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7 Principles of Exercise and Sport Training

The seven principles of exercise and sport training are individuality, specificity, progression, overload, adaptation, recovery, and reversibility. These principles should be understood and applied to multisport training to improve performance. Individuality means everyone responds differently to training. Specificity means improving a sport requires training specific to that sport. Progression means building up training over time from easier to harder. Overload means increasing resistance or duration over time for gains. Adaptation means the body gets used to a training level and needs more stimulus to improve. Recovery means rest is needed between sessions and over time. Reversibility means gains are lost if training is discontinued.

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209 views

7 Principles of Exercise and Sport Training

The seven principles of exercise and sport training are individuality, specificity, progression, overload, adaptation, recovery, and reversibility. These principles should be understood and applied to multisport training to improve performance. Individuality means everyone responds differently to training. Specificity means improving a sport requires training specific to that sport. Progression means building up training over time from easier to harder. Overload means increasing resistance or duration over time for gains. Adaptation means the body gets used to a training level and needs more stimulus to improve. Recovery means rest is needed between sessions and over time. Reversibility means gains are lost if training is discontinued.

Uploaded by

Sheikh Mohd
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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7 Principles of Exercise and Sport Training

When you approach your multisport training, the best way to answer your questions is to better
understand the principles behind the work you are putting in to improve. These are seven basic
principles of exercise or sport training you will want to keep in mind:

Individuality
Everyone is different and responds differently to training. Some people are able to handle higher
volumes of training while others may respond better to higher intensities. This is based on a
combination of factors like genetic ability, predominance of muscle fiber types, other factors in your life,
chronological or athletic age, and mental state.

Specificity
Improving your ability in a sport is very specific. If you want to be a great pitcher, running laps will help
your overall conditioning but won’t develop your skills at throwing or the power and muscular
endurance required to throw a fastball fifty times in a game. Swimming will help improve your aerobic
endurance but won’t develop tissue resiliency and muscular endurance for your running legs.

Progression
To reach the roof of your ability, you have to climb the first flight of stairs before you can exit the 20th
floor and stare out over the landscape. You can view this from both a technical skills standpoint as well
as from an effort/distance standpoint. In order to swim the 500 freestyle, you need to be able to
maintain your body position and breathing pattern well enough to complete the distance. In order to
swim the 500 freestyle, you also need to build your muscular endurance well enough to repeat the
necessary motions enough times to finish.

Overload
To increase strength and endurance, you need to add new resistance or time/intensity to your efforts.
This principle works in concert with progression. To run a 10-kilometer race, athletes need to build up
distance over repeated sessions in a reasonable manner in order to improve muscle adaptation as well
as improve soft tissue strength/resiliency. Any demanding exercise attempted too soon risks injury. The
same principle holds true for strength and power exercises.

Adaptation
Over time the body becomes accustomed to exercising at a given level. This adaptation results in
improved efficiency, less effort and less muscle breakdown at that level. That is why the first time you
ran two miles you were sore after, but now it’s just a warm up for your main workout. This is why you
need to change the stimulus via higher intensity or longer duration in order to continue improvements.
The same holds true for adapting to lesser amounts of exercise.

Recovery
The body cannot repair itself without rest and time to recover. Both short periods like hours between
multiple sessions in a day and longer periods like days or weeks to recover from a long season are
necessary to ensure your body does not suffer from exhaustion or overuse injuries. Motivated athletes
often neglect this. At the basic level, the more you train the more sleep your body needs, despite the
adaptations you have made to said training.

Reversibility
If you discontinue application of a particular exercise like running five miles or bench pressing 150
pounds 10 times, you will lose the ability to successfully complete that exercise. Your muscles will
atrophy and the cellular adaptations like increased capillaries (blood flow to the muscles) and
mitochondria density will reverse. You can slow this rate of loss substantially by conducting a
maintenance/reduced program of training during periods where life gets in the way, and is why just
about all sports coaches ask their athletes to stay active in the offseason.

The principles of specificity, progression, overload, adaptation, and reversibility are why practicing
frequently and consistently are so important if you want to improve your performance. Missed sessions
cannot really be made up within the context of a single season. They are lost opportunities for
improvement. Skipping your long ride on weekend A means you can’t or shouldn’t go as far as originally
planned on weekend B (progression & overload). Skipping your Monday swim means your swimming
skills and muscles won’t be honed or stressed that day (specificity). Missing a week due to a vacation
sets you back more than one week (adaptation and reversibility). Apply these principles to your training
to get a better understanding of your body and how to achieve success.

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