Finding your Nutritional Blueprint

Column #135, 24th December 2011

When talking about healthy eating and nutrition in the New Year, it has almost become a cliché to warn against fad diets and dangerous quick-fix detox-ing.  The fact that public awareness of avoiding these unhealthy approaches and the abandoning of dubious products is growing, is great.  Yet, each year, come March/April time, why am I inundated by questions from people looking for answers about effective nutrition and lifestyle programs that are sustainable, safe and successful?

Nutrition Blueprint

In an ideal situation these people would have asked me the question 3 months previous to spending a great deal of time, money and effort on a program that didn’t work and wasn’t working with them as an individual.  Today’s article is a preemptive strike at avoiding this eventuality.  A key step in the process is to customize the diet to the individual and finding out how to do this is essential for success.  The aim is to find your body’s blueprint for nutrition.  We all have a blueprint, it’s just a case of tapping into it.  What foods and nutrients does your body need for optimal energy, growth and function?  The answer is different for everyone, but once you discover your blueprint you’ll know it.

This year I have decided to make it easier for people to start off on the right foot.  I have designed a program that coaches you through all the principles that you need to make a positive, effective and sustainable changes to your nutrition and lifestyle to achieve your goals in a healthy way.  The Nutrition Blueprint Program has been developed to include:

• 12 weeks of step-by-step advice
• One-to-One support
• Home Program/Self-Coaching Manual
• Assessment of your Unique Nutritional requirements

Customising your Foods

How do we find out your individual nutritional requirements?  The assessment tools that we use are Metabolic Typing and BioSignature Modulation.  There are many other assessment methods and Laboratory methods that can be used in addition, but Metabolic Typing and BioSignature are fundamental to the program, especially in the first 12 weeks of changing your nutrition and lifestyle.  You can go to the nth degree to find out more about your biochemical and metabolic individuality, from looking at your hormonal balance, digestive health, toxicity levels and immune function.  This is all great information, but you can benefit from building a foundation first.

Fundamentals of Nutrition

Together with the specific foods that you need for your health and metabolism to thrive, there are of course fundamental steps that we can all take that will benefit our goals.  So as well as your own particular guidelines you will also be coached the essential nutrition and lifestyle factors that add to the truly holistic nature of the program.

The way the program works is not to just list for example, fifty changes for you to make in week 1 and leave you to it.  They might be fifty brilliant ideas, but they will certainly be ineffective if you try to do everything at once.  The program is actually designed to coach you in a logical order, one step at a time and once you have successfully implemented the step, it is time to move on to the next.  This will answer questions such as which inflammatory foods to avoid, when and whether to use supplements, fine tuning your fats, proteins and carbohydrates and much more.

Does Sustainable mean Slow Results?

It is a common misconception that when we want results, we go about it hammer-and-tongs and all-guns-blazing.  The simple answer when it comes to health, is that this is rarely effective at achieving our goals.  However, this does not mean that you cannot see results quickly.  If you have been following a program that does not deliver your results then it is likely that the program needs changing.  Likewise, if you follow a program that initially delivers impressive results and then begins to fail and move into reverse, you need to tweak your program.  In both these scenarios something is not quite right.

The fact is that if we approach health with the whole body in mind and design a quality nutrition and lifestyle program based on individual assessment techniques, then we can achieve impressive results.  Everybody’s situation is different and there are many factors that determine what steps to take.  In addition, you must be ready to take control of your own health and take responsibility for the actions you take and the results you get.  I always work in an integrative manner, which includes the recommendation to always work alongside your General Health Practitioner when you are making changes to your lifestyle and nutrition and to be aware that the advice given in this program is not to replace medical advice.

If you feel that you want to find out what food your body wants for energy and vitality and you would benefit from following a program and take advantage of some coaching support, check out the Nutrition Blueprint Program:

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Climbing Conditioning Program 2011 - When to Train Strength Endurance

Column #134, 10th December 2011

I was recently reading a climbing forum page where the discussion was on the topic of training tips.  As with most forums, opinion was widespread and what worked for one was ineffective for another……though no arguments had broken out at the time of writing.  I am a firm believer of finding what works for you and applying it.  This is an individual approach and as you will see there are many ways to achieve your climbing conditioning goals, whether that is increasing strength endurance, relative strength, power or other.

Do Climbers need Strength Endurance?

