I picked this one up on Facebook and it’s a nice follow on from yesterday’s video on brain smudging. How can brain plasticity improve your marathon time? It’s also well worth checking out the article linked at the end of the blog post.
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?
Arm swing when we walk
We all want to move better, more fluently and smoothly. A quick take home I got from the DMS course last weekend was that most of us, I include myself here, don’t really use our arms correctly when we walk. What we are more likely to do is get what appears to be arm swing from rotation of the shoulder girdle rather than from the shoulder joint itself. Continue reading “Arm swing when we walk”
The myth of perfect form.
I came across a great article by Greg Nuckols about using perfect form, The myth of perfect form. and what it might be. It’s a great piece on why the perfect form that is often talked about really doesn’t exist as it is generally described. He uses the back squat as an example and talks about how chasing the mythical dream of squatting like an elite weightlifter might not be either desirable or even attainable. So lets look at how it might apply to other activities. Continue reading “The myth of perfect form.”
Strength training reduces injury rates
I picked up this link to this paper on the BJSM sebsite which looks at the effectiveness of exercise intervention in sports injuries. The conclusion from the paper was;
“In general, physical activity was shown to effectively reduce sports injuries. Continue reading “Strength training reduces injury rates”
More from The Gait Guys
The latest Podcast from The Gait Guys I’ve not had a chance to listen to it yet but I’m sure it will be of interest to any runners out there.
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”