Great (but realistic) Expectations

I find myself having conversations with other athletes every day that go something like this:

“I’ve been training really hard and I’m making good progress but I don’t understand why I’m still not as good as Fred. I train much harder than him!”

It is at this point that I somehow tactfully need to bring up the point that the athlete in question may not be as genetically talented as Fred and that they can never hope to be as good. For some reason we have no problem accepting that some people are more intelligent than others, some are good at working with numbers, others are really great artists. But when it comes to someone being physically superior it is viewed as discriminatory.

Having to accept that you are not going to improve indefinitely with more training can be a hard pill to swallow. We realize that we will never be able to ride a bike as well as Lance Armstrong or run as fast as Paula Radcliffe, but when it comes to comparing ourselves to those that line up next to us at the local race for some reason we don’t accept that some people can fall out of bed and run faster than you without even trying.

I have been there too. I had my rude awakening last year when trying to qualify for the British Age Group Triathlon team. I had been doing Triathlon a few years and was steadily improving. I even managed to climb onto the podium at some small local races. Then I showed up at the first qualifying event and it was a different story. Not only did I get so soundly beaten that the winner had probably already showered and gone home by the time I crossed the finish line, but I also saw the bodies of the girls I was racing against. There was no way I could hope to be as good as them, my bones were not even of the right shape to manage that.

It was a bitter pill to swallow at first and I was considering throwing in the towel then and there. But I persevered, started to race for me and taking delight in improving my own performance (and hoping the really fast girls didn’t show up!). I made it onto the team eventually and went to the World Championships. There I was pleasantly surprised that all the countries attending had brought along my kind of athletes, as well as the genetically gifted ones that were battling it out at the front.

Of course it can be difficult not to judge the worth of an athlete by the time they posted in the last race. After all, that’s what races are for, right? To be able to judge the achievement you need to consider the genetic gift of that person, how much they have given to the training, what else they have going on in life (for example, it is harder to get lots of quality training in if you have several young kids than if you don’t) and what they want to get out of the race. And it is also important for the athlete to set realistic goals to allow them to enjoy training and racing more. For example, I would love to be able to run a 3 hour marathon one day, but I can confidently say that is never going to happen. So if I choose to run a marathon I would set a different more achievable goal and then be extremely proud when I get there.

It is not just race performance this applies to, but many things in life like body shape. If you spend all day around super-skinny beanpole running machines it is natural to think that you are too fat, too short or any manner of other things. But if your body shape is different then you need to apply different standards to yourself. For example, compare yourself against how you were a year ago or two years ago. If you were noticeably fitter/thinner/more energetic then you know you can make improvements.

I guess the message is to not put yourself down for not living up to the high standards of those around you, but also don’t hold others to your standards. That way we can all train and race together and all get great achievements and fun from it. And I will wait before I attempt a marathon.

Corina

Stress

Recently I have been attending Chadwell Center for Health (highly recommended!) where Tony reviewed my supplements and ensured the treatments he gave me still held. After a busy week (…month, year, etc) one of the things we had been working on is restoring my depleted body, hence ensuring my supplements were working for me. Unsurprisingly the question of how much I was training came up. I answered 6 days a week, sometimes twice a day, but on further thinking that didn’t ring true.

When I signed up for the Carlsbad Half Marathon and the Stagecoach Century a few weeks ago Alan and I sat down to design a training plan for me. Since the events I have entered only involve running and cycling it would make sense for me to drop the swims in order to give myself more time to recover and focus my efforts on the upcoming events. It surprised me that I didn’t even manage to finish making the suggestion to drop swimming for the time being before Alan told me in no uncertain terms that I should definitely carry on with the swims. The reason was not related to any kind of training benefit I would get.

Alan has been out with me to the Cove where I swim in the mornings a few times. He has been sensible enough to stay warm and dry and practice his photography skills that morning. Each time he has seen me emerge from the water with a HUGE grin plastered on my face. For me those swims are not a training session, they are stress relief, fun and I definitely miss them when they are cancelled.

Alan has had similar experiences with his Iaido. He is so happy and relaxed when he returns from a hard training session. The difference in his mood is very noticeable one day to the next, especially when he needs to miss a session due to us teaching a workshop on a Wednesday night.

We often think of stress as being an emotional or mental thing. It makes us jittery, short-tempered and can disturb sleep. What we often forget is that stress can have a profound effect on our bodies too. When stressed we can’t recover from training as well, come down with more colds and injuries. Have you ever noticed that when you go on an active holiday, even if you are hiking, cycling, running, paddling, sightseeing etc much more than you could handle back home your body feels great? All those aches and pains that you live with day in day out are gone, and they return as you step off the plane? That is a pretty good indication that you are being affected by stress and it is taking a toll on your body.

