A.1 Training

Question 1

Health-related Components of Fitness?

Answer 1

An individual’s physical ability to maintain health and perform activities of daily living. For example, being able to simply walk up the stairs.

Components -
Body composition, cardio-respiratory fitness (aerobic capacity), flexibility, muscular endurance, strength.

Question 2

Performance-related Components of Fitness?

Answer 2

An individual’s physical ability to perform in a specific sport

Components -
Agility, balance, coordination, power, reaction time and speed.

Note: Performance-related components (balance, coordination, agility) can become health-related components in elderly suffering from Hypokinetic disease

Question 3

Distinguish between Training, Overtraining, and Over-reaching (A.1.1)

Answer 3

Training - Training is performing exercise in an organized manner on a regular basis with a specific goal in mind.

Overtraining - Overtraining is when an athlete attempts to do more training than he or she is able to physically and/or mentally tolerate. Overtraining results in a number of symptoms that are highly individualized and mostly negative.

Overreaching is transient overtraining. Meaning it is done over a shorter period of time, like trying to lift something that you can’t. This can also cause short term decreases in health and performance

Question 4

Indications of overtraining (A.1.1)

Answer 4

• changes to resting heart rate
• chronic muscle soreness
• reduced immune function (frequent respiratory colds)
• sleep disturbance
• fatigue (caused by sleeping issues)
• decreased appetite
• sudden and unexplained decrease in performance

When multiple of these symptoms are present in an athlete, they may be experiencing the consequences of overtraining and may need to reconsider their training plan. Although athletes may be prone to these conditions without overtraining. These can be corrected by more rest and alternative practices (swimming).

Question 5

What is Overtraining syndrome (OTS)?

Answer 5

Overtraining syndrome can be present when an athlete does too much for too long, with not enough rest. There have been over 80 symptoms discovered that can be linked to OTS, there is no apparent cure other than lost of rest and removal from training and competition until the body has recovered.

Question 6

In-depth indicators of overtraining OTS. (A.1.1) Important

• Changes to resting heart rate
• Chronic muscle soreness
• Reduced Immune function

Answer 6

Changes to resting heart rate -
- An increase in resting heart rate is commonly cited as a sign of overtraining and overtraining syndrome, although this is not in all cases. Also reduced tolerance to exercise when not accounted for can lead to the development of OTS.

Chronic muscle soreness -
- Muscle soreness is common when an athlete does vigorous training or exercises that are unfamiliar, this is DOMS and usually dissipates after about a day. OTS muscle soreness is known for not going away after rest because the muscle tissues have been damaged. The body then produces too many cytokines and the muscle becomes overly inflamed, therefore making it chronic.

Reduced Immune function -
- Reduced immune function is a primary marker or OTS because of the increased risk of upper respiratory tract infections. But, this is not always the case and Immunosuppression has been observed in overtrained athletes with and without respiratory infections. Research has been done that shows that immune deficiency is a valid marker of OTS

Question 7

What are the various methods of training?

Answer 7

• flexibility
• strength and resistance
• circuit training
• interval training
• plyometrics
• continuous training
• fartlek training (speed-play)
• cross-training

Question 8

Describe various methods of training (A1.2)

Answer 8

• flexibility
  static: target muscle stretched till mid discomfort and held in position
  active: muscle is stretched by contracting the antagonistic muscle
  ballistic: a repeated bouncing motion at the point of peak stretch
  dynamic: target muscle is moved in a controlled fashion using repeated dynamic movements with their full range of motion with increasing speed
• strength and resistance
  application of resistance against muscle contraction to increase the size, strength, or power of skeletal muscle
• circuit training
  combines strength and resistance exercise with aerobic/cardiovascular exercise to achieve an increase in conditioning
• interval training
  high or max-intensity exercise interspersed with low-recovery exercise
• plyometrics
  fast, powerful, short-duration movements designed to increase the speed and force of muscle contractions
• continuous training
  continual work with no rest
• fartlek training (speed-play)
  combination of interval and continuous training
• cross-training
  use of multiple training methods with the goal of making improvements to overall performance