Connections across texts

Mental illness can deceive and manipulate a persons mind so that they can sometimes forget the good person that they used to be. Their actions although sometimes horrific can not be helped because it has become the reality that they live and believe. Mental illness has been present in past society all the way up to the present day. Insomniac’s wide awake in the early hours of the morning itching to sleep but never getting the satisfaction of a good nights sleep becoming mindless zombies, psychosis holds its victim in an iron grip of warped versions of reality causing them to do things that they never would have done if they had control over their sanity. The theme mental illness is prevalent in the texts Shutter Island, The Tell-tale Heart, The Following and Fight Club. The texts have been analysed because they depict the horrors of mental illness in different ways from one another but can still be understood by an audience and how the characters thought and acted through their insanity.

In the 1800s, mental illness wasn’t seen as an illness that could be helped and rehabilitated but a sign that you were broken and mentally insane with no hope of ever fitting into society. The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe is a good example of how one might think in their insanity and why they do the deranged things that they do, the short story is set in the 1800s. The narrator of the story lives with an old man who has a mutated eye, the narrator tells the reader that, “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.” However he hates the eye with a deep hatred so decides to kill the old man without question and stalks him for a seven nights straight in the dead of night. “Night after night, heartening to the death watches in the wall.” It is assumed that the narrator is imagining these noises and it is a side effect of severe insomnia and psychosis. Death watches are insects that are believed to be a bad omen and for the narrator it represents the old mans heart beat. After brutally killing the old man, the narrator is interrogated by the police at the end of the story and is driven insane by the sound of the old mans heart beat and confesses. In the narrators era that he lives in, mental illness was not widely prevalent in the knowledge of society and had a lack of medicine to treat it. Information online indicates that ‘lodging the mentally ill in workhouses or checking them into general hospitals where they were frequently abandoned.’ (http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/283/2/the-history-of-mental-illness-from-skull-drills-to-happy-pills)

The narrator in the story would have been thrown in a cell for the rest of his life or hanged for the crime the he had committed simply because people in his era did not yet have the clear information and resources to help the criminally insane. A clear connection between The Tell-Tale Heart and Shutter Island can be seen when Andrew Laeddis, the main protagonist for the majority of the film says to Dr. John Cawley, “After she tried to kill herself the first time, Dolores told me she… she had an insect living inside her brain. She could feel it clicking across her skull, just… pulling the wires, just for fun.” This quote can be seen as a direct link to the clicking of the death watches in The Tell-Tale Heart and again is a sign of a bad omen. The reader can assume that Dolores had extremely similar symptoms to the narrator in the Tell-Tale Heart and suffered from severe mental illness/s.

Dolores if she had not been killed would’ve been rehabilitated in a safe hospital and hopefully recovered in the future. The majority of present day treatment towards the insane shows how much society has developed since the 1800s in which The Tell-Tale Heart was written and set in. Although there are still some places in the world where the mentally ill are abandoned or killed but medical study and the evolution of medicine has helped many people who suffer from mental illness and has long since concluded the illusion of mental illness being a sickness that can not be cured.

Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorsese is a film set in the 1950s that portrays the way that the mentally ill perceive their own reality. There has been cases in previous time where people suffer from schizophrenia and have multiple personalities that they have no control over. This can be seen with the film’s main protagonist, Teddy Daniels who is a U.S. Marshall investigating the sudden disappearance of an inmate from Shutter island, a rehabilitation centre for the criminally insane. Little does Teddy know that he is in fact the missing inmate and is under a clinical experiment in order to become sane again. His character has severe schizophrenia and lives a completely warped reality which is very real to him. Teddy says at one point in the film to his supposed partner Chuck, ‘Which would be worse – to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?’.

