was right for her at the time. Within six months she was doing goblet full squats, barbell hip thrusts, Bulgarian split squats, and deadlifts from the floor with 95 lbs.

Conversely, the strongest beginner (a high-school wrestler) I ever trained was able to use 185 lbs for full squats, 225 lbs for deadlifts, 225 lbs for hip thrusts, 155 lbs for bench press, and could do Bulgarian split squats, single leg hip thrusts, and chin ups with great form. Though he was an athlete, surprisingly he had never lifted weights before. Sports had strengthened his legs and upper body so that he was able to start out at a much more advanced level than most beginners. Even my (at the time) 13-year old niece, a very good volleyball player, full squatted 95 lbs, trap bar deadlifted 135 lbs, and single leg hip thrusted (all with excellent form) in her very first weight training session.

But these people are not you. You'll find that due to your unique body type, you'll have an advantage with some exercises and a huge disadvantage with others. Long femurs? You probably won't set any squat records, but your weighted back extension strength is going to kick some serious butt. Long arms? Kiss your bench press records goodbye, but you're gonna be a deadlifting rockstar.

Figure out where you belong on the regression-progression continuum (this is basically a list of each variation of an exercise from the easiest possible version to the most challenging version) and start getting stronger.

Progressive overload methodology is different for beginners compared to more advanced lifters. It's also different for men compared to women and for those carrying a lot of muscle versus those not carrying much muscle. For example, I can't just tell a woman who is brand new to strength training to just add ten pounds to the bar for squats and deadlifts each week. First of all, chances are some work has to be done just to get her to squat and deadlift properly, before ever focusing on load. Some clients should start out with partial range lifts such as bodyweight box squats and rack pulls and simply work on "progressive distance training," whereby the range of motion is slightly increased each week. If you keep squatting your own bodyweight (or rack pulling 65lbs) for 3 sets of 10, but each week you descend an inch deeper, that's progressive overload. Eventually you'll be using a full range of motion and can then concern yourself with adding load.

With exercises that have you moving a significant portion of your body, such as squats, hip thrusts, back extensions, and lunges, you must master your own bodyweight before adding load. I like my clients to be able to perform 3 sets of 20 full-ROM reps with bodyweight exercises before adding load.

Furthermore, many lifts require very small jumps in load over time, and attempts in these particular exercises should usually involve jumps in repetitions instead of load. This applies to lifts that utilize smaller loads, for example curls and lateral raises, in addition to challenging bodyweight movements such as skater squats, single leg RDLs, single leg hip thrusts, and prisoner single leg back extensions.

This is especially important for women or smaller men when access to smaller plates (1.25lb or 2.5lb plates) or smaller jumps in dumbbell (ex: 17.5lbs) or kettlebell loads aren't possible. Think about it - going from 50 to 55 lb dumbbells is a 10% jump in weight. However, going from 10 to 15 lb dumbbells is a 50% jump in weight. You cannot expect someone to make a 50% jump in load and execute the same number of repetitions as the week before, but you can expect them to get another rep or two with the same load. So let's say that one week you perform dumbbell rear delt raises with 10lbs for 10 reps. The next week, rather than up the load to 15lbs, try performing 12 reps with the 10lb weights. When you get to a point where you can do a couple of sets of 20 reps, then jump the weight up to 15 lbs.

Remember, progressive overload is simply "doing more over time." There are many ways to go about this. In this article, I've already mentioned progressing in range of motion, repetitions, and load. In the beginning, you want to progress in range of motion and form. Yes, if you do the same workout you did the week before, but with better form, that's progression. You "did more" for the neuromuscular system in terms of motor patterning and even muscle force since using better form involves relying more on the targeted muscles.

After proper form and full range of motion are established and ingrained, now it's time to worry about progressing in repetitions and load. But these aren't the only ways to progress. Here are all the practical ways I can think of:

Lifting the same load for increased distance (range of motion)

Lifting the same load and volume with better form, more control, and less effort (efficiency)

Lifting the same load for more reps (volume)

Lifting heavier loads (intensity of load)

Lifting the same load and volume with less rest time in between sets (density)

Lifting a load with more speed and acceleration (intensity of effort)

Doing more work in the same amount of time (density)

Doing the same work in less amount of time (density)

Doing more sets with the same load and reps (volume)

Lifting the same load and volume more often throughout the week (frequency)

Doing the same work while losing body mass (increased relative volume)

Lifting the same load and volume and then extending the set past technical failure with forced reps, negatives, drop sets, static holds, rest pause, partial reps, or post-exhaustion (intensity of effort)

Just remember, improvements in form and ROM come first, and increases in reps and load come second.

