Zonas de entrenamiento

La manera más sencilla de tener una referencia de la intensidad que llevas durante la carrera es por medio de tu frecuencia cardiaca, que nos permitirá programar una serie de zonas de referencia, en estas zonas hablaremos de porcentajes de la frecuencia cardiaca máxima. Si estas iniciándote en la práctica de la carrera puedes seguir estas formulas estandarizadas:

F. C. Máxima en hombres = 220 - la edad
Ejemplo: la frecuencia cardiaca máxima de un hombre de 40 años de edad es 220 - 40 =180

Estudios han demostrado que al paso del tiempo el hombre pierde más capacidad aeróbica que las mujer por tal motivo la formula varia entre hombres y mujeres.

F. C. Máxima en mujeres = 226 - la edad
Ejemplo: La frecuencia cardiaca máxima de una mujer de 40 años de edad es 226 - 40 = 186

De cualquier manera para empezar a correr o si nunca has hecho deporte de manera constante y progresiva los parámetros anteriormente mencionados te serán de gran utilidad para evaluarte conforme continuas con tu entrenamiento.

Intensidad mínima

Hasta un 60% de la F. C. Máx.
Es lo mínimo que podemos hacer para encontrar algún beneficio cardiovascular, al caminar solemos movernos en esta frecuencia cardiaca.

Intensidad baja

Del 60 al 70% de la F. C. Máx.
En esta zona se realiza gran parte del entrenamiento de la carrera para principiantes e incluso de los atletas de elite.

Intensidad media

Del 70 al 80% de la F. C. Máx.
Es la zona de la frecuencia cardiaca en la que te puedes mantener por mas tiempo, también la zona que te marcara el ritmo para correr carreras de larga distancia como un maratón o un medio maratón, es en esta zona donde los corredores encontramos nuestro umbral aeróbico.

Intensidad alta

Del 80 al 90% de F. C. Máx.
Es una zona de F. C. en la que se exige mucho de la capacidad de cada individuo y regularmente se llega a ella en entrenamientos específicos como lo son las repeticiones o las sesiones de fartlek.

Intensidad máxima

Del 90 al 100% de F. C. Máx.
Es la zona en que se entrenan en ocasiones los deportistas de elite que practican pruebas de fondo y medio fondo no es recomendable tratar de alcanzar estos niveles de frecuencia cardiaca, es mejor buscar la asesoria de un entrenador con experiencia en alto rendimiento.

Principles and methods of training

Getting the best out of your training requires a little planning. The best training programmes are built on principles of specificity, overload, progression and reversibility.

You can also use the FITT acronym to help remember the key things to consider when tailoring programmes for individual sporting goals. It stands for; Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type. Calculating the target zone also helps assess how much aerobic or anaerobic training you need to do to improve fitness. Just don’t forget to warm down!

Principles of training

By using the principles of training as a framework we can plan a personal training programme that uses scientific principles to improve performance, skill, game ability and physical fitness.

Training should be matched to an individual's needs.


A successful training programme will meet individual needs which are personal fitness needs based on age, gender, fitness level and the sport for which we are training. A successful training programme will also include exercise in the correct heart-rate target zone.

The key principles when planning a programme are:

• Specificity – training must be matched to the needs of the sporting activity to improve fitness in the body parts the sport uses.
• Overload - fitness can only be improved by training more than you normally do. You must work hard
• Progression – start slowly and gradually increase the amount of exercise and keep overloading.
• Reversibility – any adaptation that takes place as a result of training will be reversed when you stop training. If you take a break or don’t train often enough you will lose fitness.

In planning a programme, use the FITT principles to add the detail:

• Frequency - decide how often to train.
• Intensity - choose how hard to train.
• Time - decide for how long to train.
• Type - decide which methods of training to use.

You should also consider the principle of moderation. It is important to have rest periods which allow the body to adapt. Too much training (overtraining) can lead to injury.

Methods of training

Training can be aerobic or anaerobic.

• In aerobic exercise, which is steady and not too fast, the heart is able to supply enough oxygen to the muscles. Aerobic training improves cardiovascular fitness. 
• Anaerobic exercise is performed in short, fast bursts where the heart cannot supply enough oxygen to the muscles. Anaerobic training improves the ability of the muscles to work without enough oxygen when lactic acid is produced.

Aerobic training improves cardiovascular fitness. Weight training improves muscular strength, endurance and power.

