What are the basic rules to reach your goals ?

The General Principles of Training

You are very sporty, or have just made the resolution to become sporty ... ? Whatever your goals are, these basic rules may help you to train efficiently.

I had the idea of writing this article because I meet a lot of women who don't understand why they don't progress at all, or who injure themselves too often ...

The "general principles of training" means "how to increase your physical performance, whatever your sport is". I can sum this up into 3 main principles :

- OVERLOAD : exercise at a level above that which can be normally carried out comfortably. However, it must be progressive to avoid injuries (we assume that the training program is adapted to your objective and personal characteristics)

- REGULARITY : the training sessions should be realized frequently enough and performed so long as necessary (term). The "program" should be changed early enough so that you can always increase your performance and not stay on a "plateau".

- RECOVERY (click on underlined words): leave the required time to muscles and heart to come back then exceed their original state of performance *** . According to the training session, the recovery can be passive (don't do anything) or active ( exercise at a level below, do not push yourself) . The recovery time and the type of recovery depend on the training session.

*** When a muscle is attacked (training is an attack), it reacts and becomes stronger so that it will be prepared for the next attack. The key to progress is to train early enough and not too late : exactly when the muscles are exceeding their original state of performance. If you train too early, the muscles are still affected by the last training session and you will "hurt" them. If you train too late ( for example every 10 days after your training session) , it will be hard to increase the physical performance because your muscles came back to their original state (their ability to exceed their original state doesn't last)

This information could help you to understand your body, that is to say why you feel sometimes tired or sometimes energetic. Obviously you must also consider the way you eat, the way you sleep, your stress ,etc.

I hope this information will help you. Do not hesitate to ask me questions ...

Nathalie