Want to Improve Your Fitness Levels in 2012?

How does the body respond to training?

Peripheral: Increased capillary density for greater oxygen delivery to the working muscles
Structural: Stronger bones and ligaments, increased muscle size
Central: Strengthening of the heart muscle and its ability to pump blood around the body, improved lung ventilation and function
Functional:Improved coordination of movement patterns

In general, the body becomes more efficient at doing the same amount of work.

Why should you continue to improve your fitness?

By further increasing your exercise capacity, you continue to increase your survivability across all forms of mortality. In fact, by every 1 MET increase (a measure of exercise intensity) in your peak exercise capacity, you could increase your chance of survival by 12%.

Elements of a well rounded fitness program

• Cardiovascular or Aerobic Training
• Resistance Training
• Stretching / Flexibility

Are you including each of these components in your current regiment?

The FITT Principle
1. Frequency— Number of sessions per week
2. Intensity—A measure of how much work is done during exercise (% of maximum heart rate)
3. Time—Duration of session
4. Type—Type of activity

Tips for Maintaining Motivation

• Set Goals—Choose a sporting event to work towards (For example, run the Bridge to Brisbane or cycle the Wilson HTM Brisbane to the Gold Coast Challenge). Write down your goal and share it with others
• Choose an activity that you enjoy and build in variety—one repetitive activity can become boring or increase your risk of injury
• Involve the people around you—family, partner, friends or join in a team sport or running/ cycling club
• Reward yourself with a massage or something you enjoy when you achieve your goals

Improving your Training

• Incorporate the principle of “Overload”

A greater than normal load or stress needs to be placed on the body in order for adaptations to take place. If you are finding that your progress has begun to plateau, you may need to look at manipulating some of the variables in the FITT principle to create overload and therefore continue to increase your fitness.

This could mean– exercising for longer, increasing the intensity or changing the type of activity.

• Include Interval Training to improve your fitness
• Get technological and use a Heart Rate Monitor to train in the right heart rate zone to get the results you want (for example at 65-75 % of Max Heart Rate—the ideal intensity for fat burning as it utilises your aerobic metabolism)
• Incorporate rest into each week. It is important to avoid overtraining as it can limit your performance and increase your risk of injury

What is interval training?

Interval training is a form of exercise which involves bursts of high intensity work (intervals) followed by low intensity periods. By training in this way, you are using both of the body’s energy production systems:
 - aerobic (low intensity phase)
 - anaerobic (the high intensity phase)

The aerobic system is the one that allows you to exercise comfortably for long periods without feeling short of breath, and uses oxygen to convert fat stores into energy.

The anaerobic system, on the other hand, uses energy stored in the muscles (glycogen) for short bursts of activity such as sprinting, jumping or lifting heavy objects. This system does not require oxygen and the byproduct, lactic acid, is responsible for that burning sensation in your muscles after a high intensity effort. During the recovery period of interval training (following the high intensity bout) the body tries to ‘repay’ the oxygen debt.

Benefits of interval training?

This type of training promotes the body’s adaptation response leading to improved performance and fitness.

Physiological adaptations include:

• Building new capillaries and an increased ability to use and deliver oxygen to the working muscles
• Strengthening of the heart muscle
• Muscles develop improved tolerance to lactate
• This means you can work harder or perform better without fatiguing as quickly

Types of interval training

Interval training can address different components of fitness. You may focus on improving cardiovascular fitness (running, cycling, swimming, rowing etc), or consider incorporating interval training into your resistance training regime to enhance your muscular endurance.

Practical Aspects

Interval training can be quite stressful on the body, so it is recommended that sessions be followed by a day of rest or recovery. As interval training primarily focuses on improving fitness, it would be of most benefit to individuals wanting to maintain their weight, hence during the maintenance phase of your program. This is because your exercising heart rate exceeds the ’fat burning zone’ during interval training - the focus is on improving fitness rather than burning fat. Because your heart rate does peak in this type of training, your body needs carbohydrate as a fuel source, hence it is recommended to have a small carbohydrate snack (i.e. banana, honey on toast) before this type of exercise).

Resources

http://www.acefitness.org/default.aspx
http://www.sparkpeople.com/
http://www.mayoclinic.com/