Consistency, Progression, Overload, Specificity, Reversibility
With the arrival of the holiday season comes the consequent increase of excitement about fitness. Sadly, in many cases this excitement is short lived. As the year relentlessly presses forward, fitness is often given a lower priority as other commitments and challenges manifest themselves. In some instances, fitness resolutions that were once seen as a daily must are completely abandoned after only a few months.
Does this sound familiar? If it does, don't get discouraged. Like anything else worth doing in life, a commitment to fitness is a demanding task. One of the biggest obstacles that stops people from reaching their resolutions can easily be overcome. The obstacle is a simple unawareness of five basic principles that every exercise routine should be based on. Study these principles carefully and make sure that your New Year's fitness resolutions incorporate each one.
Principle One - Consistency. The principle of consistency simply means that for any workout of any kind to provide a positive effect it must be done consistently. Our bodies, much like our mentalities, are adverse to change. Rather than making deep, lasting changes they will do all they can to change only temporarily and superficially. To convince your body to make lasting changes and adapt to a more fit lifestyle consistent exercise is required. Working out 3-6 times a week will provide optimal results, but even 1-2 workouts a week, done consistently, will provide health benefits.
Principle Two – Progression. As you consistently work out your strength and stamina will increase. Eventually the work out that you started out with will feel easy and your performance will plateau. If maintenance is your goal continue with this same work out. If, on the other hand, you wish to continue to improve, your work out needs to increase in intensity. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, such as increasing distance and/or weight, or trying something new such as a fitness class or new type of physical activity. To see continued improvement your work out should continually adapt so that it is always challenging.
Principle Three – Overload. The overload principle states that each workout should leave you tired. For your cardiovascular system, muscles, flexibility and balance to improve they need to be pushed during each workout. For weight lifting a good rule to follow during endurance training is to push your muscles to exhaustion over the course of 15-20 reps. For strength training push your muscles to failure over the course of 4-6 reps (usually complete 2-3 sets of every exercise for both styles of training). Over all, overload means you should be demanding success from your body by consistently pushing it during each workout. Don't let yourself off easy!
Principle Four – Specificity. The hardest part about this principle is the pronunciation. The rest is relatively easy. The principle of specificity simple means that to see improvement in a specific area you must do exercises that target that area. For example, to improve your cardiovascular health you must do cardiovascular training. And, if you want chiseled abs, you have to do exercises that will chisel them. General exercises provide general improvement, but specific goals can only be met by exercises specifically designed to help you reach those goals.
Principle Five – Reversibility. Reversibility means that if a fitness routine is abandoned your body will naturally return to the state it was at before. A healthy lifestyle requires consistent exercise; not periodic bursts of activity.
The five principles of fitness, consistency, progression, overload, specificity, and reversibility, should be the basis for every exercise routine.
Periodization
In his song, “Feeling Good” Michael Buble sings, “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life, for me, and I’m feeling good!” For many the New Year and its accompanying resolutions bring hope of a new life that will leave them “feeling good!” One of the most common resolutions to help people feel is good is “Getting in better shape.” Like any resolution, however, it is not easy; proper understanding and organization are essential to starting and maintaining a healthier lifestyle.
Last month in the Summit Scoop, we detailed five fitness principles that should be the basis of every fitness program. These principles are especially helpful for designing workouts on a daily basis. We now present a sixth principle—known as Periodization—that provides a basis for designing a long-term fitness program.
Periodization, as its name implies, means breaking your fitness plan up into different periods to ensure that your body has enough time to adjust to the changes in your lifestyle. A fitness program based on periodization provides two major benefits. First, it will help you avoid injury while you work towards meeting your goals. Second, it will help make the changes in your body more enduring and substantial. For a practical discussion of periodization and its benefits, we will define the two major periods into which your plan should be divided. They are, in order, Conditioning and Strength/Speed Training.
Conditioning - During the conditioning phase, the individual focuses on preparing their body for more strenuous exercise. This is important in every aspect of fitness. Failure to condition your body properly can lead to nagging injuries. For example, an out of shape individual gung-ho about their resolution to run the marathon could seriously injure themselves by attempting to sprint ten miles the day after New Years. Running a marathon is a great and realistic goal for the individual, but they must begin working to it in a safe manner. The best rule to follow for people just starting or returning to a fitness program, is to start with low weight and high repetitions, or the equivalent in other areas (for example, those engaging in cardiovascular training should travel longer distances at slower, maintainable speeds). Lifting your max weight just a few times or doing dead sprints with no conditioning places strains on your body that it is in no way prepared for.
As stated before, conditioning also helps to make the changes in your body more substantial and longer lasting. Conditioned muscles and bones will be able to deal with the stress of strength/speed training more effectively. Once properly conditioned, your body will be able to use all its energies to develop muscle mass, strengthen bones, improve cardiovascular health, etc. Think of it as a basketball coach working with a conditioned athlete as opposed to an unconditioned athlete. The conditioned athlete will be able to complete and learn from rigorous drills whereas the unconditioned athlete will simply suffer through the drills and be unable to concentrate because of their exhausted state. In addition, quick improvements in health will be lost just as quickly in the event of injury or cessation of the program.
Strength/Speed Training - Strength/speed training can be characterized as high weight, low repetitions or its equivalent in other areas. This type of training convinces your body that you do not just wish to improve your endurance but also to improve the level at which your body can perform various functions. Strength/speed training builds muscle and trains muscles to perform at elevated levels, and is equally important for both men and women. Interestingly enough, this type of training also helps in ridding oneself of undesired fat. As your muscle mass increases and is used more often, your resting metabolism increases. This means that you will be burning excess fat not only while you exercise, but also while you perform your other daily functions.
Repeat - After some time in the Strength/Speed Training phase, your body will eventually plateau. You simply will not be able to lift any heavier, run any faster, or stretch any further. One of the best ways to push past a plateau is to return to the conditioning phase. You will find that thanks to your previous Conditioning and Strength/Speed Training you will be able to condition at a much higher level this time. After several weeks of conditioning, your muscles will be better prepared for another round of Strength/Speed Training and you will have a much better chance of moving beyond your previous plateau.
This cycle of Conditioning and Strength/Speed Training will not only help you to reach your New Year’s resolutions, but will make the changes in your body greater and longer lasting. Most importantly, you will be much less likely to sustain an injury.
