Getting physical – general principles

The general principles of physical training are the same, whichever sport you’re preparing for.

Benefits – you’d be foolish not to

It’s an odd question, why don’t we all want to exercise on a regular basis? After all, look at the benefits of exercising:

• improves your sense of well-being and reduces stress
• helps you control your weight and any unwanted bulges
• helps to prevent you getting constipation
• improves your strength and stamina
• improves your coordination and balance (especially for older adults)
• improves your flexibility
• reduces the risk of heart disease
• reduces the risk of high blood pressure
• takes the strain off your heart
• increase bone density (less risk of osteoporosis)
• improves how your lungs work
• improves your blood circulation.

So congratulations for getting this far – you’ve made a big step in the right direction in making your life better and healthier.

Your exercise essentials

For every ‘session’ of exercise you should follow the same preparation.

1. dangers of stretching It’s a common misunderstanding, but stretching before you’ve warmed up is a bad idea as it can put too much pressure on your muscles, tendons and ligaments.

   Warm up: Before any exercise it’s vital that
   you take at least five minutes to warm up your body. Warming up is a way of waking your body up – getting the blood flowing, the muscles primed. A good warm up is to walk around (in warm clothing) for five minutes.
2. Stretch: After warming up, take a few minutes to slowly stretch your muscles.
3. Cool down: When you’ve finished your session, take five minutes to cool down slowly – just walking around in your tracksuit for five minutes is probably enough to let your body gently calm down.
4. Stretch: Once you’ve stopped take 10 to 20 minutes to really stretch your muscles – go through you whole body. If you don’t you’re going to ache the next day.

How much should I do?

The trick to exercise is doing it regularly. A little excercise, done often is much better than a rare strenous burst of exercise. In fact the latter is positively bad for you us as it can put a lot of strain on your body. Apart from keeping physically active every day we all should:

• be aiming to do at least 30 minutes of continuous exercise every session
• do three sessions of exercise at least three times a week
• give yourself at least one, if not two, rest days a week.

How hard should I push myself?

It’s all very well exercising three times a week for 30 minutes, but how hard should you be pushing yourself?

Unless you increase your exercise levels – go faster, further and for longer – you’re not going to improve your overall fitness. But you should be looking to increase your level (speed, distance and time) by no more than 10 to 15 per cent week on week. (If you increase your exercise any faster you’re likely to do yourself an injury.)

But at what level should you be exercising – too gently and you’re not getting any fitter, too hard and you could be doing yourself harm. So how do you judge?

There are a number of ways you can judge your effort – either mechanically with a heart rate monitor or using your own judgement. You can find a lot information about heart rate monitors from gyms and the web, but here are some simple techniques that anyone can use to judge their exercise level.

The talk test

This simple test judges your effort by whether you can talk or not when exercising. Basically, while exercising, if you can:

• sing – you’re not doing enough and won’t be improving your overall fitness, certainly not your heart-lung (cardiovascular) fitness
• talk (but not sing) – you’re probably exercising safely and effectively
• can only gasp and have difficulty getting words out – you’re going too hard. Slow down (unless you’re sprinting).

How do you feel?

Another test is to rate yourself. Where one is barely making any exertion (singing) and 10 is going flat out (gasping) – a good steady rate is around four to six (talking). On the whole you should be working out at a steady six.

A training plan to suit you

A training plan is a pretty simple thing. Include the following:

• Be honest – don’t pretend to yourself that you’re fitter than you really are. If you’re honest you’re much more likely to enjoy getting fit and more likely to stick to the plan.
• Be realistic – make the plan fit into your life and routines (but make sure you’re getting three days of exercise, including one longer session).
• Build up slowly – remember the 10 to 15 per cent rule.
• Take rest days – make sure you give your body time to rest.
• Own it – remember it’s your plan. If it isn’t working for you, change it to better suit you.
• Start now – however fit you are, start now and make it part of your life. You’ll enjoy it more that way and reap the health benefits of being fitter.

Aim of your plan is to build on:

• stamina (endurance)
• strength, for speed
• technique – to become more efficient
• flexibility
• kit – so you’re comfortable with what you need on the day
• keeping your strength up – eating right
• watering yourself – drinking plenty of water so you don’t get dehydrated
• feeding yourself – keep your energy levels up by worshiping your body with the right amounts and quantity of food.

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