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Why are you using rehab exercises in your training?

I often find when clients develop nonspecific aches and pains they start, almost randomly, introducing low load rehab work into their program in an attempt to solve the problem.  This is usually done after a quick google search which makes various reasonable suggestions as to what might be wrong and the exercises to do to help the problem. This though really doesn’t tackle the problem well, if at all, given it misses out looking at why the aches and pains developed to begin with.

Continue reading “Why are you using rehab exercises in your training?”

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Abdominal bracing during the barbell squat

Correctly setting and bracing the abdominals during a barbell squat can make a significant difference to the feel of the movement though increasing torso stability. Properly engaging the abdominals will also improve hip range of movement which will make the bottom position feel easier to move into whilst maintaining an upright torso and aid in the reduction of unwanted spinal movement.

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Getting the most out of your warm up

What is it you are trying to achieve with your warm up routine? The answer is the obvious prepare yourself for the workout you have planned. That said why is that very often people either don’t do much if any warm up or if they do it is 5 minutes on the treadmill/bike/cross trainer which whist not worthless doesn’t really do much beyond the “warm you up” part of the what your warm up should be. Continue reading “Getting the most out of your warm up”

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Changing your running technique

I’ve mentioned in the blog before the idea of different foot strikes when you are running be they forefoot, midfoot or rear foot. A rear foot or heel strike tends to get a bad press, especially when the idea of running barefoot was at it’s peak yet there is nothing wrong with running with a heel strike vs mid or forefoot and most of us will tend towards a heal strike until we are running at a sufficiently high pace. You will also tend to see even faster runners or those who tend towards a mid/forefoot strike moving towards a heel strike as they tire, most noticeable during longer races such as marathons or the running portion of an IronMan. Continue reading “Changing your running technique”

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Endurance training sweet spot

We’ve talked about this topic before in this post but this article from Running Reform is worth checking out. Looking at what you are really trying to achieve in your training and why avoiding the middle ground paces in training is much more likely to help rather than hinder your performance.

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Earning range of movement

The Gait Guys make some good points in this post re: short term improvements in ROM. Bottom line is that you can easily create short term improvement but there can be a price for it if you haven’t added in the ability to safely use the movement. Which is to say we have the ability to go to end range without the risk of hurting ourselves which you may not have with the ROM that you gain through some of the quick fixes you can use.  If you have range of movement issues it is likely to be a more complex issue and simply “flossing” to gain the movement is not the solution. This is not to say the bands are useless more that you need to think more about the why so that how you get there is more effective and long lasting.

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Control ain’t the goal

When we injure ourselves we will see a reduction in our movement capacity in the area until things are back to normal. Hopefully with good rehab this will be a short period of restricted movement as we rebuild the capacity of the injured area to move. During the initial period we do see more control over the area as we do not want to re-injure it but long term this isn’t a valid option, what we require is more movement or a greater capacity/range of movement that we can move through without injuring ourselves. We need to practice as rich and varied range of movement as we can in order to fully recover from injuries and aid in helping avoid them in the future. Yes we require stability but we also need movement a graded approach to this can help ensure that we overcome the fear of movement and allow us to build our movement capacity. Our DMS rehab and the Dynamic Movement Skills work itself are both great tools to help with this.

This article by Joanne Elphinston is a nice read covering the subject.

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Injury prevention and management

This is a good article, with lots of references so you can do some further reading if you wish, on Injury prevention and management.

Two take away points were;
In summary

· SS(static stretching) does not appear to reduce injury risk and any effect on earlier return to sport is of marginal clinical significance.

· In contrast, a graduated strength training program appears to significantly reduce injury risk and significantly reduce the time to return to sport after injury.

Injury prevention and management among athletic populations

 

 

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Pain

Over on Facebook we’ve been sharing a lot of links lately about different aspects of pain as we feel that understanding the mechanisms of why we hurt is incredibly important. The more we know about these the the greater the chances of being able to deal with more chronic issues and help prevent acute injuries becoming chronic ones. So you can expect more in the future as we look to expand your ,and our, knowledge about it.

So here’s one of the posts from earlier this week. It’s a link to a blog post over at the Running Physio which is aimed at runners but contains some great information that is useful for everybody. Pain in runners: why do I hurt?