Month: March 2023

Sport in general is hard on the body.  I have chosen running specifically in this article.  Not because these are the only stretches you should do for running.  I have chosen running as the main heading as in most sports there is an element of running and running really impacts the body as a whole so stretching to help you with running will help you in any sport that you take part in.

Stretching in life is also advisable as there are just so many benefits.  When we’re born we are naturally flexible.  You have only got to look at a child closely and you will notice all of the different shapes they can get into without even thinking about it.  As we get older our bodies start to forget this flexibility and everything starts to tighten up.  

What happens?  We get injured.  We struggle to sit comfortably.  We struggle to stand without aching.  We put our backs out.  I think you get the picture that stretching in general is a good thing for everybody too.  Stretching for sport is vital.  Stretching before and after running will not only help keep you injury free but will also help with your performance.

With all of that in mind we decided to put together a list of five core stretching exercises that you should do before and after a run and as much as possible (without overdoing it) 

Sorry here is the disclaimer.  Before starting any new stretching or exercise regime be sure to consult your doctor to make sure it’s right for you.

These are in no particular order just our thoughts but we hope you like them and please let us know in the comments if you think we should add any, take any away and just your general thoughts on our suggestions.

I also want to point out that the names may not match what you know them as.  I don’t claim to be a yoga or stretching expert, I just know what works and these are the names I use.  Let me know in the comments if I’ve gone wrong ha ha.

The Cat

This stretch focuses on the lower back and is really useful for cyclists as it relieves a lot of tension from down there.

It basically helps loosen up the spine and is especially useful after a training session as it helps relieve stiffness from the lower spine area.

I will give you a brief description of how to do this and all of the rest of stretches but I do recommend doing your own research into them.   

Key takeaways are to focus your attention on the areas you are stretching.  Don’t over stretch so you injure yourself.  Take the stretch to the point you can feel it and hold.  Opinions vary here but my opinion is that a 30 second stretch is no good.  I believe all stretches should be held much longer so your brain has time to process the fact that it can stretch and remember.  Hold as long as you can.

Ok so back to the Cat.  Get on your hands and knees and arch your back (like a cat) dipping your head.  Then slowly alternate between this and looking up with your back in reverse.  Be sure to do this slowly and make sure you engage your core at all times.  Remember to breathe too.

The Trap Stretch

Cycling especially will see you putting a lot of strain on your shoulders and neck.  Making sure you stretch out your trap muscles regularly and especially after a ride will really help in you not waking up the next day feeling like you have taken part in a Worlds Strongest Man competition without training.

In some cases this one can be a little painful especially if you are not used to stretching your traps.  I say this because these muscles attach to a lot of other muscles in the back and down the spine.  

The key thing with this one is take your time and make sure not to pull anything.  Put one hand under your hip/waist and take your other hand and wrap it around your head whilst gently pulling your head to one side (Pull in the direction of the hand that is holding your head) as soon as you feel resistance hold.   Switch sides and repeat.  It is useful to mix up the directions you are pulling to give a more varied stretch and once you are used to it this stretch will benefit you right down the back and spine.

The Bridge

Nobody can call me out in recommending the good old bridge.  It’s useful for so many reasons.  

The bridge helps out your lower back but really gets to work on your core and glutes too so an excellent all round stretch for a multitude of sports.  The exercise is recommended the world over so you will be hard pressed to find a post on sport stretches that doesn’t and if they don’t, move on.

The bridge is also recommended by a lot of physiotherapists to people coming back from injury so not only is it an excellent preventative measure for most sports it’s excellent when you are in recovery.  Make sure to take professional advice though before including it in your recovery plan.

Breathing is important during this movement.  Lie on our back.  Feet shoulder width apart.  Engage your core i.e try and pull your belly button into the floor.  Bring your feet up to neer your bum.

Exhale and in a controlled fashion bring your tummy up towards the sky or ceiling until your body from your knees to your head are all parallel.  Inhale as you lower and make sure you use a controlled movement throughout focusing on getting your breathing correct whilst engaging that core.

Sitting or Lying Glute Stretches

Sorry I’m not very imaginative with the names.  I’m sure these exercises have got some real fancy names out there and I would be very interested in hearing them in the comments. 

