WELCOME TO MY BLOG ON COMPONENTS OF FITNESS. IN THIS BLOG I WILL BE EXPLAINING ALL 6 COMPONENTS OF FITNESS, EXAMPLES OF THEM AND THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES.

SPEED

Definition

Speed is how fast you do something. Accelerative speed is how fast you can sprint up to 30 meters. Pure speed is how fast you can sprint up to 60 meters. Speed endurance is when you sprint with a short recovery period in-between, sprint again then have a short recovery period etc. Speed is the time taken to travel, turn or react over a certain distance. This is inherited but can be changed by training over a long period of time.  A good example of this is Christiano Ronaldo. He is a footballer and will out run many players. As speed allows somebody to accelerate faster than another participant it gives them the advantage as they are able to beat the opposition to the ball.By doing this it allows his team to keep/regain possession easier meaning their team will be able to be in a better position within the game.

Examples, Advantages and Disadvantages

An example of one way to improve speed would be a parachute run. A parachute run is designed to increase a runner’s speed through resistance training.  To complete a parachute run you would run a 20-meter sprint to allow the parachute to fill behind. You would then jog for 20 meters where the drag decreases. Then Sprint the next 20 meters and repeat the interval until the leg muscles fatigue.To improve the intensity of the work out you would increase the distance you are running.

Advantages

• Low-cost
• It is effective strategy for being able to train almost anywhere simply by using an easy-to-carry parachute added into your running workout.
•  It's small, compact, and easy-to-store .
• You can take it almost anywhere. 
•  It is typically used by sports teams - on a field - to help the athletes develop explosive energy and power in their running stride.

   Disadvantages

•    Can become very boring and repetitive after a long period of time.
• High risk of injury.

www.adventure.howstuffworks.com

POWER

Power is a skill related component of fitness. It is the performers ability to combine strength and speed to produce a strong muscular contraction very quickly. It is very closely linked to explosive strength. This is a mix of power and speed. Didier Drogba is a good example of this because he has to out muscle the defenders and outpace them when running towards goal.An athlete can be exceptionally strong but lack significant explosive power if they are unable to apply their strength rapidly. In football shooting in football requires power. This is because when taking a shot it requires a short but quick movement and putting as much power as possible into the shot. The shot requires a mixture of speed and strength within the shot to make the shot have the right amount of power to beat the goalkeeper. All muscles are required while taking a shot but mainly the upper leg muscles especially the quadriceps.

A good example of Power would be plyometric’. Plyometric exercises involve quick/explosive movements designed to increase power. Plyometric exercises consist of three phases. 

• The first is a rapid muscle lengthening movement. This is known as the eccentric phase. 
• The second is a short resting period.
•  Finally, is this concentric phase. This consists of an explosive muscle shortening movement. By completing these exercises the participants power will be increased and their dynamic strength. These complex exercises have a high risk of injury and you should be doing them under supervision. It will also improve an athletics overall performance. The intensity could be increased eventually by reducing the resting period that is taken in the exercise. An athlete who could benefit from this could be a professional hurdler. As the exercise is very similar to the event it will enhance their performance at an event by increasing the intensity during the training.

www.top-wide-reciever-training.com

Medicine ball throw and drop

The medicine ball throw and drop focuses on the chest, shoulders and triceps. The purpose of this event is to specifically improve the punch or throwing power. .

How to do it?

• Lie on an exercise bench holding a medicine ball in both hands
•  Lower the ball to your chest and then push-press it away from you.
• Release the ball as your arms extend.
•  Catch the ball as it comes back to your hands and then rapidly lower it back to your chest.
• As the ball nears your chest, forcefully decelerate it and perform another throw.
• Try to make the transition from descent to ascent as fast as possible.
• Continue performing this exercise until you feel that your throws are losing power.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/505108-examples-of-plyometric-exercises/

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Squat Jumps

The squat jump is a vertical high jump. This exercise benefits athletes who participate in volley, soccer and volleyball. The athletes will need to perform this exercise wearing supportive footwear to reduce the risk of injury.

How to do it?

• The participant will stand with their feet shoulder-width apart and the hands need to be by their side.
• The hips need to be pushed back, then bend the knees and then squat down.
• The arms then need to be swung behind
• You then need to swing your arms forward and leap as high as possible into the air
• On landing they need to return to the squat position. 

