Designing a training session - warm-up, conditioning, cool-down, sequencing, safety and intensity monitoring: HSC Health and Movement Science Focus Area 2

• Warm-up (about 10 to 15 minutes): progressively raise muscle temperature, blood flow and nervous-system readiness to prepare the body for the session and reduce injury risk.
• Main conditioning or skill phase: the core work of the session, matched to the session goal (e.g. aerobic intervals, strength, skill rehearsal) with chosen intensity and work-to-rest.
• Cool-down (about 5 to 10 minutes of active recovery): gradually lower heart rate and breathing, maintain venous return to avoid pooling, and begin clearing metabolic by-products.

Marking criteria: 1 mark each for naming a phase IN ORDER with a correct purpose. A phase named with no purpose, or out of order, does not earn the mark.

RAMP = Raise, Activate, Mobilise, Potentiate.

• Raise body and muscle temperature with easy aerobic movement, so enzyme activity and contraction speed up.
• Activate the key muscles that will drive the session (e.g. glutes, hamstrings for sprinting).
• Mobilise the joints through their range with dynamic movements (leg swings, lunges) so the sprint range is available.
• Potentiate with progressive high-intensity efforts (build-up runs, strides) that prime the nervous system so the first hard sprint is near full quality.

For a sprint session this sequence matters because cold, unprimed muscle is slower and more injury-prone, and the first maximal sprint without potentiation is both slower and riskier (hamstring strain).

Marking criteria: 1 mark for the correct expansion of RAMP; up to 3 marks for a correct purpose of each step linked to the sprint context. A bare list of the four words with no purposes caps at 1.

Any three, clearly stated as cool-down purposes:

• Maintain venous return through the muscle pump so blood does not pool in dilated leg veins, preventing a sudden blood-pressure drop and dizziness.
• Gradually lower heart rate and ventilation back towards resting levels rather than stopping abruptly.
• Aid clearance of metabolic by-products (the continued blood flow helps remove the by-products of hard glycolytic work).
• Begin the recovery process so the athlete is fresher for the next session.

Marking criteria: 1 mark each for three correct, distinct cool-down purposes. "Stretching to get flexible" is not a cool-down purpose for this mark; the focus is the physiological wind-down.

Order: strength first, then endurance. Maximal strength work demands a fresh nervous system, full motor-unit recruitment and precise technique. If endurance conditioning is done first, the resulting fatigue lowers force output, degrades technique and raises injury risk in the heavy lifts, and the strength stimulus is blunted. Placing strength first lets it be performed at high quality; the subsequent endurance work is less compromised by prior fatigue because aerobic conditioning tolerates a degree of fatigue. (This also reduces the acute interference effect on the strength adaptation.)

Warm-up structure (RAMP). A general raise (5 to 8 minutes easy aerobic) lifts temperature and blood flow, then activation and mobilisation of the lifting muscles and joints, then potentiation with ramped warm-up sets building to the working load. The aerobic portion of the session needs little extra warm-up because the body is already prepared.

Marking criteria: 1 mark for stating strength before endurance; up to 2 marks for justifying it via fresh nervous system / technique / blunted strength stimulus (interference); 1 mark for a RAMP-structured warm-up; 1 mark for tailoring the warm-up to the strength component specifically. A stated order with no physiological justification caps at 1.

(a) Description. Intensity rises from a moderate warm-up (about 55% HRmax), climbs to a high-intensity conditioning block where work efforts average about 90% HRmax with recoveries falling to about 70% (a sawtooth between work and rest), then declines through the cool-down to about 50% HRmax. Overall: low to start, highest in the middle, low to finish.

(b) Explanation. The 55% warm-up shows a progressive raise rather than starting cold, preparing the body before the hard work. In the conditioning block the heart rate sawtooth (90% down to 70% and back) is the signature of interval work with INCOMPLETE recovery - the recoveries do not return to baseline, so this is a glycolytic/aerobic-power stimulus (a short work-to-rest such as about 1:2). Monitoring heart rate live confirms each work effort reached the target zone (about 90%) and that recovery was controlled, so intensity was neither too easy nor uncontrolled. The cool-down brings heart rate down gradually to about 50% rather than stopping abruptly, maintaining venous return and avoiding venous pooling. The profile therefore shows all three phases present, an appropriate work-to-rest for the goal, and intensity actively monitored against HRmax zones.

