Luke Buttle

LOCKDOWN & RUNNING 👊🏼

Let’s try this instagram thing again & maybe this time I’ll stick it out...

Given the current situation and the restrictions on socialising and our training, the majority of us are turning to running; and why wouldn’t we, it’s free, it’s easy and it’s accessible to us all. I myself am doing a lot more running currently.

Like any other form of exercise, running places stress on the body (It’s how we adapt and get better) but too much stress too soon could lead to injuries.

Applying large amounts of a stress to a structure (our joints and muscles) before you’ve build up a resilience could lead to you blowing up that structure. Slowly build up your runs, think small increments in distance or speed, don’t chase the fastest time and the longest distance.

More importantly, consider what you can do at home to compliment your runs. Build strength around those dominant joint during running. Over the next few weeks while we’re all locked up, I’ll start to post exercises and routines you could incorporate to benefit your running regime 🏃🏻‍♂️🏃‍♀️

Strength & Running

During each foot strike the joints of the lower body can endure up to six times your body weight - there’s no doubt about it. Running is a high impact movement, broken down, it’s a series of small jumps

It’s no wonder so many of us suffer from running related injuries but this doesn’t mean running is bad for us. It simply means our bodies are not primed and ready for running

Compliment your running with a thought out strength programme that includes unilateral and mobility work

First learn how to create stability. Then how to resist rotation. Finally, add rotation.

@ London, United Kingdom

‘Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime’

There are endless amounts of fitness methods out there. Methods we blindly follow because it’s in our programme for reasons we may or may not fully understand. It’s just what our coach has given us. Which is absolutely fine, but when it comes to training, we need guidance and self empowerment. Seek help and advice when you need it, but learn to understand your body and your movement patterns.

The principles of training have and always will remain the same. Understand the principles of training and you’ll learn to create your own methods

CORE TRAINING 💥

What is core training to you? For most, it’s an endless chase for those perfectly sculpted abdominals running down the front of our torso.

But our core is much more than our re**us abdominals. Our muscles often work in pairs. Over training the re**us abdominals and neglecting its antagonist - the erector spinae - could cause an imbalance, leading to chronic back pain and multiple injuries.

What we should be prioritising is stability, rotation and anti-rotation.

We should be aware of what our bodies are doing during a movement, i.e a rib flair, a pelvic tilt. We should prioritise awareness of how we engage our core to benefit a whole host of movements.

Developing a stronger core by training all of its functions and by adding variety (alongside mobility) can help reduce your chronic back pain and reduce the chances of injury during training - which is obviously a massive plus!

General Physical Preparedness (GPP)💥 The majority of people come to me because they have specific goals, usually having never trained before.
But do we need specific goals to train? (And I’m talking; the London marathon, reaching a PB on a back squat, taking part in a tough mudder). The answer, no.
General Physical Preparedness. Personally, I spend a lot of training in this phase.
It’s a phase that encourages a range of big, foundational movements: squat, lunge,push, pull, jump, climb etc. Doing as much as we can as often as we can. It’s going to help develop strength, endurance, it’s going to improve quality of movement and kinaesthetic awareness (understanding how a movement should feel also developing self-empowerment)

Is this going to get me a pb on a back squat, probably not but it’s going help develop a much stronger foundation to build upon.
The best athletes are multi sport athletes. Why? Because they have the a strong and general foundation to build upon. ‘Be general in your foundations so you can be specific in your goals’