The Principles of Fitness

The ‘principles of training’ should be used in conjunction with your ‘smart’ goals to tailor your training for what you are aiming for and to make it as functional as possible to you. They are made up using the SPORT FITT acronym;

S – Specificity- training for what? Make your training specific to what you are working towards- if you're training to run a 10km race, row sprints are not for you!
P – Progression- Consider the rate of how you will progress, e.g in intensity/duration. No progression will lead to little/no results, too fast progression can lead to injury etc. Also, always record your progressions so you can monitor them.
O – Overload- making the body work harder. The body needs increased physical demand to improve physical fitness. (see FITT acronym)
R – Reversibility- ‘’if you don’t use it, you lose it’’ any physiological adaption's made through training will revert if they are not sustained and overloaded. e.g. muscle growth occurs at 1/3 of the rate it reverses if its not used.
T – Tedium- if you find training boring it becomes de-motivating and you are less likely to sustain it- leads to reversibility. It must be stimulating!

F – Frequency- consider the number of training sessions per week and the number reps/sets etc within the training sessions.
I – Intensity- how hard are you working? Heart rate level/amount of resistance?
T – Type- what kind of training for the type of fitness your trying to achieve? (see anabolic/catabolic states for example)
T – Time- the duration of your training.