Average of three weeks good

11 December 2006 - 02:00
By unknown

How does one maintain a clean bill of health? Do you go to the gym? Do you take vitamins and minerals supplements? The answer - training is essential

How does one maintain a clean bill of health? Do you go to the gym? Do you take vitamins and minerals supplements? The answer - training is essential

How much training is essential to maintain good health?

An average of three times a week is essential for good health. This should include a lot of aerobic exercises as these work totally on the cardiovascular (heart system) and the respiratory system.

Strengthening these two systems helps to prevent and maintain diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes.

Training is divided into five stages, namely:

l Warm up;

l Stretching;

l Actual workout;

l Cool down;

l Stretching;

The approach for training for health maintenance is not very different from training for competition. See the specifics for competitive training below:

Maintenance

Maintenance refers to sustaining the achieved adaptation with the most efficient use of time and effort.

At this point the individual has reached an acceptable level of physical fitness or training. The amount of time and effort required to maintain the individual's adaptation depends on the systems involved.

Intensity is the key to maintenance that is as long as exercise intensity is maintained by frequency and duration of exercise prescriptions and adaptations.

When training for health reasons you also have to maintain a certain level of fitness. It is a important as it is for athletes to follow a specified training programme and also to be aware of do's and don'ts.

Individualisation

Individuals require both personalized exercise prescriptions based on their fitness levels and goals and adapt differently to the same training programme.

The same training overland may improve physiological performance in one individual, maintain physiological and performance levels in a second individual, and result in maladaptation and decrease in performance in a third.

A major reason for these differences is lifestyle, particularly nutritional and sleeping habits, stress levels, and substance use such as cigarette smoke and alcohol intake.

Finally age, gender, genetics, and disease conditions all affect individual exercise prescriptions and adaptations.

Warm up/Cool Down

A warm up prepares the body for activity by elevating the body temperature. Conversely a cool down allows for a gradual return to normal body temperature. The best type of warm up is specific to the activity that will follow and individual so as not produce fatigue.

A non-physiological consideration is needed at this point, except at a military boot camp, it is very difficult to force anyone to train.

Therefore some motivation is needed, thus it is important that there be an element of fun in any training programme.

Periodisation

Once a training programme is designed, it should be applied in a pattern that will be most beneficial. Such a pattern is called the training cycle or periodisation.

Periodisation is a plan for training based on a manipulation of the fitness components and training principles, the objectives is to peak the athlete's performance for the competitive season or some part of it.

An individual training for any level of health related physical fitness should also utilise peridiosation to build in cycles of harder or easier training, emphasise one component or another to prevent boredom.

The general preparatory or off-season phase should be preceded by a sport specific fitness evaluation to guide both general and specific preparatory training programs.

Another evaluation might be conducted prior to the season if desired, or evaluations might be conducted systematically throughout the year to determine how the individual is responding to training and to make any necessary adjustments.

All evaluation testing should be done at the end of a regeneration cycle is not a confounding factor. The off-season is a time of general preparation when the health related physical fitness components are emphasized to develop aerobic endurance, muscular strength and flexibility.

An aerobic base is important for all athletes, even those whose event is primarily anaerobic.