Causes of Knee Soreness

A lot of my clients come to realise as their sessions mount up from weeks into years that the training I offer is not the traditional gym based training. Yes the results or outcomes they want are tide into their programme but as a functional trainer I have to ask myself are they moving and performing those movements well. As we move up the chain we go to an area which I feel gets a lot of blame I talk of the knees. Time after time I hear these chosen words, ‘I can’t /run/ go up or down mountains/ walk far/ squat/ lunge, because of my knees’. Now I have to say if you have had an injury to the knee or knees then ok but still I say things can be improved, but if not why are you getting knee pain? The knee like the rest of our body reacts to the ground and goes through that tri plane loading. As I wrote about the foot in my earlier blog hitting the ground, that reaction of loading in all three planes works its way up the body. The knee reacts the same, dissipating some of that force, and in doing so it will move forward, frontal plane (to the side) and even rotate, Have a look at Gary Gray talk about the this subject to David Tiberio on there U Tube site. In my next blog I will give some strategies / training to help the knee and give some true stories of my clients and there successful training for there knee pain. Keep moving you know it makes sense

Barefoot running at the 5k Race for Life Caernarfon

This blog is my account of running in the Caernarfon 5k. The ground under foot was part tarmac and part grass so had to move pretty quickly on uneven surfaces. Here is the start of the race
I started slow at the back to be fair, but that gave me the chance to chat to a few friends on the way along the Strait. I really enjoyed my run the weather was good and in my barefoots I felt strong in my running.

For those people starting out walking or running in barefoots trainers train smart there a alot of U Tube clips to get you started have a look. I would also say I did my tri plane warm up and 3D stretches before I started so that added to my free running movement. I have noticed when running I have a lot more thoracic extension which gives me more abdominal loading these days. I still need to work on my right hip extension but that I think is product of my left shoulder injury which is in recovery from my snowboarding crash. In my next blog I shall move up the chain from the foot to the hip and write about that chain reaction. Enjoy your movement

This weekend the 5k race for life, and I am wearing my Evo's for the first time in a race.This is just a clip of what they look like, short and sweet.

Biomechanics of the foot

Biomechanics of the Foot

Hello everyone in lets train functionally land. Here above is a video showing how wonderful the foot is and the base for all movement
The foot as I mentioned in another blog has 33 joints, 26 bones, 24 muscles 2 sesamoid bones
All movements of the foot and lower extremity evolve within a three dimensional environment. To fully appreciate the actions of the foot, ankle, leg and hip, our movement must be understood if you want too train functionally
Universal to all motion is:
All movements are tri-plane.

All integrated motion involves multi-joint actions.
Effective actions must first undergo deceleration (force reduction), stabilization and then acceleration (force production).
The body reacts to ground reaction forces.
We can break the foot into 3 regions – rear, mid and fore foot
Rear foot – looking at the foot from side think of the big heel bone (calcaneus) as a bicycle the talus the rider who sits on top of the bicycle
Mid foot – reacts to what goes on with rear foot
Fore foot – has it’s own action which reacts to what happens with rear and mid foot
So it makes sense that your foot needs to know what is going on if you cushion the sole with a cushion then you get the cushion effect which if you have ever stood on a cushion can be a bit unstable. If you are running and hit the ground with a rubber bouncy effect lots of the wrong messages get sent up the chain your body if you must wear trainers go for the cheap ones and if you are starting to wear bare foots here is a bit of advice start wearing them for an hour at a time and build that time up so your foot muscles can adapt to the change and when you start running in them of bare foot apply the same method as this will lead to less fatigue in the foot. enjoy!

The Barefoot Professor: by Nature Video

Lets start with the feet

I have for the last 2 years been wearing bare foot trainers. I started wearing them because of my interest in what happens when your foot hits the floor (without shoes). And as you may or may not know the foot goes through a lovely 3D motion. A typical human foot is 26 bones, 33 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments By walking or running you stimulate those muscles in your feet along with the whole body which will not only make you stronger and healthier, but it improves your balance, agility and proprioception. With that in mind I set about tracking down a pair of trainers that looked liked trainers. Some of you may have seen the Vibram Five fingers which are great but I wanted something a little less obvious. So I found Vivo barefoot at Terra Plana which in their words, ‘employs an innovative approach to shoe making. We strive to achieve our goals of urban respect and eco-sustainability whilst producing shoes that are good for your feet.’ What more could a girl want! And two years later have never looked back. It took a bit of time for my feet to get used to working a bit harder muscle wise, but now I run (5k so far) and teach my aerobic classes in them. But the exciting bit is they have designed a running shoe which I have just ordered so in later blogs I will let you know how I get on. In my next blog I will write how important it is for the foot to be fed by proper ground reaction. Have a look at bare foot running

Dont you just love to move

I love the idea that you can create better movement through training functionally, and that it not only helps the body too move better but it is fun. The word 'movement' is a word that I am more and more interested in.
Without it the body as a whole is not fed, I feel that as we are 3D humans we need to use all the envelope however big it is. As I write this blog on what I discover by functionally training my clients and working on my on training, the world of human biomechanics opens up to me (what ever that my be) and that is indeed very, very exciting, something that I will write about on a practical and personal level.