Being strong in movement is one thing, being able to repeat that strong movement repeatedly is another.  As a climber and/or boulderer you require strength endurance to repeatedly move your body typically upwards and across through a repeated set of moves.  It is no advantage to you to be strong and with good form at the beginning of a route, if half way up you fatigue and climb with unnecessarily bad technique.  Strength endurance training should be during a conversion phase that ‘converts’ your movement, relative strength or aerobic endurance into a more climbing-specific’ strength endurance.

What is Periodisation?

As a strength and conditioning coach I enjoy getting together with climbers and other athletes and planning out their training routine.  It’s all about problem solving.  There are many factors involved in getting it right and knowing which elements to train and when is a big part of this puzzle.

Periodisation is the planning, dividing, blending and scheduling of your training programs.  It can involve the long, medium and short term timeframe and essentially puts forward a best case scenario in which to strive to stick to.  The most effective periodisation takes into account all the:

• practical aspects,
• individual concerns,
• goals,
• competitions,
• recovery
• fitness components
• pre, in, post and off-seasons
• motivation and compliance
• flexibility and contingencies

Simply sitting down by yourself and working through these factors can have a significant impact on your success, whilst getting in-depth feedback from a specialist can add even more value.  The mistake is to completely disregard it.  If you do, then the inevitable barrier, hiccup, injury, inconvenience or disruption will do its best to stutter your progress.

How and When to Train Strength Endurance

This will completely depend on the individual, but in the Six-Month Climbing Conditioning Program, Strength Endurance makes its first appearance in Phase 3.  An indepth reasoning for this is discussed at the workshops but the science behind this is based on what factors need to come first.  Imagine your typical strength endurance training session and it may be a circuit-style set-up with various upper, lower and whole-body exercises performed with a high number of repetitions with low-medium loads/intensities.  If you like, this could be the approach to your climbing session, where intensities are low, volume is high and rest is minimised.

These approaches are perfectly effective at training strength endurance, but consider what needs to be in place before we challenge the body in this way?  Not just to make sure we avoid injury, but also to provide a platform for this training to give you the most impressive results?  After all, why would you put this level of effort into something that was disproportionate to the results you got back?

The answer to this question is in Phase 1 and 2.  You may have read the previous articles that describe how these specially designed programs are focused on different outcomes:

1. Correcting Imbalances in the body such as posture, core function and muscle balance
2. Creating a Foundation on which to build
3. Enhancing Movement Patterns

In just two phases your body has improved alignment, structural balance, strengthened weaknesses, lengthened tightness, higher energy levels and greater movement efficiency.  This begs the question, why would you subject the body to a circuit of hundreds of repetitions with various loads and positions, before the body was in balance?  Of course this is an individual choice, but it is my opinion that greater success will come from correcting those imbalances and providing a foundation first and then throwing in the necessary challenges.  Try it and see.

Effective Strength and Conditioning

If I were to refer back to that vibrant climbing forum for answers I would remain a little confused.  Everybody’s opinion was valid because that is what worked for them.  Some felt that some strength training off the rock and away from the wall was important to improve performance and reduce the risk of injury, whereas others believed that this was a waste of time that could be better spent on the rock.

What are my thoughts?  Well, they are somewhere between the both, but they are about getting the best of both, not just a mediocre compromise in the middle.  What seemed to be missed was that the conditioning side of climbing should be all about doing things that complement your climbing.  Things that actually have a positive impact on your climbing performance.  I agree that spending valuable time on training programs that do not advance you on your way to reaching your potential levels of performance, are simply a waste of time.  However, the issue here is that the training programs in question must be poorly designed and executed.  Time to rethink your conditioning programs.

There is no doubt that the best way to improve climbing ability is to climb, climb and climb some more.  However, for numerous reasons, well-designed and executed strength and conditioning programs can be the difference between reaching and falling short of your potential.  The key is to perform high quality conditioning programs that are designed to:

• Increase your strength, endurance and power
• Keep you injury free
• Prevent you from hitting a plateau
• Correct imbalances brought on by your sport
• Enable you to recover quicker
• Enable you to climb more often
• Enable you to climb at greater intensities and still not get injured and yet recover quickly.

Strength and Conditioning Programs designed with the individual in mind can do all of this.  Do not think of it as time spent on something else that eats into your time on the rock/wall.  See it as a way of actually getting more frequent climbing done, with better results and greater longevity.

