7 Coaching Tips for Exercise Adherence

How do you motivate yourself for exercise? Below are some 7 quick tips to get started.

1.Make a regular schedule of you daily routine, work, social engagements, appointments, family or managing a home.  Identify where you spend your time.

2. keep a diary and write down exactly when and how you are going to exercise, whether it’s an early morning run or an exercise class, could you fit in a session between work or study and meeting friends in the evening. It is also useful to plan and book ahead your fitness routine that you are going to attend that week, most gyms and leisure centres now have online booking apps.  By scheduling exercise in advance you commit yourself to your exercise programme.

3.It is important to have variety in your exercise routine, for example, change your walking, running programmes by adding different routes, speeds, challenges, incorporate Pilates, Yoga, Tai Chi or strength training into the programme.

4.Focus on doing rather than thinking, there are many times we can use excuses to skip an exercise session.  Excuses can range from ‘its too cold’, I’m ‘too busy’ or ‘too tired.  Recognise the inner dialogue which goes on and change this to a positive state. 

5.You can also use visualisation technique of recalling when you felt great after a previous exercise session, anchor and recapture those feelings and thoughts and use the visualisation to imagine yourself feeling energised and fit. 

6.Use a fitness App for tracking your progress, these can be useful for monitoring the amount of steps you walk or miles you run and act as a motivational tool.

7.Use goal setting to determine what you want to achieve, this will help, encourage and motivate you when times get tough. Create new goals regularly to ensure you are on track.

Prevention of knee injuries in female footballers

Football soccer is the most popular sport worldwide, there are around 265 million players with trends showing a rapid growth in the sport and in particular female players. One of the most common injuries is that of the knee with the anterior cruciate ligament being the most serious in terms of the onset of osteoarthritis and long-term absence from the sport.

Knee injuries in female footballers is higher compared to males with adolescent girls being at risk most.  Studies undertaken by Walden, et al (2012) suggest in their data that a programme consisting of a neuromuscular warm up significantly reduced ACL injuries, these exercises consisted of core stability and knee control activities. 

Performance in football is determined by many factors, physiological, psychological and biomechanical, although the emphasis has been on the main factors of health-related fitness such as cardiorespiratory fitness, flexibility, speed, muscular strength and endurance, Nikolaidis (2010) states a question on the contribution of core stability in injury prevention and health has also been raised.   Core stability may provide several benefits to the musculoskeletal system, ranging from low back health and preventing knee ligament injury by providing a foundation for greater force production by upper and lower extremities in sport performance.

Core stability is the ability to control the position and motion of the trunk over the pelvis to allow optimal output, transfer and control of force. Nikolaidis (2010) argues decreased core stability was reported to be associated with a higher risk of injuries in the knee or lower back.  This is supported by Myklebust & Steffen (2009) who claims prevention programmes should be implemented from the ages of 12-14, focusing on a warm up with good movement patterns, exercises which address and improve the lower extremity, core strength as well as awareness and neuromuscular control during static and dynamic movements.

References:

Myklebust, G & Steffen, K (2009) Prevention of ACL injuries: how, when and who. doi:org/10.1007/500167-009-0826-9

Nikolaidis, P (2010) Core stability of male and female football players. doi: 2478/v10101-010-0007-9

Walden, M, Atroshi, I, Magnusson, H, Wagner, P & Hagglund, M (2012) Prevention of acute knee injuries in adolescent female football players: BMJ 2012:344:e3042

Building Resilience through Sport

What is Resilience?  Resilience is the ability to bounce back, know how to cope with setbacks, learn how to manage yourself and your resources, it is also the ability to function in times of stress, recover, adapt and change.  However, do we know what skills we need to pick ourselves back up.  Why do we need to develop resilience? Without this skill, it is easy to give up, this could apply to any area of life, study, career or sport.  One of the skills for developing resilience is perseverance, it is defined as the continued effort to keep going.    Where do we start?  You can start by building your mental resilience through enhancing your health and well-being.

Some simple steps to start with are:  to improve your physical health by eating well and exercising, develop your sleeping habits, incorporate meditation through mindfulness, celebrate your successes and achievements.  This is fine when everything is going well, but what about when something comes along to throw us off course?  Compare this to a gymnast balancing on a beam, how many times do they wobble and fall? It is only with determination through getting back on the beam, pushing through with persistence will they achieve their objectives and advance to perform a complex routine. 

Psychology of Marathon Running

SOFTV3-201904271131160132989

Participants competing in long endurance events such as the Marathon has steadily risen over the years.  Data taken of both demographic and socio-economic groups from various studies has seen a rise in running becoming a popular sport.

The Marathon runner embarks on this challenge for many reasons and they must adapt their lifestyle and training far beyond the recreational exerciser to include high levels of demanding physiological and psychological adaptations to push beyond their current capabilities.  Furthermore, the rewards and positive benefits of this training will outweigh the negatives of marathon running.

The London Marathon is my third marathon, as a veteran runner I have improved with age, both on personal performance together with a faster post marathon recovery rate.  Training for a Marathon demands a consistent, disciplined, structured routine which will manifest into other areas of the runners life to include; personal goal achievement, better life management, psychological and emotional strategies for coping and better vitality and health.

London Marathon – Running Injuries

plank-fitness-muscular-exercising-163437

Injuries are inevitable when participating in endurance events and can occur as a result of a breakdown in tissue and muscles being overloaded. With just over one week to go until London Marathon 2019, my plantar fasciitis has flared up again.  This condition can causes inflammation of the plantar fascia, a thin layer of tough tissue supporting the arch of the foot.  Rest and ice are the best form of treatment together with a performance based Pilates exercise programme for the core, such as side plank, integrating foot muscle strengthening and flexibility in the lower limbs.