Exercise and Aerobic Essays

Exercise and Aerobic Essays Exercise and Aerobic Essay Exercise and Aerobic Essay Fitness testing was conducted in class which tested our aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity and our agility. I found through the results of my testing that my aerobic capacity is low. Considering that touch football requires a strong aerobic capacity as a base this component is an important aspect of my game which needs to be improved. â€Å"The warm-up and cool-down are very important parts of a physical training session, and stretching exercises should be a major part of both. Before beginning any vigorous physical activity, one should prepare the body for exercise. The warm-up increases the flow of blood to the muscles and tendons, thus helping reduce the risk of injury. It also increases the joints range of motion and positively affects the speed of muscular contraction† (Survival HQ 2008). The warm-up outlined in the training programme has been designed to ensure all of the components stated above are used in a manner which is specific to touch. The warm up includes dump and splits, leg swings, and dynamic stretches. Michael J. Alter states that â€Å"Joint Rotation should occur before any form of aerobic exercise or stretching takes place†. Mobilising the ankles, knees, and hips are all key to ensuring a positive warm-up. These joint rotations are performed before a light jog to increase blood flow to the muscles. This jog should continue for no more than 100m to keep relativity to touch football. Dynamic stretching puts muscles groups and joints through their ranges of motion. Dynamic Stretching should only be performed after blood flow has been increased to muscle groups but before strenuous exercises are performed. The dump and splits are performed to keep the warm up specific to training touch and to increase the heart rate, blood flow, and oxygen intake in preparation for the conditioning phases of the training session. Fartlek Training is a training method which can train aerobic capacities and anaerobic capacities depending on intensities and work/rest ratios. Conditioning session one involves a Fartlek session. Fartlek training involves the use of anaerobic and aerobic systems and therefore according to Charles Sturt University â€Å"This form of aerobic conditioning (fartlek) suits many sports where there are frequent changes in the predominant energy system†. This is especially suitable to touch because as stated in the introduction â€Å"Touch is an intermittent game which consists of brief maximal efforts†. I did this exercise to improve my aerobic capacity while conditioning my body for touch at the same time. In a typical game of touch you sprint for a very small period of time and the rest of the time you are recovering whilst jogging. If an athlete has a high aerobic capacity recovery between sprints is much faster, this is why training this system is a positive aspect. The work rest ratios are extremely similar between fartlek and touch football making Fartlek training an ideal exercise to perform when training for touch. It is specific to the sport and the energy system. In conditioning phase 2 I used short interval training. Interval training was utilised as it is an exercise which can be used to increase my aerobic capacity and lactate threshold. Interval training can be used train to all of the energy systems however this conditioning phase utilises an aerobic capacity specific aspect of it. According to Amezdroz â€Å"It is also possible to make interval training highly specific to a particular energy system or sport, as well as adhere to the overload principle by manipulating the key variables involved in interval training†. The key factors specified are work intervals, recovery intervals, sets and repetitions. The short interval training utilised in my training session consisted of 70% intensity 60m runs and 30% intensity 10m jogs. 55 of these with a 30 second break in between sets means that the amount of work to rest is far higher. The reason short interval training was used as opposed to long interval training was to do with specificity. Firstly the lengths of the runs had to be shorter than the field. This is because it is very rare for a touch football player to run the full length of a touch football field. The cool down component of a training session plays a crucial role in injury prevention and the recovery phase of an athlete after physical activity. The cool down outlined in the training session involves a short jog immediately after the session’s completion. This jog should gradually decrease to a walk after 75m. The reason for this light jog is to ensure oxygen remains available to the muscles after exercise and also ensure the blood flow remains dynamic; disallowing blood pooling in large muscle groups. Static stretching consists of holding a stretch in a fixed position. Hudson (2001) states â€Å"that the use of static stretches is more appropriate for the cool down†. Static stretching is used in cool downs for lengthening the muscles, improving blood flow to the muscle, and because of the increased blood flow an increase in oxygen to the muscles. Static stretching can be relevant to any sport however it depends on the muscle groups being stretched. After this training session the lower body should be stretched. Calf Muscles, quadriceps, hamstrings, and other smaller muscle groups around the lower body should all be stretched. The stretching routine must always be relevant to touch however to maximise specificity of the session. In conclusion this training programme follows the ideal training session outline listed in the Fitness for touch report for each aspect of the training session. The warm up, conditionings phases, and cool down all have aspects in them which allow a player to enhance their performance. There are a few limitations in terms of the drills. Touch football is a sport which requires all three energy systems as stated in the introduction. This made it extremely hard to specify an activity to only one fitness component and at the same time keep it specific to touch. The activities had to be adjusted to suit and intensities and rest times decreased to ensure the aerobic system was being used. The information gathered was gathered from reliable sources.