FITT Training Principles
The following can help you plan and or gauge your training progress.
It is highly recommended that if starting a training program you complete a medical screening process with a qualified expert.
Frequency
How often are you training?
The more often you are active the greater the health gains.
1 30 minute session of moderate activity should maintain your health.
2-3 should see improvements.
4-5 you must be training for something.
6-7 cut it out, your body needs rest, unless your a seasoned pro, kia tupato.
To make it easy make it fun with family, friends, music or whatever you enjoy.
Intensity
How hard are you going?
Intensity levels are often described as between;
- Light 45-60%, walking and talking - jogging
- Medium 60-75% jogging - running
- Hard 75-100% running - sprinting
Some experts recommend that you start out slowly and build up.
There are others such as Dr. Ihirangi Heke who supports the GO HARD then GO HOME approach*, for more info check out;
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/exercise/news/article.cfm?c_id=500830&objectid=10562716
Time
How long are you active and what times of the day?
The more time you spend "pushing play" the better off your health will be.
SPARC recommends Adults should be "moderately active" for 30 minutes a day, tamariki 60, rangatahi 30-60.
If you struggle to find the time, try starting with 5-10 min session, how about turning off the box and not being part of the average TV watcher of 3 hours per day TV 3.
Exercising in the morning not only gets it out of the way, but because the bodies metabolism is working faster, you burn more energy ALL DAY!!!
Type
What types of activities are you doing?
Some of the main types of training include;
- Cardiovascular or Aerobic this focuses on the heart and lungs ability to transport enough oxygen around the body
- Strength increasing the muscles strength and endurance by stressing with load bearing exercises like bench press
- Flexibility focuses on stretching the muscles, always warm up 5-10 minutes, stretch 10-15 sec for warm up and 20-30 sec for cool downs
- Specific for any sport or activity, i.e. triathletes will spend hours swimming, biking and running
Other Elite athletes may use a cross training approach to vary the training program and reduce the risk of overuse injuries.
Again we suggest any thing that you enjoy that keeps you active, whakatakaro!!!
* We have invited Dr Heke to provide some literature for our site and look forward to posting it in the near future