The audience realises that he chooses to believe his made up reality than accept the crime of killing his wife. He would rather live out his life as a good man rather than be the monster that he was. A connection between Shutter Island and Fight Club directed by Martin Scorsese, is the main character’s mental state who both live made up realities and fake personalities due to their schizophrenic tendencies. The narrator in Fight Club lives in the 1990s when the film is made and suffers Insomnia who then creates an imaginary friend called Tyler Durden which is the complete opposite personality of himself and creates havoc and crime. He believes that his imaginary friend is real but it is in fact himself doing all of the work and crime. Martin Scorsese wanted the audience to understand how the narrator felt angry with his boring life and why his insomnia created Tyler Durden from his deepest desires. Tyler Durden tells the narrator “Hey, you created me. I didn’t create some loser alter-ego to make myself feel better. Take some responsibility!” This quote connects with Shutter Island and shows that the main characters are both Schizophrenic and  can’t accept their own lives and mistakes so instead create fake personalities to hide from their true selves. The way the two characters react to their mental illness’s show the difference in time period that they lived in, the narrator in Fight Club lives in a more modern era and reacts to his mental illness by creating a crime ring/ fight club bringing together all of the people that are bored of their repetitive lives. Teddy Daniels reacts differently to his mental illness and is a lot more isolated, because he is in the 1950s he assumes terrible things are happening on Shutter Island and he imagines a very detailed conspiracy is unfolding around him. The lack of proper rehabilitation techniques creates and even worse atmosphere that he is surrounded by on the island.

Fight Club clearly shows the theme mental illness and shares a narrator whom is much the same as the narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart. The main character who narrates the majority of the film starts to lose his mental state after enduring insomnia for weeks on end and creates Tyler Durden from his imagination. He is unaware of the crimes that he commits and rather thinks that Tyler is doing them. The narrator starts to doubt reality, ‘Is Tyler my bad dream? Or am I Tyler’s?’.

Martin Scorsese wants the audience to be just as confused as the narrator by using this quote and makes them start to doubt the existence of the narrator. A connection is made between Fight Club and The Tell-tale Heart, both of the narrators suffer from Insomnia making them delusional and unable to tell between what is real and what isn’t. The narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart tells the reader ‘I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?’ Poe wanted to show the reader that the narrator was convinced that instead of his Insomnia dulling his senses he instead had sharper senses. He was in fact hearing these things in his mind just the way that the narrator in Fight Club was imagining conversations with Tyler Durden. The connection shows that insomnia in 1843 when Edgar Allan Poe wrote his short story effected people just as badly as it does in the time period that Fight Club is set in and there still wasn’t an effective way to deal with insomnia thus making those who suffer the mental illness do things that they have no control over including committing hideous crimes such as murder.

The Following, a television series created by Kevin Williamson, revolves around many symbols and motifs that can be linked back to some of Edgar Allan Poe’s own symbols which he used in the his stories including The Tell-Tale Heart. Williamson’s main antagonist in The Following, Joe Carol, is a madman obsessed with killing his victims in an ‘Edgar Allan Poe’ styled fashion and removing their eyes after murdering them. “He cut out his victims eyes as a nod to his favourite works of Poe, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘The Black Cat’.” Joe Carroll refers to the eyes as ‘windows to the soul’ and believes he is creating art by killing his victims in such a fashion. This connects to The Tell-tale Heart because the narrator in Poe’s short story believes that killing the old man will relieve him of his hate towards the old mans mutated eye, “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” Poe uses the old mans eye as a symbol in his short story to show how the narrator is manipulated by his mental illness to take drastic actions against such a small issue, however in The Following, Joe Carroll removes his victims eyes to salute his favourite writer/poet Edgar Allan Poe although still a very similar motif none the less. The audience can assume that Joe Carroll suffers from a mental illness due to his lack of compassion to other human beings therefore connecting the two main antagonists between the two texts again. The society in which the two characters live in are certainly both very different to one another but that doesn’t stop the same dreadful crimes to occur. However the difference in time periods show that law enforcement has developed greatly and handling situations with the mentally insane are lot more effective today than it was in 1843 when The Tell-Tale Heart was written.

