Understanding fitness and the principles of training will help you choose the right sport for your needs
IT IS NOW universally accepted that regular exercise is essential for optimising bodily function, both in terms of daily routine and quality of life, but also with regards to sports participation.
Factors such as changing lifestyles, diet, exercise habits and, more importantly, increased inactivity have led to a greater incidence of coronary heart disease and similar life- threatening illnesses.
With prolonged inactivity you will find that you fatigue more quickly. As a result, you are able to exert yourself for only short periods of time, with a greater effort being required.
Regular physical activity, in contrast, has many physiological benefits - these include a healthier heart, stronger muscles and bones, improved posture - and also helps to create a greater sense of wellbeing and will lead to enhanced sports performance.
If you are considering engaging in physical activity or taking up a sport after a long period of inactivity, there are a number of considerations you should take into account. To ensure long-term sports participation and the subsequent health benefits of improved physical fitness, it is important that you not only select a sport you enjoy but also one that matches your current level of conditioning.
Components of physical fitness:Physical fitness is the body's ability to perform everyday tasks, physical activities and engage in sports participation without undue fatigue.
There are at least six different components of fitness. These contribute, in varying degrees, depending on individual needs, to a person's ability to work effectively, to enjoy leisure time and take part in sport.
However, these components of "total fitness" over a broad range of physical activities are rarely all called upon at any one time during exercise.
Endurance:Aerobic endurance is the ability of the lungs, heart, blood and blood vessels to provided oxygen and fuel to the muscles and remove waste products during sustained exercise.
Aerobic endurance has an important part to play in many activities and sports, where minimising the effects of fatigue is the key to success.
This key component of fitness particularly applies to prolonged activities and endurance events such as walking or running 10km or marathon running and also a multiple sprint sport such as hockey where good endurance is vital to repeat short bouts of high intensity exercise.
Another facet of endurance is local muscular endurance which refers to the ability of specific muscle groups to repeatedly exert themselves over a sustained period.
Sports requiring good levels of local muscular endurance would include canoeing, boxing, gymnastics and rugby.
Anaerobic fitness:This involves bouts of high intensity activity, such as sprinting, where the working muscles require large amounts of energy very rapidly for short periods.
A good anaerobic capacity would be particularly important in events lasting less than two minutes and also multiple sprint sports such as hurling and camogie.
Strength:This is the ability to exert an external force or to lift a heavy load. Strength is important in most forms of athletic endeavour, where a participant may be expected to perform movements against resistances greater than those experienced in normal everyday activity.
Examples of such activities would include scrummaging in rugby, rowing and putting the shot.
Power and speed:Power is the ability to convert strength into movement. Speed refers to the rate of that movement. Therefore, power is the combination of strength and speed, which is important in a wide range of sports including sprinting, field events in athletics, weightlifting, martial arts and gymnastics.
Flexibility:This is the range of motion available to a joint. This will be determined by a number of factors including muscle length and joint structure.
Flexibility is an important factor in sports performance and injury prevention.
It is particularly important to have a good range of motion in the joints that are used most in a particular physical activity or sport.
A regularly performed stretching routine should, therefore, be built into a training schedule.
Body composition:Body composition plays an important role in almost every sport.
Body weight may be divided into muscle, fat and bone. Generally sports participants should strive to have a relatively low fat content and a high muscle content.
Typical expected body fat levels for healthy men and women in their mid-20s would be about 18 and 26 per cent respectively.
Well-trained endurance athletes would have significantly lower values. It is important to remember that some fat is essential for normal functioning. However, elevated body fat can impair performance and excessive levels will impair long-term health and wellbeing.
There is a continual quest for the correct or optimal way to train. However, there can be no hard and fast rule as requirements for each individual - be it for general health and quality of life benefits or sports participation - usually vary across a wide spectrum.
Whatever your motivation for engaging in regular exercise and training, by grasping a good understanding of the components of fitness and principles of training it is possible to construct an effective exercise programme for any individual which will be tailored to your own specific needs and training goals.
• Dr Giles Warrington is a sport and exercise physiologist and lecturer in the School of Health and Human Performance at DCU