How to Keep Training Amongst COVID-19 and Race Cancellations
Regular physical activity, along with a healthy lifestyle and practicing preventative measures, is one of the best defenses against viral illness, including the current COVID-19 pandemic. Coach Amy encourages athletes who are healthy to remain active and continue training with a few considerations:
While we are being advised to practice social distance during the COVID-19 pandemic, avoid crowded gyms and group classes with shared equipment and/or workouts occurring within 3 feet of other participants. If equipment is shared, make sure it is wiped down between each user with a 70% alcohol solution.
Rest after long runs and intense efforts. Long-distance running (one hour or more) and running at race effort can temporarily weaken the immune system for up to 72 hours. If your plan calls for intense and long efforts, recover fully with rest and hydration. Take extreme caution with regard to exposure to others during the time you are vulnerable.
Consult your coach and adjust your training plan if needed. Many national group races have been canceled or postponed, including the St. Louis and Boston Marathons and Ironman Puerto Rico. You may need help managing your training plan to ensure you still achieve your peak performance.
Take precautions if you attend an organized group run. Check out Coach Amy’s post on Tips for Staying Healthy at Group Runs.
“Many components of the immune system exhibit adverse change after marathon-type exertion...including the mucosal tissue and lung...Of all immune cells, natural killer (NK) cells, neutrophils and macrophages...exhibit the greatest changes in response to marathon competition, both in terms of numbers and function. [During this time] viruses and bacteria may gain a foothold, increasing the risk of infection. ”
As always, exercise regularly and opt for fresh air. It benefits your physical wellness as well as your mental health not only during the COVID-19 pandemic but also during any flu season and all year long!
Pain or Injury Doesn’t Mean You Have to Quit
Nothing is more frustrating than becoming injured during training. Even with a sound training plan, injury can occur in all shapes and sizes. With early intervention, physical therapy can keep athletes going with minimal to no disruption in training. In chronic cases, modification or a break from training may be necessary, but physical therapy can help return runners back to sport earlier and healthier.
When injury occurs, it doesn’t always mean you have to give up the sport or hobby you love. Weekly testimonials from my patients prove that by listening to our bodies, seeking treatment, and putting in the work, we can go on to accomplish our goals.
“Recently, I twisted my ankle on some ice and snow, and I had a race that weekend I didn’t want to miss. Dry needling, ART and physical therapy had me running my 10k two days later without any discomfort. ”
“I’ve been doing the stretches you showed me, squatting properly and taking my pace slow.... excited to report that I ran my first pain-free three miles [in months].”
“I was experiencing severe lower back pain while training for a half marathon, any time I ran longer than 6 miles or so. It didn’t hurt while I was running, but the day after I’d run it would hurt so much I’d be in tears. I had shooting pain down my hips and legs too. I started seeing Amy for physical therapy sessions, including Active Release Therapy (ART) and a lot of strength training. After a couple of sessions I was mostly pain free, and I was able to continue to run and train for my half marathon.”
Physical therapy combined with ART and/or Neurological Dry Needling can significantly speed up healing time and reduce the effects of injury. Combined, these treatments produce powerful results. ART is covered under insurance, and dry needling is a cost effective “add on” treatment to a standard PT session.
Treatment is important, but prevention is also important for an active lifestyle. CoachAmyPT patients graduate from PT armed with a better understanding of the causes of their pain and a personalized plan that may include home exercises to help prevent injury in the future.
Top Five Training Errors That Lead to Injury in Runners
Two months into 2020 and many runners are deep into training for Spring and Summer races while others are running to get in shape, to decrease stress or even just for the fun of it. Regardless of goals and experience runners can fall victim to injury. Running injuries are usually the result of several issues combining to create the perfect storm. Frequently a part of that storm includes training mistakes. Today we summarize the top five training errors that can lead to injury. Are you making any of these mistakes?
“Getting to the bottom of a runner’s injury is like solving a puzzle; the four corners are strength, mobility, biomechanics and training.”
Here are the top five training errors that Coach Amy finds lead to injuries:
Increasing total weekly mileage and long run mileage too quickly.
Lack of recovery between training runs within the building phase, after races and between seasons.
Not enough, too much or the wrong kind of cross training.
Lack of varying intensity of hard and easy runs.
