PRINCIPLE OF

EXERCISES
principles
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These principles allows individuals to assess

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the elements of an individual’s training.
These became an outline of criteria that
serves as guide in trainings. Adopting
these principles properly, an improvement
of any aspect of a person’s physical,
emotional, and mental being will be
successful. These principles is said to be as
a catalogue to a well fit body.
 Individuality

Reversibility Overload

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Interferenc
Progression
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EXERCISES
PRINCIPLES

Specificit
Ceiling
y

Maintenance Recovery
 Everyone is different and responding to exercises varies
– a prescription must take into this account. Some people
are able to handle higher volumes of training while
others may respond better to higher intensities. This is
INDIVIDUALITY based on a combination of factors like genetic ability,
predominance of muscle fiber types, other factors in your
life, chronological or athletic age, and mental state.

principles
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Analysis

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EXAMPLE:
Sue and Sally are
Sue and Sally are both doing a group fitness different so they are
class with weights for the first time. Sue is also responding toward
getting a sore back while Sally is getting sore the exercise differently.
calves. They both seem to be doing the
exercises in the same way and at pretty
similar weights.
 Exercise should overload body in order for a positive
adaptation to occur. This means that it needs to be
placed under greater stress than it is accustomed to. This
OVERLOAD applies the FITT (Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type)
principle.

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Analysis

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EXAMPLE:
Ben over-reached his
Ben normally goes to a light weight training. capabilities in order for
After the workout he decided to extend his an adaptation to occur.
weight lifting training session and long spin
class and added biceps workout. He is
struggling to walk for two days after that.
 Known also as “Progressive Overload”. Exercise needs to
continually overload the body for continuous positive
PROGRESSION adaptation. Therefore, the intensity and loads should
continually increase over time, similar to overload.

Analysis

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EXAMPLE:
Mary needs to work
harder, add more weighs
on her bar, as she has
Mary made some great gains initially when adapted the loads she has
she started lifting weights. She’s complaining on her bar a long time ago,
now that weight training doesn’t work. She now there isn’t enough
hasn’t increased the weights she lifts for the weight to cause adaptation
last three months.
 Our physical being respond based on specific training
applied. To increase adaptation exercise should be
specific to an individual’s goals, tasks, and capabilities.
SPECIFICITY

Analysis

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EXAMPLE:
Paul needs to train
more specifically. In
order to improve his
Paul has been using group fitness ‘step’
cycling he must cycle
classes to get ready for his cycling race
enough to get the
coming up soon. However, his cycling times are
adaptation he desires.
not improving.
 The body cannot repair itself without rest and time to
recover. Recovery periods allow the body to comply to
overload. While overload is crucial for prompting an
RECOVERY adaptive response within the body, overload without
recovery can result in diminution in fitness.

Analysis

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EXAMPLE:
Jill needs some rest
between sessions. That
Jill goes to the gym everyday and always she way he body has
goes hard at it. Lately her weights are getting enough time to adapt
lower. She’s struggling to keep up in class and before she train again.
her body is always sore.
 Fitness can be maintained by altering the F.I.T.T principle.
By maintaining the intensity of training and decreasing
the volume or frequency of training, the current fitness
MAINTENANCE levels of an individual can be maintained. Train as hard,
stay regular but shorten workouts to maintain a fitness
component.

Analysis

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EXAMPLE:
Amanda got it right. She
kept up the exercise,
particularly the intensity,
Amanda is stoked. Her fitness is just as good and was able to maintain
as when she went on holiday and all she did her fitness even though
was two ‘30 minute’ hard runs each week. she greatly reduced her
Before she left she was running four times a total exercise time.
week for between 40 to 60 minutes.
 Room for positive development decreases the fitter you
become. As we get fitter, the amount of improvement
possible decreases based on the person’s getting closer
CEILING to their genetic potential (ceiling). Unfit people will
change a lot early on, then less and less despite
continuing to train hard.

Analysis

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about
EXAMPLE:
Chris is experiencing the ceiling
affect in that his genetics, the type
of training he uses and the amount
Chris is a world class kayaker but over the of fitness he already has are all
last two years his times have only dropped by meaning he can only get small
3% despite his huge efforts in training. He gains from large volumes of
has moved from 18th to 30th in the world on training now. He may want to try
the back of this small change. different approaches to see what
will help most
 Training contrasting fitness components at the same time
can reduce adaptation (results) in both. Training certain
INTERFERENCE components of fitness at the same time can lead to
interference.

Analysis

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EXAMPLE:
Liz is doing three spin classes, two pump
classes (weight training group fitness classes)
and a five day split routine to get into shape
for body sculpting. The challenge is her
muscles aren’t growing so she still looks a little
out of balance.
about
Liz is getting interference. She is
training across so many things at
once her body is not sure whether to
put muscle on or strip it off. Liz
needs to prioritise to build lean
muscle and keep her spin to a class
or two only and probably drop pump
all together. She could put in some
yoga to help with flexibility and
recovery as an alternative.
 Adaptations which occur through exercise are reversible,
so when training is stopped for prolonged periods the
REVERSIBILITY adaptations from previous exercise will be lost.

Analysis

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EXAMPLE:
Tim is gutted. He’s worked for six months to
get into the police but since his ankle injury
four weeks ago his running fitness has gone
back to what it was some time ago.
about
Tim should have done some
exercise on his legs (such as
cycling/spin) to maintain as
much of his fitness as possible
while he recovered from his
ankle injury. This would have
prevented some of the
‘reversing’ of his fitness.
summary

Any Questions?

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01 Individualization Exercise should be specific to the individual completing the training.

02 Overload Exercise should overload the body in order for a positive adaptation to occur.
Exercise needs to continually overload the body if positive adaptations
03 Progression (change) are to continue to take place.

04 Specificity Exercise should be specific to the client’s goals, needs and capabilities.

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Rest and recovery are required to allow the body time to adapt to
05 Recovery

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exercise.

06 Maintenance Fitness can be maintained by altering the F.I.T.T principle.

07 Ceiling Room for positive development decreases the fitter you become.
Training contrasting fitness components at the same time can reduce
08 Interference adaptation (results) in both.

09 Reversibility If you don’t use it you lose it.