The best way to deal with the stress is obviously to remove the source. In reality that can be very difficult. Often in life we have things we need to get through in order to get to a better place. These may include job related matters, relationships, moving house and many more. In these cases you then need to find a way to cope, to provide stress relief and make you feel better. For me that is swimming.

When we were learning massage we learnt how to advise people on ways to relieve stress. We learnt to rattle off the standard list of relaxation tapes, meditation, yoga, long walks and of course massage. For many people these work, for others, like me, we need to find other ways.

Training is a stress on your body and needs to be managed. Doing hill reps, intervals, tough strength workouts and a whole host of other nasties that are very necessary for performance improvements take a toll on your body and increase your stress levels. However, exercise can also be very relaxing, Yoga is the perfect example. In fact any form of exercise that is low enough intensity that your body doesn’t get too exhausted and that you enjoy to such a degree that you really look forward to the session can be a form of relaxation.

So the next time you get stressed ditch the training session and go and enjoy yourself instead. Ride your bike on some beautiful forest trails and watch the wildlife. Go for a run with a group of friends and have a good chat. Or swim in the ocean and watch the sun rise over La Jolla Cove whilst the sea lions play in the water. That type of “training” can sometimes do you a lot more good than whatever was on your training plan for the day.

Corina

Happy Halloween

As a newbie to these shores I am amazed at the entire phenomenon of Halloween. Sure, we have it in the UK, but if you are older than 6 you don’t pay any attention to it. Instead the big event at this time of year is Guy Fawkes night on November 5th. It was named after Guy Fawkes who planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament on this day in 1605. He failed, but the day is still remembered fondly by setting off fireworks and creating bonfires. The Fire service hate that night…

All these events have me reminiscing about what we left behind. I don’t miss Guy Fawkes night too much (it terrified our poor cat!) and I am having fun thinking up costumes for various Halloween events. I’m still quite conservative this year, I’ll need time to get confident enough to really push the boat out on that one.

And then there’s the lack of daylight that also starts being a feature of this time of year. Our ocean swims are getting later and later waiting for the sun to rise. And I am having to leave earlier if I want to get an evening run in before it gets dark. With the clocks changing next week the prospect of it getting dark at 5pm are not too welcome.

Then I remember what it was like in Bonnie Scotland. In winter it gets light at 9am and dark at around 3.30pm. If it is bad weather it never really gets light at all. I spent months doing every training session in the dark. And because it is generally cold, wet and windy even getting out there to train tests your strength of character. It does build a sense of community amongst us crazy athletes, i.e. anyone stupid enough to venture outside. Whenever I went riding and passed another cyclist on the road there was a nod of acknowledgement between the multiple layers of warmth to a fellow athlete just trying to hang on to the end of the training session. No, I don’t miss that one bit!

Training out here in the dark has it’s own challenges. There is much less street lighting so I have to choose my routes much more carefully. Because the roads are dark but still busy in the morning cycling is also more scary. I have dug out all my Scotland lights and reflective winter clothing. The lights are coming in handy but it is still way too warm to wear the reflective clothing. I’ll figure out my new wardrobe eventually.

I think it just shows, regardless of the local culture or environment, there are challenges everywhere. But more importantly there are great memories and opportunities everywhere as well. I for one will be embracing my first Halloween. Next stop on the great American cultural adventure: Thanksgiving!

Corina

Deceptive Appearances

UFC, the mixed martial arts sport, is one of my guilty pleasures. As a martial artist and exercise professional I can appreciate the physicality and skill of the fighters. I love watching the fighters on TV though I would never actually participate. It is interesting to try and predict the winner of the fights beforehand, and even though the fighters are divided by weight group, like boxers, there are often big differences in size and shape. Bigger is not always better, the guy with the awesome body does not always win and sometimes a guy that is utterly dominant can be knocked out by a single punch, in essence; appearances can be deceptive. I love the idea that you cannot judge a book by it’s cover, and we called our business The Wolf Studio because Corina and I see ourselves as wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Last week I went to dinner with 4 other gentlemen from the dojo where I train. As I approach 3 decades in the martial arts it is not often that I am the lowest grade at the table. None of us looked in the slightest like your stereotypical martial artists, there was a doctor, a lawyer, a university professor, a teacher and me, hardly the knuckleheaded stereotype you may expect. We are all polite and calm, in the dojo the transformation is unbelievable. It is unwise to judge a book by it’s cover.