If your training program is not providing you with this………why are you doing it?  It is quite simply a poor training program.  You need more return on your investment of time and effort, so find a way to enhance the quality of your program.  Today’s article gives you a few pointers on how to do this for your strength endurance training, otherwise contact me with any specific training questions you have.  Better yet come down to the Durham Climbing Centre Conditioning Workshops.

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The CHEK Practitioner in the Clinical Setting

Column #133, 26th November 2011

“Knowledge is not power, applied knowledge is.” Paul Chek, Holistic Health Practitioner.  Internationally-renowned clinician Paul Chek is spreading his expertise to the C.H.E.K Practitioners of the world, creating knowledgeable and competent trainers.

As an Exercise and Strength Coach I am passionate about the professional training and qualifications that I take.  I love to learn from the best in the industry such as Charles Poliquin, Paul Chek, Gary Gray, Gray Cook and Mel Siff to name a few.  I recently qualified as a CHEK Practitioner Level 1, which was another challenging and rewarding experience.

What is a CHEK Practitioner?

C.H.E.K Practitioners are specialists in corrective exercise and high-performance conditioning . They are trained in assessment techniques and have the skills to design individualized exercise programs. There are 4 levels to the training and the higher the level completed, the more practical knowledge and experience they will have, particularly in complex orthopedic conditions.

C.H.E.K Practitioners come from a varied background including fitness professionals, strength and conditioning coaches, chiropractors, physical therapists, bodyworkers, massage therapists, podiatrists, athletic trainers and so on.  The key is that they understand that the human body is a system of many complex inter-related systems that all affect each other. They conduct the most thorough and detailed assessments on all the bodies’ systems before making any recommendations.

C.H.E.K Practitioners are skilled in human biomechanics, orthopaedic rehabilitation, and sports performance.  Their holistic approach involves assessing each person on a physical, mental and emotional level and suggesting referrals to other professionals where necessary to ensure optimal results.

Areas and goals that may benefit from working with CHEK professionals may include:

• Eliminating back pain
• Rehabilitation of shoulder, neck and head pain
• Improve posture
• Enhancing movement efficiency
• Improved sports performance
• Injury prevention and management

Level 1 Specifically

I was personally extremely interested in what Level 1 had to offer.  I wanted to learn more about how we develop movement skills from birth, through infancy, childhood and into adulthood.  Working in a clinical setting the people I see on a daily basis are often suffering from pain, recurring injuries or a dysfunction and limitation in performance.  I was keen to learn more specific assessment techniques to see where the deficits were in their movement patterns and get to the root of what had caused them.  Learning the ability to design specific exercise programs to balance and correct these factors would be the icing on the cake.

On the Level 1 course I learned all this and more.  The Infant Development and Movement Assessments are a fantastic tool and I can recommend further reading of Linda Hartley’s “Wisdom of the Moving Body”.  Here you can find out more about the physical, emotional and mental etiology of movement inefficiency.  The assessments are one thing but actually applying the information is another, as we could assess all day at great interest to myself, but the patient would be no better off.  Mark Buckley (CHEK Faculty) took us to the next level and taught us more about how to restore functional movement, customize programs to any ability and goal and balance the systems in the body that need it.

The Clinical Setting

I like to do courses that are immediately applicable to the real world and that I can use in the gym or the clinic the next day.  The CHEK education is applicable to many areas of health and performance, but for me it is extremely useful for working with someone with dysfunction and pain.  The level of assessment means that imbalances in various systems can be identified and changes in nutrition, lifestyle and movement implemented for successful outcomes.

In my opinion, there is a time and place for different approaches to achieving your health and performance goals.  Sometimes strength training will be appropriate whilst at other times Yoga and Tai Chi.  Boot camps are building in popularity and have done a fantastic job of motivating people to get up, go outside and move.  However, there are many instances where factors such as structural alignment, posture, physiology, muscle balance, adrenal function and movement deficiencies need to be addressed before we load and challenge the body in certain ways and intensities.  It’s all about the right exercise, in the right way for the right person.

If you have any more questions about conditioning for health and performance or about working with a CHEK Practitioner just give me a call or email.

Climbing Conditioning Program 2011 - Climber's Posture Correction

Column #132, 12th November 2011

“If we can optimise posture it will enhance our health.

