Injuries are an unfortunate consequence of working out sometimes. If you do weight training then your injury risk increases and if you’ve been working out for many years I imagine you’ve been I injured at some time. If you haven’t then lucky you, if you have then you should expect to spend some time on the sports therapy couch.

Here’s my Top 5 Things Your Sports Injury Practitioner Should Be Doing

1. Do they do a full body screening examination? The first thing they should do after talking to you. Lots of injuries have nothing to do with the actual site of pain and can be referred from other ‘weak’ areas of the body.
2. Did they give you a full diagnosis? Don’t accept poor answers like “hamstring strain”, get more details, which muscle particularly? Grade of damage? Healing time? etc
3. Do they lay their hands on you? If your sports injury person only uses machines and doesn’t use manual therapy (actually using their hands to, manipulate, stretch, trigger point etc.) then they are not treating you properly.
4. Have they given you a rehabilitation program? Are they giving you exercises to make things better and strengthen the weak parts or are you just turning up, getting treated and then that’s it until next time…if this is the case quite frankly you are not being looked after properly.
5. Do they have an idea of how to help you return to sport? When you’ve been injured it is quite common to come back and reinjure yourself in a different but related area i.e. you have just recovered from a knee operation and then promptly go out and tear a hamstring or turn an ankle over.

It’s not really important what type of practitioner you see; it could be a physiotherapist, a sports therapist, a chiropractor or an osteopath. All these ‘medical’ people have different ways of treating the same problem, but they must be doing the 5 things I listed above or you should think very hard about changing who you see.

I’ve been treated by all of these different types of therapist and have experienced good and bad in all types, if you don’t already see someone and need to then do some research, it could end up saving you a fortune!

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I have to tell you about the weekend.

I was out shopping on Sunday afternoon with my wife, she was shopping for clothes and I was shopping for some new workout headphones.

Well I found a really good make and had three options – over the ear clips, around the back of the neck band or straight ear bud ones.

The first two types were £35 and the ear bud ones were £50 as they had noise isolating technology.  Well I picked up the £50 ones and walked over to the check out only to find the most enormous queue.  So I decided I’d put them back and have a look on line to see if I could find them cheaper.

I went and met my wife and we went off to the gym.  As I was getting changed a gentleman came in having just finished his workout.  He had the ‘behind the head band’ style of headphone and the exact make I was looking at only 30 mins previously.

I asked him his opinion on them and he said he loved them…I told him what I’d been looking at to which he replied “I have a pair of the ones that hook behind your ear if you want them, I never wear them and don’t really like them”.

I was gob smacked, I only struck up a conversation with this guy 30 seconds before and he was giving me a £35 pair of headphones he’d worn only twice.

He went off for a shower and I continued changing still a bit amazed that a stranger could be so generous.  So I waited for him to return and gave him my business card telling him he could contact me at any time if he wanted any advice.

I just wanted to share with you how nice some people can be and how sometimes we really fail to acknowledge those that are generous.  Usually we are only too eager to tell people when we’ve had a bad experience and forget those acts of generosity.

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Well I’ve been a little quiet on the blogging front over the last few weeks….well strictly speaking I’ve only been quiet here.

You see I’ve been working along side a colleague of mine working in a brand new blog called The Hardcore Workout.

**Click here to see what we’ve been up to**

The second thing I’ve been working on is another free site I have created for the people of my local city – Bristol.

The government in the UK is launching a Points4Life scheme to battle the obesity epidemic sweeping the nation.

Well they are launching this initiative in Manchester with no plans of when it might be rolled out to Bristol.

As a personal trainer, here in Bristol, I have taken it upon my self to try and get the city fitter, with or without the help of the government.

So if you live I in Bristol please come along and check out all the free training programmes and dietary information as well as lots of other stuff.

**Click here to visit the Get Bristol Fit Community**

So as you can see I’ve not been slacking but also I appreciate I have not been putting fresh and useful information up here for a while.

So, keep your eyes peeled as we change that, starting this week.

Find out tomorrow what my training goals and plans are.

Until then train hard, train smart, make every rep count.

