Exercise is Medicine™ – Keys to Exercise – Duration and Frequency
What are the basic principles of exercise that are needed to optimize training and performance?
Athletes who are serious about their training and competition must ensure that they are optimally prepared by using the most current scientific methods that will allow for maximal adaptations and performance while reducing susceptibility to overtraining and injury.
In order for athletes to train and compete at the highest possible level, they must pay careful attention to scientifically sound and effective exercise strategies and principles. A well-designed exercise program, aerobic or anaerobic, should incorporate four general training principles: (1) specificity, (2) progression, (3) variation, and (4) overload.
Specificity is a training principle that necessitates an athlete to train specifically for the sport or activity. The training program incorporates the physiological requirements for the activity, including the musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, respiratory, energy, and neuromuscular systems of the body. Training should include motor patterns that replicate the activity’s movements to ensure maximum transferability and adaptation. If an athlete fails to integrate specificity into his or her training, he or she will most likely compromise his or her performance. For example, a high jumper would be best served by incorporating sport-specific movements, such as jump squats, plyometric drills, or power cleans, into his or her training program. These specific movements would prepare the jumper more effectively for competition than non-sport-specific movements. Examples of non-sport-specific movements for this athlete include endurance running, leg extensions, or bench press; these movements have little transferability to the actual activity.
Progression is a principle that requires an athlete’s training program to be progressively advanced over time to ensure improvement (peaking) and reduce injury or burnout. An athlete should be monitored carefully during his or her prescribed workouts to determine when training loads need to be increased or decreased. For example, a discus thrower would have a detailed strength training program designed for an entire training year.
The program would be broken into specific cycles that would incorporate gradual increases in workload throughout the season. If an athlete decided to leap ahead of the program, breaking the designed progression, in all likelihood, the athlete would find himself or herself peaking prematurely and missing the opportunity to compete at his or her best.
Variation comes from changing workloads, exercises, or both. Varying the workloads (weight lifted, sets, or repetitions) is intended to prevent overtraining. An athlete cannot work on strength all of the time, as this can lead to injury and burnout.
Regular fluctuations must be built into the program to include changes in the volume and intensity of the training. Some days would incorporate strength, some strength endurance, and others power to allow for adequate recovery and maximal adaptation.
Changing exercises frequently can help to reduce boredom, improve fitness and performance, and stimulate renewed physiological adaptations through a multitude of diverse ranges of motion and planes of movement.
Overload is applied to an athlete’s training program to ensure continued improvement. For overload to be effective, it must exceed an athlete’s current capacity. After an athlete has adapted to a particular training load, that training load must be increased to create a stronger stimulus and further adaptation. If an athlete is not provided with a significant enough overload, further improvements in the physiological systems of the body will cease, and the athlete will plateau in his or her performance. The training load is usually increased by a definite percentage each week to allow for proper adaptation.
Three training variables are manipulated to provide overload to the body’s systems: (1) frequency, (2) duration, and (3) intensity.
Frequency is defined as the number of training sessions per week. To maximize performance in long-distance running, an athlete would need to train between three and five times per week. For a strength athlete, training can range between two and five sessions per week, depending on the sport. The training cycle usually determines the frequency of training and should be carefully manipulated to allow for maximal recovery, adaptation, and continued improvement.
Duration of training will vary according to the athlete’s sport and training cycle. Athletes in the preseason phase of training (getting ready to compete) will spend less time exercising during each session because training intensity will be very high. Conversely, the off-season phase will generally involve longer training sessions with low to very low intensity.
Intensity is probably the single most important variable, as it provides the required stimulus (overload) necessary for increasing performance.
Intensity can come in the form of increasing the resistance lifted, working at a higher heart rate, or reducing the recovery time between sets of an exercise. Athletes engaged in strength training programs usually determine intensity based on the repetition maximum. For example, a hammer thrower may work between 60% and 100% of a one-repetition maximum for a particular exercise depending on the athlete’s training cycle. For this athlete, training volume is usually high at the beginning of the training year, and training intensity is low-between 60% and 70% of the repetition maximum.
Going into the in-season, training intensity can increase to between 85% and 97% of the repetition maximum. A runner, for example, may begin his or her seasonal training runs at 60% of his or her VO2 max for longer distances. As the season progresses, training intensities can reach 85% or higher of the VO2 max while significantly decreasing training distance.
During the latter stages of the season, a runner may alternate days of low-, moderate-, and high-intensity training to ensure maximum recovery and performance. The basic principles of exercise were designed to help athletes improve performance, reduce injuries, and avoid overtraining. With correct application, an athlete should experience all of the positive benefits, simultaneously ensuring a long and healthy athletic career.
Terms:
Specificity – A training principle that necessitates an athlete to specifically train for the sport or activity.
Respiratory – Includes airways, lungs, and respiratory muscles that allow gas exchange.
Progression – A principle that requires an athlete’s training program to be progressively advanced over time to ensure improvement (peaking) and reduce injury or burnout.
Variation – Comes from changing workloads, exercises, or both.
Overload – A method of training that requires the physiological systems of the body to be increasingly stressed to ensure continued improvement.
Frequency – The number of training sessions per week.
Duration – The amount of time an athlete spends exercising.
Training intensity – The amount of effort (low, moderate, high) required to perform a specific exercise.
Intensity – How hard an athlete works during training and competition.
Training volume – The total amount of work done during a training period.
