Posts Tagged ‘conditioning’

Like everyone who does any type of sport or endurance event I read every article I can about training for it, listen to advice from those with experience and specialist knowledge, but ultimately I try to find the guidance that best suits me. This is certainly one thing that I feel is really important as a Sports Massage Therapist where I meet many different clients who are looking for a generic solution to their injury, restriction or training plan. As a result I spend a great deal of time reminding them that we cannot always find the ‘one size fits all’ solution. It may sound like I am stating the obvious but we are all different; our bodies have developed and responded to a variety of stresses and strains over the years leaving us with different physiological requirements. This is the case if you are active or not: the work you do affects your body, which is constantly responding to the way in which you use it. So when you’re planning your next training regime or sporting objective - be it for a specific purpose or just to get fit – bear this in mind.  Just because one person does hours and hours of mileage each week, this may not suit you and worse, could lead to an injury. Try and find what suits you and try different things – remember it should be about quality rather than quantity, supplemented with good core stability and conditioning; over training, particularly in one discipline or focus only, is the biggest contributor injury.

You may have observed that my articles are all about my clients and their aches, pains, injuries, training, events and successes.  I’m passionate about what I do because I too am an active athlete and also have aches, pains, injuries, events and successes. 

I’m currently in an intense training period for my first Ironman in July  http://www.racenewforest.co.uk/09Forestman.htm  This requires a combination of long cycle rides, runs and open water swims.  I have found that my training is not about quantity, but the quality of what I do supplemented by massage and very importantly, conditioning.

Rather than focusing on how many hours I am doing each week, I have ensured my own injury prevention by concentrating on shorter, high intensity sessions. These consist of cadence runs, rides and tri-bricks coupled with conditioning at the end of each workout.  This ensures I maintain strong core stability which is pivotal to injury prevention. 

I still do the long rides and runs, but not exclusively; I realised early on that to build good fitness and stamina required sufficent rest. I see little point in training if you are already fatigued at the start as your risk of injury will increase. It is better to train at 100%  and enjoy the experience than force out ‘dead’ miles at 60% just because you feel you should. Your body has to repair and rebuild between workouts and if you do not allow sufficient recovery time the tissues will breakdown and injury will follow.

This is proven in my case by injury-free 6 months into my 9 month Ironman training programme, a series of running PBs and feeling energised by some long but great quality cycle rides.