We'll Show You How to Select Training Equipment!

Reshaping reality through physical exertion

Physical exertion is about reshaping our functional reality. If our sole aim is to shed excess fat, a new physique, improved well-being, and fitness are clear indicators of the changes. Achieving a particular physical condition or specific results in a specific sport discipline involves satisfaction, recognition, reward, and social standing. Changes do not only affect our surroundings. To achieve the aforementioned effects of physical exertion, our body must first adapt to new challenges, leading to a series of adaptive changes that enable functioning in the new reality.

Stimulator - Exertion effect - Adaptive effect

An adaptive process is a collection of phenomena, transformations, and mechanisms that occur in our body to adapt to a planned physical activity. These are not temporary changes caused by a single workout, but rather the cumulative effect of multiple training sessions and physical exertions. Each one of them plays a crucial role in the transformation of the body. Each physical exertion triggers specific effects in the body. The goal is for these effects to accumulate and lead to the desired changes that help build the physical fitness that we are actually striving for. Every physical exertion, be it a single exercise or a combination of exercises, is a stimulus that stimulates changes in our body. To achieve the desired adaptive effects, these training stimuli must be applied consciously.

What exactly are training tools and how to effectively employ them?

Training tools are stimuli, single exercises, or exercise sets that are chiefly distinguished by the structure of motion and impact. To utilize them effectively, it is necessary to comprehend their influence. Even more crucial is contemplating whether they have the anticipated effect.

How are training tools devised?

In selecting training tools, we need to precisely determine the parameters of physical exertion and skills that we want to achieve. Based on the characteristics of the discipline or competition and the requirements they place on our system, we should formulate the training measures that are closest to the target form of movement and exercise. These are called special measures. However, it is an error to rely solely on special training measures. The structure of the exercises or sets of special exercises primarily involves the muscles and the energy systems that are most involved and decisive for the result of the starting effort. Training only with special training measures leaves many weak links in the training process. Every physical effort is an adaptation of many diverse body functions. In the starting effort, there are leading functions, but that does not mean that they can operate without many supporting phenomena and mechanisms that determine the starting effort. These phenomena and mechanisms form a cause-and-effect chain, the disruption or inadequate organization of which negates the effectiveness of the starting effort.

Weak links in exercises with unilateral stress

It often happens that an athlete, despite being in good physical condition, cannot achieve their desired goal due to an injury. The injury can affect the competitor both before the competition and during the competition itself, when success is practically within reach. The reason for this may be inadequate preparation, including the weakness of muscles that have not been sufficiently developed during training because too much attention has been given to muscles that have the greatest impact on the results.

The dead lift is not solely about muscle power

Lifting the strips from the base is an effective exercise on the muscles in the cross-lumbar region, the quadrilateral back, the gluteal and the quadruped hip. However, the development of other muscles, such as the abdominals, also plays a crucial role. Their strength is responsible for creating pressure in the abdominal cavity, protecting the internal organs, and triggering an extra straight moment. Strengthening the muscles that pull the shoulder blades allows for maintaining the correct posture of the upper part of the torso. The correct technique of the dead lift depends on the proper functioning of these muscles.

The ability to process oxygen

Should the initial effort, which is primarily based on oxygen-independent conversions, be based solely on these training measures? An excessively developed ability to process oxygen will cause some of the fast-moving fibers to acquire the characteristics of slow-moving, oxygen-utilizing fibers. This will not yield positive results. But what about the nature of slow-moving fibers themselves? Appropriate exercise in the realm of oxygen conversion will enhance slow-moving fibers, the respiratory and circulatory system, the supply and utilization of oxygen. In this way, an individual engaging in sport, who relies on anaerobic exertion, will attain a state of readiness more quickly, due to a faster recovery during breaks between intervals of exertion, during moderate, regenerative exertions, and periods of rest.

Join in progressive adaptation!

Physical training is simply the continuous stimulation of the muscles to work. It is a neuromuscular stimulation. It does not involve isolated muscles, but rather it affects the muscles that are most involved in the work and the supporting muscles. The latter play a very important role. They can stabilize the skeletal system for the correct moments of the forces developed by the muscles performing the main work. They can be antagonists, preventing an excessive range of motion in the joints. Focusing only on the work of the dominant muscles at the beginning of the effort leads to the stronger developed muscles taking over a part of the functions of the weaker muscles. The weaker muscles become even weaker. In a certain movement, effort, or exercise, an incorrect neuromuscular stimulation pattern arises. A weak link is created. To prevent situations leading to the appearance of weak links, progressive adaptation is the solution that encompasses all the links that have an impact on the correctness and effectiveness of a certain physical performance. It involves the application of not only special training means.

Intentionally selected training tools

In order to be fully prepared for the starting effort, the training process must take into account the gradual adaptation of the system. However, they foster the functions of the system, which play a more helpful role in performing the starting exercise. We do this, of course, through training tools, other than special, so-called targeted and comprehensive means. Intentionally selected means are closer to special means. They form the functional mechanisms of specialized efforts. However, they structurally show similarity to the requirements of the starting exercise, which are not entirely consistent. For a footballer, this can be done by practicing exercises that move the performer from the direction of the track to the bowling alley to the football track. Although during the game the football player does not run between the posts, the character of the slalom run corresponds to the way the football player moves and changes direction frequently during the game. Another example of intentionally selected training means could be the various forms of throwing a medical ball performed by a boxer. Although in the fight he does not throw balls, he performs similar movements as in throws, extending his arms from his body towards the opponent. Exercises with heavy balls will help him develop the dynamic strength of these movements.