The connections that are found between The Tell-Tale Heart, Shutter Island, The Following and Fight Club represent how society in the era’s they’re set in have changed for the better when it comes to the knowledge of mental illness. The practice of rehabilitation for the insane has improved drastically since when Edgar Allan Poe lived and wrote The Tell-Tale Heart, now the mentally ill in todays society have a far better chance at recovery especially with the advance in medicine. The symbols and character connections between the texts show similarities in the way authors and directors of todays day and age and those in past societies gain the attention of their readers/viewers by using a lot of the same motifs and character development. Mental Illness, still to this day has a huge impact on the lives of those effected by it but helping it has changed a lot since the 1800s and mid 1900s.

art by Edgar Allan Poe, is a short story comprised of the manic stalking of a disfigured old man by the narrator. Both characters in the story collide with forces that are out of their control, some of those forces would be the mental health of the narrator himself who suffers from paranoia and psychosis. Another would be the tinnitus that the narrator mistakes for his own super sensitive hearing and finally the eye of the old man which the narrator hates with a passion. The narrators responses to these forces are indeed morally questionable from a sane mans perspective. The narrator in the story is extremely mentally unstable. His illness is a force far beyond his own control, he respond to this in a very violent manner by killing the old man that he lives with because of his disfigured eye. The narrator tells the reader that “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” this clearly shows that the narrator is very paranoid and by analysing the way he reacts to his mental illness, the reader can agree that he is truly insane by responding so violently to something as little as a possible cataract in the old mans eye. The narrator’s response wasn’t morally questionable but in fact morally shocking and unacceptable, Poe wanted to show the reader that people who you trust the most might not be as trustworthy as originally thought. The narrator proves this by saying, “I loved the old man, he had never given me insult,” he had nothing against the old man except his eye, where as the old man himself trusted the narrator enough to live with him. There is not many details revealed about the narrator but by the way he speaks and acts, the reader is able to understand a considerable amount about his mental health. The narrator describes himself as ‘nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous’, he spends every night leading up to the murder of the old man watching him sleep around midnight. This reference from the story shows the reader that he has obvious mental issues possibly caused by Insomnia of which has symptoms a lot like his own, a lack of sleep, hearing things that aren’t there like the ticking of a clock which he thinks is the old mans heart and extreme nervousness. This all could of lead to the psychosis he suffers from leading to the impairment of his own reality and lack of being able to tell between what is real and what is unreal. Poe uses the narrators mental health to show how serious the symptoms of insomnia/ psychosis are and how mental illness can warp a persons sense of reality to the point where they can’t tell between the ordinary. Another force that is beyond the narrators control is his severe tinnitus that he mistakes for his own super-sensitive hearing. The narrator can hear the old mans heart before and after he kills him, ‘there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton.’ The narrator imagines the sound of the old mans heart and compares it to a clock as if it is counting down to his death. The quote is repeated again after the murder of the old man when the narrator hears the heart start to beat again. This repetition is used to show that the narrator instead of having super-sensitive hearing is utterly mad. This response is surely immoral but the reader can’t help but feel sympathy for the narrator as his mental illness is far beyond his control. Poe uses the narrators tinnitus symptoms to show that guilt will be the harshest punishment to crimes against humanity. The old mans eye can be viewed as a force beyond the narrators control, it seems to have a terrible effect on him which drives him to hate the eye and eventually leads him to murder the old man. *to be continued….. (bom bom bom boooooom)

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, is a short story comprised of the manic stalking of a disfigured old man by the narrator. Both characters in the story collide with forces that are out of their control, some of those forces would be the mental health of the narrator himself who suffers from paranoia and psychosis. Another would be the tinnitus that the narrator mistakes for his own super sensitive hearing and finally the eye of the old man which the narrator hates with a passion.