Many strength coaches love to tell the story about Milo of Croton to illuminate the merits of progressive overload. Legend has it that Milo used to pick up a baby calf every day and carry it around on his shoulders. As the calf grew, Milo got stronger. Eventually Milo was hoisting a full-size bull and busting out sets of yoke walks like it ain't no thang. Pretty sweet story, right?

Unfortunately this story is a crock of bull (pun intended). First of all, a half-ton bull would be way too awkward to carry due to the lopsided nature and sheer size of the animal. But this is irrelevant.

No gains from weight training, be it mobility, hypertrophy, strength, power, endurance, or fat loss, will ever occur in a linear nature. The body doesn't work that way. Adaptations happen in waves. Sometimes you'll make big jumps in a single week in a particular quality, while other times you'll stall for three months in another quality. Over the long haul, everything goes up, but it's a windy road. There are physiological reasons for this phenomenon, which is beyond the scope of this article.

However, let's pretend for a minute that you could make linear progress for an entire year on a particular lift. A 10lb jump per week equates to 520lbs in a year. Even a 5lb jump per week equates to 260lbs in a year. Moreover, a 1 rep jump per week equates to 52 reps in a year, while a 1 rep jump per month equates to 12 reps in a year. You won't gain 260-520lbs in a year on any single lift. And you won't gain 12-52 reps on most lifts either. It just ain't happening. Some sessions you'll be surprisingly strong and make big gains, some sessions you'll simply tie your previous efforts, and some sessions you'll actually be weaker and go backwards. But every six months you'll likely be stronger and fitter.

These charts depict a woman's progress over a one-year period in bodyfat percentage and lean body mass in kilograms. She made the most dramatic transformation I've ever seen to date, but notice the non-linear adaptations. Also notice the drop in muscle, despite doing everything right. This woman gained a ton of strength on squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, bench press, military press, rows, and chins, she never missed a training session, and she ate perfectly for an entire year, yet she lost around 11 lbs of muscle during her year-long pursuit of getting into contest shape of below 10% bodyfat. Nevertheless, she won her first figure competition and is now a popular figure competitor.

If you're a beginner, sit back and enjoy the ride! Your rate of strength gain during your first three months of proper weight training will be higher than at any other time in your life. Each week you will slaughter personal records. Getting fifteen reps with something that you got for only ten reps the previous week is not an uncommon occurrence. This is mostly due to rapid gains in intermuscular coordination. Just don't get spoiled, your rate of gain will slow dramatically and pretty soon you'll be just like the rest of us - fighting like hell for those PR's.

As a beginner, you can pretty much do anything and gain strength as long as you're consistent. After a couple of years of solid training, however, you have to be clever about your programming in order to continue to reach new levels of strength. You'll need to rotate your lifts, plan your program designs intelligently, fluctuate your training stress, and tinker around with methodologies. Eventually it becomes very difficult to pack more pounds onto a particular lift or even gain another rep.

Unless you're a beginner, it's highly challenging to increase your strength while simultaneously dropping significant weight. In fact, simply maintaining your strength while losing weight is a form of progressive overload as you'd be increasing your relative strength (strength divided by bodyweight) and therefore "doing more over time."

Some lifts are more affected by weight loss than others. Squats and bench press tend to take a big dive, whereas deadlits can sometimes stay put. Your strength endurance on bodyweight exercises for the upper body will see a huge jump when you lose weight, however, so enjoy the boosts in reps on push-ups, chins, dips, and inverted rows.

Quite often you'll do everything right, but you won't get stronger. The plan just won't work. You'll be lifting hard, adhering to an intelligent plan, eating well, and sleeping right, and yet you still you won't set any PR's. Other times, you'll do everything wrong, and you'll somehow gain strength. Your training can be derailed, your diet and sleep can go down the gutter, but you'll go to the gym and set a PR. This makes absolutely no sense and flies in the face of sports science. Nevertheless, this is just how the body works sometimes. Physiology is tricky and multifactorial. Don't get cocky when this happens and think that you've stumbled upon the secret system (excessive partying, eating junk food, and training sporadically). Whenever you engage in these behaviors for too long, it will backfire on you, so stay on track to the best of your abilities.

