Whilst we are sat indoors with our warm hot chocolate, thinking about how long ago summer feels, reviewing how our bodies felt during our training can serve us well.
What would we change?
Did our lower back ache when cycling long distances?
Did our ankles feel under tension when doing speed work?
What did we feel the most after a training session?
When we review our performance, and importantly look at it objectively, we can uncover areas which will lend themselves to being included in our ‘off season’ or winter training plans.
Equally what we don’t do can also feed into our winter training:
Let’s pick on a runner who prefers roads, rarely ventures to the trails as it makes their calves and ankles sore for a few days afterwards which interrupts their overall weekly training.
With that as our example, what should we be doing in the gym?
We could start with some simple heel and toe touches to improve ankle stability (this will also help the knees and build strength in the non-dominant side, we’ll save that for another day)
We could also use a balance dome to increase stability, and of course staples like calf raises to add strength.
We’ll switch to the cyclist, lower back ache after long rides (or staying in aero positions for longer periods).
Firstly, checking our bike setup is correct for us is vital – there are many excellent providers of this.
Onto the muscles, having a strong core is vital, when our core is fatigued, our lumbar has to work much harder to stabilise us.
How about the hips? Ensuring we can be seated comfortably and maintain a natural spine will assist in preventing back aches, this is achieved by being able to tilt our pelvis forwards.
Areas that play into the hips include over dominant quads/hamstrings and weaker glutes.
There are many examples, hopefully the ones above show the benefit of reviewing our performance and highlighting areas of improvement to get us back out in the better weather with a nice little winter performance boost.
If you would like to find out how to best identify areas of improvement into your current routine, speak to a member of Team SF on info@spikefitness.co.uk or 07597215652.