Topic > The Six Principles of Training - 999

The use of the six principles of training by a 100 meter sprinter would greatly improve the athlete's performance. This is because progressive overload, specificity, reversibility, variety, training thresholds, and warm-up/cool-down principles greatly influence any athlete's performance. Training principles can be used to improve all aspects of physical fitness, from flexibility to strength and aerobic endurance. The principle of progressive overload means that improvements in fitness only occur when the "load" is progressively increased as the body adapts. The principle of overload is exemplified in the strength training necessary to improve the performance of a 100-meter sprinter. For example, let's say the sprinter starts with a weight of 30 kg. It puts enough stress on your muscles, without causing excessive fatigue or injury. After a while of training with this load, however, the body adapts to the weight and the muscles are no longer under stress. It is at this point that extra weight should be added, otherwise no further strength gains will be achieved. If the principle of progressive overload were used, a 100 meter sprinter would achieve improvements in fitness. These gains are not limited to increases in strength, but can also apply to gains in all other aspects of fitness. The second principle of training is reversibility. Reversibility, if kept in mind, can be used to improve the performance of any athlete, including a 100 meter sprinter. If, after progressively increasing the weight that the sprinter in the previous example was lifting, he stopped training altogether, the effects of this training would gradually be reversed. To improve the performance of the 100 meter sprinter he must always remember the reversibility... half of the paper... boredom and monotony. The fifth principle of training is that of thresholds. By incorporating training thresholds into the training of a 100 meter sprinter, the athlete's performance in an event will be improved. Training thresholds represent the lowest intensity at which an athlete can work and still achieve improvements in fitness. For example, a 100 meter sprinter will try to make improvements anaerobically. To do this they must work above their anaerobic threshold. This threshold could be 80% of your maximum heart rate; so anywhere above this intensity you would get anaerobic gains. How much beyond the threshold the athlete trains is proportional to the improvements in anaerobic fitness that will be achieved for the 100 meter sprinter. The improvement in fitness, as a result of threshold training, that a 100 meter sprinter would experience would improve his performance in a race.