Changing running form, surface, or shoe type without a slow, gradual introduction and without professional guidance.
Personalized coaching can help create a individual training plan just for you to prevent these errors. If injury does occur, physical therapy with a therapist that specializes in running can speed up and improve success with recovery.
Is Your Sports Bra Giving You a Headache?
“I’m a long distance runner and often get headaches when I wear a sports bra. Is this a thing?”
Tension headaches are caused by a variety of issues including poor posture, stress, jaw disorders and weak neck muscles but one of the culprits may be lurking in your dresser: the dreaded sports bra.
Sports bras are a necessary evil for women participating in athletic activities especially high impact sports that involve running and jumping. Sports bras provide support against gravity and are important for breast health. However, ill fitting or poorly designed bras may compress muscles and nerves around the upper shoulder and neck. When these structures are compressed for a lengthy period of time, blood flow is diminished causing injury and pain.
Symptoms often present as a headache that extends up the back of the skull over the ear around the temple to just behind the eye. It can even cause pain that radiates down into the shoulder blade upper back. In severe cases, it can cause numbness and tingling in the arm and hands which is a sign of nerve damage.
Finding the right sports bra is tricky. It must provide support and prevent compression of vessels, muscles and nerves. The best sports bra is one that is stronger, not tighter, and provides support through a larger surface area. This will minimize the forces that occur at the straps. Think coverage. It should feel like a bandeau hugging around you as opposed to digging.
Below are some tips on choosing a sports bra that provides support without compression that can lead to headaches.
Wear it in the store for about 20 min. while shopping and see how it feels. Is it causing a headache? Is it digging into your upper traps and leaving a mark?
Jump up and down in it!
Choose a bra with wider straps to dissipate forces on the shoulder muscle.
Avoid straps that sit at the edge of the neck (see photo).
Choose a bra that covers the area above the breasts (e.g. no cleavage) and extends all the way to mid torso (between bottom of breast line and belly button) as opposed to just below the breast line.
These straps are slim and sit too close to the edge of the neck. They could contribute to a tension headache.
No two women are built alike so do your research, get some professional help, and test it. If you suffer from chronic tension headaches try moist heat to help alleviate it and avoid stretching when it is aggravated.
If your headache conditions continue, Coach Amy can help alleviate symptoms and pain with dry needling and ART.
Keep your great questions coming. We love to answer them! email us.
Psst...Want to Know the Secrets to Sport Performance Enhancement?
One of the secrets to sport performance enhancement is reducing inflammation from the microtrauma of training in a non-pharmacological way. Recall from our article, The Magic of Rest Day in Training:
“The microtrauma created through training causes a low level of inflammation that is typically not seen or felt. There is no observable swelling, redness or pain.”
The faster an athlete heals from microtrauma, the less time they need in recovery. Less recovery time means more time for quality training, which in turn improves performance. For example, the athlete that recovers faster can tolerate adding more volume and intensity to the plan with less risk of injury. Non-pharmacological methods for treating inflammation have far fewer risks and side effects and can be used long term.
The field of physical therapy originally arose to rehabilitate polio survivors and injured soldiers after WWI. Over the years, it has evolved to include injury prevention, and in the past decade or so, it plays a role in sports through performance enhancement.
The same treatment methods PT’s use to treat injured and diseased persons are effective with healthy individuals, like athletes who live in a constant state of low-level inflammation. Coach Amy uses a combination of Neurological Dry Needling (NDN), Active Release Techniques (ART), and Applied Functional Science (AFS) to help non-injured athletes recover faster during training.
““I sought treatment with Coach Amy during the rigors of Ironman training. Her treatments allowed me to return quickly to a very functional level of mobility for training. It was great that competing in my upcoming races wasn’t jeopardized!” ”
Your first performance enhancement visit with Coach Amy includes a thorough evaluation of your training history, current goals, mobility, and stability as it relates to your sport. Typically treatment is started during this initial visit. PT for performance enhancement is not covered by insurance.
To book an appointment for performance enhancement:
Choose NEW Patient Evaluation & Treatment-Self Pay
Athletes who would like an assessment of running form should choose Running Evaluation from the menu (otherwise stick with the first option)
For all subsequent performance-based treatments (after the initial evaluation), choose PT Treatment-Self Pay, or PT Treatment-Self Pay with Dry Needling
Stay tuned for our upcoming articles on just how NDN, ART, and AFS work to speed recovery and improve sports performance.
