Personal training principles and practice

Total Fitness and Wellness

In order to develop the most effective total fitness and wellness plan it is important to first examine your personal exercise program and your existing level of physical ability. Whether your exercise comes from walking around the block or weightlifting at the gym, your exercise habits should always be evaluated with three factors in mind: volume, intensity and frequency. No matter which activities you choose to implement within your overall fitness program, your overall results will enhanced by maximizing the volume, or number of times you exercise and increasing the intensity with which you approach the exercise. Furthermore, exercising more often will invariably lead to weight loss, muscle development and cardiovascular health. With these facts in mind I chose to analyze my own personal exercise habits from a variety of angles to assess the overall effectiveness of my fitness and wellness program.

I participate in a softball league which practices two or three times per week and plays weekly games and I consider this hobby to be a primary source of physical activity in my daily life. During practice I am engaged in near constant motion, from jogging around the field to fielding ground ball drills, and both the volume and intensity of this activity is very high. The actual games become periods of occasional inactivity and the intensity is necessarily lowered, but combined with practices my softball games provide a frequent source of exercise. I also walk my dog around the neighborhood on a daily basis, and while this activity is far from intense it rates high in terms of volume and frequency. A hobby of mine is photographing wildlife and finding the best natural scenes requires long hikes through the woods. Hiking is a very strenuous activity depending on the difficulty of the trail and I consider this activity to be a high-intensity exercise.

State and federal fitness mandates for schools have consistently found that "there are fundamental motor skills for enhancing physical development: locomotor, (or) moving from one place to another & #8230; nonlocomotor (or) stationary" as well as "fundamental object manipulation skills" (Shelton 2009). The fact that these skills are viewed as essential for the development of young people suggests that they are also highly beneficial throughout adulthood. Locomotion skills such as walking and jogging are best for fortifying the cardiovascular system and improving heart health. Nonlocomotion skills include turning, twisting and balancing and can be achieved through a simple yoga regimen designed to strengthen the core muscles. Object manipulation skills, exhibited in sports and games like softball which involve hitting a ball or swinging a bat, are used to focus on particular muscle groups and build overall endurance. I currently incorporate both locomotion skills, in the form of walking my dog and hiking, as well as object manipulation skills during the softball component of my exercise program. An activity like yoga could easily be added to my overall fitness routine in an effort to provide a full array of physical and mental benefits.

Fitness experts have long been aware that "exercise and sport are fueled by three different energy systems that produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP); the aerobic system, the lactic acid system (anaerobic glycolysis) and the ATP-PC system" (Kerr, 2003) and a quality exercise program will take these energy systems into account. Aerobic training is typified by long distance and low intensity cardiovascular workouts and my daily walks with the dog are great additions to my aerobic fitness. Utilizing the lactic acid, or anaerobic, system involves short bursts of intense activity which tear down and rebuild individual muscles in the absence of oxygen. Short bursts of all-out sprinting during softball games and practices are examples of lactic acid system training, as are steep climbs which require pulling my entire body weight over boulders or cliffs. The rate at which I recover from physical exercise is determined by whether or not a particular activity is aerobic or anaerobic in nature.

To fully achieve the physical adaptation of the body through exercise it is critical that certain periods of time are considered. Muscle growth and development, even for the most dedicated of weight trainers, is a matter of six months at least and this timespan must be taken into consideration when planning an exercise program. Even though noticeable results may be seen in the first few months, the program must be adhered to if the physical changes are to become fully manifested. For walkers and joggers the proper increment to measure one's progress should be a function of distance traveled and time. If my dog walking is to become a legitimate source of exercise I must be sure that I am walking further every week and month to challenge myself and spur muscle growth. Weightlifters measure their progress in pounds or kilograms and use repetitions and sets to gauge their physical adaptation.