If we can optimise our health it will enhance our posture”

Here is an excerpt from the Climbing Conditioning Program.  Read on if you are wondering whether posture is important and why it should be focused on in your Corrective Exercise Program.  A fascinating subject because it isn’t just about standing up straight and there are many surprising factors that influence our posture. In turn our posture and movements have a major influence on many other functions than your climbing performance, from digestion to joint pain.

Some Influential Factors on Posture

• Occupation
• Injury and Pain
• Muscular Imbalances
• Breath
• Poor Sleep
• Mental-Emotional
• Sport
• Nutrition
• Exercise Technique
• Fascia
• Stress
• And many more discussed in the complete eBook Program

Wow, that’s a lot of stuff and that’s because we are holistic in nature.  All our systems are integrated and we cannot separate body from mind.  The great part of this is that an appreciation of these factors and postural conditioning can create many positive health benefits.

What is Good Posture?

Posture can be described as static and dynamic.  Generally, this means standing or sitting in one position, but also in and out of positions, otherwise known as movement.  Our ability to maintain ideal joint alignment in various positions is essential for well-being.  No, this doesn’t mean we are to move like robots, it is about us being present and functional in our world.

Simply put, with good standing posture our body is stacked upright correctly.  In this position our muscle lengths and strengths are balanced and our joints are in the correct position for mechanical function.

Think of a tent pole that needs strong, balanced guy ropes to maintain an upright position.  If one guy rope is too tight and the opposite, too long, the pole will move out of position.  Consider that this happens to your spine when some muscles are too tight, long or weak.  In a compromised position the spine may be injured and the whole muscular-fascial-skeletal system will not be able to function as efficiently as possible.

Behind the Assessment

If we do not assess our posture before we embark on a training program then we are likely to exacerbate any existing imbalances and problems.  Many of our occupations involve a flexed position (sitting at a desk).  Climbing itself significantly challenges the anterior abdominals and a flexed holding position.  Purely from observing climbers that I have worked with, there is a common occurrence of an overly flexed thoracic spine (increased kyphosis).  When accompanied by a program that has too much focus on flexion (crunches) and not enough postural and muscular balancing, then we will probably only further encourage this postural distortion.  This can take us further away from neutral spine and typically lead to lower back, neck and shoulder problems.

Furthermore, identifying postural issues in one area of the body (for example at the pelvis) can cause pain or dysfunction somewhere else in the body (for example the knees and ankles).

Try this: Stand up and feel where the weight is through your feet.  Tilt your pelvis forward and feel the weight fall onto the inside and your ankles turn in.  Tilt your pelvis back (flatten back), and feel the weight on the outside of your feet.  This illustrates the influence of the pelvis on your posture.  If it naturally sits toward one of these ends of the extremes then it may cause faulty alignment in the spine, shoulder girdle, hip, knee, ankle foot……pretty much anywhere.

Why does posture get out of line?

There are many answers, but in addition to the demands of climbing, a key area to focus on is our daily actions and activities.  Do we have an occupation in which we have a repetitive movement, is there heavy lifting involved, do we play a one-side dominant sport?  A classic example is a checkout assistant, who may repetitively move a weight (groceries) from their left to right all day.  This twisting motion may cause a muscular imbalance and the person is left with a twisted posture as they are being pulled out of line.

Further causes of poor posture can be from any of the influences listed above.  For example, healed tissue following an injury may have more tension and create postural changes.  Scar tissue is not quite as good at the job as the tissue that was there previous to the injury. Pain can bring about compensatory patterns that change structure and movement patterns.  Jaw alignment (TMJ) can lead to postural shifts in other areas of the body.  To suggest just a few.

Enhancing Posture

There are many approaches to enhancing posture and many therapies that contribute.  During the workshops at Durham Climbing Centre and in the Climbing Conditioning Program eBook, I have mapped out all the exercises and techniques for enhancing your posture. These are the general steps we are looking to implement:

1. Lengthen tight muscles to improve muscle balance
2. Strengthen weak muscles to improve muscle balance
3. Create a functional and activated core
4. Increase endurance of postural muscles
5. Re-learn functional movement patterns
6. Train strong movements for daily/sporting requirements

Phase 1 is a great time to make as much progress on your posture as possible, but it really is an ongoing element of your conditioning and depends on your individual postural requirements.  Thank you for reading this excerpt of the book.

Attend Phase 2 Workshop, on November 16^th 2011

Durham Climbing Centre hosts the Climbing Conditioning Workshops, with the attendees ready for Phase 2 on Wednesday 16^th November, 2011.  To follow the program in full, watch this space for more articles, follow the facebook page, purchase the Program in the full eBook and hopefully I’ll see you at the Climbing Centre.

