There have been quite a number of blog posts, and here’s another, about the effects of sitting for long periods on our health, the one I came across today was referencing a paper which talked about how sedentary behavior is detrimental to our cardiovascular health. The paper talks about how being more active through the day can aid our well being alongside regular exercise and discusses how simply getting up and moving around regularly through the day can help along with going for a short walk during breaks. Continue reading “Do you sit too much?”
More on sleep and recovery
A little while ago I had a post and links to a couple of articles about the negative impact of not getting enough sleep on weight gain, diabetes risk and the desire to exercise. Today’s link looks at sleep and recovery and how a lack of sleep can affect your recovery. While the post addresses exercise it applies equally well to dealing with stress in any form, good quality sleep is important and we should make the effort to ensure we get enough of it.
Mind control
Quite an interesting piece on how the your brain can play tricks on you. Whilst it is about running it applies to all training situations. It reminded me of a lecture I attended where Prof. Andy Jones, Paula Radcliffe’s exercise physiologist, talked about how they had tested Paula before all her best times. In each case the time predicted in the tests was within a few percent, less than 5%, possibly within 1-2%, if I remember correctly. I can’t help but think that being told she was capable of time X increased her confidence and belief in her training and ability to achieve the goals she had set.
Hip extension for better movement
Good movement in the hips, or in any of the body’s many joints, is important for us to simple carry out the activities we either need or want to do whether that be participating in a sport or simply getting about your life. Continue reading “Hip extension for better movement”
Better running
With the London Marathon coming up this month and Edinburgh next month we can see that many people run as a means of keeping fit. Whist many choose to run as a means of keeping fit many do not run well and little thought is given to improving running technique but lots of thought is given to which shoe to buy. In a lot of the chat about running a large portion often seems to be given over to which shoes to choose, minimalist/light weight vs motion control or somewhere inbetween. Much less seems to be given over to the improvement of ones running technique or the need to be strong enough to withstand the rigors of running. Continue reading “Better running”
HIIT to LSD the real deal on endurance training
There has been something of an ongoing debate online about the benefits of interval training over steady state training when it comes to endurance or cardiovscular training. The perceived wisdom over the last few years pushing things towards the idea that all you need to do is some form of interval training and that steady state low intensity work has no value. As with most things the answer is no where near as clear cut as this and both types of training have their merits and the evidence, as we can see in this excellent paper, rather than the internet chatter, does suggest that both should be part of a well rounded program. Continue reading “HIIT to LSD the real deal on endurance training”
The Hinge and your golf swing
The hinge movement I’m referring to is that of hip flexion and the movement should occur without any movement in the spine whether at the lumbar, thoracic or cervical areas. So when we hinge the torso should be fixed and all the movement should occur at the hips. In the picture below Adam Scott has gone from a more flexed position through the lumbar and thoracic area with an extended cervical position to having a more neutral position. Continue reading “The Hinge and your golf swing”
A week in exercise
I’ve said before that i think that one of the biggest contributing factors to the problems I see in many of my clients is a lack of strength, and I’m not talking about being a competitor in the World’s Strongest Man. If this is a lack of overall body strength rather than a specific area it is often combined a lack of general fitness and sometimes in both cases with poor ranges of movement in one or more joints. A lack of a reasonable degree of strength and general fitness makes it difficult to maintain good posture and carry out routine jobs, it will mean you tire more quickly and not just whilst doing physical tasks whilst poor range of movement in any joint will result in compensatory movement patterns that will then put strain on other areas. One of the primary goals of any athlete’s strength and conditioning program is injury prevention; a stronger, fitter athlete will be more injury resistant. This applies to everybody. One of the main reasons for getting fit is to make you more injury resistant and make routine tasks easier. I therefore thought it might be interesting to lay out what I do on a weekly basis. Continue reading “A week in exercise”
It’s January and time to get to the gym but…..
I came across this on Dan Hubbards blog and it’s a very timely piece of advice given that many are heading to the gym on the back of a new years resolution to get fit. If you’ve not been to the gym for a while or are going for the first time remember and take your time before you try and push things. You need to take the time to learn/re-learn the movements you’re doing before you start working them hard inorder to reduce the chance of injuring yourself. In the post Dan highlights a real example of what happened to one of his clients, training elsewhere, when this didn’t happen.
Correcting bad posture
Eric Creesy has a nice series of posts on his blog that relate to helping you correct/fend off poor posture. It’s well worth having a read through the 4 parts and incorporating the ideas into your routines.