News & Notes – 10/30/08
NOTES
It is PF Chang time again!
This means that 100’s of runners are taking to the streets to prepare for the half and full marathon coming up in Mid-January. Unfortunately, as the number of people running starts to rise, so do the injuries. This checklist can help you stay injury free this running season:
1)Warm up
Always warm up before your run. Some light calisthenics and dynamic flexibility can go a long way. I like to have runners start with some body weight squats, lunges and jumping jacks. Progressing to things like skips, hops and then some light jogging.
2)Get quality footwear
I always say, “Never short change yourself when it comes to healthcare or footwear.” What you put on your feet can have a direct impact on whether or not you stay injury free this season. Don’t just go out and buy any pair of running sneakers. Get yourself down to a running specialty store (there are several around the valley) and have them evaluate your running and determine the best make and model for you. If you wear orthodics, be sure and bring the orthodics with you to the store so that they can make sure and get you a shoe that doesn’t cause you to over correct your problem and make things potentially worse.
3)Start Slow and Have a Sound Program
Don’t start out trying to run 40 miles a week. Build up your base before jumping into a full on program. The worst thing you can do is try and accumulate to much mileage to fast. One girl (a total beginner) asked me if the program she downloaded off the internet was a good one. I told her it was a good program for someone more advanced, as it had a lot of hill work and speed work through out the week. She decided to try it anyway, and after the first few runs she came back to me and told me that her entire body felt tight and that her head, shoulders and neck were pounding with strain. SERIOUSLY, get someone who understands this stuff to assess you and help you come up with a concrete program. AZTECH Training is one of the best programs in the state in my opinion and I highly recommend them.
4)Take care of soft tissue work and flexibility
Stretching and soft tissue work are essential to helping you not only perform at your best, but prevent overuse and muscle strain from all the running you are doing. As I like to say, “When it comes to stretching and soft tissue work, you can’t have one without the other!” The soft tissue needs to be cared for before trying to increase the length of a muscle (I touchd breifly on this in my trigger point entry a few days a go). I will be offering 30min flexibility and mobility sessions for anyone interested in working on their soft tissue. For more information, you can contact me through my website, Optimum Sports Performance (more on this in the “news” section).
5)Strength Training
Since it is the “in-season” for runners, a full on strength training program probably isn’t going to be your best bet; and, if you haven’t done any strengthening before in the past, it may make you incredibly sore to start a full program. But, a little bit can go a long way. A few (2 a week tops) strength-training sessions can help ensure that your bones and connective tissue can handle the load you are placing on them. In addition, strength-training can help you to “fix” some biomechanical problems you may be having with your running technique and increase your overall power, which can help enhance your performance and potentially prevent injury. I have written an article about strength training for endurance athletes’ that you can read here. As always, a qualified exercise professional can help assess you and determine what your needs are and then come up with a specific program. Again, if interested you can reach me through my website, Optimum Sports Performance.
6)Schedule rest days
I know you all like to get out there and run and be active, and I applaud your effort. But lets face it, training for a half or full marathon is rough! Your body gets stressed all day at work and then it gets stressed during your runs and workouts. It needs some rest! Remember, we don’t get better when we train. We get better when we rest, as we are giving ourselves sufficient time to adapt to the training stimulus we have placed on our body.
NEWS
Optimum Sports Performance will be re-doing the website and changing the content around. We haven’t done much with it over the past few years, but we are going to open it up a little more and get rid of some of the content on there that is just old and I don’t really agree with anymore.
In addition to the change, we are going to update our services and prices, so if you are interested about these services, please feel free to contact me at any time.
Finally, we are going to start offering some online consulting at an extremely affordable price. Through this coaching, we will go over your current program, determine what your needs are, go over past injuries, evaluate postural photos (if you can get them taken) and come up with a monthly program. I will have more details on this in the coming weeks, but you can contact me if you have some specific questions.
That’s it for now!
Patrick
Optimum Sports Performance
It is PF Chang time again!
This means that 100’s of runners are taking to the streets to prepare for the half and full marathon coming up in Mid-January. Unfortunately, as the number of people running starts to rise, so do the injuries. This checklist can help you stay injury free this running season:
1)Warm up
Always warm up before your run. Some light calisthenics and dynamic flexibility can go a long way. I like to have runners start with some body weight squats, lunges and jumping jacks. Progressing to things like skips, hops and then some light jogging.
