GDPR: your privacy and the right to be informed.

The law is changing from the 25th May 2018 and in response I have updated the information on my website and will be adding a section to my consultation sheet.

These are the key points:

All your information is confidential and kept securely. All my records are paper ones and are not stored on a computer. The information that we collect is used to ensure that you have a safe and effective treatment.

I will not share your information with anyone else except at your request, for instance if you have decided to see a physiotherapist and wish me to brief them on the treatment you have received from me. I will not share your contact details with anyone else.

I will not contact you without your permission. If I do contact you after receiving your permission it will be with regard to your appointment booking, for instance if we need to change or confirm the time, or to give you information that you have requested such as exercises or contact details for other practitioners or organisations.

You have the right to request to view and alter your information.

I have a responsibility to keep your information for seven years after your last treatment. After that it will either be destroyed or archived.

Balancing training with recovery

I keep coming back to this because I think it is something we often find difficult: how much is too much? Should I rest or keep going? Here are some key questions to ask yourself, courtesy of The Running Physio website:

- Are you often feeling tired during the day?
- Are you noticing mood changes, low concentration levels or feeling stressed frequently?
- Are you sleeping for at least 6-8 hours; do you feel rested when you get up?
- Do you have a weekly rest day?
- Do you schedule in extra rest days, maybe even a rest week, after events or when increasing your training? 

It is fine to feel tired as long as you are recovering; for instance after a heavy session you should be recovered after a few days, longer if it was a major challenge such as your first marathon! If you are always feeling tired then this needs to be addressed.

It is worth keeping a training diary together with space to note how you are feeling and how long it took you to recover from your session. You can also note factors such as a bad night's sleep, feeling under the weather, stress at work or home, a heavy meal or big changes in weather conditions. You could even note down what you eat and drink each day. This may help you to notice any factors affecting your performance and recovery so you can make adjustments. If you are unfortunate enough to develop an injury this diary may help you to identify possible causes such as a rapid increase in training intensity and so help with both appropriate treatment and avoiding a repeat occurrence.

Likewise when we have a niggling injury: how much is it bothering you as you exercise - mild discomfort that eases quickly with with no negative after effects, or pain you have to work hard to ignore and hits you again later that day or even a day or two later? Is it a niggle that you feel is improving as you continue training, or is it staying the same or even getting worse? The general advice is to find a level to train at that is comfortable for your body.

Training within the context of your life and well being

It has been a while since my last post but here is a link on the same theme: allowing for the effect of work, stress, illness, lack of sleep etc etc when training. People often download a training schedule then place themselves under pressure to keep to it rigidly despite the nagging hip or Achilles pain that keeps getting that little bit worse, or feeling absolutely exhausted. This has been the subject of a number of blogs fromThe Running Physio  website together with helpful strategies to give you the best chance of successfully training and avoiding injury. Here is a link to one of their recent blogs which also contains some further useful links and references:

http://www.running-physio.com/athlete-monitoring/

I am still affected by what seems to have been a meniscus tear in my knee but I have found a great yoga class, Scaravelli yoga with Inkeri at the Movement Studio on Abbey Lane, Woodseats S8. This yoga focuses a great deal on proprioception and efficient, connected movement which helps with the sensory feedback that my knee injury otherwise compromises. It is also profoundly relaxing and enjoyable! I am also doing a Clinical Pilates class with Sally Smith at the same venue and this together with the yoga resolved my steadily increasing hip pain within a month and it has not returned since. So glad I found these two classes!

Taking it easy

The running continues alongside the strength and conditioning - hello calf raises! - and it seems an opportune time to reflect on NOT OVERDOING IT! 

It's always so tempting when you enjoy exercise to push it that little bit harder because hey, you're having fun and it feels good. However it bodes well to remember these rules:

- introduce change gradually, be that terrain, duration or intensity.

- your exercise week should be 80% easy, 20% push yourself.

- if you've been increasing your training for two or three weeks it's time for an easy week to allow your body to recover and adjust.

- lack of sleep, poor diet, work stress etc all tire the body out and decrease our resilience; if you're going through a challenging, tiring time it may be advisable to ease back on your training intensity until life is easier.

My main challenge at present is pacing; I'm supposed to have three speeds to vary my training: easy, normal and fast. I tend to run at a consistent pace that varies little, a habit I've acquired from long distance walking. Time to run with someone willing to pace me!

Back on with the running shoes!

It's been a while since my last post and for most of that time I've had a fairly severe knee problem. It came on very gradually in December during an easy climbing session (and easy by my standards are the very easiest routes at the wall!) I felt what I thought was a slight calf strain and stopped climbing; the next day the whole leg was painful and difficult to flex at the knee, then the day after that the whole knee swelled up. It was Christmas time, I was busy, I decided to just rest it. January: no improvement and I began weekly physio sessions of Shockwave therapy; the physio suspected I had some loose matter irritating the joint. Things improved slowly, then went backwards - but soon improved again.