Marking criteria: (a) up to 2 marks for describing the low-high-low pattern AND quoting figures from the stimulus with units (% HRmax). (b) up to 4 marks: 1 for reading the warm-up as a progressive raise, 1 for identifying the sawtooth as interval work with incomplete recovery and naming a work-to-rest, 1 for the role of live HR monitoring against a target zone, 1 for the cool-down lowering HR gradually to protect venous return. An answer that only restates the numbers without linking them to structure/monitoring caps at 3. (Heart-rate values are an illustrative session profile.)

Why not static stretching. Prolonged static stretching (holding a muscle at length) before explosive work can transiently REDUCE force and power output and does little to raise muscle temperature or prime the nervous system. It prepares the muscle for length, not for fast, forceful contraction, so it is a poor match for the demands of a power or sprint session.

What replaces it. A dynamic, progressive warm-up on the RAMP model: a general raise (easy aerobic work) to lift temperature and blood flow, dynamic mobility through the working range (leg swings, lunges, A-skips), activation of the prime movers, then potentiation with build-up sprints or ramped efforts that prime the nervous system. Any static stretching, if used at all for a specific tight area, is brief and followed by dynamic and potentiation work.

Marking criteria: up to 2 marks for explaining the force/power decrement and poor temperature/nervous-system priming; up to 3 marks for a correct dynamic/RAMP replacement with potentiation. Stating "static stretching is bad" with no physiological reason and no replacement caps at 1.

This is a 10-mark extended response. Markers reward a JUSTIFIED design - each choice tied to the session goal, the event's physiology and safety - not a bare session plan.

Band 6 PLAN.

• Thesis: an effective 800 m session is built around the event's mixed glycolytic-aerobic demand; every phase and intensity choice is justified by that demand, by safety, and by where the session sits in the microcycle.
• Session goal: develop speed-endurance / lactate tolerance for the second lap, so the conditioning phase targets the glycolytic and aerobic-power systems.
• Argument line 1 - warm-up: a RAMP warm-up (raise, activate, mobilise, potentiate) of about 12 to 15 minutes ending in 2 to 3 build-up strides; justified because the first hard rep must be near race pace and unprimed muscle is slower and injury-prone.
• Argument line 2 - conditioning phase: e.g. 6 x 300 m at slightly faster than 800 m race pace with a work-to-rest of about 1:2 (incomplete recovery), so lactate accumulates and the athlete trains to tolerate and clear it - matched to the event. Intensity set by target split times and checked by RPE; the incomplete recovery is the key design choice that makes it a speed-endurance stimulus rather than easy intervals.
• Argument line 3 - cool-down and safety: 8 to 10 minutes of easy jogging (active recovery, about 50% HRmax) to maintain venous return, avoid pooling and aid by-product clearance; safety from injury/illness screening, surface and heat checks, hydration, and a fully progressive warm-up.
• Synthesis: place this hard session on a hard day of the microcycle followed by an easy/recovery day, monitor with target splits, HR zones and RPE, and adjust if the athlete fails the splits (a sign of incomplete prior recovery). Judge the design as safe and effective because each phase and ratio serves the 800 m goal.

Model paragraph (conditioning phase). The core of the session is 6 x 300 m run slightly faster than 800 m race pace with roughly a 1:2 work-to-rest, because the 800 m is a brutal mix of glycolytic and aerobic demand and the race is usually lost on the second lap as lactate climbs. By keeping the recovery incomplete - shorter than the work would naturally need - I force the athlete to begin each rep before full recovery, so blood lactate accumulates across the set and the body is trained to both buffer and clear it at speed. Intensity is held honest by target split times for each 300 m and cross-checked against rating of perceived exertion, so the reps stay in the speed-endurance zone rather than drifting into easy running. This is exactly the demand of the closing 300 m of an 800 m race, which is why the choice of distance, pace and especially the incomplete recovery makes the phase specific and effective.

Marker's note: top-band answers (1) match every choice to the 800 m event physiology (mixed glycolytic-aerobic), (2) name a specific work-to-rest and justify it (incomplete recovery for lactate tolerance), (3) use the RAMP warm-up and an active cool-down with their physiological purposes, (4) include explicit safety and live monitoring (splits, HR zones, RPE) and situate the session in the microcycle, and (5) keep answering the verb - DESIGN AND JUSTIFY means defend each decision, not list a session. Naming the principle of specificity and the work-to-rest ratio signals precision.