Alex

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Well 2008 is nearly at a close, and it is that time of year where many people start to think about their health and well being. Most people start writing (or mentally writing) there resolutions for 2009 about now.

Well I have found in the past that there is really 2 main elements that make up the ability to make changes in the body – Consistency & Accountability, I’ll talk more of these later.

Since I developed the idea of these 2 elements being important, more and more ‘keys’ start to become apparent for greater and greater success.

Thus was born BEPCA – stupid acronym which I made up – which stands for:

Belief

You have to believe you can change. A lot of people think that just because they go through the motions of training that they will get the results. The problem is that unless you really ‘buy in’ to the belief that you can and will change you will keep throwing up barriers to change (not all consciously) that will stop any progress in its tracks.

Execution

This links on nicely from the key above. You may wish to lose more body fat but unless you do the right exercises in the right way you will not get the results you desire. I know it sounds a little melodramatic and you will surely get some results. However, if you believe you are able to change and then execute the training precisely you will get the best results you deserve.

I am fanatical about executing exercise with the correct weight training technique and why I created my Weight Training Technique Program.

In it I teach you how and why using the correct technique is not only the safest way to train but the way to get the greatest results – execute correctly and develop quickly.

Plan

You know the old saying – ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’

The same is always true and never so true as when you desire to make a physical transformation. There are two main areas I think people fail to plan in.

1. They fail to plan their training sessions in a manner that is designed to get them the results they are looking for. Fitness and training is more scientific than most people believe and going to the gym each day and asking yourself ‘what do I fancy doing today’ is a sure fire way of not getting many results.

If you are unsure of how to write or design a program that works then I suggest you check out these programs -or mine if you prefer

TurbulenceTrainingManual.com I know Craig Ballantyne personally and have checked out his whole training ethos and programs. I have to say he gives you some very detailed plans, excellent for those people who are short on time and/or don’t have access to a gym.

CoachCosgrove.com Another US based trainer I know is Alwyn Cosgrove (a Scot now living in LA) and I have personally followed his Afterburn I program and got some fabulous results

(believe it or not following someone elses plan is sometimes easier than following your own, that is why I recommend that you try these programs for yourself, especially if you usually write your own).

2. Also in my experience unless you actually plan what you are going to eat at each meal (I use mini meals of 5-6 per day) you are not going to eat the right things. you need to have the right things with you in order to succeed. Unfortunately in today’s market it is too easy to buy rubbish junk food and actually can be surprisingly hard to find healthy wholesome food.

So fail to plan both your training and food usually leads to sub standard results.

Consistency

This was one of my initial keys for success and one that is still very important. You won’t get any results unless you are consistently consistent (bit of a mouthful that). You need to be doing at least 3 to 4 sessions a week to get decent results.

If you are good for 6 weeks, bad for 2, good for 4 etc you will find your results will be slow. If you are consistent and make every session an absolute in your diary then you will get a compound sort of effect where 6 months down the line you will look very different.

Accountability

This is one of those keys not many people think about.

You really need some level of accountability if you are trying to succeed. Very few individuals have the will power to push themselves to every single session.

Accountability can take many different forms. You can be accountable to a gym, a personal trainer, a website community, a training buddy, your partner, your children or anything that is actually going to make you do what you should.

My private coaching business works because many of my clients are busy professional business people and when they put a meeting in their diary they keep it. If that meting was with themselves to go tot the gym, they would in all probability cancel it and stay at work, but because they know I am waiting for them they keep the appointment.

The same can be said for why diet groups (such as weight watchers) are so successful – I might not agree with their advice – but they certainly get results and at the end of the day that’s what people are after – results.

So find some one, some group or something to be accountable too and you will have greater success.

So there we are, 5 keys to fitness success in 2009.

Don’t forget to place your comments below and I look forward to you reporting your results.

Remember train hard, train smart, make every rep count.

Alex

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Well things have been up and down with the knee over the last week. Things were looking really good up until I returned to work on Friday last week but it hasn’t stopped me working towards my goal of a full, fast recovery and full knee rehabilitation.

