What goes up…
As the saying goes, must come down. In other words, at the top of every hill you will find an effortless stretch of running, or will you?
The lay man will tell you that running down a hill is easier and less work than running up the same hill but I will tell you otherwise. Without getting too scientific and physiological, downhill running is far more work than any hill you will run up ...
Finding your form
What does form really tell us and how can it help us get to where we going faster and more efficiently?
When assessing an athlete’s running style, we typically look at toe-knee-hip-hand-shoulder alignment. Do not underestimate the power of the mind though as head position will determine where and what the rest of the body will be doing during a run.
Head carriage should be neutral. The ...
The most used four-letter word in any sport, CORE.
Your core and your abdominals are two closely related but very different muscle groups. The abdominals contribute to stability, control and endurance but your core will ensure you maintain all this and the correct posture, avoiding the injury and inefficiency that are often created by instability.
I could throw out a few scientific names now to really define core. Instead I will tell you that your core is made ...
Holistic Wellness
Whether you are a veteran athlete or a newbie on the block, you will have heard your fair share of opinions on the role of massage, ice baths and other recovery tricks of the trade. But how far do you go to optimise your recovery and is there any value to working as hard at rest as you do in performance.
Physiologically, all methods are thought to assist muscle repair and the promotion of nutrient delivery ...
Nausea, vomiting and stomach cramps during exercise can be largely attributed to gastric emptying syndrome. During periods of physical performance, the heart, lungs and muscular system demand up to 80% of the blood flow to ensure optimal oxygen delivery to working tissues. This results in limited effort being made available to the digestion of the food or fluid from the stomach.
Most of the time, anything that is consumed will be emptied from the stomach largely undigested ...
Plantar Fasciitis
What is it?
Plantar Fasciitis is irritation and inflammation of your plantar fascia. The plantar fascia is a band of thick tissue on the bottom of your foot, that
starts at your heel bone, runs along the edge of your foot, all the way to the bottom of your toes. It is there to help support the arch of your foot
and to shock absorb when you are putting weight through ...
How many times a week do you run when training for a marathon?
I try to limit my running to twice a week: normally a long ...
The Achilles tendon is prone to injury following repetition of high loads and overuse. This causes inflammation which can lead to pain and swelling. Achilles tendonitis is a common injury that tends to occur in recreational athletes and is often caused by lack of flexibility and over pronation of the foot. Recent changes in footwear and changes to exercise regimes are other factors associated with Achilles tendonitis.
The main complaint of patients with Achilles tendonitis is pain behind the heel. ...
It is common for runners to concentrate training on endurance and strength whilst training, without the realisation of the importance of stretching muscles pre and post exercise. However, flexibility within muscles can have many positive effects including:
Stretching should always be done pre exercise after a 10 minute warm up, for example jogging. It is important that muscles are never stretched ‘cold,’ as this is ...
Every year hundreds of thousands of runners will have the opportunity to “hit the wall.” “The wall” is defined as that period in a marathon or long distance event, when things transition from being pretty hard to being really, really hard.
Hitting the wall is basically running out of energy. For the first couple of hours/miles of running you are using up all your carbohydrate/sugar stores. After these are used up, your body starts to use fat as its energy source. ...