Specific training methods can be used to improve each fitness factor:

• Circuit training involves performing a series of exercises in a special order called a circuit. Each activity takes place at a 'station'. It can be designed to improve speed, agility, coordination, balance and muscular endurance.
• Continuous training involves working for a sustained period of time without rest. It improves cardio-vascular fitness.
• Cross training involves using another sport or activity to improve your fitness. It happens when an athlete trains in a different environment. For example a volleyball player uses the power training for that sport to help with fitness for long jump.
• Fartlek training or 'speed play' training involves varying your speed and the type of terrain over which you run, walk, cycle or ski. It improves aerobic and anaerobic fitness.
• Interval training involves alternating between periods of hard exercise and rest. It improves speed and muscular endurance.
• Weight training uses weights to provide resistance to the muscles. It improves muscular strength (high weight, low reps), muscular endurance (low weight, high reps, many sets) and power (medium weight and reps performed quickly).
• Altitude training (AQA only) is aerobic training high above sea level, where oxygen levels are lower. It is used to increase aerobic fitness quickly.

General methods of training can be applied to specific sports. For example, continuous training might involve swimming, cycling, rowing, aerobics or running.

Ficha de estiramientos

Aquí os dejo una ficha con numerosos estiramientos que podéis incluir en los calentamientos de las sesiones de Educación Física.

Endurance in sport

There are two kinds of endurance:

Muscular

• Your muscles can continue to exert a lot of force for a long period
• The feeling of heavyness and weakness means your muscles are fatiguing
• Athletes with high muscular endurance have higher proportions of slow twitch muscle fibres
• Muscular endurance can be increased through weight trainin

Cardiovascular

• Your heart and lungs can keep your muscles supplied with Oxygen throughout exercise
• The harder your muscles work the more oxygen they need, so the heart and breathing rates rise
• The better your CV system is, the slower your heart rate is because you pump more blood with each beat
• You can improve your CV endurance through aerobic training
• The graph below will help you work out what heart rate you should train at to get the best results

The aerobic zone is where you should be working if you are looking to improve your CV endurance. You can work out your maximum predicted heart rate by taking your age away from 220 (220 - your age).

Aerobic vs Anaerobic

Respiration is the way in which energy is released from the food we eat. Respiration can be either aerobic or anaerobic:

Aerobic

• Means with Oxygen
• Your heart and lungs supply enough Oxygen to the muscles to maintain the level of exercise
• This equation explains the process of respiration:

Glucose + Oxygen = Carbon dioxide + Water + Energy

• The Carbon dioxide and water are breathed out. Water is also lost through sweat
• As long as you get enough Oxygen to the muscles, this can continue for long periods

Anaerobic

• Means without Oxygen
• Your heart and lungs do not supply enough Oxygen to the muscles to maintain exercise
• This is the equation:

Glucose = Lactic acid + Energy

• Lactic acid builds up in the muscles because there isn't enough Oxygen
• Lactic acid makes your muscles feel very tired and heavy
• Soon enough you have to slow down or stop altogether

Does Stretching/Warming Up Actually Help?

We were wathcing last week this video about warming up.

Remember, you can enable subs using the button below (it only works in YouTube site, sorry!) and also, access to the transcription from the YouTube menu. In order to read the text spoken in the video we are going to work with it.

Physical Fitness

Physical fitness is the ability to do a daily physical workout without feeling too tired. For this, you need the four “S´s”:

• Strength
• Stamina
• Speed
• Suppleness

These are the components of physical fitness. In Spanish, we call them “Capacidades Físicas Básicas”.

1. Stamina:

Stamina helps your muscles to work for a long period of time.
With it, you can do exercices for a longer period of time, no matter the intensity. For example:
Cycling: In the Tour of France they ride more than 200km over a lot of days, but they also sprint!
Marathon runnners run for more than 2 hours at a very fast pace.
Swimmers in the 1500m race
Footballers need to run for 90 minutes without being tired so they can dribble and shoot.
Stamina is also called Endurance.
There are two types of Stamina or Endurance: Aerobic and Anaerobic.
During Aerobic activity, your heart and lungs give your muscles plenty of oxigen, and you can do exercise for long periods of time at a medium intensity. (marathon, cycling..)
During Anaerobic activity, your muscles don´t have enough oxygen. These exercises are shorter but have a very high intensity (100m sprint, a basketball attack). With anaerobic stamina, you can do these exercises faster and get tired later.
Benefits of regular stamina training:

• Your heart grows larger and thicker
• You have more capillary.
• Your breathing capacity increases.
• It´s easier to maintain your ideal weight

Aerobic Exercise is very good for your health. It develops your heart, your lungs and your circulatory system.

