The first step when you are carrying a lifetime of niggles.

This is inspired by a new client of mine who came to me last week with a problem. His exact words were 'I have read your stuff for ages but haven't needed it... until now'

Following a very successful sporting career his focus turned to work, family and Triathlon, more specifically half Iron-men, where he had been having huge success. Until the last few years he was hitting great times, he was injury free, and he loved the challenge of putting himself back in the 'hurt locker'.

Fast forward to now and we are unfortunately in a bit of an injury cycle, which as we all know is hugely frustrating, and when the injuries continue to return you get completely lost on where to turn next.

When I do an assessment I like to go deep into someone's injury history, as doing this well will give me the biggest clues into what might going on and why these injuries keep coming back. You see when you have an injury and it is not rehabbed well, your body will compensate for that injury, and find another way to do things.

For example. If you have a hamstring injury and it is not rehabbed properly, your body will find another muscle to do the work (or some of the work) of that hamstring instead. This often works for a time, but eventually due to the new muscle doing an extra job, it may also become a little unhappy as well.

Luckily in this example the fix is easy, just sort the hamstring out.

But what if the injury list is as long as your arm (as this particular client is). How on earth do you know what the problem is? Where on earth do you start? What does training look like now?

Well let's break this into a few sections to simplify it, and ask some deep questions.

What is the main thing we want to be back for?

In this example, it is to be able to be back in full training and ready to build for a half ironman in 6 months.

In this time what needs to be removed from our thinking completely?

In this example, it was an Olympic Triathlon in 10 weeks. You need to remove anything that is unrealistic, which will cause you unnecessary irritation by thinking about it.

What performance improvements can we still make during our 6 months?

In this example, he cannot run due to achilles pain, but we can still bike and swim. 2 out of 3 isn't bad.
Can we change the body composition to improve performance as well as unnecessary load when running?
Can we get stronger in certain areas?
Can we get stronger globally?
The answer is yes to all of the above.

Which injuries do we think are the main culprits?

In this example, the pain is currently in the achilles, and there are some lower back issues.
On the right leg there has been a broken ankle, a ruptured hamstring and an ACL injury in the knee. This leg is a priority.
On the left leg there have been ankle injuries and shin splints, this is also a priority.
There have been multiple upper body injuries which has basically locked up his ribcage. This is a priority.
Then there are a number of other movement issues that need a little attention which are slightly less of a priority.

So what are we going to do initially?

Remove running and any events that are unrealistic for now.
Let the achilles settle and don't irritate it for now with 100 calf raises.
Prioritise movement restrictions within the warm up. This comes in the form of specific dynamic stretching for specific muscle groups.
Prioritise single leg strength training to expose each leg to load.
Use specific isometrics (holding exercises) to target the calfs, hamstrings, quads around the knee.
Use single arm weights to promote movement around the ribcage.
Use rotational exercises to do the same.
Track nutrition to trim off some weight.
Smash the bike!!!
Improve the swimming but also use it as mobility for the ribcage.
Plan the steps needed for a return to run.

Some key points

Sometimes you have to take a sideways step to move forward. This is the hardest bit, but the most necessary.
You can make some serious improvements in other areas whilst you get back to your best.
You need to make a plan and stick to it for a month. So many times clients get sucked in by the shiny new object, or that exercise that someone is pushing on instagram. Sometimes you need to block out the noise, and plough through for a month. If you actually did this I bet you would see huge improvements.
Nutrition is huge in recovery and performance. How do you expect to get better if you aren't putting in what your body needs. This alone will be of huge help.

The main thing is to take a step back and reassess. You probably know what you need to do, and success will probably come from taking a minute, resetting your goals, and being relentless in your execution of them.

If this is something that you struggle with, I hope the action points above give you some clarity about what your next step should be.

What's been happening at Razor Performance.

Last weekend a client took on Hyrox for the first time. I have tended to steer clear of Hyrox coaching since its inception, because so many other coaches are out there doing it. But I do like a challenge once in while, so I agreed.

The goal was to beat his friend who had run a 1.24, with a massive stretch goal to do 1.20. He trained like an absolute demon and got a 1.20.28, which we were both absolutely chuffed with, especially for a 1st attempt!!

I have 2 new starters, one is the man in question above, and one elite level golfer which I may chat about a little more in upcoming newsletters. My man who ran a massive PB in the London Marathon has started the 3 month block to complete an ironman, which will be epic!!

We also have