Orienteering and Fitness Building Essay Example

very brief and intense. Because of this, instead of using oxygen, the muscles use glycogen. (Bateman.

L 2007) Anaerobic exercise will increase my body’s anaerobic threshold, and will allow me to exercise at a more intense level for a longer period of time. My current fitness level is under the average level for sixteen year old females that are my height and weight. This is shown throughout the results of the fitness testing that has gone on during the past term and by finding my VO2 max, which is the maximum rate of oxygen that can be taken up and utilised by my body during severe exercise (Basset and Howley 2000) The VO2 max can be estimated after completing the beep test. I only progressed to level 5. in this test, which shows that my VO2 max is only 30. 6mL/kg/min which is a poor result (as shown in Appendix A).

Because of my current fitness level I require a more simple approach to the training program, starting off easier, and slowly progressing through the six weeks, towards my goal, of completing the hilly 5 km orienteering course successfully. Aim, Overview and Justification of Training Program Competitive orienteering requires a specific form of fitness that should be developed through a carefully constructed training program, applying the principles of training to the demands of the sport.

The training program I have created will improve my VO2 max, stroke volume and will increase my cardiac output, which is the volume of blood pumped by the heart per minute, while improving my cardiovascular and muscular systems. The first week of the training program is just to start off slowly to get

the heart rate pumping faster then, gradually increasing the speed, altering the terrain and extending the time of each effort to correspond with the improvements of muscle capacity, lactate threshold and VO2 max. The first week of the program included a lot of aerobic exercise with

In the sixth week of training, cycling is one of the sessions specified. It was chosen because cycling strengthens the quadriceps and stomach muscles, while avoiding the foot strike pounding of running. The quadriceps muscles, in the front of the upper leg are the main muscles for both cycling and running uphill. (Harding. J 2011) The cycling would therefore assist my ability to perform uphill to the best of my ability during the orienteering courses as my leg and stomach muscles would be better developed and would allow me to perform for longer periods of time at a more intense level.