At any point in time, if you really want to set a PR, you can just be lax on your form and likely set a record. For example, you could round your back excessively during deadlifts, bounce the bar off your chest with bench press, or use a little more body English with curls. However, this is a slippery slope that's best avoided. Progressive overload only works when you challenge the muscles to do more over time, and your muscles will not be forced to do more if your form gets sloppy. Moreover, you won't be setting any personal records if you're injured or constantly in pain.

The only way you will ever know whether you gained strength or not is to perform the lifts exactly the same way each time. In other words, true strength gains require proper depth, tempo, and execution. Many lifters lie to themselves and pretend that they've gotten stronger, but their ranges of motions diminish or their form goes out the window. These lifters didn't get stronger, they got sloppier. Federations in the sports of powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, and strongman have created rules for their various exercises. It may be worth your while to learn these rules so that you always perform them properly in training and when testing your max. Assuming you can perform the lifts properly, always squat to parallel or deeper, always lock out your hip thrusts and barbell glute bridges, and in general always control the weight through a full range of motion.

Hopefully these 10 rules will keep you on track. I have one more piece of advice to share with you. Even the most seasoned lifters often have to take a step back in order to take two steps forward. Sometimes we get caught up in chasing continuous PR's to the point of altering form, relying on the wrong muscles, skimping on ROM, or training through pain. Once per year, I recommend "resetting" your strength levels in your pursuit of progressive overload. Throw everything you've done in the past out the window and start over using the best possible form through a full range of motion. This is your new baseline. Now work on adhering to that same form while doing more over time. Your body will thank you in the long run for engaging in this simple yet effective practice.

To download a free pdf of this report, click on this: 10 Rules of Progressive Overload

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In this article, I'm going to teach you how to go about progressive overload - the most important law in strength training. Perhaps you're new to lifting and you're wondering exactly what progressive overload is. Well, progressive overload simply means that you're doing more over time.

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Blog Homepage >> If you want to improve your sports performance, training is key, but rest is just as important.
Building adequate recovery time into your training schedule will help you meet your performance goals faster with a reduced risk of injury.

What Do We Mean By Recovery Time?

Recovery time is when you stop your bout of exercise or training and return to a recovered state.

There are two types of recovery, short-term and long-term. Short-term recovery refers to the time directly after exercise and is the most common form of recovery time that happens within hours of an exercise, training session or competition finishing. Long-term recovery refers to longer periods of time, including days or weeks built into a heavy, seasonal training programme.

Recovery isn't just about post-workout rest, it encompasses sleep, nutrition and lifestyle factors - all of which play into optimising your body for performance.

How Important Are Rest Days?

When you exercise several physical and psychological changes take place affecting your metabolism, peripheral and central nervous system, skeletal and muscular system, endocrine system, immune system, and cardiovascular system.

Putting too much strain on your body through too much exercise and not enough rest will have a detrimental impact on your health, not just your sports performance.

The consequences of this mean that many of the body's systems are affected, such as metabolism, bone health, menstruation, immunity, mood, and cardiovascular health [1].

Even if you are eating the correct type and quantity of food to support your level of exercise, if you aren't also building adequate rest and recovery time you are putting your body under stress.

Signs that you may not be giving your body enough recovery time include:

low mood

catching colds and getting ill more frequently

poor sleep

irregular or no periods (women)

low libido

weak bones

muscle fatigue

What Are The Different Types of Exercise Recovery?

There are two types of exercise recovery, active or inactive:

1. What Is Active Exercise Recovery?

Active recovery is where you carry out light, low-intensity exercises.

There are many benefits to active recovery because it can aid muscle repair and promote blood flow compared to inactive.

Research shows that active recovery helps to clear lactic acid build-up which interferes with muscle contraction and contributes to muscle fatigue [2].

The overall aim of active recovery is to enable athletes to tolerate higher training loads e.g., frequency, intensity and volume as well as enhance performance [3].

Staying active on rest days is not difficult with light cardio-based exercises or low-intensity workouts, like:

The premise of active recovery is that it is low impact and slow-paced compared to your usual exercise routine. When participating in active recovery, your heart rate should be above its usual resting rate and the activity should last 20-40 minutes.