2. Strength:

Strength is the ability to use muscles against a resistance (a force or a weight).

With it, you can move or lift weights, and you can move your body weight more easily.

Some sports in wich strength is important:

• Weightlifting: to lift as much weight as you can.
• Judo: to throw your opponent.
• Climbing: you need to move your body weight up the mountain.
• Athletics: to jump higher or longer and to throw the javelin or hammer.

There are three types of strength:

Maximum strength: to lift very high weights (aizkolaris lift very heavy stones)

Explosive strength: to do a movement as fast as we can, moving a small weight (javelin throwers, for example)

Resistance-Strength: to do exercises with medium weights for a long time (in judo, combats last 4 minutes; rowers must move the boat for a long time also)

Benefits of developing your strength:

• You have more muscular power
• Your muscles and tendons grow in size.
• You can move weights easier (including your own body).
• It helps you keeping a good posture in daily life and sports

3. Speed:

Speed is the ability to do one or more movements in a short period of time.

Some examples of sports where speed is important:

• Fifty metres swimmers, react quickly to the horn and swim very fast.
• Handball goalkeepers react very fast to stop balls.
• Fencers must move fast to touch the opponent with their sword.
• When we talk about the speed to move from one place to another (running, biking or swimming), we call it a sprint.

Speed means reacting quickly and moving fast.

So you can find three types of speed:

• Reaction speed: moving as fast as you can after the referee blows the whistle in a 100m sprint. In team sports there is also reaction speed: chasing your opponent when he runs away from you, or reacting to a volleyball spike quicly.
• Speed of an isolated movement: e.g. a karate kick or a tennis service must be very quick.
• Speed of combined movements: any sprint in running or swimming, a dribbling in football...

Benefits of speed training:

• -Speed is basic in all sports. Even in a marathon, the winner is the fastest!
• It is related with coordination and agility. If you react and move fast, you have an advantage in all sports.
• Speed training develops and makes your muscles grow.

4. Suppleness:

Suppleness is the ability to have a wide range of movement with any part of your body. It is also called Flexibility.
Flexibility is very important in all sports, because with it, you have better performance and less injuries.
It is important for gymnasts, for hurdle runners or tae-kwondo fighters to do kicks.
Flexibility depends on the joint range of movemnt and the stretching ability of the muscles around it.
There are two types of flexibility:
Dinamic Flexibility: you use it when you do wide, ample and relaxed movements.
Static Flexibility: you use it when you hold one position for some seconds. There is no movement.
Flexibility is the only physical ability that decreases as you grow older.
You need to spend a little time everyday to maintain and enhance it.
Benefits of supleness training:

• Your range of movement in joints is bigger, so you can accelerate your arms and legs for a longer distance. Then, you can kick, throw and hit faster and stronger.
• You have less injuries.
• Your movements are not limited.
• Your muscles are more elastic and more powerful.

Importancia del calentamiento antes de la práctica deportiva

Introducción

Actualmente es reconocido unánimemente el valor que tiene el calentamiento antes de realizar cualquier actividad deportiva, independientemente de que se trate de un deporte de ocio o profesional. El calentamiento previene contra lesiones y además predispone al organismo para la práctica deportiva desde el punto de vista fisiológico y psicológico (Naranjo y Centeno, 2001).

¿Qué es el calentamiento?

Concepto: Conjunto de ejercicios preparatorios que se realiza antes de una actividad física que requiere mayor intensidad.

Podríamos definir el calentamiento como el conjunto de actividades o ejercicios primero de carácter general y luego especifico, que se realizan antes de la actividad física en la que la exigencia del esfuerzo es superior a la normal, con el fin de poner en marcha todos los órganos del sujeto y disponerle para un máximo rendimiento (Álvarez del Villar, 1992).

Hernández (1996), define el calentamiento como la movilización suave y progresiva de todos los músculos y articulaciones para poder posteriormente realizar esfuerzos intensos sin sufrir ninguna lesión y obteniendo el máximo rendimiento.

