FUNCTIONAL TRAINING IRELAND RUNNING SEMINAR
24TH MARCH 2012 – 10am
VENUE:                NATIONAL STADIUM SANTRY
COST: €40.00      (22 Places)
SPEAKERS:          Functional Training Ireland Team             
Peter Mathews (3 Times Cross Country Champion of Ireland)

Dave Hare (Strength & Conditioning Coach)
                               
                                               
Part 1: Approx 1.5 hrs
Introduction
·         Foam Rolling Techniques
·         Running Specific Stretching
·         Dynamic Stretching
·         Core/Strength for Runners
·         “How this makes you faster”
·         Peter Mathews Experiences of Running

Coffee/Tea Break
Part 2: Approx 1.5 hrs
Practical:              The Functional Training System
·         Running Mechanics (that matter)
·         Low Tech Fuss Free Strength Work
·         Dynamic Warm Up Technique
·         Group Session (if participant wants)
·         Q & A

Let us know if you are interested we have 10 spots only left.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/cycling/2012/0213/paracycling.html

Well done to the girls, they work extremely hard on their strength and conditioning.

200 days to the paralympics in London now!

?10am, Saturday, 24th of March , National Stadium Santry.

We are running a seminar for runners on how to run faster and stay healthy. We have 22places up for grabs and it will only cost 40euro.

Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested.

The talk will be relevant to ANY runner and there will be practical aspect to it – so bring your shorts! It’s a great venue and we will have great speakers. Peter Mathews will be there for starters.

This will be a professional Seminar and you will leave with a clear understanding of your weaknesses and how to fix them yourself.

By David Hare CSCS, owner of Functional Training Ireland.

Below are some absolute basics to keep you fit and healthy for your weekly run, if you are a beginner or an expert they still hold true.

1. Get some soft tissue work;

Running is very hard on the legs, so getting regular massage, introducing some foam rolling into your routine or trigger point work will really help you become a fit and healthy runner.

2. Do some strength work;

Okay you hate lifting weights, but i’m talking about glute bridging work, tough stretches and core work, all of which will help you run better and more healthy. Get a good strength coach to show you how to do these, it’s not good enough to look up YouTube and cod yourself into thinking it’s good for you.

3. Stretch;

Simple but effective if done RIGHT. Your old school PE stretches aren’t going to cut the mustard anymore. 

4. Eat;

They amount of runners that don’t eat enough and at the right times is staggering. You need protein and carbs etc, but the basics still remain, eat well immediately after a run, you will feel so much better.

5. Hydrate;

Keep plenty of fluids in the system if you are a runner.

6. Get a coach of some description;

Try as you will, you can’t coach yourself get some else to tell you how stupid the program you just invented is!

7. Supplement;

If you are a serious runner I like, Vit D, Fish Oil, Protein and recovery shakes to be in your arsenal.

Hope you enjoyed the tips,

Let me know what you think…

Tags: injury, massage, physio, running

We are open the day of the marathon from 8.10 am for anyone, client or not, to drop off their bags, grab a shake or coffee or even a light pre race massage! Our gym is right on the start line and we promise a great welcome and even better atmosphere.

Good luck to all ye hardy souls.

Tags: marathon, physio, running, sports massage

By David Hare ; Owner of Functional Training Ireland.

Do you head to the gym and hit the cardio machines first for a crappy 5-10minutes?

Do you head straight to the bench?

Ok, I will be honest, we have all done this, when people tell me what they get up to in the gym this is what I hear, rarely if ever do I hear about dynamic warm ups, Squats, free weights or core training.

Do yourself a favour and get a coach! Only if it is for a few sessions now and again –  but if you train yourself your doomed to less than perfect results. Here is what I recommend.

1. Write down your goals.

2. Get an assessment of your weaknesses by a trained professional.

3. Get a coach that can guide you a wee bit, better still join a training group.

4. Train as per plan written by someone smarter than you in the fitness area.

4. Repeat forever!

Remember even the top golfers have a coach, Lionel Messi has a coach, you can’t avoid it.

Call around for a FREE assessment and we can start you on your journey.

Medals don’t grow on trees at the world level, so a big congrats to Catherine Walsh and Francine Meehan 

 The Irish Female Tandem pairing of Catherine Walsh and Fran Meehan took bronze in the Time Trial at the UCI Paracycling Road World Championships, in Roskilde, Denmark.

Their time of 44.04.95 was enough to secure third place behind  Canada and New Zealand.  The pair won silver at the 2010 World Track Championships and earlier this season took gold during the Segovia leg of the 2011 Road World Cup. Come on London!

By David Hare CSCS

Listen I am going to be frank, if you are still warming up jogging on a treadmill or dossing on a rowing machine you are wasting your precious time. At Functional Training Ireland we train all our clients to move better, fix injuries and basically function better. We don’t waste any time however;  so we do alot of our best work in what we call the warm up phase.

Here is an example of a typical move we use in warm ups; call around at any stage or avail of our free fitness assesement and we can show you some more.

