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Chapter 3 - Principles of Exercise Training to Improve Physical Fitness ________________________________________________________________________________________________

Training Considerations _________________________________________________________________________

- The Overload Principle and Progressive Resistance There are two principles that you will need to adhere to when developing strength or any other fitness component.

The first principle is called the overload principle. When the body is exercised at a level which is above normal, (that is, “overloaded”) the body will eventually adapt to that level and function more efficiently. Thus, in order to improve performance, the muscles must be overloaded or stressed beyond what they are normally accustomed to.

An individual can produce an overload by adjusting the frequency, intensity, or duration of the exercise until the muscle is sufficiently trained. As mentioned, this principle applies not only to the development of strength, but also to the development of muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness.

The second principle is called progressive resistance. This principle simply states that as you increase in ability you must increase your resistance if you want to continue to get a training effect. Actually, progressive resistance is a good example of the proper way to apply the overload principle if you want to continue to develop. In order to become more and more physically fit, you must systematically increase the resistance of the exercises. Each higher level of fitness requires a greater workload.

- Reversibility Although your muscles won’t turn to fat, your level of fitness will drop off rather quickly after you quit training. It does not matter if you have been training for a year or for a lifetime, a significant loss is inevitable within five or six weeks after you stop. We know that’s a real kick in the butt, but it’s a fact of life.

This regression in fitness is referred to by physiologists as reversibility. Why reversibility occurs so quickly is not yet understood.

However, muscles that are not continually conditioned quickly lose their ability to utilize oxygen efficiently. Consequently, aerobic activities that require the muscles to use large amounts of oxygen, such as swimming, jogging, cycling and wrestling are prone to rapid reversibility. On the other hand, anaerobic activities which have low oxygen requirements, such as powerlifting and sprinting, resist reversibility for a longer period of time. Thus strength or power reversibility is a result of muscle atrophy rather than the muscle’s decreased oxygen efficiency.

Since it takes considerably more time and effort to get in shape than it does to experience reversibility, it is a good practice to stay in shape all year if possible. Many athletes who compete in seasonal sports make the mistake of staying in shape only during the time their sport is in season. By doing this, they must engage in extensive training when their sport comes back in season in order to regain the fitness they lost from reversibility.

We do have some good news for you though, concerning reversibility. There is considerable research which indicates that it takes less time and energy to reverse reversibility than it does to develop fitness from the beginning. In other words, because of muscle memory, you can get your fitness back faster after you’ve stopped training than it took you to develop it in the first place.

Chapter 3 - Principles of Exercise Training to Improve Physical Fitness ________________________________________________________________________________________________

- Specificity of Exercise Another key concept of fitness is the principle of muscle specificity, which states that exercise training is specific to those muscles involved in the activity. As mentioned, just because you can bench press a small apartment complex, does not mean that you will be able to lift your weight in the clean and jerk. Strength and muscular endurance are extremely specific. Actually, strength and muscular endurance are specific to the angle of push or pull. For example, if you trained with a wide grip in your bench press for an extended period of time and then moved your grip in as little as two inch, you would most likely find a decrement in your performance.

Also, each of the aforementioned components of fitness is quite independent and/or specific. Indeed, there is very little relationship between them. Consequently, strength training is specific to the development of muscular strength. Conversely, muscular endurance training results in the improvement of muscular endurance without significantly altering muscular strength. If you want to develop muscular endurance and muscular strength, you would have to work on each of these components separately.

- Muscle Balance Warning: If your cholesterol level is higher than your SAT scores you might want to skip this section. It’s a real thought provoker.

All muscular movement is synchronized. When you move a muscle in one direction, an opposite muscle, called the antagonistic muscle, moves in the reverse direction…thereby coordinating muscular movement. This synchronization or balance of muscle contraction is called reciprocal innervation. Pay attention now because this can be a little confusing...OK, it can be very confusing. Stick with us though, and we’ll get you through it.

Suppose for example that you are performing a curl with fifty pounds on the bar. During this exercise, the biceps brachia, which is the prime mover in this movement, contracts to flex the forearm at the elbow joint; the triceps are stretched by this action since they are attached to that same elbow joint from the opposite side. This movement activates the proprioceptor (muscle spindles) in the biceps brachia, which in turn sends nervous impulses to the spinal cord. These impulses are immediately relayed to the triceps…the antagonistic muscle in this movement. The triceps are then contracted, thereby bringing about fluid coordinated movement. If you understand all of that raise your hand. Too bad, we’re going on anyway.

Now get this, it should be noted that the contraction of the antagonistic muscle will restrict the biceps brachia from over contracting and thereby, preventing injury. The ratio of strength between the prime mover and antagonist is very delicately balanced. This balance keeps one muscle from injuring the other. However, if one muscle develops significantly greater strength than the other, the stronger muscle can overpower the weaker one and cause damage to both the tissue and its tendon. This is one reason why it is important to develop both the prime mover and antagonistic muscle when training.

If a muscle is injured because of muscle imbalance, first wait until the muscle is healed, and then engage in a program that will strengthen the weaker muscle and stretch the stronger one. That wasn’t so bad, was it? Don’t answer that.

- Muscle Bound Richard Simmons once said, “I don’t lift weights because I don’t want to get muscle bound. If you get muscle bound you can’t do anything. That’s why I do aerobics.” And that’s why Richard has legs like Schwarzenegger…Maria’s not Arnold’s.

Chapter 3 - Principles of Exercise Training to Improve Physical Fitness ________________________________________________________________________________________________

The belief that an individual’s range of motion is restricted by muscle hypertrophy has no scientific basis. In extreme cases of muscle hypertrophy, the mass could literally restrict range of motion mechanically.

In other words, where the muscle mass is so great that it impinges movement. Of course, we are talking about extreme muscle hypertrophy…guys like Lee Haney, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronny Coleman.

Conversely, individuals who possess greater muscle mass tend to be quicker, faster and stronger than individuals with less muscle mass.

And here’s something else that Richard probably doesn’t know. Strength and/or muscle mass have been shown to enhance both speed and coordination.