CC300 Getting Geeky About Fitness

Week 1

• Introduction and equipment
• Why? Looking at the benefits and research related to fitness training
• Yourselves as learners
• Resources that might be useful to advance your knowledge
• Canine anatomy (musculoskeletal focus)
• Reinforcement strategies and mechanics
• First look at fitness exercises (there's a ton!)

Week 2

• Core fitness concepts
• Structural analysis
• Introduction to the concept of form
• Form indicators
• Working on fitness exercises
• Stillness strategies

Week 3

• Muscle contraction types (relating to movement)
• Fitness exercises: Considering the type of exercise, the parts of the body being used, and the type of movement.
• Working on fitness exercises
• Evaluating fitness
• Stillness vs movement: when and how to cue movement

Week 4

• Concepts of corss training and specificity
• Working on fitness exercises
• Problem solving: Using equipment and reinforcement strategies to improve form in exercises
• Special fitness categories: young dogs, older dogs, dogs post surgery / illness
• Phases of learning

Week 5

• What’s in a workout? (Interactive workout planner)
• Workout practice
• Looking over a year
• Overload principle
• Identifying and responding to fatigue
• How and when to progress exercises
• Continuing to work on fitness exercises

Week 6

• Case study: analyzing an individual dog’s needs, current level of fitness, and selecting appropriate exercises for them
• Critically identifying form and issues in individual exercises and solving them
• Creative creation: Making new exercises
• Reflection and analysis of progress made
• Last chance to work on fitness exercises!

Equipment

The following would be useful, though Kelly will be able to provide guidance to equipment substitutions or alternatives.

• Small stable platforms that can fit both front, or both back feet
• A longer stable platform that the dog can comfortably stand, and lie down on in good form
• 2-4 cones
• Cavaletti poles (8-12)
• Textured target mats
• A range of unstable fitness items like wobble cushions, foot pods, Flexiness Twin Discs etc.

Week 3

When we look at a fitness exercise we can use a number of things to categorize it, and consider its use. This can include:

• The main aspect of fitness it falls into
• The plane of movement it is occurring in
• The type of muscle contraction
• The specific position and/or movements involved
• The general part of the body being worked (front, core, rear)
• The specific muscle(s) being worked

It’s important to note that it’s not just ONE of each of these categories. Every exercise is a complex combination of movements, muscles, and aspects of fitness. An exercise will almost never be ‘just cardio’. Areas of the body are intertwined and interrelated. Even in a hind end specific exercise the front legs must support the body, and the core must remain engaged even if these areas are not ‘moving’.

For the purpose of selecting exercises for workouts, and appropriateness for a dog, it is easiest to broadly categorize using the main aspect of fitness being worked, and the broad area of the body.

Being confident in categorizing exercises, and understanding the purpose of them, will become important when we begin to select exercises to make specific workouts for individual dogs. It’s also important to ensure that a workout has a mixture of different types of exercises.

Here’s what this could look like, using the workout planner that we are going to use later in this class:

Analysis of an exercise

In the gym squat exercise (sit to stand with rear feet still) this exercise is primarily a strength exercise. The rear end (gluteals in particular) are being worked in the medium plane.

What about this exercise? What is the primary aspect of fitness? Which area of the body is being used the most?

Here’s a workout. Consider if there is a mix of types of exercises, working different parts of the dog, in different planes of motion. These exercises are some of those we are going to start working through checking you and your dog’s set up, understanding, and mechanics in the next lecture.

Video cavaletti:

Video lateral hops:

Video ipsilateral:

Video tuck sit / kickback stand:

Video tip toe stretch

Have a go at the workout. Do you see how we are hitting different aspects of fitness, and planes of movement? Have a look at your list of fitness exercises. What is the best thing for you to use to categorize them? Do you want to start organizing this document?