Resistance Training Principles
Happy New Year folks. It has been way too long since my last post. I will blame it on finishing a post-graduate diploma and a surprize (but more than welcome) visit from family during the holidays.
Having worked in the fitness industry I realize that January is a special time of year. This is when everyone decides to do better. Whether it is lose weight, gain muscle, eat right or quit smoking, we all wait until the new year to begin. How many succeed? – not nearly enough.
What does this have to do with your students? Well, believe it or not, over the holidays, many of your students have decided to get fit, and you may be their best chance of reach their new years goal. Here are a few resistance training principles, that when used correctly, can help you and your students see continued results.
The Principle of Overload
Our bodies are constantly adapting to the stresses that we put on them. Have you ever noticed that your body responds wondefully when you begin a new exercise program but the results don’t seem to come as easily after a couple of months. That is because the body is not working hard enough anymore – it is not being overloaded. For example; if you wanted to increase the size of your muscles, each work out must be done at at least 70% of your 1 rep max. Anything less and you won’t grow. Introduce too much weight too fast, and you risk injury.
The Principle of Progression
Although our bodies respond very well to overload, it is important to introduce this overload over a period of time. By progressing at a slow rate and allowing our bodies to adapt to each new level of stress (running faster, lifting more weight, exercising longer, etc) we are able to reach levels of fitness in a safe and effective way. This is why setting short term goals that will eventually lead to the attainment to a more long term is so important.
The Principle of Specificity
This prinicple is based on selecting exercises that stimulate the individual’s everyday work or sport action as closely as possible. There four aspects to this principle that should be taken into consideration: movement patterns (what movements are you actually doing – bending, lifting, etc); contraction type (the order the muscles contract – writing and throwing a baseball both use the forearm, but very differently); velocity (try to stimulate the same speed when selecting the exercise); and force (try to stimulate the same mass and acceleration).
Use these principles when designing exercise programs and continued success should come easier (or least more regular – success is hardly ever easy).
Yours in movement,
Coach
Push Up Position Hockey
Two posts in a row about push ups – your students are gonna love me. This is actually a fun way to get students to do a little warm up before they begin a class of floor hockey or ringette. Your goal is to get students participating in fitness activities and fitness can take many different forms.
Two people in push up position face each other about 5 feet apart. Using a bean bad or ball (whiffle balls work well), try to slide or roll the object between the partners two hands. The object is not allowed to come off the floor. The partner may stop the object with only one hand. Games typically go until one player can not stay in the push up position any longer or when one player gets to 5 (which ever happens first).
If you use any short activities such as push up position hockey to satisfy the fitness component of your physical education program, be sure to keep track of the approximate time spend on each activity. For instance, according the grade 7-9 physical education curriculum guide for Newfoundland and Labrador, doing 12 minutes of fitness related activities during each class would mean that a grade 9 physical education class would meet the 4 class minimum for fitness after 16 class.
If you have any ideas on how to incorporate fitness into other activities, I would love to hear about them.
Yours in Movement,
Coach
Partner Patty Cakes
Here is a little game I used to use during classes which focused on upper body strength – Partner Patty Cakes.
Two people in the push up position face each other. Each person remains in the push up position but lift their right hands and slap each others right hands. Then the left hands. They continue this until they are too tired to continued. To make it harder, try increasing the distance between partners or give them directions to follow (i.e. right, right, left, right left).
This is a great alternative to regular pushups and students can keep track of how long they can last and try to beat that value as the semester goes on. I wouldn’t suggest that this activity becomes a competition as it will lose the fun aspect for those students who may only be able to get a couple patty cakes completed.
Yours in Movement,
Coach
Gender Equity
It has been a while since my last post. I have been busy searching for resources and trying my best to organize the information that I feel is relevant to the site. With that in mind, I would like to start this post with a justification for its content. This site is and will remain a resource for endeavours of physical health and fitness. However, there are some topics that transcend the boundaries of sport and fitness and require mention. Gender equity is one such topic, and it just happens to be the subject of this post.
Much of my discussion will be in response to a paper An Introduction to the Law, Sport, and Gender Equity in Canada published by the Canadian association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS).
It should be noted that the gender equity is law in Canada and the Canadian Charter of Rights Freedom ensures its application in all sectors, including sport. The interpretation of the “Charter” is in constant evolution and it is therefore essential that educators are familiar with the fundamental premise of the law and how it applies to sport.
According to the CAAWS, gender equity is “the principle and practice of fair and equitable allocation of opportunities and resources to both females and males”. This translates into “eliminating discriminatory practices which are barriers to full participation in sport programs, leadership and employment” (p.4).
These barriers are not always obvious in nature as a barrier may be: a team receiving fewer practice times compared to the same team of an opposite gender; scheduled practice or competitions at less convenient times; or maybe competitions scheduled with less qualified officials.
As part of the teachers compliment to this post, numerous case studies have been supplied to illustrate the legal and moral principles surrounding gender equity as they may apply to sport organizations. Each case study, originally published by the CAAWS, is a true story with names and locations altered for privacy reasons. Of particular interest are the landmark case Blainey vs Ontario Hockey Association, which made it possible for girls to participate on boys’ sports teams, when and where the opportunity to play on a girls’ team does not exist, and the human rights complaint Ann Peel brought towards Sport Canada.
Peel, a world class race walker, learned that her financial assistance was going to be reduced because she was pregnant. Not only was she able to train and compete, but an injury she had the year before which actually did affect her performance , was not seen as relevant enough to lower her assistance – but pregnancy was. After Peel and several sport organizations failed to convince Sport Canada to change its policy, Peel lodged a human rights complaint. Before the complaint could be heard, the Minister of Fitness and Amateur Sport intervened and Sport Canada agreed to change its policy. As a result, pregnant athletes can now receive full funding so long as they state that they intend to return to competition.
The case with Peel is of particular interest because according to section 1 of the Charter, discrimination (even when proved to have occurred) is permissible when it has been decided that girls or women will be injured if allowed to compete against bigger, stronger boys or men, or that women cannot be admitted to male-only facilities on the grounds of public decency. It would appear that Peel was in no danger by continuing to train and compete because of her pregnancy, and therefore policy needed to be changed. This example of gender equity not being obvious in all case has brought forth the term indirect discrimination. The CAAWS give this example to explain indirect discrimination:
An example of indirect discrimination in sport would be offering a coaching scholarship program to coaches with ten or more years of coaching experience in a sport where women have only had opportunity to coach for the last seven years. Women would not be eligible for the program because being female has prevented them from gaining the necessary experience to qualify for the opportunity.
I would like to finish this post with a request that each educator find a way to discuss gender equity issues with their classes. Using the sport realm as their basis, it may be easier for students to identify with the injustices that accompany many gender equity issues. It should be noted to students that these principles should not only be applied in the sport world, but also in private and public industry. The case studies which accompany this post in the teachers section are excellent and I also encourage educators to browse each one to find the ones that best suit your needs (there is one article about a man being discriminated against because of his gender and is not considered for employment as a result). Check out the Gender Equity lesson plan and supporting documents for the lesson on this topic.
Yours in Movement,
Coach
Action Planning
As a supplement to the information found in my blog from October 17th, 2009 title Be Smart – Goal Setting, I have posted a lesson and some work sheets for you. To view this material follow this link (click here). You will need a users name and password to access the links. You can get this by e-mailing password@scathletics.com from your school e-mail.