The intensity of the excercise can be increased by holding weights in the hand or wearing vest weights etc making the participant find it harder to jump slowly increasing the height that they can jump.

www.rippednfit.com

Clap Pushups

The clap pushup helps improve the upper-body pushing power. No equipment is needed and it is easy to learn the method of the exercise. The normal push up position will be needed and the participant will need to begin to do a normal push up but when raised to the highest position the participant will need to clap while quickly adjusting the arms into the push up position for landing.

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Advantages and Disadvantages 
ADV:

• Low cost
• Different types of training so doesn't get boring easily
• Training intensity can be easily increase
• Improved performance in game e.g more power on a shot in football

DIS:

• Risk of injury due to no machinery preventing you dropping equipment or falling.
• May need a partner to help prevent injury
• Training is sometimes noneffective as dieting is needed to notice a big improvement of power. 

FLEXIBILITY

Flexibility means having an adequate range of motion in all joints of the body. It is the ability to move a joint through its complete range of movement. Petr Cech is also a good example of this because when saving a shot he has to dive as far as possible to make sure you reach the ball. With an improved flexibility it means the goalkeeper will be able to reach further giving him a better chance to save the ball from going into the net. With a poor flexibility a goalkeeper would find it hard to adjust their body to save the shot quick enough.

There are 4 example of flexibility training which is static, dynamic, ballistic and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching.

Static training is when the muscles exert movement without the joints and ligaments moving far. An example of this would be bench pressing heavy weight but only a few inches off of the chest rather than extending all the way up into a locking position.

Dynamic flexibility training consists of the range of movement allowed through a muscle/joint during motion. An example of this could be a rugby player pretending to be throwing a ball.

PNF stretching is an advanced form of passive stretching and is one of the most effective forms of increasing flexibility. This is with a partner and allows stretches to be performed above the normal ability of the participant. This would benefit a gymnast doing a group performance. (Adams etal 2010)

Ballistic stretching is attempting to improve the participant’s flexibility. The participant will have to make over the top movements.

 An example of this would be chest swings. Ballistic stretching would aim at the specific sport the participant is working towards to improve. An example of this could be a footballer swinging their legs as if they were kicking the football. This is an advantage as it is similar to the sport therefore will be improved in game.

www.healthnews.com

One example of ballistic training would be an arm swing. The first arm swing is an overhead arm swing. The participant will firstly stand with their legs slightly bent and feet hip-width apart. The back needs to be straight. Both arms then need to be continuously swung on an overhead position then forward, down and backwards for 6-8 reps. Another type of arm swing are side arm swings. To do this the participant must stand with the legs slightly bent and their feet hip-width apart. They will once again need to keep a straight back and swing their arm out to their sides and then they will cross them in front of the chest. This has to be completed for 8-10 reps.

www.healthnews.com

Leg swings are another type of ballistic training. To complete these the participant will stand sideways an arm’s length away from the wall. The weight will need to be pushed onto the left leg and place the palm of the right hand against the wall to balance. The right leg needs to be swung forwards and backwards for 10-12 reps. This is then repeated with the other side.

www.healthnews.com

Finally, lunges are also an effective type of training. The standing lunge is performed by placing one foot forward while the opposite foot is behind the body about one stride apart. The heel will take most of the weight on the front foot allowing the buttock muscle to improve most effectively. This is then repeated with the opposite feet doing the opposite jobs.

www.healthnews.com

Advantages

•  Very cheap
• Low risk of injury
• Can be done almost anywhere due to not much space being needed
• Many different types of flexibility training to choose from

Disadvantages 

• Chance of injury due to over stretching
• Poor fitness program could result in high chance of injury. An example of this could be stretching before warming the muscles up firstly.

STRENGTH

Muscular strength is the maximum force a muscle or muscle group can produce during one contraction. This could be one burst of the maximum power you can supply. An example of this is Rory Delap when he throws the ball as far as possible in a quick period of time.

One of the best ways to improve strength is resistance training. Resistance training allows an individual to choose the weight they want to be lifting and slowly within time improve the weight of which they are lifting and the amount of reps in each set. These machines are very expensive therefor many home owners won’t be able to afford them but are all available at gyms and leisure centers. They have an increased safety element as they can’t fall on a participant as they are controlled by a machine therefore supervision isn’t needed.

An example of resistance training for a footballer wanting to improve their leg muscles could be a knee extension. The participant would sit on the seat with their back flat. The roller will be positioned on the lower shin. The knees need to then become straight lifting the roller and then slowly bend the knee back to the starting position. This needs to be repeated for 8-10 reps. This will allow a footballer to be able to run on the pitch for a longer period and it will also increase the power they can create when passing, crossing or shooting the ball.

www.healthnews.com

Another example of this would be the seated calf raise. To do this the participant would sit with the front of the foot supported on the platform. The level will be pulled back to lower the weight onto the thigh. The heels then needed to be raised to lift the weights then slowly lowered. This is used to increase the strength of the calf's.

