Strength and Conditioning
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Cycling Prehab
One thing I’ve learnt the hard way is that it’s easier to prevent an injury than to rehab an injury. In my mind when I used to think about strength and conditioning, it conjured up gym goers spending hours at the gym. So in my naivety I just neglected it, preferring to spend my time finding new routes outdoors. Fast forward a few years and I like to think I’m a little wiser having more time on earth. Strength and conditioning need not be a replacement training session in duration, instead, a little time regularly will keep your body in excellent shape. Have you ever got home at 95km, and…
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Prehab for Running
Improving your running takes doing it regularly, but running is tough on the body. Jumping up and down on concrete is pretty jarring, let alone doing it on a single leg. It is for this reason that most injuries in triathlon occur when running. The more time you spend running, doing some sort of strength and conditioning becomes even more important. Completing exercises regularly to strengthen your body against the strain of running will greatly reduce your injury risk. Following is a short routine I do to help me maintain my running. Exercise Routine A lot of these exercises use a single leg to better replicate the requirements of running.…
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Hip Mobility
With running or cycling it is all in the hips. Having adequate mobility so you can use your muscles efficiently to generate power is key. It is for this reason I’ve been working on my hip mobility. Good hip mobility promotes a stable platform to work with and reduces injury risk as your body doesn’t have to use ‘workarounds’ for each step you take. Hip Mobility Routine This routine can be done in front of TV. I aim to do this 2-3 times a week, as it’s something I need to work on. The routine takes approximately 10mins to run through. Rolling glutes on a spiky ball (30sec each side)…
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Strength and Conditioning for Running
Enter ‘Strength and Conditioning for Running’ into google and the response is overwhelming! Some advice will say go heavy to build maximal strength as this help economy and also makes you strong to resist injury. There’s also a big focus on explosive movement patterns, called plyometrics, to build power, improving efficiency and reduce injuries. However, I will go out on a limb here and suggest most runners and triathletes are not ready to lift/push heavy weights or do explosive actions yet. Building a Base There are many research papers documenting the benefits of strength and also plyometrics. However, without building a solid base (like anything) this kind of training can…
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Improve your swim without swimming
To improve your swimming there to parts to the formula; fitness + technique. Swim fitness is built by spending more time swimming. But the technique isn’t so easy to improve. Professional swimmers constantly work under the watchful eye of a coach on refining and improving technique. But if you have poor mobility, it’s very difficult to improve your technique as you just don’t have the range of motion to get into the correction position to be efficient. This is something I constantly battle with, as for work I spend a lot of time sitting at a desk. Here are 6 stretches to improve your swimming on while out of the…
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