Sent to the Principle
Over the next few days I am going to cover some key principles of fitness training and how you can apply them to your life.
What is a principle?
It's "a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption"
(Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.)
Depending on who you talk to, there are about 10 accepted principles of fitness training. Some more important, or easily understood and applicable to your personal training regime, than others. Today I'm going to talk about a good ol' basic one. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce the:
Overload Principe.
This means exercising the body at a level above which it normally operates. Thus, it triggers your body to essentially "grow or die." Your body thinks you're trying to kill it so it adapts by getting stronger, or more efficient to save itself.
You can accomplish this a few different ways.
You can increase the the frequency of training. For example, going from training once a day to twice a day. This one is hard for the average person to do due to time constrants. Most people have "trouble" finding time to do one workout every other day.
You can increase the intensity of the exercise. This means "taking it up a notch." Perhaps more weight if you're a weight lifter. Maybe a different angle than your body is used to. Performing the exercise faster. Increased intensity will use basically the same amout of time but be much more taxing on the body.
Finally you can increase the duration of the exercise. This is simply doing the exercise for a longer amount of time during one workout session. A good example of this is going from jumping rope for 10 minutes to 20 minutes. Or increasing the number of reps of any given exercise.
Anyone who is exercising is using the overload principle in one way or another. Be concious of it. Understand why you are doing what you're doing. It will make your training more enjoyable, instead of just feeling like you're going through the motions.
Tomorrow I'll cover another principle of training.
Until then...
Train smart,
RL
What is a principle?
It's "a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption"
(Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.)
Depending on who you talk to, there are about 10 accepted principles of fitness training. Some more important, or easily understood and applicable to your personal training regime, than others. Today I'm going to talk about a good ol' basic one. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce the:
Overload Principe.
This means exercising the body at a level above which it normally operates. Thus, it triggers your body to essentially "grow or die." Your body thinks you're trying to kill it so it adapts by getting stronger, or more efficient to save itself.
You can accomplish this a few different ways.
You can increase the the frequency of training. For example, going from training once a day to twice a day. This one is hard for the average person to do due to time constrants. Most people have "trouble" finding time to do one workout every other day.
You can increase the intensity of the exercise. This means "taking it up a notch." Perhaps more weight if you're a weight lifter. Maybe a different angle than your body is used to. Performing the exercise faster. Increased intensity will use basically the same amout of time but be much more taxing on the body.
Finally you can increase the duration of the exercise. This is simply doing the exercise for a longer amount of time during one workout session. A good example of this is going from jumping rope for 10 minutes to 20 minutes. Or increasing the number of reps of any given exercise.
Anyone who is exercising is using the overload principle in one way or another. Be concious of it. Understand why you are doing what you're doing. It will make your training more enjoyable, instead of just feeling like you're going through the motions.
Tomorrow I'll cover another principle of training.
Until then...
Train smart,
RL
posted by Ryan at 9:40 AM
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