The Magic of Rest Day in Training
Athletes dread rest days. They believe they are missing out, falling behind their competition and losing strength and fitness.
They are wrong.
Believe it or not, your rest day is the most important aspect of training. On training days, the body is challenged and worked, tested and pushed. On rest days, the body takes it to the next level.
"Rest days are when the magic happens: the body makes biochemical changes at the cellular level. It adapts to the positive stress of training and improves to a better, adapted state. It recovers and reforms.” -Coach Amy
Microtrauma occurs in bone, skeletal muscles and tendons during training. This positive and normal part of training is necessary for the development of strength. It is similar to the formation of a callus on the foot of a ballerina or the hands of a rock climber. The musculoskeletal system changes and provides strength and protection just like a callus. The microtrauma causes a low level of inflammation that is typically not seen or felt. There is no observable swelling, redness or pain.
Without adequate rest days, repetitive microtrauma is left unchecked and can result in poor performance and injury. Learn more about the positive and negative impacts of inflammation in our three-part series:
Rest can entail curling up on the couch with a good book, but usually rest for the athlete is relative and active in some way. Rest is dependent on the training cycle, the sport, and the athlete.
After a marathon race, the best form of relative rest is walking.
For the triathlete in the midst of high volume and high-intensity training, a rest day may be light, restorative yoga or taking the dog for a walk.
A runner who runs 5-6 days per week needs rest from high impact and load on the heart, so a low-intensity swim, spin, pilates or yoga is a great option for reformation day.
A knowledgeable coach can help an athlete determine the best length, frequency, and type of rest.
Finding the delicate balance between load and rest is tricky business. A coach can help, but even with the best of training plans, managing the microtrauma and inflammation is challenging. Over the last few decades, athletes have relied on physical therapists to speed recovery from microtrauma with regular visits during training and tune-ups during the off-season.
Stay tuned for our series on how Neurological Dry Needling (NDN), Active Release Techniques (ART) and/or Applied Functional Science (AFS) help speed recovery and enhance performance.
Inflammation Part Three: How Autoimmune and Chronic Disease Conditions Play a Role in the Inflammatory Process
Our two-part series on inflammation prompted a really good question from one of our subscribers:
“How do autoimmune and other inflammatory conditions play into the inflammatory cycle?”
People with autoimmune disorders and chronic diseases like diabetes, arthritis, lupus, and celiac are in a varying but constant state of inflammation. Medication and lifestyle changes such as exercise, adequate sleep, good nutrition, and stress reduction can help regulate inflammation. Unfortunately, there is no cure for these diseases and no way to eliminate the inflammation associated with them.
Injury, illness or stress, such as training for a marathon, can exponentially affect a person with chronic disease. It is like adding gasoline to a fire. Just as a bigger fire takes longer to control, chronically-inflamed patients typically require longer recovery and treatment times.
Physical therapy measures such as NDN, ART, and AFS can help calm inflammation associated with disease brought on by added stressors. Unfortunately, while PT can help, it cannot extinguish inflammation or cure disease.
While we can’t eradicate the disease or completely break the inflammatory cycle, we can decrease the pain and dysfunction it creates. We can take a raging fire down to controlled burning embers.
Many of my patients and coaching clients with autoimmune disorders do amazing things like run businesses, raise families, and train for marathons. If you are struggling with autoimmune disease, let's get that inflammation under control.
To read more about inflammation, check out our two-part series:
We love to hear from our community, and aspire to provide information on topics that are most important and interesting to you. If you have a question or topic that you'd like us to address in our blog, please email us!
Join Coach Amy and Declare YOUR 2020 Winter Goals
For most of us the idea of more winter is overwhelming after the stress and pace of the holidays. It is tempting to cuddle up and go into hibernation mode (often curbing our healthy habits). Embracing these winter months and setting “winter goals” is key to achieving big annual successes. This initial 25% of the year can have a huge impact on reaching a new goal.
