Personal Exercise Plan

UK Students undertaking advanced studies in Physical Education (GCSE) are required to produce a Personal Exercise Plan. The objective a Personal Exercise Plan (PEP) is to demonstrate application of knowledge of the theory of the general principles of training.

Scenario

You are a keen rugby player but have been unable to compete as competitively as you would have liked. You have been able to test your anaerobic endurance through a simple test, the Running-based Anaerobic Sprint Test (RAST), and have identified that you have a high fatigue index. As a result, you wish to focus your PEP on improving your anaerobic endurance and hence lower your RAST fatigue index value.

Research

First you must carry out a small amount of research to provide answers to the following questions

• How do the principles of training affect my program?
• What types of training will best suit the aims of my PEP?
• When will I need to test and measure my progress?
• Which tests should I use and are these tests valid?
• What frequency, intensity and time do I need to train for?
• What facilities and resources are appropriate for an effective training program?
• What would be a suitable warm up and cool down program for me to undertake?

Once these questions have been researched, the answers will leave you in a position to plan your PEP.

Planning

• An initial assessment will be made of your speed using the Flying 30 metres Test and your Fatigue Index with Running-based Anaerobic Sprint Test
• This tests will be repeated every four weeks and the result recorded
• The program will require you to train three times per week for approximately one hour's duration per session. A minimum of one recovery day will be taken between each training session.
• The program will be for twelve weeks duration and be based on a 4 week cycle - easy week, medium week, hard week, test and recovery week.
• Access to an athletics track is required
• An assistant will be required when conducting the tests
• Each session will commence with an appropriate warm up. This can be achieved through light jogging, dynamic stretching exercises, running drills and some mental preparation to focus the mind.
• Each session will be terminated with an appropriate cool down of jogging and static stretching.

The program will require you to record your attendance for each session and obtain verification of the testing undertaken. This may take the form of a training diary or logbook, which can be filled in as progress is made.

Example Training program

The following is an example of a 4 week training cycle. For the PEP this cycle would be repeated three times to give us the 12 week training schedule.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Associated Pages

The following Sports Coach pages should be read in conjunction with this page:

• Planning Articles
• Planning the Training
• Tapering for Competition
• Training Programmes
• Weight Training

• Training Books
• Training Products

Associated Books

The following books provide more information related to this topic:

• Advanced Studies in Physical Education and Sport, P Beashel et al., ISBN 0 17 4482345
• Physical Education and the Study of Sport, B. Davis et al., ISBN 0 7234 31752
• Essentials of Exercise Physiology, W.D. McArdle et al., ISBN 0 683 30507 7
• Physical Education and Sport Studies, D. Roscoe et al., ISBN 1 901424 20 0
• The World of Sport Examined, P. Beashel et al., ISBN 0 17 438719 9
• Advanced PE for Edexcel, F. Galligan et al., ISBN 0 435 50643 9
• Examining Physical Education, K. Bizley, ISBN 0 435 50660 9
• Sport and PE, K Wesson et al., ISBN 0 340 683821
• PE for you, J. Honeybourne, ISBN 0 7487 3277 2