Objetivos

De estas definiciones se deducen los siguientes objetivos del calentamiento (Fernández García, 2001):

• Preparar al organismo para efectuar una actividad más intensa (el organismo se adapta al esfuerzo de forma progresiva) y psicológicamente.
• Facilitar una estimulación del sistema nervioso y la activación de las funciones vegetativas (cardio-respiratorias).
• Evitar o reducir las posibilidades de lesiones musculares o articulares debido al incremento de la temperatura corporal.

Ubicación y fases del calentamiento

    Pellicer (1999), nos comenta que la sesión de trabajo tiene tres partes:

• Parte preparatoria de, aquí es donde se encuentra ubicado el calentamiento; tiene a su vez dos partes:
• Organización de lo que vamos a hacer a lo largo de la sesión.
• Introducción o calentamiento.
• Parte principal.
• Parte final o vuelta a la calma.

Centrándonos ahora en las fases del calentamiento, comentar que se pueden distinguir tres fases indistintamente de cómo se ordenen (Padial, 2003):

• Esfuerzo preliminar o estiramientos: Incremento De la temperatura corporal y muscular, evitando desgarros por la excesiva viscosidad intramuscular y por la falta de coordinación. Se utilizan los estiramientos, empleando movimientos activos libres sin rebotes (10-30 segundos). La duración de esta fase es de 5-10 minutos.
• De calentamiento general o activación vegetativa: el fin es incrementar la temperatura muscular, la amplitud en los movimientos y el incremento en a actividad de los diferentes sistemas, esta destinada a la preparación general del organismo. Afecta a todo el organismo, actuando sobre los grandes grupos musculares a través de ejercicios dinámicos de piernas, brazos, tronco, así como por medio de trabajos globales como son las carreras suaves, desplazamientos, saltos, etc. Este calentamiento debe preceder al calentamiento específico. La duración es de 5- 10 minutos.
• Calentamiento específico o actividad formal: el fin es mejorar la prestación del gesto deportivo. Debe durar de 5-10 minutos y utilizaremos el gesto de competición o lo que vayamos a hacer en la parte principal aumentando progresivamente la intensidad.

Tipos de calentamiento

• Calentamiento general: Se efectúa por medio de ejercicios que actúan sobre grande grupos musculares. En este sentido, Rueda (1997), el calentamiento generales aquel destinado a prepararnos para cualquier tipo de actividad, y por tanto para ninguna en concreto.
• Calentamiento específico: En su ejecución habremos de tener en cuenta que es lo que se va a realizar en la parte principal de la sesión (Rueda, 1997).
• Calentamiento lúdico: Realizado mediante formas jugadas. Los juegos del calentamiento presentan un beneficio añadido como es la unión y motivación del grupo.

Pautas a tener en cuenta para la ejecución del calentamiento

Todo calentamiento, debe de cumplir unas pautas generales de ejecución para que resulte eficiente, según Leyva y Castro (2001) nos indican las siguientes:

• Ser progresivo: de menor a mayor intensidad y dificultad.
• Ser aeróbico: para que no se produzca concentración de lactato.
• Contener ejercicios de elasticidad y de amplitud de movimiento.
• La frecuencia cardiaca final debe oscilar sobre 120 pulsaciones por minuto.
• En ningún momento debe aparecer la fatiga. Evitar repeticiones excesivas de un mismo ejercicio par evitar el agotamiento de los músculos que actúan en el mismo.

Bibliografía

• Álvarez del VILLAR, C. (1992). La preparación física del fútbol basada en el atletismo. Ed. Gymnos. Madrid.
• Freiwald, J. (1995). El calentamiento en el deporte. Hispano Europea. Barcelona.
• Leyva, C. y Castro, R. (2001). El calentamiento para la actividad físico deportiva. EFDeportes.com, Revista digital. Nº 36.
• Naranjo, J y Centeno, R. (2001). Bases fisiológicas del entrenamiento deportivo. Sevilla. Wanceulen.
• Rueda, A. y Cols. (1997). La condición física en la educación secundaria obligatoria. Inde. Barcelona.
• Ureña, F. y Cols. (2001). La educación física en secundaria. Fundamentación teórica. Inde. Barcelona.

Referencias

Importancia del calentamiento antes de la práctica deportiva

María del Mar Serrano Ramos
Diplomada en Educación Física.
Licenciada en Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte
Entrenadora Superior de Natación por la Real Federación Española de Natación

Juan Manuel Valverde Bolívar
Diplomado en Educación Física
Licenciado en Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte

Manuela Esteban Granados
Diplomada en Educación Física
Universidad de Granada