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7 Steps to get the most out of the Program

Climbing Conditioning Program 2011 - Phase 1 and 2 Insight

Column #131, 29th October 2011

Climbing Conditioning is all about putting something in place that enables you to climb more, recover quicker, prevent injury and get great results.  The Climbing Conditioning Program is written to try to encompass all the elements that go towards achieving this.  Currently, at Durham Climbing Centre, the conditioning workshops have just started – so here’s some input on Phase 1 and 2.

The Benefits of Following a Conditioning Program?

Follow a program that supports all your climbing coaching, training and technique work

Six Exercise and Strength Programs progressively designed for you.

Attend the six practical workshops at Durham Climbing Centre.

A comprehensive Six-Month program to follow week-by-week

Find out how to prevent and manage injuries.

Learn easy and effective recovery strategies.

Customised Nutrition for your individual requirements.

Phase 1:  Create a Foundation and Correct Imbalances

In the first sixty pages of the program book I discuss the principles behind why in Phase 1 it is essential to put steps in place to create a foundation.  Critically, this is the solid foundation on which you will build your climbing performance.  This is not just a convenient metaphor – it is true for all sports and even activities in daily life.  Put simply, our sport in which we want to excel may be climbing, football, surfing or rugby for example, yet there is one thing that is common to all of these sports.  Us.  We are all human beings, with pretty much the same physical structure, anatomy, mechanics, biochemistry and function.

A Solid Foundation

An obvious statement I know, but an extremely common mistake many climbers make is that they get sports specific way before they have mastered the fundamental elements of function. Here are 2 major Problems that can occur due to neglecting your foundation:

1. Lowering your ceiling of potential:  This means that you can improve your sports specific performance, but you have capped it artificially low from the beginning.  Spending time on your foundation at the beginning raises the ceiling of potential.
2. Injury: Imposing the extremely challenging and specific physical and mental factors on your body and mind requires an underpinning function that prevents injury.  Your training should be finely balanced to get the most out of your climbing performance, whilst ensuring you don’t get injured (or at least limiting the occurrence).

Correcting Imbalances

A body with optimal balance leads to optimal function.  This refers to structural and physiological balance as opposed to the balance required to stand on one leg for example.  Imbalances involve such things as tight muscles, weak muscles, postural distortion, injury, pain, low energy levels, dehydration, stress, limited movement patterns and many other factors that bring the body out of balance and optimal function.

Here are some of the elements of function that underpin the Phase 1 objectives of creating a foundation and correcting balance:

• Posture
• Flexibility
• Core Function
• Movement Patterns
• Pain and Injury Free
• Hydration
• Correct Breathing Patterns
• Sleep and Circadian Rhythm
• Optimal Hormonal, Immune, Digestion and Detoxification health.

What is included in the Phase 1 Program to get these results?

• An Understanding of the Demands of Climbing and Bouldering
• Assessments
• A Corrective Exercise Program
• Lengthen the Tight Muscles
• Strengthen the Weak Muscles
• Core Conditioning
• An Integrative Performance Model based on holistic principles (including nutrition, hydration, sleep and repair, mental emotional link and much more)

Phase 2:  Enhance Movement and Become Injury Proof

Depending on individual requirements, Phase 1 may require a lot or a little focus.  Once balance and function has been enhanced, you are ready for Phase 2.  There is a workshop on Wednesday 16^th November at Durham Climbing Centre to be coached the full Phase 2 Strength and Exercise Program.

The objectives of Phase 2 are:

1. Enhance Movement Patterns
2. Learn how to Prevent Injury
3. Learn about Sleep, Repair and Recovery Strategies.

Alongside your climbing and indoor wall training, this phase will ensure that you improve the movement patterns that you designed to perform as a human being, together with an appreciation of how this affects climbing performance.  We must be strong and effective in these movement patterns:

• Push
• Pull
• Squat
• Lunge
• Bend
• Twist
• Gait / Walking

This Phase also introduces the shoulder girdle injury prevention exercises.  It is a great idea for a climber to have a selection of shoulder exercises that can be progressed and changed as appropriate.  Complementing these with Thoracic Mobility exercises leads to better results as rotator cuff injury is often related to thoracic posture as opposed to shoulder function.

