Improve Athletes performance ? Only 4 Principles of Strength and Conditioning Training and Exercise

To guarantee success and results with any strength training or conditioning program, it must be designed with the following rules in mind. Impressive training programs will merged periodization, specificity, and overload, while avoiding overtraining.

The following paragraphs will briefly describe what each of these terms mean.

Periodization
Periodization is a term used to describe the collapse a strength and conditioning training program into periods, or phases. The idea behind periodization is to constantly present a new training stimulation to the body to force it to repeatedly adjust to this new stimulation.

If a new training stimulus is not presented, the body will set to the training and performance will not continue to improve and will finally go down. On the other hand, if a new type of stimulation is presented too soon, the body won't have had enough time to respond and adjust, and again, adjustment will decrease.

This is the reason you should see programs last only about 4 weeks. Trained athletes can adjust much faster to new programs, and should consider changing programs more frequently. Athletes newer to training can continue to make gains for much longer on the same program. This is the reason you see many people "plateau" in their training. They aren't taking advantage of the principle of periodization.

Periodization is completed by changing the strength and conditioning training intensity and volume during certain phases to continue to place stress on the body that it isn't used to.

Specificity
Specificity refers to strength and conditioning training specifically for a desired outcome. You will train differently to build muscle mass than you would to improve performance. You would train differently if you wanted to run a marathon as opposed to play football. There are different strengths, movements and physiological requirements that need to be more developed in certain activities than others. Everyone has things that that they should be training to improve, whether it's health-related or performance-related (notice I didn't say beach body-related). A good strength and conditioning training program is designed with specificity, taking into circumstance the needs and goals of each person.

Overload
This is the most crucial principle behind any strength and conditioning training program. Overburden can be substituted for the word stimulation or tension in the description of periodization. To create an overburden, the body must be made to do things it is not habitual to. This places a tension, or shock, on the body. If the body is not given an overburden, it will not adjust. If there is no adjustment, you will not get any stronger or any more conditioned than you already are. In short you will not see results. Keep this in mind during your strength and conditioning training. Always promote yourself to improve on your last workout. Always push yourself to get better.

Overtraining
Overtraining is when fatigue or a decrease in performance rises up from more and more training and a miss of proper rest and recovery between workouts. Overtraining is an injury. In most cases, overtraining is got by "too much, too soon", or simply training too often and not allowing the body the proper amount of rest from an intense workout.

Some symptoms of overtraining may or may not include: Increased resting heart rate, increased resting blood pressure, decreased sports performance, slower recovery after exercise, weight loss, decreased appetite, decreased desire to exercise, increased choler and depression, and increased incidence of injury.