The narrators responses to these forces are indeed morally questionable from a sane mans perspective.

The narrator in the story is extremely mentally unstable. His illness is a force far beyond his own control, he respond to this in a very violent manner by killing the old man that he lives with because of his disfigured eye. The narrator tells the reader that “I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” this clearly shows that the narrator is very paranoid and by analysing the way he reacts to his mental illness, the reader can agree that he is truly insane by responding so violently to something as little as a possible cataract in the old mans eye. The narrator’s response wasn’t morally questionable but in fact morally shocking and unacceptable, Poe wanted to show the reader that people who you trust the most might not be as trustworthy as originally thought. The narrator proves this by saying, “I loved the old man, he had never given me insult,” he had nothing against the old man except his eye, where as the old man himself trusted the narrator enough to live with him.

There is not many details revealed about the narrator but by the way he speaks and acts, the reader is able to understand a considerable amount about his mental health. The narrator describes himself as ‘nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous’, he spends every night leading up to the murder of the old man watching him sleep around midnight. This reference from the story shows the reader that he has obvious mental issues possibly caused by Insomnia of which has symptoms a lot like his own, a lack of sleep, hearing things that aren’t there like the ticking of a clock which he thinks is the old mans heart and extreme nervousness. This all could of lead to the psychosis he suffers from leading to the impairment of his own reality and lack of being able to tell between what is real and what is unreal. Poe uses the narrators mental health to show how serious the symptoms of insomnia/ psychosis are and how mental illness can warp a persons sense of reality to the point where they can’t tell between the ordinary.

Another force that is beyond the narrators control is his severe tinnitus that he mistakes for his own super-sensitive hearing. The narrator can hear the old mans heart before and after he kills him, ‘there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton.’

The narrator imagines the sound of the old mans heart and compares it to a clock as if it is counting down to his death. The quote is repeated again after the murder of the old man when the narrator hears the heart start to beat again. This repetition is used to show that the narrator instead of having super-sensitive hearing is utterly mad. This response is surely immoral but the reader can’t help but feel sympathy for the narrator as his mental illness is far beyond his control. Poe uses the narrators tinnitus symptoms to show that guilt will be the harshest punishment to crimes against humanity.

The old mans eye can be viewed as a force beyond the narrators control, it seems to have a terrible effect on him which drives him to hate the eye and eventually leads him to murder the old man.

*to be continued….. (bom bom bom boooooom)

Notes in class

Do it now: Equilibrium

1000 + 1000 + 1200 +1500 = 4700Nm

Support B = 4700/4 = 1175N

Support A = 2100 – 1175

Support A = 925N

Tis’ an equilibrium so:

Downward force = upward force

Clockwise torque = Anticlockwise torque

Blog 7: Continuous #2

This week I used the continuous method of training, I used this to train my respiratory, cardiovascular and aerobic energy system. To improve using continuous training I biked laps around the field at a low constant speed for 20mins, this will be beneficial towards my trip in Rotarua because some of the tracks are long and will require good aerobic, respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

During my laps I was biking at a low intensity for a long period of time and required a lot of oxygen for my aerobic energy system, this system is used for long distance physical activity and uses oxygen to burn fatty acids, glucose and protein. When oxygen is present lactic acid doesn’t build up so there is no decrease in performance.

To get the oxygen into my body I had to use my respiratory system. This was done by breathing in oxygen using my lungs, once I had oxygen in my lungs a gas exchange takes place in the avioli do oxygenate my blood, that is then pumped around my body using my cardiovascular system, the longer I worked out the harder and faster my heart was having to pump because more oxygen was needed. When I am biking my assessment, I am certain my respiratory and cardiovascular systems will be above standard so I can get an excellence.

The principles of training that I found significant in this weeks training was time and intensity. Time was important because 20 minutes straight of physical activity is a big load and required patience and fitness. Without any rests, by the end of the 20 minutes I was extremely tired and sore. Intensity was important because I was working at a low intensity in about 60-80% of my max heart rate therefore staying in an aerobic zone.