Please visit the website www.functionaltrainer.co.uk or email me if you would like any more information on implementing Phase 1 and 2 into your program

Attend Phase 2 Workshop, on November 16^th 2011

Durham Climbing Centre hosts the Climbing Conditioning Workshops that start on Wednesday 16^th November, 2011.  To follow the program in full, watch this space for more articles, follow the facebook page, purchase the Program in the full eBook and hopefully I’ll see you at the Climbing Centre.

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The Right and Left Brain

Watch this video where renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains how our 'divided brain' has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society.

BackCare Awareness Week

Column #130, 15th October 2011

This week is BackCare Awareness Week (October 17^th-23^rd 2011).  The focus this year is on School Children and their teachers.  88% of school teachers are experiencing back pain around once a week and it is thought that overweight school bags and poorly-designed chairs are causing future problems for young backs.  What are the causes, treatments and prevention for back pain?

A Holistic Approach to Back Care

Today we will broaden our scope and take a holistic approach to back pain.  We will go beyond the standard approach of just looking at various exercises and get down to other potential root causes and open out our ideas for a successful solution.

Back Pain Prevalence

Around 70% of the population suffer from low back pain in their lifetime and is the second most common (next to the common cold) reason for visits to the Doctor.  A Survey by www.backcare.org.uk discovered that 88% of primary school teachers experienced back pain, most at least once a week while working at school, and 70% had sought medical treatment.

Their back problems were caused by “bending down to low tables (91%), sitting on children’s chairs (85%), and kneeling at low tables or on the floor (71%).”

Back Pain Rehabilitation

If you are a school teacher and suffer these challenges, what approach did you take to eliminate the pain?  Often the reply will be that therapeutic exercise solved the problem.  Indeed, this is an essential part of the puzzle, but there are many other factors that can get to the root cause and support your recovery.

Individuality of Back Pain

The fact is that there is never a one-size-fits-all remedy for everyone.  Whether you are a teacher, manual labourer, lawyer, or personal trainer, each person has his or her own unique answer to taking the pain away and getting back to full function.  Often the journey back to ‘pain free’ is hindered and regressed by doing whatever seemed to work for someone else, like a particular exercise or applying an ice pack or heat pad.  If you find out the individual cause of your back pain then you will have an individual treatment approach.

Assess for Success

The key to success is to assess.  When you see a specialist who can identify the mechanics of the back pain and then look into further factors, then you are equipped with the knowledge of where to start and what to do about it.  This is motivating and confidence building and has an extremely positive effect on the speed and outcome of your rehabilitation.

Holistic Approach to Chronic Back Pain

Holistic means that we will view things as a whole.  In the case of health and fitness, we will look at the whole individual.  Only when we do this and acknowledge that the human body is a system of systems (musculoskeletal, digestive, respiratory etc) that all affect each other, will we really reach our true potential.  Some health practitioners state that an imbalance in one system will affect the others and any number of symptoms will arise.  If you suffer from chronic back pain here are some influential factors; mechanics of the injury, the respiratory system, jaw (TMJ) and cranial (skull) alignment, vision and hearing, organ health and emotions.

Whilst this is in no way diagnostic and you should always consult your GP first, these are important areas to consider as causes of back pain:

• The Mechanics of the Injury.  What is going on at the joint, spinal, neural, muscular level?  Do you know whether you are dealing with for example, pain at the sacroiliac joint (very base of spine) or with a disc problem in the lumbar (lower) spine?  Once this is identified you are a long way to deciding the best method of treatment.  If this pain is not acute and has been building up over a long time (chronic), then the whole body must be assessed.  As an example, at Functional Health and Performance when we thoroughly assess, the cause of the problem is often found not at the site of pain.  An old ankle sprain or hamstring strain may well be influencing the function of the back and need conditioning to alleviate the pain.
• The Respiratory system.  Often underestimated, your breathing pattern will have a major impact on the function of your back/spine.  The diaphragm is deeply attached to the spine and when it is not moving smoothly, stabilizing correctly or there is chronic tension, there will be stress or compensatory movement patterns that can cause dysfunction.  In addition as breathing helps maintain the acid/alkaline balance in the body, its balance is essential to create a healing environment.
• Jaw (TMJ) and Cranial (skull) alignment.  We bite down (masticate) around 4,000 times per day and this represents a huge amount of faulty recruitment if the jaw is misaligned.   Given that the body regards the head and this joint so important, if there are problems, there will likely be compensatory patterns from below the head down.  Hence if the spine or pelvis tilts, rotates, bends in an attempt to help the above problem then we may suffer pain somewhere below.  This pain however, is considered a best-case scenario until the jaw alignment is restored.
• Vision and Hearing.  As greatly utilised sense systems, it has been observed that certain dysfunctions in hearing and eyesight can affect the posture and alignment of the body.
• Our Organ health, such as our digestive system, liver and bladder, will impact on the levels of inflammation and strength of the body, causing pain to joints and tissues in some cases.
• Emotions can play a significant part in our physical health as well as our mental health.