Rather than specified workouts, you can incorporate some of your daily activities into your active recovery programme. Some examples include:

housework

walking the dog

playing with the kids

gentle cycle to work

2. What Is Inactive Exercise Recovery?

Inactive recovery means just that, resting, doing nothing. It is often only reserved for when athletes are injured but inactive recovery is an important part of a busy training schedule and should be built into your exercise programme.

Sleep is often an overlooked factor in a healthy lifestyle but it's important for so many aspects of your health and forms an important part of inactive recovery.

That's because sleep enhances growth, muscle recovery, and aids physical performance. Too little sleep raises cortisol levels, knocking our finally balanced hormone network out of synch, it also reduces the growth hormone which is needed for muscle repair. On top of that, too little sleep means we don't have the energy or mental capacity to cope meaning you are less likely to be motivated to exercise.

How Many Rest Days Do You Need?

As a minimum, you should always allow at least one rest day per week. However, the number of rest days you'll specifically need will depend on:

Training intensity - high, moderate, or low

Training style - frequency and volume of training

How long you've been training for - days, weeks, months, years

Lifestyle stressors - manual labour job, sleep length, and quality

Your age - the older you get the more rest days you need

In addition to the above, for women, it's important to understand how your monthly hormone fluctuations affect you and to adapt your rest and recovery accordingly. You can gain a deeper understanding of how your hormone network fluctuates across your menstrual cycle with Female Hormone Mapping.

Moderate To Vigorous Activity

If you're completing light cardio, activities like walking the dog or slow dancing, you probably won't need rest days.

However, the more intense the activity becomes the more rest you'll need to take.

So, for moderate-intensity exercise, you should generally aim to take a rest day every 3 to 5 days, depending on how you feel. Of course, this will increase if you take part in more vigorous or high-intensity workouts.

Active rest days are key and can include activities like gentle stretching and yoga.

Weight Training

If weight training is your thing, then you must rotate the muscles you have worked.

Once you have exercised a specific set of muscles e.g., legs, then you should allow them to rest for two days to enable them to heal and repair.

On leg rest days, you can train other muscle groups like the chest and arms. The easiest way to plan your rest days is to assign specific muscle groups to specific days, for example legs on Mondays, arms on Tuesdays etc.

Running

If you're a runner, you'll need a similar approach to weight training. Choose the days you will run and then on rest days train the muscles you don't use when you are running.

It's also important that you don't run too much when you first start, leading to injury.

Ultimately, there is no fixed number of rest days that you need. Rest days should be calculated individually according to the factors listed above. Importantly, listen to your body.

Conclusion

Rest and recovery are often overlooked as part of an exercise or training programme, with inactive rest days only taken to recover from injury.

Rest days are crucial whether you are a budding beginner or a seasoned pro. Building adequate recovery time into your regular exercise routine or training schedule, alongside correct nutrition, will enable your body to perform at its best.
Read Next: 4 Sports Nutrition Mistakes You Could Be Making>> Back To Blog >>

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The Importance Of Exercise Rest And Recovery In Sports Performance

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Blog Homepage >> If you want to improve your sports performance, training is key, but rest is just as important. Building adequate recovery time into your training schedule will help you meet your performance goals faster with a reduced risk of injury.

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Principles of Training Part 4: Variation

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The old saying goes that "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." In this article we're going to be covering the importance of variation in your training, what kinds of variation you can use, and where some people go wrong when practically applying this principle.

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Principles of Training Part 6: Reversibility

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The principle of reversibility, also known as regression or detraining, is every athlete's worst enemy. This article looks at what reversibility is, provides some general timeframes, and suggests some ways to avoid it impacting your training. Let's get started, shall we...

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Owen Walker MSc CSCS
Founder and Director of Science for Sport

Owen is the founder and director of Science for Sport. He was formerly the Head of Academy Sports Science and Strength & Conditioning at Cardiff City Football Club, and an interim Sports Scientist for the Welsh FA. He also has a master's degree in strength and conditioning and is a NSCA certified strength and conditioning coach.

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Owen Walker MSc CSCS Founder and Director of Science for Sport Owen is the founder and director of Science for Sport. He was formerly the Head of Academy Sports Science and Strength & Conditioning at Cardiff City Football Club, and an interim Sports Scientist for the Welsh FA.

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Practicality of the planned training.