I had been able to keep the swelling down to a minimum and then on Saturday I woke up with my knee looking a little like a balloon. I had had my first physio session on the Friday (which didn’t cause the problem) and the phys was extremely impressed with how much range of motion I had.

The problem stemmed from the fact that for 2 days after the knee operation, I was sat on my back side with my knee in the air with an ice pack being administered every hour.

On Friday I spent much more time on my feet than I had done since the op and the knee really didn’t like this.

So the last couple of days have really been about getting the swelling under control as much as possible.

Obviously my training has taken a bit of a battering because of my situation, but I should be able to resume some level of interval conditioning and start to train the legs.

Earlier this week I completed a purely upper body and abs program, which I shall repeat today. Hopefully I’ll get it recorded for you so you can see exactly what I did.

Until then remember, train hard, train smart, and make every rep count.

Want to follow my programs more closely – then **click here** to checkout my Weight Training Technique system.

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So yesterday I had my keyhole surgery to remove a number of things that were going on in my right knee. I had a small tear in in the meniscus of the knee, a cyst at the bottom of my ACL and a few other small things associated with wear and tear.

It was a day case so I entered hospital at 7am and walked out (yep, it’s amazing with today’s surgery) at 5.30pm.

I have two days off work to rest and try and get the swelling under as much control as possible.

I’ve actually changed this post since I started writing it as I spoke to a friend, and ex business partner, who is an amazing physio. He was telling me some really interesting things about how a small amount of fluid can really mess the rehab process up.

So I re-recorded my video clip to incorporate his thoughts on fluid inhibition as well as showing you the stage my knee is at at day 1 post operation, and the preliminary exercises I’m doing.

I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

Until then remember, train hard, train smart, make every rep count.

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So I’ve been a little quite recently in updating you as to the progress of my knee injury and what training I have been doing in the mean time to try and get things better.

Well I have still been training and in the most part doing quick ‘FatBurnIn30′ workouts (more videos of these to follow soon) but I have also been to see the specialist about my knee.

Things have moved extremely quickly.

I called on Monday 29th September to book an initial consult (having had a referral from my Doc), I was in that afternoon and sat down with the surgeon (www.johnhardy.co.uk).

He thought it was probably a meniscus tear but also could be a thing called ‘Hoffa’s fat pad syndrome’. So he sent me of for an MRI scan (which I had the very next evening). I returned to see Mr Hardy on Monday 6th and he confirmed that the scan did indeed show a medial meniscus tear and ‘Hoffa’s’ synovial tag but also interestingly there is a cyst in the knee joint as well.

So I’m of for surgery next Tuesday and should be back to full function and running in about 6 weeks.

I will of course keep you updated on my situation and my rehab progress.

Remember, train hard, train smart, make every rep count.

Alex

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I’ve been a little quite on the blogging front for the last couple of weeks.

Mainly this has been for three reasons.

1. We took on a new member of staff to help us run the front of house at our fitness and sports injury centre Kinetic Fitness, and they’re has been a fair bit of training to do.

2. My self and Marc from Sole Events ran a very successful fitness challenge for business’s. See how they did and what it was all about at Fit Biz Challenge.

3. I’ve been busy trying to put my proposal together for my Masters, it’s been five years since I started it and the deadline for the thesis is looming. It’s been submitted, I hope they accept it.

Any way more posts and updates on proper training stuff coming later.

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I had to tell you my readers about this one.

I was just getting a tyre repaired at my local friendly repair centre ATS Euromaster

I was chatting away with a couple of the guys there and we inevitably started talking about training and my facility which is just around the corner from them.

One of them told me one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard.

Some of his friends had started to take steroids to try and increase muscularity and get ripped and shredded bodies.

Now any idiot knows that taking steroids is really not a good idea. We’ve all heard of the side effects – anger, acne, shrinking genitals etc.

But here’s the killer, these so called body builders were taking the steroids and then sitting on there backsides watching TV and expecting them to work.

I mean come on how stupid do you have to be to take a performance enhancing drug, with all the known side effects, and think you don’t actually have to ‘perform’ to get them to work.

Dumb, dumb, dumb!

Anyway rant over.

Remember,
Train hard,
Train smart,
Make every rep count.

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