As a young sports science student many moons ago, I attended an S&C seminar, looking at how various American sports condition their athletes. One of the coaches used a line that has stuck with me to this day. He said…
Estimates for the injury frequency vary, as does the nature of the injury site and type. Despite this, research into recreational runners has shown that around 47% of individuals will suffer running-related joint pain at some point every year.
If you’re a female athlete, premenstrual syndrome (PMS) may well be something that has scuppered your performance in the past. Whether It has inhibited your preparation when it matters most or carried the blame for succeeding sub-optimal showing, either way, an alarming percentage of female athletes claim to have been negatively impacted by the seemingly unavoidable stranglehold of their biology.
We’ve known for some time that sleep is one of the fundamental pillars of performance. It enhances training effect, recovery, skill acquisition, mood, concentration, and injury resistance.
We’ve had a year unlike any other in living memory. A global pandemic, national lockdowns, domestic and international travel restrictions, inevitable economic impacts and the subsequent falloff in social interactions and relationships have had a dramatic impact on mental health.
When you return to fitness, training or competition there’s a temptation to go full-blast right from the start. Almost without exception, this isn’t a good idea.
One of the negative effects of weight training and general exercise is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). That is the muscle pain that kicks in a day or two after an intense training session and can hang around for up to 5 days post-exercise.
There’s a question to answer though – can the recovery run be more than simply a conduit to returning the body to an event-ready state? Could a recovery run actually contribute to overall fitness and performance benefits?
There’s no doubting or denying the importance of a warm-up ahead of movement – whether that’s simply a workout in the gym, a training session or competition, you can’t ignore preparation. A good warm up sets the tone for the rest of the session, so it’s the important first step of the performance ladder.
Around 2010 I had a setback that changed my life. Fast forwarding to now I can look back at it and see that it was a crucial and beneficial time as far as my life path goes and the growth I experienced.
During competition, the ability to recover quickly is important. If you can maintain your performance levels as your rivals fatigue you give yourself a huge competitive advantage.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common peripheral neuropathy in sports medicine. It’s a condition that occurs when the median nerve (the main nerve running into the hand) becomes pressured or squeezed at the wrist – a junction known as the carpal tunnel.