2)Get quality footwear
I always say, “Never short change yourself when it comes to healthcare or footwear.” What you put on your feet can have a direct impact on whether or not you stay injury free this season. Don’t just go out and buy any pair of running sneakers. Get yourself down to a running specialty store (there are several around the valley) and have them evaluate your running and determine the best make and model for you. If you wear orthodics, be sure and bring the orthodics with you to the store so that they can make sure and get you a shoe that doesn’t cause you to over correct your problem and make things potentially worse.
3)Start Slow and Have a Sound Program
Don’t start out trying to run 40 miles a week. Build up your base before jumping into a full on program. The worst thing you can do is try and accumulate to much mileage to fast. One girl (a total beginner) asked me if the program she downloaded off the internet was a good one. I told her it was a good program for someone more advanced, as it had a lot of hill work and speed work through out the week. She decided to try it anyway, and after the first few runs she came back to me and told me that her entire body felt tight and that her head, shoulders and neck were pounding with strain. SERIOUSLY, get someone who understands this stuff to assess you and help you come up with a concrete program. AZTECH Training is one of the best programs in the state in my opinion and I highly recommend them.
4)Take care of soft tissue work and flexibility
Stretching and soft tissue work are essential to helping you not only perform at your best, but prevent overuse and muscle strain from all the running you are doing. As I like to say, “When it comes to stretching and soft tissue work, you can’t have one without the other!” The soft tissue needs to be cared for before trying to increase the length of a muscle (I touchd breifly on this in my trigger point entry a few days a go). I will be offering 30min flexibility and mobility sessions for anyone interested in working on their soft tissue. For more information, you can contact me through my website, Optimum Sports Performance (more on this in the “news” section).
5)Strength Training
Since it is the “in-season” for runners, a full on strength training program probably isn’t going to be your best bet; and, if you haven’t done any strengthening before in the past, it may make you incredibly sore to start a full program. But, a little bit can go a long way. A few (2 a week tops) strength-training sessions can help ensure that your bones and connective tissue can handle the load you are placing on them. In addition, strength-training can help you to “fix” some biomechanical problems you may be having with your running technique and increase your overall power, which can help enhance your performance and potentially prevent injury. I have written an article about strength training for endurance athletes’ that you can read here. As always, a qualified exercise professional can help assess you and determine what your needs are and then come up with a specific program. Again, if interested you can reach me through my website, Optimum Sports Performance.
6)Schedule rest days
I know you all like to get out there and run and be active, and I applaud your effort. But lets face it, training for a half or full marathon is rough! Your body gets stressed all day at work and then it gets stressed during your runs and workouts. It needs some rest! Remember, we don’t get better when we train. We get better when we rest, as we are giving ourselves sufficient time to adapt to the training stimulus we have placed on our body.
NEWS
Optimum Sports Performance will be re-doing the website and changing the content around. We haven’t done much with it over the past few years, but we are going to open it up a little more and get rid of some of the content on there that is just old and I don’t really agree with anymore.
In addition to the change, we are going to update our services and prices, so if you are interested about these services, please feel free to contact me at any time.
Finally, we are going to start offering some online consulting at an extremely affordable price. Through this coaching, we will go over your current program, determine what your needs are, go over past injuries, evaluate postural photos (if you can get them taken) and come up with a monthly program. I will have more details on this in the coming weeks, but you can contact me if you have some specific questions.
That’s it for now!
Patrick
Optimum Sports Performance
Any idea on what the online consulting will be charging? I was seriously going to suggest this to you a few weeks ago but figured that you might think online personal training was too.....impersonal.
Would be awesome to have someone to like once a month go over training and diet to make sure they're pushing towards my goals, not away from it.
Posted by
Daniel Herman |
November 1, 2008 at 11:31 AM
Hey Daniel,
I am thinking of charging $100/month for online consuling.
Patrick
Posted by
Patrick Ward |
November 1, 2008 at 2:23 PM
I'll have to think that one over, but definitely do an update here and maybe a post over at IM so we know when this gets kicked off.
Posted by
Daniel Herman |
November 2, 2008 at 2:14 PM