So..... six months later I have the couch to 10k plan stuck to the fridge and I have ticked off the first session! I am determined to follow the advice I give my clients; I've done months of rehab and strengthening, and having this plan to follow will hopefully stop me getting over excited and aggravating my Achilles tendon or knee. If I keep to the plan for the next four weeks my reward will be new trainers as I progress to my 10k, injury free goal :-)

On my website www.katesheridan.org there is a link to a great site called The Running Physio. This is full of excellent articles packed with advice, including this timely one that arrived in my inbox today:
http://www.running-physio.com/when/?utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost  

Are you relaxing as well as contracting?

A fascinating post by Joanne Elphinston brings up the issue of muscle control and relaxation. For the body to move efficiently and beautifully there needs to be coordinated muscle control including appropriate relaxation. Without this, muscles can only partially release resulting in inhibited movement and eventually fatigue. To observe this for yourself try comparing extending your leg behind you with your quadriceps contracted then again with them relaxed; or rotating your trunk with your abdominal muscles first tensed, then relaxed.How far can you go each time? 

Often the person affected will read this as tightness and will try to address the problem by stretching - but of course this is futile if the muscle can't relax to allow the movement. Aggressive stretching can end up being counter productive as it may trigger the stretch reflex in self protection.

One answer is to practice self awareness by consciously contracting and then releasing different muscles in turn, maybe beginning at the neck and then working down towards the toes. This is a common relaxation exercise but you can practice with individual muscle groups whenever you like. Another is to practice seeing how minimal an effort and how few muscles can be used for a movement such as turning the wrist, raising the arm or rotating a leg. Practice the movement, observe which muscles you are activating, think if you really need all of them and then try again. An example is raising your arm up to shoulder height in front of you; are your shoulders remaining relaxed or are you hoisting with your whole shoulder? Practice the movement slowly and observe any changes as you focus on allowing smooth, relaxed movement.

Joanne observes the importance of rapid and effective release of muscle tension in generating power and preventing injury; just as important as rapid and appropriate muscle recruitment. I have observed in my own clinic practice that there is more often an issue around 'letting go' of muscles rather than the ability to recruit.

Mia's Memorial Campaign

I met Mia Ayliffe-Chung ten years ago, when she was ten and I used to climb with her mother, Rosie. Mia came to the crag with us and was a funny, confident, astute girl with a lovely personality. I also noticed that she was an excellent listener who would very likely be quick to pick up on nuances of conversation and spot what it revealed about the speakers. All my friends who met Mia remember her as tremendous fun to spend time with.

I only saw her once as an adult, at Rosie's 50th birthday celebration; she had grown up into a striking and stylish young woman, still confident and evidently enjoying life enormously. I hadn't met up with Rosie much in the intervening years after I stopped climbing and life got significantly busier, but we'd kept in touch through Facebook and I enjoyed her posts on what Mia was up to. 

   On the morning of Wednesday 24th August I switched on my tablet to catch up with Facebook before work. I am selective with what I allow on my newsfeed and this is normally a pleasant way to begin the day, seeing what friends are up to and looking up interesting articles and other items that they recommend. I noticed that Rosie had posted and assumed it would be another update on Mia's travels; she had just begun unpaid work on an Australian farm in order to extend her Visa. It was an update, but a truly shocking one to inform us before we saw it on the news that Mia had been murdered in a brutal attack by a fellow worker at the farm she was staying on. Although I didn't know Mia well, I felt overwhelmed by a profound sense that a bright presence that enriched the world was gone. I could not begin to imagine the pain and devastation that Rosie was enduring.

As Rosie found out more she shared it with us. When Mia first arrived on the farm four days before the attack Rosie had become aware that things were not right and that her daughter was worried about conditions there. Rosie is a strong woman and since Mia's death she has channelled this strength into finding out more and taking action. On travelling out to Australia she realised just how exploitative the labour for Visas system is, and she set up a campaign in Mia's name to raise awareness and bring about regulation and better, safer conditions for foreign workers. Rosie is extremely intelligent and articulate, and you may have heard her speaking on the radio about Mia's life, death and the campaign for regulation or read her articles for the Independent newspaper. Rosie's dignity, compassion and strength whilst in the public eye has been inspirational. 

Rosie set up a petition asking the Australian government to implement regulation of obligatory farmwork service. It so far has more than 4000 signatures but this is not enough. Below is a link to the petition, together with Rosie's own words explaining why this regulation is imperative. 

https://www.change.org/p/malcolm-turnbull-persuade-australian-government-to-implement-regulation-of-obligatory-farmwork-service?recruiter=58935793&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

If you scroll down, you can find updates on the campaign. 

We will never know if regulation would have saved Mia's life, but it could make the lives of many other young people travelling and working in Australia much safer.       

There is now a campaign called Tom and Mia's Legacy, dedicated to improving conditions for migrant workers.