To look after your knees, you need to
This week’s module of the Sports Training System includes more details on how to prevent knee injuries.
Sarah Marshall knee expert Physiotherapist elaborates further in this podcast.
Two weeks ago I made my first stab at mowing the lawn. After a mild winter, it has grown quite a bit and my Flymo was not up to the task. It soon overheated.
I was not partciularly looking forward to having to buy a whole new mower, but those cunning people at Flymo have designed it for people like me.
The part shown is expendable, it melted down and stopped working to avoid the motor breaking. I could easily order this online, and fix it later in the week.
All at a cost of less than £3. Unfortunately the human body doesn’t have such cheap spares.
If you have had a lay off from training, or are a young athlete looking to improve in a hurry: watch out. Your big muscles (the engine) are quite robust, but the supporting joints and appendages (the spare parts) are quite fragile.
For example, if you are a deadlift fan, what connects the legs and back (the engine) to the actual weight? Your hands grip the weight and they hang down from the shoulder joint (the spare part).
If your technique is not right, and you do not progress systematically, then a weaker part like the rotator cuff could break first.
This is especially common in throwers and racquet sports players.
Humans are a lot more complex than a flymo, and you can not reduce training to body part by body part. Having a system of training allows it to adapt progressively. Going too hard, too soon and too heavy means you will spend more time on the Physiotherapist Couch.
You can’t order a new Rotator Cuff on ebay!
This week I got asked to train a young man who wants to become a Stuntman (next week Batman, the week after Train Driver?). He has been following a running programme, alternating with the ubiquitous beach weights.
Normally I would start with a screening of some sort, but I thought we could just see how he moves first using some of our varied warm ups that we do. Short of asking him to dive off a cliff or crash a burning car, I thought that might give me an idea of how well prepared he was for stunt work.
The good news was that he could move, balance and change direction quite well. The bad news was that he was tired after doing the warm ups.
In last night’s podcast on warming up as part of the Sports Training System I suggest that beginners might start with our warm ups as their exercise programme.
Little and often, with variety is a good place to start. Your body will get fitter just by doing things differently.