My heart rate was around 120bpm afterwards and showed I was working in a low intensity zone. 120bpm is around 70% of my maximum heart rate.

The muscle groups I was using during my continuous training was my skeletal, cardiac and involuntary muscles. My skeletal muscles were used to do the physical pushing of the bike pedals so my legs were being used and all the muscles that make up the leg (quadriceps, cloves etc.). My cardiac muscles were used to pump blood around my body and therefore working out the inside walls of my heart. Some of my involuntary muscles were used as well like my diaphragm to inhale and exhale through my lungs. These muscle groups have had their fair share of physical activity over the past 7 weeks and I feel as though I am prepared to do my best in Rotarua.

The psychology skill I used this week was confidence, I used this to be confident in my biking and to achieve my goal easily by pushing myself whilst being confident with my ability to do so.

Blog 6: resistance #2

This week for my personalised PE lessons I decided to use resistance for my method of training, max strength resistance training requires only one system, ATP CP energy system. I used resistance training in the weights room to work on my ATP CP system and my lower skeletal muscles (legs, core and lower back). Afterwards my body was very sore because my muscles had been pushed way above their usual weight load and stretched the muscles.

The principles of training that I thought were important this week was specificity and intensity. Specificity was significant this week because I was training specific systems, my ATP CP energy system and my lower skeletal muscle system. Working these specific systems meant that it was easier to train as I could use different movements in the weights room to work them out to their full potential. Intensity was important because I was working at 80-90% of my maximum heart rate therefore training at a high intensity to work my ATP CP energy system. Because my movements in the gym were short sets of 8-12 heavy reps, that also meant I was working at a high intensity.

The ATP CP system was the only energy system used because of the high intensity I was training at. This meant I was only using the already stored adenosine Tri phosphate in my muscles. I worked this energy system so when I’m down on my trip in Rotarua I’ll be prepared to use a high amount of ATP in the high intensity areas of the mountain bike trails.

My heart rate during these resistance trainings was low because I wasn’t needing oxygen however the intensity was high so I was working in the 80-90% zone of my maximum heart rate after a while. Being in a high intensity zone meant I was using my ATP CP energy system.

The main muscle group I was using was my lower skeletal muscles so I can be strong enough to keep going when riding my bike. Muscles I worked out was my calves (gastrocnemius and soleus), quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and core muscles. Using heavy weight at high intensity stretched and tore my muscles and required them to repair and recover to become stronger.

My cardiovascular and respiratory systems were not required at a high amount because no oxygen was used to make more ATP.

The psychology skill I used was concentration, this was helpful because the movements I was using required attention so I didn’t hurt myself. Training using heavy weights can be dangerous and concentrating on what you’re doing is very important.

Blog 5: Interval #2

This week I got to choose which methods of training I used to prepare for my mountain bike trip. I decided to use interval training so I could get used to training at high intensity for long periods of time. To use interval training I used the rowing machines in the school gym and rowed at a high intensity for 90 second periods, the next day I sprinted five 100m laps on an uneven section of the field with 30 second breaks.

The principles of training I used during this training was overload and frequency. Overload was significant to my interval training because I was pushing myself past my limit for a short time to train my muscles and lactic energy system properly. Frequency was used because I have used interval training for a lot of PE lessons so far and has become frequent enough for me to notice a difference in my effort and time I can last for.

During these trainings I was using the lactic acid system as my main energy system. This was because it was for more than 30 seconds of high intensity activity therefore burning my glycogen in my muscles after using up my stored atp in my muscles. Burning the glycogen created more atp for me to continue training at a high level of intensity. After training my body felt sore,this was because I had lactic acid in my muscles.