Although I call this the glute stretch it also works your Piriformis muscle.  The muscle that the sciatic nerve runs straight through.   This muscle along with the glutes is responsible for a lot of sport stability and if you hurt either of these the pain can be unbearable.  Working a glute and Piriformis stretch into your routine will help keep these nice and flexible which will increase range  and improve your sporting performance.

I prefer to being on my back when stretching these muscles but I will describe how to do them whilst sitting down first.

Sit on a chair and cross one of your legs over the other resting your ankle just over the top of the knee.  Make sure your crossed leg is parallel with the floor.  Once you are set, gently lean forward until you feel the resistance in your flute.  Hold for the desired amount of time and then relax slowly.  Swap legs and repeat as necessary.

When lying down, get yourself into a similar position only this time instead of leaning into the stretch.  Lift the leg underneath towards your chest.  When you feel the stretch, put your hands underneath your leg and hold.  Relax and then repeat on the other side.

Downward Dog

I couldn’t put a cat stretch in here without also putting a dog stretch.  I have no idea why it’s called a downward dog but guessing it’s because it rhymes and downward cat or elephant just didn’t sound right.  If any of you Yoga experts out there can help please feel free to comment.

A brilliant hamstring stretch this one will benefit you if you’re a runner, cyclist, swimmer or walker.  Having loose hamstrings also helps keep your spine flexible so get your Dog On and hit the yoga mat.

It’s a nice easy stretch. Start on your hands and knees and slowly raise your hips up by straightening your legs. Tense your quads and push your hips back to really stretch out your hamstrings and calves. Keep thinking about pushing your heels towards the ground to keep your legs and spine as straight as possible.

This one won’t be as easy to achieve the look in the picture at first but keep at it as practice makes perfect and if you’re consistent you will get there.

I hope you like my stretches.  Remember these stretches in my opinion should be something you do regularly before and after your sport.  Do your own research as there is lots of information out there on what you can do.  There are also a lot of sport specific stretches you can do.  I wanted to give you a general all over sport stretch routine that will also benefit you day to day.

I will close again by saying consult your GP before taking on any new stretching or exercise routine.  Better to be safe than sorry.

Finally I can’t help myself but if you are into running and want to try something a little different why not try one of our events? Take a look at what we have on offer over on our Duathlon Events page.

Following on from our stretching article I thought it would be a really good idea to follow up with another favourite of mine. 

Apart from the equipment I use for competing the next best piece of equipment I own is my beloved foam roller.  In this article I’m going to show you how I use it to keep my muscles in peak condition post training and competing and help aid them in their recovery.

You have all seen them laying there in the gym unloved and longing for somebody to give them a try.  I was exactly the same until one day after I went on an extremely long run I decided to give one  ago.  

OMG my mind was blown .  I couldn’t believe how quickly my muscles went from extremely stiff and tense to loose again.  I can only liken it to when you first discover Aldi after shopping in one of those other supermarkets the majority of your life.

What Is Foam Rolling

Fascia fascia fascia it’s all about the fascia.   The purpose is to relieve muscle tightness, inflammation and soreness.  The fascia is that thin layer of connective tissue that holds all of the important bits in one place.  Including but not limited to Organs, muscles, nerve fibres and bones.  Foam rolling helps release your myofascial tissue when it is sore.

If you imagine that foam rolling is a way to stretch and massage your fascia to relieve all of this tension, soreness and inflammation.  Now, think about how much strain us triathletes/duathletes runners put on our muscles. Foam rolling is a perfect way to help us recover.

It’s like getting a deep tissue massage without the expense of having to pay a qualified masseur to deliver it (disclaimer an actual deep tissue massage is always better)     

You may be thinking.  What the hell is a foam roller?

I’m hoping you’re not but if you are I thought I would include a quick paragraph on it.  I foam roller is a cylinder shaped piece of foam that comes in a wide range of densities. From soft foam to solid foam.

Depending on the level of experience you have with them or how deep you want the roll to go will determine which one you go for.  They are relatively cheap so you can always start with a lower density roller and work your way up.