Bicep curl

This is normally a free weight exercise but can be used with machinery also. A bicep curl involves 1 or 2 weights. With 1 weight the weight is held with both hands. The elbows will be facing down and the arms will start off straight. The weight then has to be brought towards the chest by bending the elbows. This is exactly the same with 2 weights but the upwards phase can be done with the left hand and the downward phase can be done with the right hand if the participant wants too.The movements in the biceps curl movement is shown below.

www.womenshealthmag.com

Push-up
A push-up can be done without any weight and can be done almost anywhere. The push-up can be complete by using your two hands that you will use to push yourself off and propel yourself into the actual push up.The push up movements are shown below and the basic movement uses the arms to lower the body down close to the floor and back up again.

en.wikipedia.org

Benefits of Resistance Training

• Improved Body Shape

• Increased muscle strength

• Increased muscle power
• Increased metabolic rate
• Improved bone health

Disadvantages

• Cost of machinery
• Normally will have to travel to get to local gym
• Expensive for gym membership

MUSCULAR ENDURANCE

Definition

Muscular endurance is the maximum force a muscle or muscle group can produce repeated contractions. This is how fast the muscles work to do something over again. Ramires is a good example of this because he has to keep running up and down the pitch and his muscles have to keep working well to make him to be able to keep running.

Example

A good example of muscular endurance would be circuit training. Circuit training is an activity that takes place constantly changing the activity which is being done. A good example of this would be an 8 circuit partner training session. Firstly, the participant would do as many dips as possible for one minute. The partner would then do dips for one minute while the other participant. They would next move onto another activity and do the same method. You could also do sit ups, press ups, bicep curls, squats etc.

A footballer would benefit from curcuit training as their are many different events during a game. An example is in one example they will be heading the ball so they could do standing jumps and then futher in the game they could be taking the throw-in so they could work on doing push ups working the biceps in the arms too allow a furthet throw-in expanding the options for the footballer too choose where he wants to throw the ball and the power he wants to throw it at.

Benefits of circuit training:

•  Youcan make it specific to your sport. An example of this would be for a boxer they would focus on their leg arm muscles so bicep curls, press ups etc. would be beneficial.
• You can decide how long your break is and how long you are working for meaning you can always gradually improve.
•  It is also very cheap as you don’t have to pay for machinery it is only equipment such as free hand weights or mats.

The disadvantages are:

• you need a lot of space. This is because you have to constantly change the exercise you are doing with a short break so moving mats and laying out new equipment within a few seconds would be nearly impossible.

 This is an example of a full circuit a participant would have to complete this circuit each training session. This allows the participant to work a variety of muscles instead of focusing on a small selection. Each exercise will be completed for the small period of time e.g. 45 seconds. You will then get a 30 second break until the next exercise starts.To improve the intensity of the circuit the amount of time each exercise is done for can be increased of the break between each exercise can be reduced.

http://rushfitreviewnow.com/circuit-training-rushfit/

Aerobic endurance

Aerobic endurance is the capacity of cardiovascular and respiratory systems ( breathing) of an individual to supply oxygen and energy during sustained physical activity. Frank Lampard is a good example of this because he has to go up and down the pitch from attacking to defending.

Aerobic endurance is beneficial to many athletes. There are 3 types of aerobic fitness which are fartlek, interval and continuous. Continuous is jogging non-stop until you have finished exercising. Many athletes would find this beneficial to complete a long distance run. Normally an athlete would measure a distance they are looking to run or a period of time they are looking to cover in one session. A trainee may run for a 20 minute period to start with and every session increase the time by 2 minutes gradually increasing the distance they can run.

This would benefit a marathon runner as they will be able to run for a longer period due to the muscles expanding allowing more oxygen into them meaning they can be used for a longer period. Also the muscles will be use to the intensity from the training allowing the participant less risk of injury during the event.

The benefits of this are:

•  The participant can decide how long they want to run without pushing them too far.
• They decide what intensity they are going to run at without causing them any injury.
• They also don’t have to pay for any equipment as all is needed is sportswear and maybe some running shoes.

The disadvantages are:

•  It can be very boring for a runner and is very time consuming.

•  For certain sports such as football it isn’t beneficial for them as they have to do lots of sharp burst not just a constant speed so therefore the training is incorrect.