I was talking to a man recently who was seriously into his long-distance running.
I asked him how it was going and he said he was forced to stop due to so many injuries.
We recently got hired by a runner who had the same issue. Running 6 days a week and continuously getting injured until he was fored to stop and address his problems.
He has since done this and is now back running pain injury free.
We see this all too often. Athletes who ar solely focused on performing their sporting event yet do very little in the way of preparing their bodies for the demands of it.
Here are 5 of the most common issues we see.
1) No professionally designed strength and conditioning program
sports are physically demanding in many ways. Running on the roads, absorbing impacts from tackles, stressing joints, massive muscular forces, changing direction on a wet pitch, etc.
Thats the essence of an S&C program- to teach your body how to handle these demands effectively, reduce your chances of injury and make you perform better.
2) Zero strength
This leads on from point one above. So many athletes are simply weak as new born chidren. GAA and endurance athletes (runners and tri-athletes in particular) are the most guilty of this in our experience.
Strength is one of the most foundational qualities that an athlete must have to be good at their sport but also to be healthy.
Without strength an athlete cannot develop power effectively (such as jumping, sprinting, etc.) or absorb impacts (such as road running).
Without a baseline level of strength your body simply takes a hammering every time you train and lacks one of the most basic tools for dealing with those demands.
Many athletes that come to us cannot perfrom a single push up or chin up, cannot complete basic core exercises such as a bridge or plank for 15-30 seconds or do a bodyweight squat or lunge.
Here’s an example of a client we took from zero to 12 chin ups in a short few months. Do you think an athlee would perform better if he/she went from 0-12 chin ups?
3) Horrendous lifestyle
The amount of “ATHLETES” living on processed food, who don’t get rgular manual therapy, partying at th weekends, getting very little sleep, etc. is staggering.
A lot of the time coaches find themselves in the role of lifestyle coaches instead of S&C coaches.
Without the foundation of healthy lifestyle habits people are missing out on so much of their potential.
The amount of time and effort that we put into educating and supporting pour clients to simply make better lifestyle choices is huge.
And the amazing thing is that when they implement our advice they recover better, get fewer injuries, perform better, enjoy training and competing more and become healthier athletes.
Isn’t that amazing?
There you go guys. 3 simple things to consider. If you are lacking these things you have no right to moan and complain about poor performances, constant injuries, poor health, etc.
They are completely within your control but they won’t fix themselves.
You need to go out and take action. IF you need help doing this, click on the consultation banner below.
As always, train hard, train smart and stay healthy (and cop yourself on if you’re not doing any of the above).
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