Overload: The principle of overload is defined by continuing to put more stress on your body than you would have been able to manage, say, a few weeks ago. For overload, you want to consider how often, how long, and how intensely you’re exercising. This way you will continue to become stronger, faster, or whatever you are setting out to improve on. Specificity: Finally, specificity is about choosing a particular exercise routine that’s in line with what you want to achieve. For example, if your focus is on your pectoral area, you need to be doing exercises that work on your chest muscles.

FITT (Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type)

F. I.T. T. stands for frequency, intensity, time, and type. Remember this acronym when you’re applying your principles of exercise. F. I.T. T. helps you think about what kind and what degree of exercise are right for you. Remember that what you are doing in your workouts will change with time, particularly when it comes to intensity!

Frequency: Frequency refers to how often a person exercises. To continue working toward your goals, you need to consistently stress your body by keeping up your exercise routine. However, exercising too frequently does not give the body enough time to recover.

Intensity: Intensity has to do with overloading the body (as described before) with enough intensity to require the appropriate amount of energy expenditure but not too much.

Type: The specific type of exercise you choose should reflect your fitness goals. Your type of exercise will be different if your goals are about building endurance than if they are about building muscle.

Time: Time is about how long you exercise each time you work out.

So let’s say you want to build muscle and get stronger. Using the F. I.T. T. principle, you might lift weights (type) for 8–12 reps each workout (time) three time each week (frequency) at 70 percent of your max first rep strength (intensity).

Warming Up and Cooling Down

It is important that you warm up your body before exercising to prepare yourself for higher intensity physical strain on your body and to reduce your risk injury or muscles soreness. Cooling down afterward will help regulate your blood flow and could reduce later muscle stiffness and soreness. Here are some tips on how to do both.

Warming up: Warming up gets your large muscle groups ready for workout. The right warmup will depend on what kind of exercise you’re doing. You do this by performing aspects of your workout on a milder level. For example, if you’re about to go for a run, warm up by walking briskly for five to 10 minutes. You may want to stretch afterward. If you’re swimming, start out slowly and gradually increase your speed.

Cooling down: Cooling down is similar to warming up, only you do it after working out. While cooling down might be beneficial for some, it is likely not as important as warming up. After cooling down is a good time to stretch if you want to.

Performance Evaluation Tests

Performance evaluation tests are done to assess an athlete’s or a team’s ability to perform certain athletic tasks. These tests can be used for monitoring purposes.

Evaluation Process

The evaluation process involves many steps. First, the evaluators decide which performance characteristic they want to assess. Next, they determine how to measure the characteristic. Once the method is established, the test is implemented. Data is then collected, recorded, and analyzed. Based on the analysis, the evaluators make and implement decisions. Decisions may include changing an exercise program or increasing the amount of training a team receives.

A swimmer can be evaluated on speed or execution of strokes.

Requirements of the Test

Evaluation performance tests need to be designed so they can really evaluate performance characteristics, and must be objective and fair. Only one factor should be evaluated at a time, and the athlete should be informed of what is being tested and why. Evaluation tests also need to be reproducible and standardized. If two athletes are being tested for the same performance characteristic, they need to be given the identical performance evaluation test.

Benefits of Testing

What do athletes and coaches get from these tests? These tests can identify an athlete’s weaknesses and areas that need improvement. Evaluation tests can also determine if a team’s training program is working as intended. If a training program is working, this is considered high-quality performance by the athletes. This motivates both athletes and coaches to stick to the training program. If not, the coaches might also be motivated to revise the training program to get the results that they want.