18 December 2017

How to be injured. Well

Kirstin Ahmed
Healthy body, Injuries
musculoskeletal, physiotherapy, progress, sporting injuries, sports injuries
0

sports injuries

If there were one negative to an active lifestyle it would be that you push your physical self through barriers and in doing so you may negate safety momentarily. Sometimes a fraction of a second lapse in concentration is all it takes to pick up an injury that can plague you a lifetime!

Lets say you’re here now, and you know what went wrong and sure as dammnit ‘aint going to repeat the same mistake in the future…that is if you ever get up without your injury complaining ….and if you ever get back on to that blooming football field/running track/bicycle.

The first battle is the mind. As always.

Here is what you need to do: Get up, and get on with what you can do.

Here is how to do that: Get some professional advice. Physio’s and Osteo’s are my preferred clinicians; Chiropractors are yet to convince me.

Here is what not to do: Feel sorry for yourself and lounge around moaning.

Here is also what not to do: Ignore your pain and train like you did before on your injury.

What will happen if you follow this advice is one some days you will feel like your injury is improving and you have made headway in the gym/field/road. But on other days you will feel demoralised and like your injury will never go away and you may end up fat and riddled with pain and ‘what ifs’. BUT panning out your overall progress month by month will be that in a positive healing direction and in time you will have less of the bad days and more of the good days until the bad days become a distant memory.

By the way if you don’t follow this advice you probably will suffer more pain, get fat and continue to get injured through musculoskeletal compensations, get more unfit, get fatter more injured, more unfit, fatter, even more injured, until finally one day you will not even notice because as you waddle down the street having finally given up you see they are having a sale in the mobility scooter shop and this will be the highlight of your day…after your Mcflurry breakfast… *disclaimer: gains and successes vary from person to person

4 October 2017

The sit stand debate uncovered

Kirstin Ahmed
Back and postural care, Reviews
chair posture, office life, sitting, standing, standing desks, standing workstations
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standing desks

We know the perils of sitting all day; which culminate in bad posture, tight weak muscles, poor core strength and back pain. But did you know there are also physiological responses to being seated as a result of fat deposition and burning less calories compared to standing relating to cardiovascular and kidney disease?

The case seems strong for getting up off our butts and working at a standing desk, however it isn’t all as clear cut as that:

Firstly given the choice to work at an adjustable height workstation studies have shown that after 1 month the majority of people are sitting! Why would this be? Perhaps because fine motor skills are easier to control when sitting because being seated helps stabilise the body? Or because standing in one position without movement isn’t very comfortable?

Actually standing without movement is not what we should be aiming for, it has long been known to cause varicose veins by putting greater load on the cardiovascular system. 20% more energy is required (calories) to stand so it should be a good argument for the case but most research points to movement being necessary whilst standing. Recently treadmill and bike work desks have found favour on mobility websites and the like, however sales are low and the desks are not receiving good feedback. Tests show that computer performance decreases (ie more mistakes are made) using this type of arrangement.

So whats the answer?

Well no need to go out and buy an expensive adjustable height desk, instead keep your seated desk but make sure you get up from it and perform some movement for a couple of minutes every half hour. Oh I’ve known this for ages I hear you say! Yes but the problem is that people get so engrossed in their work it becomes impossible to pull themselves away from the desk.

Sometimes a simple linking trick works for example every phone call needs to be taken/made whilst standing. Or every time a cup of tea is finished you need to stand up to take the cup to the kitchen and wash it. And for others this just isn’t enough, I have found a great website here  that has a selection of PC, mac or phone apps to download to remind you in various ways to get up and move about a bit…

22 August 2017

Stuck in a rut

Kirstin Ahmed
Exercise routine, How to change habits
binge eating, changing routine, early morning training, gym bag, gym training, stuck in a rut, training plateau, training routine
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gym training rut

The first thing to remember is DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP!!

You’re here now and for whatever reason your routine, motivation or satisfaction has taken a knock and you’re not training at all or far less than you want to. Maybe you have now run the marathon you’ve been training for all year, maybe the seasonal changes have affected you, maybe you got a new job, maybe maybe maybe….it could be a zillion things but you are better spending your time looking forwards than back.

I speak from personal and professional experience. You may hear people say ‘if you can identify the cause you can prevent it from happening again’ but that will not help you out of this rut. That may help you manage your life but to be honest if you identified the cause this time I betchya there would be a different cause the next time, and the next and the next….you are best to roll with the punches. Understand that life will toss you around a bit and that your training regime will take a knock and just get on with working out how to get stuck back in again.

All that said, how do you do it?