My heart rate was effected a lot as I was training because I was using an anaerobic energy system so was therefore in zone 3 using around 70% of my maximum heart rate. My respiratory system was used later into my laps as I was then requiring more oxygen, this meant my breathing rate increased so I could inhale more oxygen to pump to my muscles and create more ATP.

The muscle group I was using was my skeletal muscles, working my legs for the sprints and my arms and shoulders for the rowing which included my calves, quadriceps, ham strings, biceps, triceps, forearms, deltoids and traps. The soreness I felt afterwards provided proof that they were worked out as they still had lactic acid in them and my muscles had been stretched. I have recovered fairly well over the past two days and can now train at a high level again.

My cardiovascular and respiratory system was used more in the sprints compared to the rowing because it was more movement and more intense. My lung capacity seems to have increased since my last training and I am beginning to notice changes to my body in terms of muscle size and definition which means my body fat has decreased.

The psychology skill I used for my interval training was goal setting because before each sprint (running and rowing) I set a time for me to work with and to train my hardest to prepare for the mountain bike trip which draws near.

Blog 4: Fartlek

This week in PE I used the method of training, fartlek, to help me prepare for our mountain bike trip. Fartlek is Swedish for ‘speed play’ and is a mix between continuous and interval training. To put fartlek into action I biked laps around the field on my mountain bike to train all my systems. My cardiovascular, respiratory and all my energy systems were used as I was using different intensities during each lap. I used fartlek to train all of my systems because it uses different intensity zones.

For the majority of each lap I was biking at around 50% of my max heart rate using my aerobic system as I required oxygen for my muscles, the aerobic system is used for long periods of time whilst using oxygen to burn glucose and fatty foods. About half way through each lap I would use 70% of my max hr for about 30-40 seconds using the lactic energy system, the lactic energy system was helpful for this as it was for a short time but not short enough for me to use my atp cp energy system. The lactic energy system produces non stored atp (adenosine tri phosphate) by burning glycogen stored in my muscles while I bike around the field. At about 3/4 through each lap I would bike as hard as I could for 10 seconds using 80+% of my maximum heart rate, doing this used my atp cp energy system as it was for a short time using high intensity training without oxygen present therefore making it an anaerobic system like the lactic system. The atp cp system uses atp that’s already stored in your muscles.

The principles of training I used during my biking was muscular endurance and intensity, this was because it was a long form of training and required a lot of endurance to reach the finish, straining my muscles and having to create lots of ATP on the spot. Another principle of training used was intensity, this was because I was training at different levels of my maximum heart rate and using different energy systems. Lower intensity I was using my aerobic, respiratory and cardiovascular system a lot more because I required oxygen. Medium intensity, I was using my cardio and respiratory systems also my lactic acid system. Higher intensity I was using my ATP CP energy system.

My respiratory and cardiovascular systems were used because I needed to oxygenate my muscles. This was done from breathing in oxygen with my lungs and pumping the oxygen around my body by more heart.

My heart rate before I trained using fartlek was around 54 and after my training it was 168. This showed that my body required a lot more oxygen during my laps and dramatically increased my heart rate. After each lap my muscles were needing more and more oxygen so I was breathing harder. Each energy system being used I was in a different heart rate zone whilst biking at different intensities throughout the laps.

The psychology skill I used during my fartlek training was mental rehearsal because doing each lap the same was repetitive. Repeating each lap made me visualise when I would change into the different zones and use my different energy systems.

Blog 3: Continuous

This week I used continuous training in my PE lesson, to put this method of training in to action I ran for 15 minutes straight out on the field. For 15 minutes I ran around the 400m running track, in the end I ran 6 and a half laps. Before I started my run I counted my heart rate which was around 54bpm, afterwards it was around 116bpm. We used continuous training to train our cardiovascular and respiratory systems, because my heart rate had increased to around 50-60% that meant I was in the low intensity zone and was using aerobic energy system. I used continuous training to increase my cardiac muscles strength to improve my cardiovascular system, alongside this I was training my respiratory system and increasing the oxygen intake of my lungs.