Medicine Ball Chops

The med ball chop drill is one of my favourite protocols. I like it as a warm up routine because with proper technique applied the movement can apply itself over a large number of other exercises like deadlifts for example. It is a total body exercise so it is great for conditioning also, meaning getting you fit!

The best thing about this drill however is that it is great at teaching you to hinge from your hips, “so what?” I hear you say, if you cant hinge from your hips expect a visit from you friendly neighbourhood  physiotherapist any time soon. We lose the ability to hinge  from our hips due to excessive sitting.  Poor hip strength and or function is what we see in an almost daily basis.

Heres how you do it,

Start with the ball(you can use a water bottle or any weight really) and get in the position shown, its a sort of a duck arse pose!(funny names help me remember anyway!).

Get in this position - "duck arse pose is a good coaching cue"

Bring the ball back down, never never round your back at this stage keep your spine tall and butt up in the air. What i mean here is not to look like a hunchback whilst coming down.

How many?
Do 3 sets of 12 reps, only use between a 2kg and 4kg weight. Happy Training

Tags: personal trainer, physiotherapy, warm ups

By David Hare CSCS, Owner Functional Training Ireland

1. Personal Training works;

Have a look around your typical commercial facility, have a look at the progress the average person is making. Now look at the effort and intensity of the people getting some help. Even if all you can afford is once a month you should get some help.

2. Fish Oil – get some.

3. Vitamin D – get some.

4. Protein post workout is a must;

 With all my teams that I train I will not let them train unless they have some food for straight away after the workout.

5. Foam Rolling works;

If you are a runner or any endurance athlete especially it can keep you on the road for longer. Get one ASAP. P.S we sell them!

6. Barefoot training is great in certain cases, but a wee bit overated in others;

We are not Kenyan’s and we have not been reared with barefoot everything from a young age. So if your a novice runner (and most of you are) maybe stick with the Asics for now. If you deadlift or swing kettlebells slip off your runners.

7. “Worry about the minutes before you worry about the seconds”;

Dont get over complicated, If you are still clocking ten minute miles the latest carb loading protocol is probably not best for you.

8. Source a physio that can fix you and has the tools to do so;

If you are injured and you have been to the physio more then 10 times and you are not fixed, get a new physio. There are of course exceptions to this like an ACL rehab or something serious like an achilles rupture but a simple hamstring tear or groin pull! Start googling some good sports physios.

9. Eat like an adult;

Cut out the stuff in your diet that your 12 year old cousin eats, crisps, cereals, icecream etc..

10. Don’t go to a physio that just hooks you up to a machine;

11. Make water your number one beverage;

12. Don’t smoke – if you do don’t come to me complaining about your lack of fitness;

13. Stretch more;

Don’t waste time looking like you are stretching – actually get in positions you hate, also, don’t keep doing the ones you are good at.

14. “If you coach yourself you have an idiot for a client”;

If you want to build a house you use an architect, if you want to fix a car you go to a mechanic etc… Get some help, go to a trainer even once in a while and you will the benefits because it is very very hard to coach yourself. FYI I have a coach!

15. Youtube is great but don’t base your training on it.

I love youtube for some great info, but it is also like any tool be dangerous. Maybe that clip you saw of a highly trained ninja performing flips on a swiss ball isn’t the best for you? Again I repeat get a coach and reap the rewards.

Let me know what you think about the tips.

Dave Hare

Tags: personal trainer

By Orla Magorrian, head physiotherapist at Functional Training Ireland.

 For anyone who is active, regardless of age, knee problems can occur. This can result in having to take some time off from your sport or activity to ‘rest’, so that the problem settles.  You can then get dismayed when on return to your activity your problem has not cleared up.

Why is this? Unless you have a traumatic one-off event (e.g. rupturing a ligament) most knee problems are due to overload of forces on certain structures in the knee joint or surrounding region ( Ilio-tibial band, Patella-femoral joint). This is due to problems elsewhere, notably the hips.

Let’s take our everyday lives. We sit down at desks for up to 10 hours a day, as well as time spent commuting to and from those desks. Our Neanderthal ancestors walked around for 12 -14 hours a day hunting and gathering.  Because we are mostly sedentary our hip joints have not developed the way that  they should resulting in lack of flexibility and reduced strength in our Gluteal muscles (Glut Max, Med and Min!)  These factors mean that in any two-legged activity where we put one foot in front of the other (even cycling which is non weight-bearing) our hips are not helping our knees as much as they should.

Here at Functional Training we start with assessing and correcting hip function in dealing with injuries or movement problems that are affecting performance.  When it comes to Core Stability you’ll find it is more about the hips than the Abdominals, and it certainly has nothing to do with having a six-pack or doing 300 sit-ups on a daily basis!

So if you want to ensure you get the most out of your hips and subsequently your training check in with us here at Functional Training!

 Note: Even if you exercise daily, we are all still considered sedentary because we are not on our feet for most of our waking day.  Gray Cook, the prominent US physio/ strength coach states that we need 8- 10 hours a day of weight-bearing for NORMAL hip joint development.

Tags: core, knee pain, physio, physiotherapy, runners knee