It
was great to help Claire Chambers from Capital Radio East Midlands on her
extreme challenge of running three marathons in three days.
Claire
will run the marathon distance of 26.2 miles on three consecutive days in April:
Wednesday
5th - Derby
Thursday
6th - Leicester
Friday
7th – Nottingham
You
can keep track of Claire’s progress and make a donation £5 by texting RUN to
70766.
All
donations go to Global’s “Make Some Noise.”
Claire & Tom from
Capital Radio Midlands came to see me at the University of Salford for injury
screening and prevention.
As three marathons in
three days is a significant load on the body, Claire must make sure she
prepares well and identify any potential problems before they occur.
Claire has already
run two Marathons before in previous years so she knows what the challenge
entails.
Tight
hip flexors and Quadriceps are normal when performing any endurance running.
That's where I come
in.
As an injury
prevention specialist we try to spot asymmetries and motor control issues
before the event and address these early.
My
motto is simple, Prevention is better than cure.
But how do we know if
we are likely to get injured?
I use the Functional
Movement Screening.
The
movement screen makes the invisible visible, by asking Claire to perform seven
movement challenges.
The first test is the
Over Head Deep Squat
The next test is the
hurdle step.
Each test has a maximum
score out of three:
0 = Painful Movement
1 = Dysfunctional Movement
2 = Normal Movement
3 = Optimal Movement
Claire & Tom, the
Bulletproofbodies Team Salute you!
If you would like to find out more about Functional Movement Screening check out the website below:
That’s 150 Dumbbell Snatches and 75 Burpee box jump-overs.
Yeah, thanks Dave!
These are
two hip opening exercises.
Overhead
shoulder mobility will be more forgiving with Dumbbells.
However, it is always
worth working on overhead mobility.
Most
athletes struggle to get the 180 degrees of shoulder flexion and compensate by
over extension of the Thoracic spine.
Ultimately,
when you fatigue, and you will fatigue. You will use any method to get the
Dumbbell overhead.
The tips
about using more hip extension and upper body to save your legs for the Burpee
Box Jump-overs risks a sub-optimal position if you have not got the Hamstrings
flexibility.
To prepare
the body to prevent injury it is worth taping the following joints:
Tape the knee – to reduce
load on the patella tendon
Tape the back – to keep
the connection between hips and spine
Tape the shoulder – to keep
awareness of the most stable overhead position
Watch
this awesome Video from Rocktape:
It is always worth wearing knee sleeves to protect the skin over the knees when doing burpees.
You should also wear long socks in case you miss on the Box Jumps.
There are no prizes for who has the bloodiest shins!
You will be in enough pain already; you don’t need skin abrasions adding to the mix.
Potentially, up to 20 minutes is a long time, so pace yourself and be consistent.
Don’t fly and die!
Don’t hold your breath on either of the movements.
Performing Step-in burpees will save energy, but you are likely to perform this repeatedly with the same leg forward, thus creating an asymmetry. Try switching the leg every 5 burpees to avoid one side of your body fatiguing.
Don’t get full extension on the top of the box, there is no need.
When you get tired on the burpees there is a double movement as your torso comes up without the rest of the body.
Make sure you have warmed up the lumbar spine with some extensions before you start the WOD.
We carry on with our theme of the month, which GETTING
FIT.
A
side effect of getting fit will be WEIGHT LOSS.
The
statistics say that in the Western world we are exercising more and eating
less, so why the obesity epidemic?
It's
about the amount of time that we are sedentary throughout the day.
Inactivity
is the World's 4th leading course of preventable disease.
With
our Chair-centric society, the seated place has become dominant:
From Bed to Breakfast table.
From Car to Work.
From Work to the Lunch table and back to Work
From Work back to Car.
From Car to Sitting down for evening meal.
From Dinner table to Sofa
From Sofa back to Bed
But
what if you workout?
Surely
an hours exercise will negate all the effects of sitting?
There is also
evidence that sitting can cancel out the effect of your workout!
WHAT?
That's
right. According to author of the phrase, "Sitting is the new
smoking," Dr James Levine, who is an Endocrinologist and lead researcher
into the effects of prolonged sitting and sedentary behaviour.
It
is about the amount of daily time that you accumulate in the sitting position.
Sitting is an independent risk
factor!
The cure for too much sitting is
not more exercise
Your
metabolism slows down by a staggering 90% after only 30 minutes of sitting.
On
average you would burn 50 calories more per hour by standing than sitting.
To
reduce the amount of time that you sit, the most practical place to change
would be your work station.
Bulletproofbodies
recommend a standing desk.
However,
you could be more daring and go for a Treadmill desk!
Check
out which desk is best for you by visiting Sit
to Stand .com:
If you have been living in a cave for the last 10 years and have just
come back to exercise, first of all welcome back and second, let’s talk about
HIIT.
There is no evidence that spending hours in the gym doing low level
Cardio is valuable time spent when we all lead busy lives.
Forget the fat burning zone in the gym and replace it with light
activity throughout the day.
The Gym is a place to train. But you don’t need a Gym to workout.
All you need is the motivation and a small investment of your time.
HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training delivers the same if not better
biological markers of fitness in an incredibly short amount of time.
Protect your workout time and guard it
with your life.
You can get all the exercise benefits
in just minutes.
This Medical Doctor in the above BBC 2 Video, is being educated about
Exercise.
Check out the full video from Horizon: The Truth about exercise
From a recent study of HIIT (Gilllen et al, 2016 - see previous blog) medical markers of
fitness like muscle, blood sugar, maximal oxygen uptake and body fat can all be
changed in accumulated minutes over a 12 week training programme.
It is about intensity rather than duration.
However, intensity comes at a price.
Welcome to the pain cave!
I would also like to correct his posture, but that’s another Blog!
