The core principles of training

Training principles? Yes they do exist! In all things we do we have to apply principles to guide our activities. Training your body is really no different.

We all have our different training objectives, routines and techniques, some of us train to gain muscle mass and strength, while others are in it for weight loss and cardiovascular fitness. Whatever your goals, there are some core principles you need to ensure you get the best out of your fitness regime. From my extensive reading I have come across many ideas, some wonderful and helpful and others not so wonderful and totally useless! Today I want you to learn the 5 core principles of training that can help guide you to achieve you fitness goals, they can be adapted to ANY exercise regime. I guarantee that if you follow these principles in designing your workout then you will be on your way to a fitter, healthier body.

1.    

   Principle of specificity:

This is the first principle upon which you can build your program, to be precise it entails choosing a specific type of exercise to achieve a desired outcome. For example if you want to develop cardio vascular endurance then a program involving running, jogging, skipping or swimming is needed. If you were to develop a program that involves only weight training for example, it is unlikely you would get the desired result. You would have stronger muscles but you would not build the desired endurance.

2.       Principle of progressive overload:

This is the practice of continuously raising the intensity of your workout to maintain progress as your body gets used to the stress it is undergoing. Let’s break this down, once your body gets used to training, you have to intensify your efforts to sustain progress. For example, if you initially struggle to run a kilometer in 8 minutes and after a couple of weeks of training, you observe that you can do the run with less discomfort, then it’s time to apply this principle. You can do this in two ways, either by increasing the distance you run to 1.5km  or trying to reduce time it takes you to run the speed your 1km to about 7 minutes. This will ensure that you continue to lose weight. If you do not overload your system, progress will be limited or start to drop.

3.       Principle of variation:

The importance of this principle cannot be over emphasized. It is a fact of training, no matter how effective a program is, it will work for only a short period of time. Let me illustrate, if your cardio workout involves skipping and jogging, after some time you may observe that you have stopped making progress, which is simply your body telling you that it is time for change! We all get bored eventually; would you eat the same meal day in day out? Same for your fitness regime, my personal rule is to vary exercise every month. If I am trying to lose weight, I jog and run in January then I take up aerobics in February, so that my system is always being shocked into adapting and reacting, this translates into sustained progress. This is applicable in muscle gaining and fat loss workouts. I highly recommend it. Please apply this principle.

4.       Principle of maintenance:

The good news is that if you need to apply this principle then you have achieved your fitness goals. It takes less effort to maintain your fitness. At this stage, you need to reduce your efforts so as to avoid overtraining or injury. For example if your goal was to bench press 100kg for 10 repetitions and you achieve this after 3 months of training, then you should reduce your reps to just 6 at the same weight and you will suffer no loss of muscle or strength. I want to emphasize that it is necessary to do this so as to avoid overtraining and injury.

5.       Principle of reversibility:

This is probably stating the obvious, but I will do so anyway. The fact is that if you discontinue your training program, or do not maintain the minimum of effort, regression will set in. you will start to lose muscular strength or cardiovascular fitness. For muscular strength you will lose all gains and some mass in 3 months, while for cardiovascular endurance after only 2 weeks! Don’t forget the maxim; “ if you don’t use it you lose it!”. Please do not lose it.

Do have a wonderful day!