3×10 is not necessarily wrong…

The amount of blog inches that have been written about this in recent times is fairly astounding. There are any amount of opinions about sets and reps and why certain things are prescribed. The sound of a physio giving someone a couple of exercises and saying, “off you go, and make sure you do 3 lots of 10 repetitions each day” has pretty much passed into medicalised jargon. It is such a common prescription that even patients are now saying- oh, should I do 3 lots of 10 of these then? There has been some push back on this, mainly … Continue reading

Stop telling people to stop running

How many times have you, as a runner, been told that you have an injury and can’t run- so maybe you should go and do some swimming instead. Or yoga? How many times have you as a Therapist told a runner to do this? As a tip to the Therapists. Please don’t. It is one of the most frustrating things to hear as a runner and pretty much the worst thing you can do (in their eyes) as a Therapist. Just because someone runs as a hobby, it does not mean that they can swim – or that they enjoy … Continue reading

Is sponsorship detrimental to athletes health?

I’ll begin with a quote from a podcast I’ve just finished listening to: “Lets get a brand to put money behind the health of the athletes instead of behind the medals”. – that was a comment on a blog about RED-S by Trent Stellingwerff – (it was the Science of Sport podcast, if you’re interested). I don’t disagree with this sentiment, in fact I wholeheartedly encourage it, but I do see a couple of problems with it. In the world of elite sport, it would seem that one thing matters to sponsors. Medals. Medals bring fame, occasionally notoriety, but above … Continue reading

Myth 3 – There is a perfect posture/leg length

Have you ever been told that your running/cycling/backpain etc is a result of leg length differences? Interesting. Have you ever met ANYONE with exactly the same length of legs? No? Quite. We are NOT symmetrical. In fact, if you can find me a person who is exactly symmetrical I’d love to meet them. The rest of us have to make do – and there are many many people out there with various leg length differences etc. who are running/cycling etc quite painlessly. No symptoms. Nothing. Does this mean that leg length is totally unhelpful in diagnosing problems? Not quite. I … Continue reading

Myth 2 – you shouldn’t squat

The number of times I have heard people say that they have been told they “shouldn’t squat”- or do anything with any kind of weight – is fairly high. I don’t know who gives this advice out, but I’d like to meet them and have a bit of a friendly word. My main problem with this is that the squat is a normal, regular human movement. In fact, every time you sit down, you do the down portion of a squat, and every time you stand up, you do the up portion of the squat. Why do I get a bee … Continue reading

Thorsday 1

As ever, I’ve been wondering about how to get information out to people who need it, rather than wait for them to have an issue and see if they come for physio. This is in direct continuation of a previous post about “Inevitable decline?“- or trying not to become weaker as you get older.  Intervention is much better than reaction, and so I came up with the idea of Thorsday. A weekly focus on Strength work- handily on Thorsday (or, Thursday, if you prefer). The idea is that over the next few weeks and months I’ll post up a video … Continue reading