Blog

Mental imagery is when you use all your senses to rehearse a scene or movement you need to perform. You want this to end positively to set you in a good mindset.

This time last year me and one of my clients Cheryl, were in full training mode for the Obstacle Race World Championships, that were being held at Nuclear Races. 

It seems like a lifetime ago now, especially as this years races have been cancelled. 

We’re half way through the year now and it got me thinking about why I train and exercise and what I’m training for now.

Previously all of my training was building towards races and focusing on different obstacles that would appear on a course.

Any level of runner should be looking to incorporate cross training into their weekly sessions.

With the current government guidelines and only exercising from your front door this might mean the routes your run have changed or the distances your doing have altered to take into account  the current climate.

Doing any type of exercise is going to help build your physical fitness. Most people often forget the benefit exercise and training can have on you mentally too.

Exercise and training releases endorphins in your body which stimulate your brain, often know has the happy chemicals, which is why you feel better once you’ve trained.

It might be hard dragging yourself to the gym or going out for a run when the weather isn’t too appealing but you always feel happy and when you’ve finished.

Running helps you mentally in other ways too.

Its' important to perform running drills if you're wanting to become a more efficient runner. By doing them you'll find your improve your running speed. 

Running drills help to improve the communication between your brain and your legs, strengthen your muscles and joints, improve your coordination, agility, balance and proprioception. 

I’m going to go through what rotator cuff injuries are and how that can then lead to shoulder pain and shoulder problems.

You might think that shoulder work as a runner might be lower down on your priority. You might be thinking your legs need a bit more strength work putting into them, but your shoulders are just as important, particularly when it comes to obstacle races. It is a given that your shoulders and your upper body strength is going to be needed, particularly if you're thinking about pull-ups and monkey bars and any rig work that you might be doing, but link it back into your running form. You're going to be using the arm movement through your normal natural swing. So the positioning that you're going to be in is really important.

I'm going to go through what IT band syndrome is, you might know it as your iliotibial band, it can be shortened to IT band, ITB syndrome, ITBS. It’s a common over use injury that leads to a thickening of the connective tissue that runs from your hip to your knee. And as that thickens, that causes the tightness, tensions and inflammation within that area, which then leads to the pain in your knee. Your IT band helps to stabilize your knee joint, it stops that rotational movement happening. When it gets weakened, that's when it becomes painful.