Training methods of diverse nature

Training methods of diverse nature develop an athlete's mobility potential, yet they have no direct influence on the development of specialised skills. As their name suggests, they are so diverse that they perfect the various functions of the body and prevent the weaknesses of any of them. For a swimmer, they can be all kinds of running, flexibility exercises on land, strength training on the atlas. For a volleyball player, these can be different types of skiing, field exercises, obstacle courses, games and play. For almost all disciplines, the diverse methods will be part of the general warm-up before training and complementary sports, and thus a completely different discipline.

Informational area of training tools

Participating in exercises related to a completely different sport than the one we practice often involves muscles that have never been part of our sports training. Instead, we have not utilized them in such neuromuscular stimulation, muscular coordination. It turns out that even for a highly skilled athlete, an activity such as grass cutting can be more demanding and exhausting than for a non-sporting individual. The presented classification of training tools into specialized, targeted, and comprehensive tools reflects the correlation of information transmitted to working muscles with the information that should be conveyed during the starting action. The most consistent with the starting action are the information transmitted through specialized tools. The most dissimilar to them are comprehensive ones. However, all of them should be included in a carefully constructed plan for competition preparation.

Cyclical planning of the training program

The state of complete readiness of the body for competition, achieving a specific result, and physical fitness is associated with a wide range of events and adaptive mechanisms in the body. The use of training measures that include comprehensive, targeted, and specialized preparation ensures the fullness of the required adjustments and prevents the development of weak links in physical fitness. The adaptive effects of the body, that is, all lasting changes in the body caused by training stimuli, require a large number of systematic trainings. Periodically achieving adaptive changes forms the basis for the next ones. Therefore, training measures should be planned over a certain long period of time in order to fulfill their tasks and achieve results. The basic plan is the annual plan, which is divided into smaller cycles such as macrocycles, mesocycles (cyclical plans), and microcycles (weekly plans). Preparation, goal-oriented, and start phases can also be distinguished.

Distribution of training methods in the annual plan

Comprehensive impact methods should be present during the early stages of training, as well as during the transition period between the implementation of subsequent annual plans. The closer the period of planned start-up form is, the less time comprehensive methods should take up, in favor of methods that are more specialized and concrete. Methods with a narrower scope, being closer to the start-up effort, should reach their peak before the start-up period begins or in its early stages. During the planning phase of starts, methods of special preparation should dominate the training, although this does not mean that we completely abandon methods with a narrower scope. However, their share in the total number of methods used in training should be smaller. Over time and throughout the years, the number of comprehensive methods in the entire annual plan decreases, but it should never drop to zero.

Energy domain of training tools

Training tools can be chosen, categorized, and described based on their informational criteria. We can determine the number, names, and group the exercises into exercise complexes, establish their position in our training schedule; however, the same tools, like directional interactions, can be executed in various ways, involving different systems providing energy resources. For instance, a boxer who performs different kinds of throws with a heavy ball mimicking the punches can do this with low or high intensity, without breaks or with long pauses, additionally engaging legs or throwing progressively heavier balls. His effort can vary, even though structurally and informationally he performs the same throws. It is also possible to characterize the training tools by utilizing the most engaged energy systems in the effort, and the method of their organization in the annual preparation plan for competitions will be similar to that described for general, directional, and special preparation.

Is it truly possible to plan for the development of energy system efficiency?

Initially, we must establish the share that energy systems have in our targeted goal, and then distribute subsequent incentives over time to achieve the results of effort that will impact the adaptive effects, which means developing certain energy systems typically at the expense of others.

Energy systems of the human body

In brief, we have three energy systems: oxygen-dependent, mixed (oxygen-nonoxygen), and nonoxygen. Without examining their features, they rely on a smaller or larger share of oxygen in the energy production necessary for muscle work. The greater the exertions that cause significant body reactions in a short time, the more significant the nonoxygen system. The smaller and longer the exertions, the more crucial the oxygen-dependent system becomes.

Division of training resources contingent on the energy system

In essence, any exercise can be performed in a manner that activates various energy systems. They can be executed slowly or quickly, with long or short breaks, with a small or large number of repetitions or sets. The most conspicuous indicators of effort intensity and the activated energy system are heart rate as an organism's response to stress and the duration of the effort. Taking these parameters into account, 6 types of training resources can be distinguished. The first is the maintenance resource, followed by the zones of oxygen-dependent, mixed, oxygen-independent lactic, oxygen-independent non-lactic, and additionally, the resources for stimulating anabolic transformations.

To grasp what you're employing, you need to grasp your body

To discern in which energy transmutation zone your effort occurs, and subsequently, to recognize what kind of training tool you are utilizing, you need to know when you undergo oxygen-free metabolism and when you undergo oxygen-rich metabolism. To determine this boundary, you must establish your own threshold for oxygen-free metabolism. In the simplest terms, the heart rate at which your body procures energy from oxygen-free metabolisms. After determining this threshold, you can identify heart rate zones that impact particular energy systems. By supervising heart rate during exertion, you can categorize the training tool. The classification of training tools can be accomplished by supervising heart work with sports testers, lactic acid concentration, and also based on subjective exertion perceptions and breathing observation.

Training tools are the bread and butter of the trainee

Training tools are the foundation for those participating in training. Just as a person becomes what nourishes their body and mind, so an athlete achieves their physical performance dependent on the training tools used. Therefore, training tools should be thoroughly understood and selected. The easiest way to characterize them is in the informational area as comprehensive, targeted, and specialized, and in the energy area as developing specific systems. A lack of sufficient general influence can lead to the development of weak training cells. Excessive use of the body's adaptation to comprehensive and targeted tools can also be a limiting factor for adaptive effects focused on a specific specialization, achieving a specific result. Therefore, it is important to take control of the training tools, learn to plan them, keep a training journal, analyze and draw conclusions. Achieving the expected result will then become simpler.