To achieve a new resolution, keep the focus narrow. Instead of setting multiple goals choose one or two that are the most important, and tend to those goals with a high priority. This may mean a couple of other daily tasks get less attention for a little while like dishes and laundry. Once you get some momentum going, then you can achieve a nice balance where you are working on your goals and completing other tasks. You may find that a healthier, stronger you is capable of getting more done in less time!
At CoachAmyPT we give you permission this year to make your health and fitness goals a priority. We’re here to hold you accountable in 2020.
Stop by our clinic this month and sign our wall of fame with your winter goals. Put it in writing, share your goals with our community, and we’ll help you reach them. We also want to cheer you on through social media. Keep us updated through Facebook and Instagram by including the hashtag #winter2020capt within your winter goal updates on our page.
Need some inspirations to set some goals?
Make a conscience effort to improve posture
Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night
Improve mobility and/or strength
Sign up and start training for your first 5k/ marathon/ triathlon
Get some fresh air and increase your heart rate outdoors for 30 minutes aiming to reach 4 days/week by the end of February
Our health is among the many things we take most for granted. It’s also one of the dominant factors that drive our quality of life. Achieving a winter goal will give you the boost you need to commit to improving health and wellness the rest of the year.
First, identify a winter goal and share it with friends and family (ie. sign our wall of fame, share with us on Facebook). Second, develop a plan and a road map to help you get there. Step by step, one day at a time, we know you can do it!
Inflammation Part Two: How to Break the Vicious Cycle of Chronic Inflammation
In our article, Inflammation Part One: Aid and Control Early Inflammation, we discussed the benefits of early inflammation and the importance of controlling it. When inflammation of the musculoskeletal system is unchecked and persists longer than 2 weeks, a vicious cycle ensues. See photo above.
Inflammation causes pain which leads to inhibition and loss of function which leads to more injury, and that feeds right back into inflammation and pain. It becomes a never-ending loop. To break this cycle, Coach Amy uses a combination of neurological dry needling, Active Release Technique, and gentle mobility exercises.
It is not enough to simply stop the cycle. The cause of the problem is often unclear. Many overuse injuries are complex. Even acute ones, like a sprained ankle, can be the result of a dysfunctional gait or biomechanics. Coach Amy thoroughly evaluates patients to determine the root cause of the injury.
It’s a lot like putting together a puzzle that has pieces missing.
Coach Amy works one-on-one with patients throughout the entire rehabilitation process.
“I continually assess at each visit because, more often than not, each issue has many layers. For the best and quickest outcome, we must adapt the treatment approach as we go.”
Remember, as we discussed in Inflammation Part One: Aid and Control Early Inflammation, inflammation gets a bad rap: controlled inflammation actually benefits recovery. But untreated, inflammation can begin a nasty, never-ending loop of chronic pain. When possible, seek treatment for pain and injuries early to benefit from the positive impacts of inflammation without entering the chronic pain cycle.
Healthy to the Core
Most of us have heard the buzz words, “strong core.” Is it worth all the hype? Yes! A strong core is beneficial for everyone not just athletes; it can help prevent pain and injury in any lifestyle. Ring a bell from the trifecta articles in October?
Mobility: A Key to Pain-Free Functional Movement and Injury Prevention
Completing the Trifecta to Pain-Free Function and Injury Prevention: Proprioception
We can prevent injury with a strong core; it improves our stability, agility, balance, posture, and coordination creating a foundation for a stronger and healthier body. It also improves efficiency with movement; we gain more power and function from our upper and lower extremities. For endurance athletes, this translates to more power in arm and leg movements while running, swimming, and cycling. For non-athletes this translates into preventing back pain from overuse strains doing household or work related tasks.
Contrary to popular belief, a strong core isn’t limited to strong abs. Our core encompasses the entire cylindrical column of muscles ranging from above the shoulders to below the hips. The proper way to engage and strengthen this range of muscles is with slow, intentional and controlled, quality movement patterns.
Coach Amy has designed a core strengthening class for both beginners and advanced athletes. These classes incorporate a combination of progressively challenging dynamic and functional exercises to build control for activities of daily living and sport.
Our Phoenix Core Winter session is 8- weeks long and begins January 7th. Classes are held at CoachAmyPT on Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m. Commit to feeling stronger, moving better, and preventing injury in the New Year. Spots are limited!