What Are The Benefits

You can use foam rollers for every muscle on your body but im going to primarily focus on foam rolling for Triathletes and Duathletes and runners so will be taking you through leg based usage.

The benefits that follow apply to any muscle you work on.

Recovery Rolling

Running, Cycling, Swimming all take it out on your muscles.  If you are preparing for an event or increasing your training sessions for another reason you are going to want to recover quickly between them to avoid injury.  

A good foam rolling session after training will help speed this process up.

Warming Up

We all know the importance of warming up in helping reduce muscle soreness, increasing the blood flow and raising the body temperature before exercise.  Foam rolling to warm up will add an extra level to your warm up (and cool down for that matter) helping pinpoint any pain areas and massaging the larger muscle groups.

Injury Prevention

A good warm up and cool down routine is a must for any athlete to prevent injury and the above two points made both points at that but one of the biggest benefits to foam rolling is that it gives you that added layer of injury prevention when used the way I explain above.

What Should You Do With Your New Found Piece Of Equipment?

Here’s the good bit.  Now that you have this piece of sporting gold what should you do with it.  How can you use it effectively to get the benefits outlined above?

Let me show you.  What follows is my suggestion for hitting the three most important areas for running.  Your Calves, Quads and Hamstrings.  

Yes there are other muscle groups you could hit but these exercises can be performed quickly pre and post workout to help in all the ways mentioned above.  There are lots of great foam rolling workouts on the internet some of which I will include at the bottom of this article but the three below will be easy enough to incorporate into your daily warm up and cool down routine.

Follow the instructions but be sure to aim for at least 20 – 30 seconds on each muscle.

These are in no particular order so feel free to mix and match.  Happy rolling.

The Quad Roll

These bad boys are here to stabilise you when you’re running so be sure to keep them happy.  I was going to call this the Superman or Supergirl Quad roll.  Not because I feel like a superhero when I do it but because you like like your flying (if you really get your imagination going)

Get your mat out and lie on your tummy in a plank position.  Put the roller on your thighs and rock back and forth from your knee to the top of your waist.  Be sure to allow your complete body weight to rest on the roller for maximum effect.

The Calve Roll

I couldn’t think of a funny name for this one so we are sticking with Calve roll.  There are two variations I use for this roll.  One easier than the other.  One gives a deeper result.  Switch between whatever one you feel like at the time.

Sit on your bum with your legs outstretched.  Place the roller under one of your calves and slowly lift yourself up so the roller is taking the weight.  Gentle rock back and forth from the ankle to the knee.  Once completed, swap over to the other calve and repeat.

For a slightly deeper roll do exactly the same but instead of keeping your other leg away place it on top of the leg on the lower like you are chilling out watching TV.  Take the full weight and roll away (Not literally away)

Hammy The Hamstring Roll (and I’m back)

Hamstrings help with so many muscular and spinal functions that it is massively important to keep them well looked after.

This exercise is another one leg at a time exercise unless you are feeling very brave in which case do both legs together.  On saying that you will get a deeper roll if you do one at a time.

Like the calve roll, sit on your bum.  Instead of putting the roller under one of your calves.  You guessed it.  Put it under one of your thighs.  Putting your hands either side of your waist slowly lift yourself up to take the load on your thigh.  Start slowly rocking back and forth.  Swap legs and repeat.

Not an exhaustive list of exercises but enough to get you started with foam rolling if you don’t already and adding these three into your pre and post race or exercise routine won’t add too much time either.

Triathlon and Multisport is confusing at the best of times, what with the various different dicisplines, the equipment you may or may not need, but probably want and getting your head around training for 2-3 sports rather than just the one. But one thing that confuses even me, is the distances. I often find myself having to call on my mate Google when discussing distances with friends or customers as there are so many different ones and whilst there are standard distances, each event may have a slight variance…

Todays read, I hope to give you everything you need to know about multisport distances in one place. I will be focussing on the “traditional” distances, as defined in British Triathlon Races Rules 2022. As previously mentioned, some event organisers will vary slightly, usually because their course dictates a longer or shorter run or ride, but sometimes, to stand out. we do it ourselves at Manchester Airport Duathlon, our GO TRI event pushes the boundaries with an 18km bike course, simply because the roads won’t allow for a shorter loop. Then our extended sprint doubles the distances, so 4.5km and 2.8km for runs 1 and 2, keeping roughly in line with a Sprint distance, but the double bike loop, at 36km is closer to that of a standard distance event.

