Top 5 principles for increasing fitness

When you were a kid, your mom told you to brush up and down, not side to side, or you wouldn't get your teeth really clean. The same theory applies to fitness: Do it right and it will work (www.dailynews.com). I know most of you have tried various exercise programs, lost a bit of weight at the beginning, and then become frustrated because your body stopped changing. Being unable to get past the "plateau" isn't your fault, it's because the program has been poorly designed. These five exercise training principles are the cornerstone of a good program design: Individual differences: Every person is different, and each person's response to exercise will vary. A proper training program should take individual differences into account. Whether you are a beginner or intermediate, there is a safe place for you to start and a challenging place for you to strive toward. Use/disuse: You have to move your muscles or they become soft and flabby. Many people try to lose weight by working out just sporadically — when they feel like it — but they soon give up because they don't see results. You must be committed and consistent to see results. Adaptation: By repeating an exercise, the body adapts to the stress, and the skill becomes easier to perform. This also explains the need to continue to apply the principle of Overload to continue to see improvements and changes in your physique. Overload: A greater than normal load on the body is required to create change. If your body is already used to walking, it is necessary to start incorporating an incline or jogging intervals. If your body is use to lifting 3-pound weights, you have to move up to 5-pounders to see results. The more you do, the more you become capable of doing. This is how all the training adaptations occur in exercise and training. The human body is an amazing machine. When you stress your body by lifting a weight that is more than you are accustomed to, your body will react with physiologic changes that will enable you to handle the stress the next time it occurs. This concept is the same in cardiovascular training relating to the heart, lungs and endurance muscles. This is how people get stronger, bigger, faster and increase their physical fitness level. Progression: There is an optimal level of overload that should be achieved, and an optimal time frame in which this overload should occur. Overload should not be increased too slowly or improvement is unlikely. Overload that is increased too rapidly will result in injury or muscle damage. Therefore it's important that you start slowly and then progress to the next level as your body adapts to the exercise.