Adherence to certain basic exercise principles is important for developing an effective program. The same principles of exercise apply to everyone at all levels of physical training, from the Olympic-caliber athlete to the weekend jogger.
These basic principles of exercise must be followed.
- Regularity
To achieve a training effect, you must exercise often. You should exercise all the first four fitness components at least three times a week. Infrequent exercise can do more harm than good. Regularity is also important in resting, sleeping, and following a sensible diet.
- Progression
The intensity (how hard) and/or duration (how long) of exercise must gradually increase to improve the level of fitness.
- Balance
To be effective, a program should include activities that address all the fitness components, since overemphasizing any one of them may hurt the others. To understand balance, it’s better to consult a Coquitlam Personal Trainer who can guide you into a program that is ideally balanced!
- Variety
Providing a variety of activities reduces boredom and increases motivation and progress.
- Specificity
Training must be geared toward specific goals. For example, people become better runners if their training emphasizes running. Although swimming is great exercise, it generally does not improve a 2-mile-run time around a running program does.
- Recovery
A hard day of training for a given component of fitness should be followed by an easier training day or rest day for that component and/or muscle group(s) to help permit recovery. Another way to allow recovery is to alternate the muscle groups exercised every other day, especially when training for strength and/or muscle endurance.
- Overload
The workload of each exercise session must exceed the normal demands placed on the body to be able to bring about a training effect.