The cardiovascular and respiratory systems played a very important role in our continuous training seeing that a lot of oxygen was needed for the aerobic system. The cardiovascular system pumped oxygenated blood around my body to get the oxygen to my muscles and then discarded the carbon dioxide back through my lungs therefore using my respiratory system as well. Because more oxygen was needed my heart rate increased because my heart was pumping blood more quickly.

The aerobic energy system was the main system used and is caused by the breakdown of glucose from oxygen resulting in ATP being formed as a product, water and carbon dioxide are bi products of this chemical reaction. The aerobic energy system is the longest lasting and is used for long continuous training at a low intensity, like me running around the field.

The principles of training that we used was time and intensity, because the training was 15 minutes straight without breaks, it showed that time was an important principle of training because it was long and tiresome. Intensity was important because we were running continuously, this is an low intensity form of training and requires a lot of oxygen therefore mainly uses the aerobic energy system this meant I was training in my low intensity zone using 50-60% of my energy. The muscles require a lot of oxygen if being used at a low intensity for a long time. The aerobic system uses oxygen to break down glucose, fatty acids and eventually protein in your body to produce ATP and the bi products, water and carbon dioxide.

My heart rate during my continuous training increased significantly as I needed a lot of oxygen for my aerobic energy system, therefore having to pump more oxygenated blood around my body at a higher rate.

The muscles I was working out during this training was my cardiac muscles and skeletal muscle group as I was working out the muscles in my heart and also using the muscles in my lower body to run. The burning sensation I felt in my chest was my lungs requiring a large amount of oxygen and my heart pumping quickly.

A psychology skill I used during my continuous training was goal setting, because my goal was to run at least 7 laps in 15 minutes, in the end I did 6 and a half laps but used my goal to motivate me to run for longer and harder.

Blog 2: Interval

This week we used interval training in our PE lessons as our method of training. Interval training is a great way to work out our lactic acid energy system because we participate in fast paced and intense games like one touch and castles. During one touch, any time someone was tug you’re team would run back to the end of the gym, this made it so everyone was constantly running and using energy. Before the game we checked our heart rate and then compared it to after the game to see how much it had increased by after all of the physical activity. My heart rate before the game was 54 beats per minute and afterwards it had more than doubled to 140 beats per minute. After each game we got to rest and let our heart rate and breathing return to normal. Playing castles on the turf was much the same as one touch except our rest intervals was walking around the turf when we were tug.

Some of the principles of training used during our fitness was rest and intensity from SPORT FITT. Rest was used because we were constantly running and moving for short periods of time pushing ourselves to our max but then needed to rest to recover, this helped our muscles by getting the oxygen we need to our muscles. Intensity was used as well because the games we participated in was fast paced and we were constantly running in a higher heart rate zone using around 70% of my maximum heart rate.

The main energy system used during these interval trainings was the lactic acid system because it is used for high intensity activity for short periods of time ranging from 60 seconds to 3 minutes. The lactic acid system is anaerobic therefore doesn’t require oxygen, instead it breaks down glycogen that is another form of carbohydrates that’s stored in the muscles. Because we had intervals, the high intensity training we did was only short so the lactic acid system was therefore the main energy system used.

Our heart rates increased dramatically during the fast paced games because our hearts had to pump enough oxygen around our body to keep our muscles oxygenated. This effected our respiratory systems as well because we needed to breath in more oxygen than usual therefore our breathing rate increased. Some long term effects of these two systems being trained is our lung capacity increasing to hold more oxygen and our hearts becoming stronger to pump more blood around our body when working out. Because my heart rate was at around 140bpm which meant I was in the medium intensity zone using 60-70% of my energy therefore working my lactic acid energy system.

The psychology skill I used during our training was visualisation, this motivated me by visualising winning against the opposing team. Visualising winning will improve your chances of winning as you are more determined to teach that goal.