GROUP 4 (Movement Competency Training)

Exercise Progression and Regression

I. Ice Breaker
Direction: Guess what type of exercise are shown in the images.
Answers:
1. Lunges- Lunges are a popular strength training exercise among people wanting
to strengthen, sculpt, and tone their bodies, while also improving overall fitness
and enhancing athletic performance.
2. Push-Up- The push-up helps to build muscle and improve strength throughout
the upper body.
3. Squat- The movement strengthens your tendons, bones, and ligaments around
the leg muscles.
4. Jumping Jacks- In addition to burning calories, jumping jacks can also help to
increase your aerobic capacity or cardiovascular fitness.
5. Plank- Apart from muscle growth and endurance, a plank can also help achieve
better body balance, posture, as well as coordination.

II. Topic
Exercise Progression and Regression- To adapt an exercise to your body's needs, it's
essential to understand the laws of exercise progression and regression. This knowledge
helps structure effective training approaches for abdominals and the entire body.
Customizing programs based on body structure, training background, and injury history
enhances training experience and confidence.

● Exercise progression and regression ensures that an individual is able to safely

and effectively progress or regress in their exercise performance.

What is Exercise progression?

● Exercise progression - It involves making an exercise more challenging by
increasing its intensity, duration or complexity.

What is Exercise regression?

● Exercise regression - It involves making an exercise easier by decreasing its
intensity, duration or complexity.

What are the benefits of Exercise progression and regression?

• It enables an individual to perform an exercise safely, at their current ability level.
• It can help to prevent injury and fatigue.
• It can help you reach your fitness goals.
What are the factors that influence exercise performance?
• Frequency - Adjust the number of times you exercise per day/week/month to reflect:
your current fitness level; the time you realistically have available; your other
commitments like family and work; and the goals you’ve set for yourself.

• Intensity - This is an extremely important aspect of the FITT Principle and is probably
the hardest factor to monitor. The best way to gauge the intensity of your exercise is to
monitor your heart rate. If you don’t want to spend the money on a heart rate monitor,
simply count your heart rate over a 15 second period. All you need is a wrist watch that
has a “seconds” display. Feel for your heart beat by either placing your hand over your
heart or by feeling for your pulse in your neck or on your wrist. Count the beats over a 15
second period and then multiply by 4. This will give you your exercise heart rate in beats
per minute.

• Time - The time you spend exercising is also an important part of the FITT Principle.
The time dedicated to exercise usually depends on the type of exercise undertaken. For
example, it’s recommended that to improve cardio-vascular fitness you’ll need at least 30
minutes of non stop exercise. For weight loss, more time is required; at least 40 minutes
of moderate weight bearing exercise. However, when talking about the time required for
muscular strength improvements, time is often measured as a number of “sets” and
“reps.” A typical recommendation would be 3 sets of 8 reps.

• Type - The type of exercise you choose will have a big effect on the results you
achieve. That’s why it’s important to know what you want to gain from your efforts. For
example, if you’re looking to improve your cardio-vascular fitness, then exercises like
walking, jogging, swimming, bike riding, stair climbing, aerobics and rowing are very
effective. For weight loss, any exercise that using a majority of your large muscle groups
will be effective. To improve muscular strength the best exercises include the use of free
weights, machine weights and bodyweight exercises like push-ups, chin-ups and dips.

Five key variables influence exercise progression and regression

1. Resistance - To enhance an exercise, increase resistance or decrease it. Small
changes in resistance can significantly impact the experience and benefits. High
resistance may distract from technique and focus on external goals, while low resistance
may not elicit enough muscle adaptation. Progressing resistance is crucial for aesthetics
but should not compromise muscular tension or focus. Finding the right balance in
resistance is crucial.

2. Range of Motion - Each exercise has a maximum range of motion, including pain-free
range of motion. However, not all exercises are suitable for everyone, especially if they
cause discomfort or pain. For example, deadlifting from the floor may not be the best fit
for some individuals due to their natural body structure or back pain history. To improve,
try deadlifting one or two inches off the floor and adding extra core work. Increasing or
decreasing range of motion can make exercises harder or easier, prevent pain, and offer
strength and aesthetic benefits. It's important to consider the strength and aesthetic
benefits of certain ranges of motion when evaluating exercises.

3. Stability - The path of progression from stable to unstable exercises is often

inaccurate, as increasing instability can make exercises harder. It's crucial to consider
whether the progression is making the exercise harder according to your goals. Adding
instability can reduce exercise targeting ability, but it's not the right path for physique
enhancement or aesthetics.

4. Speed - This book does not advocate for advancing slower repetitions to faster ones,
as they are typically reserved for performance-based training and athleticism. High
repetition speeds can cause muscle strain, hinder optimal alignment, and increase injury
risk. It is best for performance after achieving aesthetics goals. New exercisers should
use a speed that allows them to feel the exercise working the target area.

5. Body Position - Changing body position involves manipulating lever arm length to
change resistance and difficulty of exercises. This technique can be applied to front
planks and crunch exercises, as well as external weight placements. Exercise
biomechanics can be improved through these techniques, allowing for progression or
regression in exercises.