Top Tips for Relaxed Running
Here are two simple tips to help with running relaxed, even when pushing the pace along. Keep you hands loose and relaxed, not flopping around but not clenched fists either. Once you screw your fingers into a ball it tenses up the rest of the body making your stride pattern shorter and generally tiring you [...]
Stress- understanding and management
My work takes me in to lots of different working environments eg schools, call centres, police forces. Talking with hundreds of staff on a personal level it is very evident that the single hardest thing to cope with is stress. Someone at one of these sessions joked that if you could hook up stress to [...]
Exercises- what should I do?
The first things that need to be understood are the names used by instructors. One of any exercise eg one press up, is called a repetition. A multiple of an exercise eg 12 press ups, is called a set. So if you are instructed to do one set of 12 repetitions it would look like [...]
Walk Yourself to Fitness
Walking is arguably the most natural thing we do, and we have been bipeds for tens of thousands of years. However, as most of us are aware, the modern world has gradually reduced the amount we walk. Transport, especially cars, mean that even on the shortest of journeys people have ceased to walk. Recognising this [...]
The Problems of Chest Hair for Male Runners: De-Fuzzing
About a month ago I decided to enter this years Great North run and raise money for Candlelighters. This meant altering my mind set from leisurely jogging to a more constructive training programme, one that would get me round the half marathon in a reasonable time. I knew I would have to step up my [...]
The Positive Cycle
I recently wrote an article about nature’s high. This was about how exercise can secrete feel-good chemistry in your body with even mild exercise. This is part of achieving what I have called “the positive cycle”. When training people and giving advice about exercise I believe it is a good method to give imagery to [...]
Nature’s High
I have a confession to make, I have been on drugs for a very long time. Are you shocked? Well I’m not because until recently I didn’t even know and this article touches on why. Although research is continuing as you read this, it is increasingly accepted that exercise secretes more of natural substances in [...]
Smoking
My work has recently brought me into contact with people in their late teens and early twenties. Speaking with them in general about their health I was surprised how many of them smoked, it was a good 80% of this particular group of adults. This has prompted me to write this article, firstly with some [...]
Money in the Bank
I have trained and advised people regarding their running for some time now. For people looking to start running for the first time or for those who have just started there are always lots of questions and one of the most fundamental to crop up is “How do I train?” This may seem simplistic but [...]
Back on Track
I have been struggling with a right Achilles tendon problem for some years now which severely curtailed my training last year in particular. However, after some physio treatment and advice and an ongoing sports massage programme I have started to build my training and mileage up again, very tentatively. My wonderful Garmin is friend and [...]