I am embarrassed to admit that I once taught a class where one of the students was a short, attractive blonde beauty therapist. I immediately thought, dumb, vacuous, eye candy… Actually she was one of the best students I have ever taught, she had excellent hands, an inquisitive brain and showed a real talent. If she was over here I would have her working for me, no question. SO LESSON LEARNED!

In the gym we often see guys who look great, they have big muscles and look great in the mirror, but they can only lift light weights. They are the classical example of guys who have the form without having the function. The classic example of this that I always quote is the story of a chap that I was doing some medicine ball training with. The client was a big muscular chap with a great body, he would throw the medicine balls out and Corina would pass them back while I coached him on his technique. Problems arose when he realized that Corina was throwing the medicine balls back easily after he had put in 100% effort, in essence he was being out done by a skinny blonde girl! He had the body, but not the functional strength. The opposite can also be true, I trained a 4’10 100lbs 40year old home economics teacher, she was tiny, yet in the gym she could out-lift the local rugby guys by squatting well over twice her body weight.

When it comes to Corina who is a tall blonde she often gets labeled as the dumb blonde, but once she opens her mouth you soon realize that she is highly educated. Corina holds a first class honors degree in physics and is one of the most highly qualified practitioners in her field, she even wrote most of the code for this website! In running shops I see pepper spray for female runners and I think that this is a good idea, Corina though carries more than 20years of martial arts experience with black belts in Judo, Karate and Okinawan Weapons, not an easy target.

For me I am short and stocky, I am a quiet, polite introvert. I don’t look like a typical personal trainer, I am not  a ‘beefcake’, I don’t go round shouting “good job!”, I certainly don’t count reps aloud. However I am highly educated, and I am an award winning presenter, though I don’t conform to the stereotype I am very successful as an exercise specialist, therapist and teacher. I have great hands, maybe from all of those years doing Judo, and massage is easy for me, in fact after all of the years training and gaining high-level qualifications I still think that my relaxing massage is my best professional talent.

When we get clients into our studio we ask a lot of questions because we know that you are more than just a stereotype, if you are a runner we won’t just print you off a generic running program. Just because you are a runner doesn’t mean that you have tight hamstrings, as we proved during our last workshop, so we measure your body we don’t guess.

We won’t underestimate you, don’t underestimate us!

Alan

Role Models

Maybe it is because it is cancer awareness month, Corina’s recent cancer scare, a recent martial arts course or maybe something else, but I have been thinking about the people who have influenced who I am, my role models.

Role models whether parents, teachers, coaches, friends, politicians, spiritual leaders or people in the public eye can have a very positive or negative effect upon who we are. I have been lucky enough to have several role models throughout my life, perhaps the most influential was Mr Todd my Judo Sensei. At a time when, like many teenagers, I did not have a positive male role model in my life Mr Todd taught me self discipline and resect. From that I have developed a very strong moral compass, it means that I would rather be at training an hour early rather than a minute late, but I guess that is a good thing.

In the health and fitness industry it is important that we become role models for our clients, we must practice what we preach. That does not mean that we all need to look herculean but we must walk the talk. We must act in a professional way, and yes that means we shouldn’t date clients! The way we present ourselves is important as we set the standards.

How many times do you see a family out riding their bikes and the children wear helmets but the adults don’t? All this teaches the children is that when you grow up you don’t need to wear a helmet. Adults dashing into the street, kids in tow, to save a few minutes rather than walking to the crossing, another negative example. Are you teaching your kids that it is ok to text while driving?

From the sports world we all have our childhood idols and as we grow up our perceptions change. Would I still respect Lance Armstrong if, like another cyclist I trusted Floyd Landis, he tested positive or admitted taking drugs? We can admire the ability of these sportsmen and women, though we may choose not to live our lives in the way that they have.

At a time when the youth of today are bombarded with destructive and divisive images on TV and on the internet it is important that we serve as role models for the young and the old alike. We must think about the image we give, and the standards that we set.

Think about the people in your life who inspired you and think about who you can inspire.

Alan

Taping from the land down under!

A few weeks ago I was asked to help at my dojo with some renovation, the job was to tape off the dojo in preparation for painting. So I found myself after training with my sword, on my hands and knees applying masking tape in the dojo. I seem to spend half my life with tape in my hands and I thought I’d explain my fascination with tape.

When I was training to become a massage therapist taping was just mentioned in passing as another therapeutic modality. Years later when I was teaching the sports massage course I found myself embarrassed by my lack of knowledge on the subject, I just knew that physical therapists used tape and we didn’t. So I found a course I liked and traveled down to London for the 3 day course. The course was run by PhysioUK and though not physiotherapists Corina and I were allowed to attend. This course, Functional Fascial Taping® (FFT) with Ron Alexander, an Australian, changed by professional life more than almost any other.

