Basic Exercise Principles

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Below follows a description of some basic exercise principles that needs to be understood before effectively engaging in any exercise program.
The main forms of exercise dealt with here are
  • Cardiovascular exercise
  • Strengt training
  • Sports-specific training
Three basic principles In order to be specific in your exercise goals it is important to understand a little bit about how exercise affects various systems in your body .
The next section intends to explain some of the main responses in your body to different form of exercise.
There are three basic principles that needs to be applied to any form of exercise in order to be successful These three main principles are:
  • Specificity
  • Progression
  • Overload
Specificity The specificity principle can be interpreted and applied in many different ways depending on what you want to improve ,specificity can apply to muscle groups,energy systems or specific movements or activities.
You can break down and apply the principle almost any way you like to fit your specific goals within and exercise program.
However, in its simplest most general form specificity means that in order to get better at any type of skill or activity you need to perform that activity, this means that if you want to get better at swimming you need to swim,if you want to be a better runner you need to run, throwing darts you need to throw darts etc..
Overload The principle of overload states that a greater than normal load is required if adaptation is to take place.
The body will then adapt to the increased stimulus of the specific tissue or system we want to affect.
When the body has adapted, a greater and/or different stimulus is required to continue the adaptation process.
In order for a muscle (including the heart) to increase in strength, it must be gradually stressed by working against a load greater than it is accustomed to.
Progression The principle of progression refers to the rate of which overload is applied.
In principle there exists an optimal rate of which to apply overload to achieve optimal results.
Overload should not be increased too slowly or improvement will not take place.
In the event that overload is increased too rapidly it will result in injury or muscle damage and most certainly no improvement.
For example, an athlete that exercises only sporadically and with too much overload violates both the principle of overload and the principle of progression and will not achieve good results.
As you can see, these three principles are highly interconnected and are reciprocally dependent on each other.
They also relate strongly to additional principles like those of adaptation and individual differences.
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