Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Principle of Progression

The dreaded plateau... that point in your weeks of exercising when the normal exercise routine just isn't enough anymore.  Why does this happen?  Why was pounding the pavement for 20 minutes a day enough to take off the first 10 pounds but now it's suddenly not enough to melt away those stubborn last five?  Why, you ask?  Because your body adapts to the stresses put on it, so after a while your old exercise routine becomes too easy and is only enough to maintain your current fitness level.  As your body adapts, so should your exercise routine, or you will be doomed to stay on that pesky plateau.

Many of our class participants are coming because they want to lose weight and/or improve their fitness level.  In order to reach their goals, they must understand the principle of progression which states that, "the amount and intensity of your exercise should be increased gradually."1  As fitness instructors, we must teach our participants about the principle of progression.

Each person has his own threshold of training.  This is the minimum amount of exercise intensity needed to improve physical fitness.  When a person first starts exercising his threshold of training might be rather low.  After several weeks of exercising his threshold of training will increase and so should his exercise intensity.

On the other hand each person has his own target ceiling, or upper limit of safe exercise.  The principle of progression states that exercise intensity should be increased gradually because doing too much too quickly can lead to exercise-related injuries.  Ideally a person should exercise at a level higher than the threshold of training, but lower than the target ceiling.  This is the target fitness zone.

For water aerobics classes a person's target fitness zone is his target heart rate zone (in beats per minute or bpm).  The target heart rate zone is simply 60% - 80% of his maximum heart rate.  As fitness instructors we should be sure that our class participants know their target heart rate zone and help them monitor their heart rate during class.  Most fitness facilities have target heart rate charts posted and if yours does, use it when teaching your class about the principle of progression and target heart rate.  If not, you can teach your  class how to calculate their own target heart rate zone in a few simple steps:
          (1) Determine your maximum heart rate (bpm) by subtracting your age from 220.
          (2) Calculate 60% of the maximum heart rate.  This is the lower end of the target heart rate zone.
          (3) Calculate 80% of the maximum heart rate.  This is the upper end of the target heart rate zone.
Be sure to check out the clip of the week for a more detailed explanation of how to calculate the target heart rate zone and also how to monitor your heart rate during class.

Teaching the principle of progression will help motivate our class participants to increase their workout intensity as their bodies adapt.  As they do this they will start to make positive, healthy changes to their bodies.  What could be better to a fitness instructor than that?

1 Corbin, Charles B. and Lindsey, Ruth. Fitness for Life. Fifth Edition. Champaign, IL; Human Kinetics,
  2005, p.61.

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