I thought I was just going to another CPD seminar, you learn a few things and do some networking… mistake. The aim of Functional Fascial Taping® (FFT) is to decrease pain and increase range of motion, using nothing other than normal sports tape! Sounds too good to be true right? We thought so, and so did just about everyone else on the course. Ron asked for a volunteer and up stepped a physiotherapist with an arm that hurt when she lifted heavy objects, this lady was as skeptical as we were and over the next 15minutes Ron taped her in such a way that she had no pain, increased range of motion and more strength. Anecdotal evidence is of little use to hard nosed physiotherapists and some of the audience didn’t believe their eyes.

Ron Alexander was then able to produce real-time ultrasound imaging showing exactly how and why the tape worked. From that moment I was hooked. Not only did FFT work, it could be used with acute injuries, you can apply it to all sorts of injuries and the guy that invented the system was just like us; a soft-tissue therapist, not a physical therapist or an MD, just a guy with good hands and a detailed understanding of how the body works.

Years later I use tape all the time. I have added Kinesio Taping to my repertoire and often use it in conjunction with the FFT and more traditional taping methods.

Tape allows me to treat clients in a way that encourages activity, I can tape in a way that allows athletes to continue to exercise. I can use tape to help reduce pain without using drugs, I can give them more motion and get them to function better.

I often say that if a product sounds too good to be true it probably is, but if it were true I would use it all the time. Functional Fascial Taping® works and I use it all the time!

I love tape, it is effective, it relies on an understanding of functional anatomy, it is part science, part art and part experience.

Alan

Less pain more brain… sports massage doesn’t have to hurt

Corina and I have taught sports massage for many years. We have taught classes to groups of massage therapists and physical therapists, we have had doctors and nurses in our classes, we have taught reiki practitioners and housewives. Our clients have included Olympic athletes and professional triathletes, we have soigneured for cycling teams and have advised professional athletes, our students have built successful businesses and have traveled the world. One of the most important lessons that we hope our students learn is that a good therapist will be able to achieve the desired outcome from a treatment without hurting the client, this is in stark contrast to the perceived wisdom that sports massage should hurt. We need to question the assumption that a good sports massage should hurt.

Many therapists believe that their treatment is not effective unless their client is flinching and is on the edge of crying with pain. We have heard many stories of therapists who will continue to treat while the client is in floods of tears because of the excruciating pain. There are therapists out there that wear their ability to hurt clients as a badge of honor and openly boast about how much pain they can inflict. THIS IS STUPID AND UNETHICAL.

Any idiot can cause a client to be in pain (offense very much intended). Just because it is painful doesn’t mean that it is therapeutic, in fact quite the opposite. Yes sticking your elbow into spasming muscle will hurt, but that doesn’t mean that it will do the client any good or relax the muscle. Sticking a finger in my eye would hurt but that doesn’t mean it will help my short-sightedness.

Why is it that with sports massage: pain = good?

Would you go to a dentist who prided himself on hurting his patients?

We need to educate ourselves and the public about what is good massage and what is bad massage. It is my belief that therapists too often pride themselves on causing discomfort to build their own ego and to disguise a lack of understanding about how the body actually works and how it responds to the treatment we provide. I taught some of the therapists with this attitude so I accept that some of the traditional teaching styles are to blame for this, but this is a problem with sports massage world-wide.

We have taught courses where we know that some of the students think that once graduated they will be able to go out and work so deeply that they will routinely bruise clients. One time we taught a group of students in Aberdeen, the students were part way through their training, and the students all thought that bruising clients was normal and was even desirable, nonsense. By bruising a client you are causing more damage to the tissue, I am not saying that occasionally bruising a client is the end of the world, but regularly breaking capillaries is not clever or therapeutic.

An experienced, qualified therapist will be able to achieve the desired outcome without traumatizing either the tissue or the client.

There is a very big difference between being in slight discomfort and in pain. Therapeutic discomfort is sometimes unavoidable, just as you would expect your legs to be aching slightly whilst running hard intervals. Pain is different and is a signal to your body that something is wrong. If you feel pain during training you need to stop so you don’t injure yourself more. It is exactly the same in massage, if it hurts STOP. Sports Massage is there to help you recover faster and feel better after training or competition. If it makes you feel worse and it causes you to have to take a few days off training until you have recovered from the massage then it is not doing it’s job. Find another therapist who is capable of providing an effective treatment that makes you feel better and not worse, one size does not fit all.

The days of no pain no gain are gone in the gym, it is time that we as therapists used our brains a little more and our elbows a little less!

Alan