OK so lets assume you are mainlining Hagen das cookies and cream on the sofa binge watching Netflix; watching your recently gained weight loss/muscle definition/new trousers/delete as appropriate go to pot. You’re thinking ‘Ah well, I know I can do it because I’ve been achieving these gains over the past 6 months so I’m just going to enjoy myself whilst I can and then when the motivation hits me again ill get back on the wagon’

In this moment I want you to truthfully answer me this: Are you actually happy sitting there? How many of you can say that your stomach doesn’t feel bruised from all the fat and sugar you’ve been throwing down there, or that you don’t miss the DOMs and the post workout euphoria. Can you actually admit to feeling better slobbing out there than the agile, light, strong, lean person you feel (or are getting towards feeling) like when you are working out. Can you say that you are in control, that you have made the choice to sit on your behind shovelling one handful of food after another into your gob? Wouldn’t you prefer to feel on top of your game? Doesn’t it make you feel more virtuous, more in control, better at work, more productive, happier, more positive and upbeat?

Right so we’ve got an admission, and that is that your subconscious mind is playing a trick on you and actually you are much happier when you are working out. Stop immediately what you are doing and stand up. Go pack your gym bag and put it by the front door then place a healthy food order to be delivered to your house/work the next day; set your alarm for an hour earlier, fill your glass up with lots of water and go have a soak in the bath. Physically cleaning yourself may only be a psychological aid but it’s a cute trick to shut your subconscious devil up!

Go to bed early, feel excited, give yourself a pat on the back, you’ve broken through and tomorrow you’re going to reap the rewards. Don’t think when your alarm goes off, grab your bags and get to the gym/out on the road/your bike/your class…..its much better to get the first few sessions done first thing in the morning than after a day at work, it is less likely you will find an excuse to miss the session. Once you are back in the swing of it you can flip your times to suit you but I would suggest for at least the first week to aim for early morning sessions every time. That evening cook some healthy food, maybe even a couple of dishes to split out into Tupperware so you have some for the next few days and there is no excuse to slip. Start planning throughout the first week how you are going to attack your training and food this time, write things down, read about different training regimes. You may even want to start having a look now at what went wrong last time and put some measures in place. But don’t whatever you do BEAT YOURSELF UP!!

25 July 2017

Gym etiquette part 2

Kirstin Ahmed
Weight lifting
bro science, gym etiquette, how to use a gym, weight training, weighted workout, workouts
0

how to use a gym

Further to my last post I have included some further unwritten rules of the gym!

‘Mirrors’ – why are they there and how to not use them? The answer is pretty simple; people like to watch their form. Its easy when someone is telling you to tuck your elbows in or keep your back flat but most people don’t have the luxury of a personal trainer with them for each session and need to keep an eye on their form. Therefore whilst they are moving a very heavy weight if you were to block their line of sight by walking in front of them to collect your weights from a rack or have a chat or perform your own lift or even stand behind them distractingly so they can see you in the mirror – then this is understandably considered VERY inconsiderate.

‘Giving and receiving advice’ – A very common occurrence in gyms is for a so called experienced lifter to try to give advice to what may appear to be a less experienced lifter. In reality what this means is a bigger guy telling a smaller guy how to train. Or a man telling a woman. Because the currency in gyms is muscle size, those who are ‘rich’ feel the need to inform the ‘less well off’ how they got to their impressive size without even being asked for advice. If this happens to you my suggestion is to respectfully nod and shut the chat down and carry on with what you were doing. On the other hand if you are being given a piece of safety advice (or giving safety advice) for example – you are going to snap if you keep bending your back like that when you deadlift etc.. then you would be wise to listen. It is up to you to decide whether the advice is real or ‘bro science’

‘Dropping weights’ – why would you do this if not to alert attention to yourself or because the weight is too heavy for you to perform your last rep eccentrically do place the weight on the floor? Its pretty simple; unless the weight you are lifting is comprised of Olympic plates (aka bumper plates) then DON’T drop them! Bumper plates have a special rubber coating and are used in Olympic lifting; they do get dropped at the end of some of these types of lists to enable the lifter to get out of the danger zone quickly after a lift. If you are not doing this with this kit and dropping weights then you are doing it wrong, damaging, kit, and the gym floor as well as looking like a complete idiot.

‘Its too heavy for you’ – the last point today is less of an etiquette and more a reminder: you will develop more lean muscle if you overload your muscle fibres using the muscle groups the exercise is designed for compared to a bit of gravity, a bounce and/or jump. What do I mean? Unload the bar, move the pin down the stack, take a lighter set of dumbbells and perform the lift with perfect technique for your prescribed number of repetitions….then and only then move up to the next weight.

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