The Number One Training Error We See
Loading.
Especially at this time of year (anyone out there gearing up for a summer body?). There is a common trend for people to present around about 8-12 weeks after increasing their training regime with a little niggle that has developed from a niggle into pain, and then injury.
Increases in loading whether it be in number of repetitions amount of weight lifted or length of session (particularly length of runs for example), or number of sessions per week are essential to create an adaptive response in our tissues, its what makes us fitter faster and stronger. This happens due to the tissues (muscles, joints and other connective tissues as well as the nervous system) recognising the increased demands that are being placed upon them and adapting accordingly. However, these increased demands and stresses can also very easily tip the balance into too much stress which can then develop into tissue damage and injury. So its essential to be able to carefully manage your increases in training volume and loading you need enough to create an adaptive response, but not to carefully balance it so you don’t over stress certain parts of the body.
There are a couple of strategies that you can use:
- Recovery – recovery is JUST AS IMPORTANT as the training. Without adequate recovery you won’t get as effective an adaptive response, and also the muscles can’t heal and repair and the stresses of loading start to accumulate, and eventually pain will occur.
- Manage your volume. More is not always better – for example if you run just adding in two extra 7k runs to your week is possibly not the best use of your time, try changing it p by adding in an interval session to improve pace, or a hill session to get stronger on hills. Both of these have the added advantage of not only stimulating a more effective adaptive response, but also of changing the way the tissues are stressed which helps to manage the loading. Likewise if you go to the gym instead of just doing several HIIT classes maybe mix it up with some weights and a pilates class to spread the love around the body.
And if you need more help, just ask us! This is what we do, as well as addressing and treating your injury we will modify your training program so that you can keep training, and also help you out with advice on ways to manage your loading and recovery 🙂