Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← PE
PESports science: how the body performs25 min★★★ difficulty

Principles of training and designing a programme

Training only works when the body is asked to do slightly more than it is comfortable with — then given time to rebuild stronger than before.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Health and fitness: Take part in competitive sports and activities outside school through community links or sports clubs, and lead healthy, active lives
  • Health and fitness: Develop components of fitness through sustained physical activity, understanding the effects of exercise on the body

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Develop components of fitness through sustained physical activity, understanding the effects of exercise on the body

Key learning points

  • • Overload, progression, specificity, reversibility
  • • FITT: the four dials
  • • Training methods
  • • Intensity you can control

This lesson at a glance

  • 25 minutes
  • 17 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

componentsfitnesssustainedphysicalactivity

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 17 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 17

Watch first

Principles of training and designing a programme

An English teaching video on this topic from TED-Ed. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Develop components of fitness through sustained physical activity, understanding the effects of exercise on the body

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 17

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Overload, progression, specificity, reversibility

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 17

Learn

Overload, progression, specificity, reversibility

Overload: work beyond normal demands so the body adapts. Progression: raise that demand gradually as fitness improves. Specificity: train the components, muscles and energy systems your activity actually uses — long slow runs will not make a sprinter faster. Reversibility: adaptations are lost roughly three times faster than they are gained, so a month off costs more than a month of training gains.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 17

Learn

FITT: the four dials

Frequency (sessions per week), Intensity (how hard), Time (how long) and Type (which method). Change one dial at a time — raising intensity and time together is the fastest route to injury. A safe progression for a runner is 10% more weekly distance, or the same distance at a slightly higher intensity, not both.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 17

Quick check

A footballer trains only by cycling. Which principle is being broken?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 17

Quick check

What does the second T in FITT stand for?

7

Learning cycle

Part 7 of 17

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Training methods

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

8

Reset break

Part 8 of 17

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 17

Learn

Training methods

Continuous training: 20+ minutes at a steady pace, best for cardiovascular endurance. Interval training: hard efforts with planned recovery, best for speed and anaerobic capacity. Fartlek: continuous work with varied pace, close to the demands of a game. Circuit training: stations mixing strength, endurance and skill. Plyometrics: bounding, hopping and depth jumps for power. Weight training: high load and low reps for strength, low load and high reps for muscular endurance. Static and dynamic stretching for flexibility.

10

Explore the idea

Part 10 of 17

Learn

Intensity you can control

Estimate maximum heart rate as 220 minus age. A 13-year-old has an estimated max of 207bpm; the aerobic training zone of 60-80% is roughly 124-166bpm. Recreational activity sits lower; anaerobic interval work sits above 80%. Where a heart rate monitor is unavailable, the talk test works: aerobic means you can speak in short sentences, anaerobic means you cannot.

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 17

Quick check

Estimate the 60% aerobic threshold for a 13-year-old using the standard formula.

12

Quick check

Part 12 of 17

Quick check

Which method best develops explosive power for a high jumper?

13

Explore the idea

Part 13 of 17

Worked example

A six-week block written properly

Goal: improve cardiovascular endurance for hockey. Frequency 3 sessions per week. Intensity 70-80% max HR. Time 25 minutes rising to 35 by week six. Type: one continuous run, one fartlek, one interval session of 6 x 400m. Progression: add 5 minutes or one interval every two weeks, never both in the same week. Retest with the multi-stage fitness test in week seven under the original conditions.

14

Challenge round

Part 14 of 17

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

15

Challenge round

Part 15 of 17

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Progression: raise that demand gradually as ____ improves.

Specificity: train the ____, muscles and energy systems your activity actually uses — long slow runs will not make a sprinter faster.

Recreational ____ sits lower; anaerobic interval work sits above 80%.

16

Mastery quiz

Part 16 of 17

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Principles of training and designing a programme

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Which activity best develops cardiovascular endurance?

  2. 2. A footballer trains only by cycling. Which principle is being broken?

  3. 3. What does the second T in FITT stand for?

  4. 4. Estimate the 60% aerobic threshold for a 13-year-old using the standard formula.

17

Lesson round-up

Part 17 of 17

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Article

What a warm-up is actually for

A warm-up raises the heart rate, sends more blood to the working muscles and raises muscle temperature by a couple of degrees. Warm muscle stretches further before it tears, and messages between brain and muscle travel faster, so movement is more accurate.

A good warm-up has three parts: a few minutes of easy movement, mobility that takes joints through the range the sport needs, and short bursts at close to game speed.

Long, still stretching before explosive sport can slow the muscle down. Save that kind of stretching for the cool-down.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Explain in your own words two things a warm-up does to the body.
  2. Design a ten-minute warm-up for one sport, with times for each part.
  3. Keep a training log for three sessions: what you did, how long, and how you felt after.

  • Training log

    Writing

    Write what you did, for how long, and how your body felt afterwards.

    Half a page

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 17 · Watch & discover

How this is going

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    Take part in competitive sports and activities outside school through community links or sports clubs, and lead healthy, active lives

  • Not looked at yet

    Develop components of fitness through sustained physical activity, understanding the effects of exercise on the body

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