•How effectiveness were your

o methods of training

o exercises in relation to the demands of the sport

o the intensities and duration of the exercises

o the scheduling of session in the periodised programme in relation to the identified events.

• Suggested adaptations to plan:

o alternative methods of training

o alternative exercises in relation to the demands of the sport

o adaptation to selected intensities and duration of the exercises

o alternative scheduling of the session in the periodised programme in relation to the

identified events.

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Enhance Performance and Reduce Injury. Activate is a GAA specific warm up for training and matches that improves movement skills and reduces injury. It is a dynamic warm up which includes the ball. This website contains resources and training videos to complement GAA coaching courses and support the delivery of the warm-up to squads.

Activate GAA Warm-Up

Activate has been developed by Sports Institute Northern Ireland (SINI) and Ulster GAA for use by coaches of players from 14 years to senior grade. It is suitable for use by Gaelic Football, Hurling and Camogie squads.

The warm up is based on solid medical research and, if performed regularly with proper technique, can reduce non-contact leg injuries by up to 50%.

The Activate GAA Warm-Up has three phases which should be performed twice a week before training. Initially, coaching Activate properly requires 30 minutes but it can be completed in 20 minutes when refined.

During the pre-match warm up only phases 1 and 3 should be delivered and can be followed by the coach's own preferred drills.

About
The ACTIVATE GAA Warm-up was developed by Sports Institute Northern Ireland (SINI), Ulster GAA coaches and an expert group of Sports Medicine Professionals (including County team Physiotherapists, Physicians and Orthopaedic Knee Consultants) to reduce what appears to be an increasing number of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in our playing population.

Current injury surveillance data suggest that one male per squad will tear their cruciate every other season, with females at even greater risk. An ACL injury can be devastating as this type of injury is accompanied by long disability time and high cost as compared with other common athletic injuries.

The warm-up has been adapted from FIFA's successful 11+ programme to meet the specific needs of GAA players and is appropriate for use with GAA Football, Hurling and Camogie squads.

How?
Strong evidence demonstrates that by coaching movement and running skills, increasing leg and trunk strength and by optimising landing, cutting and deceleration mechanics we can significantly reduce injuries to the groin, hamstring, knee and ankle. The most compliant coaches and squads i.e. those who perform the exercises regularly with good technique have the least injuries and have more players available for matches.

Why a warm up?
Warm ups allow the coach an opportunity to regularly expose squads to injury prevention exercises. Warm-ups facilitate the "switching on" and activation of the correct muscles and motor patterns in preparation for intense activity.

Set-Up & Structure
The coach needs five minutes to set up the 10 cones in a channel. When coaching a squad of more than 15 we suggest setting up two channels side by side, see image below.

Activate is comprised of three phases:

Phase 1: Running, Cutting and Landing Mechanics - 5 x 2
Five drills are completed in which the first part is performed moving out through the centre of the channel, and the second part returning down the sides of the channel. Each drill is performed twice.

Phase 2: Strength, Plyometrics and Balance - 10 x 10
There are two circuits: 1 and 2 which should be rotated every month. Squads carry out Circuit 1 for one month before progressing to Circuit 2 in which several of the exercises are more dynamic or require greater strength.

Upon completion of Circuit 2 for one month, squads should then alternate monthly between circuits 1 and 2.This is in order to return the players' focus to the control and perfection of technique required in the Circuit 1 exercises.

Phase 3: Agility and Power - 5 x 2
Five drills are completed: three moving out through the central channel and returning down the sides, and two performed on the base line.

All three phases of Activate should be implemented before training with only phases 1 and 3 necessary before games. Once completed, the coach can then deliver any preferred drills or small sided games at full pace. Whilst Activate contains a dynamic flexibility component, the coach can add any other specific stretching/flexibility exercises to the routine.

Remember: Allowing players to carry out the exercises without feedback and accepting poor technique will not reduce injuries. Time spent early in the season perfecting technique will produce greater athleticism and reduced injury frequency later in the year.

Here are some Activate warm up Charts for easy reference.

Activate Warm Up (click link to download) - Activate Warm Up .PDF

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The Activate GAA Warm-Up: Enhance Performance and Reduce Injury. Activate is a GAA specific warm up for training and matches that improves movement skills and reduces injury. It is a dynamic warm up which includes the ball. This website contains resources and training videos to complement GAA coaching courses and support the delivery of the warm-up to squads.

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Posts about Periodization written by YLMSportScience