As a rule, though, everything you read below will help you both choose your distance, plan your training and determine just how crackers us multisport athletes really are…

Super Sprint – The Super Sprint distance is often your entry level event. It is shortest, which means it is most accessible to beginners, but don’t confuse short with slow. For those more experienced athletes, the shorter distances can be the most intense and fastest. As with any form of training, intensity is measured by frequency, duration, volume and load and whilst the duration and volume are low, that allows for the load (speed) to be far greater, creating just as intense effort.

Super Sprint distances:-

Triathlon is the only multisport that officially has a Super Sprint, however most GO TRI events will be the equivalent so suggested distances for the remaining disciplines are as follows

Sprint Distance – again the Sprint Distance is intence AF… until recently, it was the shortest distance a professional triathlete would race at, with both Sprit and Standard the integral distances in the World Triathlon Series. Athletes like Johnny Brownlee, Alex Yee, Georgia Taylor Brown and Sophie Coldwell are all regularly seen taking on a Sprint. It’s also a great progression from a running background into multisport as the distances are only a small step up from 5 or 10km run…

Standard Distance – this is where terminology begins to get a little confusing. This distance is the standard, it’s the main distance seen in a WTS race and it’s also the distance you’ll see at both the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. Triathlon was first introduced to these games in 2002 and 2000 respectively and since becoming an Olympic Sport, the Standard distance is often referred to as Olympic Distance. (The 2022 Commonwealth Games Triathlon will be a Sprint Distance, as was 2018, Standard Distance is the traditional Commonwealth distance)

Middle Distance – middle Distance, 70.3, Half Ironman, however, unless its officially Ironman branded, it’s a Middle Distance race. This is possibly the toughest distance, short enough to remain fast, but long enough to take between 4 and 8 hours… it’s also, ironically, been one of the most competitive distances. Its becoming more and more mainstream, and therefore more and more athletes entering. 

This distance has its own World and European Championships, both Ironman branded and not, so there is ample opportunity to represent Great Britain in all disciplines.

Middle Distance, is often, but not always the stepping stone between Standard and Full Distance, with several professional athletes specialising in the distance. It’s also perhaps the most spectator friendly with global events such as The Collins Cup, usisng a similar distance for their widely broadcast annual event.

70.3 represents the distance in the Middle Distance Triathlon in miles;

“YOU ARE AN IRONMAN” – The historic catchphrase spoken by the announcer as every finisher crosses the line in an Ironman branded Full Distance Triathlon.

This distance has absolutely nothing to do with Tony Stark or Marvel Comics and everything to do with hard work, dedication and pure passion and guts to get you to the start line, never mind the finish.

The Full Distance Triathlon is the pinnacle of our sport, after the Olympics, its what most people recognise as the ultimate race and in all honesty, reaching a World or European Championships is far more achievable than simply getting to the Olympics.

You may have heard of Kona, Hawaii and the Ironman World Championships. Kona, was the birthplace of Ironman and has been home to the World Championships every year since 1978, with only 2 exceptions, 2020 (cancelled due to COVID-19) and 2021 (St George, Utah as Kona wasn’t possible again due to CV-19). There are however other world Championships, and Europeans which take place in other countries and cities.

Ironman is also just 1 brand of Full Distance, you may also race a Challenge Family event, Outlaw or any number of other organised Full Distance races.

Great Britain, in particular the women have had some incredible results at this distance amongst the professionals, with Chrissie Wellington 4 Time World Champion and World Record Holder and more recently, Lucy Charles Barclay has finished runner up at Kona 3 times and fellow Brit, Kat Matthews, recently became the fastest in the world (unofficially) at the Pheonix Sub 8 Hour event.

Once again, 140.6 represents the distance in miles.

Whatever distance you go for you have got to start somewhere. Don’t be afraid to give it a go. Take a look at our events over on our events page.