These are purely examples of how getting to the root cause can alleviate back pain.  Hopefully your pain is quickly and easily sorted, but if you find that it is persistent and chronic and you have been passed from practitioner to practitioner, then consider how taking a holistic approach could be the answer.

Climbing Conditioning Program 2011 - How To Build a Climbing Conditioning Program

Column #129, 1st October 2011

During the winter season climbers flock to the indoor walls across the region.  Over the next few months there will be an intense focus on training for climbing fitness, including new challenges, competitions and a greater volume and frequency of training.  Just like any other sport, this requires a certain amount of conditioning to prevent injury and continue the enhanced performance levels.  2010 witnessed the first winter series of Climbing Conditioning Workshops at Durham Climbing Centre and in October (19^th 2011) they return, revamped and ready to deliver a Six-Month Training Program.

What is “Climbing Conditioning”

In the North East we are lucky enough to have a fantastic range of indoor facilities that accommodate bouldering and sport climbing alike, a wide range of age-groups, individual and group coaching and frequent route-changing.  Whilst some climbers prefer the conditions on the rock during the cooler months, the diminishing daylight hours makes the indoor walls all the more welcome.

As a movement therapist and strength and conditioning coach I regard climbing as one of the most beneficial activities to participate in.  Especially from an early age.  The very nature of climbing brings with it certain physical and mental challenges.  After all we are looking to work with and conquer the rock with some problem solving and determination.  It is essential that we have everything in place necessary to; continue our progress and enhance our performance, prevent potential climbing injuries, maintain motivation, correct imbalances, recover quickly and complement our efforts.

The truth is that the best way to get better at climbing is to…………Climb.  Simple, without it you won’t improve and getting individual coaching is a superb way to drive this forward.  However, my experience of working with climbers for the past 18months is that there are a few conditioning factors that appear to be barriers and hurdles to being able to climb, climb and climb some more.  Climbing Conditioning is all about having a program that enables you to prevent and break down all these barriers and allow you to achieve your climbing performance goals.

Lessons learnt from 2010

Last winter the Climbing Conditioning Workshops included the topics; shoulder girdle function, advanced stretching techniques, squatting techniques, posture, movement assessment, core function, nutrition, injuries and recovery strategies.  I presented these as what I felt were key topics for climbers to apply quickly and effectively.  Here are the top 5 lessons I learnt from this superb experience:

1. Don’t take offence, but all climbers appear to be carrying an injury, or two, or five.
2. “Why don’t you try to take some time off climbing to let your body recover and injuries heal?” – Climbers have selective hearing and will not hear this sentence.
3. Hence, developing techniques and strategies that do not impact on time spent on the rock/wall are key to success.
4. Show a climber something that works and they will dedicate themselves to it until it is aced.
5. Each of these stand-alone topics would be more effective as an all-in-one resource with a flow from start to end.

Why do you need a Conditioning Program?

I believe the Climbing Conditioning Program will provide any climber with vital resources for success.  Here are the ways in which it will benefit you:

• You get a program and resource that backs up and supports all your climbing coaching and technique work during the winter
• Six Exercise and Strength Programs progressively designed for you
• Attend the six practical workshops at Durham Climbing Centre
• A comprehensive Six-Month program to follow week-by-week
• Find out how to prevent and manage injuries
• Learn easy and effective recovery strategies
• Customised Nutrition for your individual requirements
• There is no other resource that offers this unique combination of resources and services

October 19^th 2011

Durham Climbing Centre hosts the Climbing Conditioning Workshops that start on Wednesday 19^th October, 2011.  To follow the program in full, watch this space for more articles, follow the facebook page, purchase the Program in the full eBook and hopefully I’ll see you at the Climbing Centre.

Facebook Page - Climbing Conditioning