My diet's better than your diet

Posted by Nell Mead at 09:00 on 13 Feb 2012

A guest post from Victory's resident performance nutrition therapist, Dr Justin Roberts.

Wherever I go, I am baffled by the sheer number of opinions out there. “This diet is better than that diet”; “this supplement will get faster results that the next one on the shelf at half the price” and so on. But the bottom line is that we are all individual, all physiologically and biochemically unique.  Our individual digestive and metabolic processes influence how we break down and use the foods we eat. Our respective goals vary from person to person: Bob may be looking to lose weight, Jenny to gain muscle mass, Mary to simply improve health. In other words, your optimal approach to eating patterns, nutrients and intake will be completely different to that of Frank from Accounts (who's just told you about this awesome new diet he's trying...?), so any good nutrition programme should be individually tailored.

At Victory, each programme we run is designed to be individual in nature, specific to your unique objectives and goals. Whilst there are of course overlapping principles that apply to most of us, the aim of the nutrition consultation is to firstly assess your current health status, dietary practices, nutritional habits and personal goals. What is it that you wish to achieve? Underlying this is the key need to work closely with your general practitioner or medical consultant should specific conditions warrant this.

Before I even meet you, I'll ask you to complete a set of questionnaires designed to assess your background health, nutrition habits, related conditions, underlying concerns or symptoms, the foods you eat and the supplements you take. If you are an athlete, these will include questions about your sport, your training and performance practices and current objectives. Additionally, as part of the first consultation, I will analyse your diet to assess your current practice more objectively.

When I meet you, I will discuss your goals and objectives with you and produce a specific programme to help you achieve them. Typically, I will take some body composition measurements before you start the programme, so that we can assess the programme's effectiveness as you go through it. I can also help if you need any further diagnostic procedures or testing.

The aim of any applied nutrition programme should be:
1) To assess for any underlying medical conditions or concerns that may require additional support from your GP or medical consultant
2) To assess for potential nutrient deficiencies, dietary imbalances and wholefood requirements in conjunction with your overall goals
3) To provide a structured programme over a sensible time period, with regular assessment and monitoring, as well as personal support and motivation to help you achieve your goals
4) To provide on-going recommendations to adapt and tailor your programme specific to your situation and needs.

Essentially, I aim to offer you a top-quality, structured programme designed to help you achieve your health and fitness goals.

Things I can help you with:

Goals:
• Weight loss
• Increased muscle mass
• Improve energy, vitality and stamina
• Improved concentration and mental performance
• Improved peak performance at work
• Personal exercise and athletic performance
• Sports nutrition strategies for marathon and endurance events
• Sports nutrition strategies for power and strength sports
• Improve recovery and sleep
• Improve digestion and wellness

Health problems:
• Identification of any risk factors
• Tiredness and stress
• Poor quality sleep or recovery from exercise
• Poor concentration, lethargy
• High or low blood pressure
• Diabetes or blood sugar imbalances
• Skin related problems
• Weight gain
• Elevated cholesterol

Justin is available at Victory on Wednesday evenings.  To book your appointment, please contact us here, or e-mail Sarah Harvey.

Victory for Men's Health

Posted by Nell Mead at 09:00 on 6 Feb 2012

Half a lifetime ago, I fell in love with a young man who used to like telling me about health and fitness.  Ever the observant girlfriend, I fairly soon noticed in his bedroom copies of popular magazine Men's Health: my amour's goal, it seemed, was to be a cover model. 

A short while into our relationship, however, his words of wisdom dried up.  This may have been because I began buying my own copies of Men's Health, reading them faster than he did (I had to sit through physics lessons; he at a couple of years older had an actual job) and then quoting the articles at him.  He had nothing more to say.  We didn't last long, and he never did become a cover model, which is a shame, as he had lovely abs.

Not being their target audience, I hadn't picked up a copy since then; but if you are a MH aficionado, you'll know that on a semi-regular basis, they set their journalists physical challenges, which they then have to complete and write about for the amusement and edification of their readership.  The current such challenge is for two ectomorphic journalists, both coincidentally called Ed, to compete for the most impressive "transformation" with a personal trainer.  In effect, the trainers are competing to make the greatest difference to their clients.

And this is how I came to meet Ed Reeves, or "Big Ed" as he is affectionately known to readers of MH.  Ed has been working with top Foundry trainer and former Olympian Sarah Lindsay since the start of January, trying to pack on enough muscle in three months to beat "Little Ed" Vanstone, who is himself working with MH cover model and trainer Olly Foster.

Big Ed somehow bypassed our usual pre-training musculoskeletal assessment; but given that he has never trained before, and with a pretty dodgy starting posture and various underlying issues, it wasn't a huge surprise to anyone other than himself when he broke down and found himself being poked and prodded by me and by Victory's osteopath Ray Yong.

I'll not go into details of what we saw and found - medical confidentiality being pretty important to both me and Ray! - but suffice to say that we were both able to offer suggestions of diagnosis and treatment.  Ray is a fan of acupuncture, and I'm a fan of the Sarah Key method; I think Ed would have been happy with either (and either would have been effective) but as Ray was heading home, I treated Ed myself.  And he seems quite happy with the results!

Having said that, Ed was lucky to recover so quickly.  If you are thinking of embarking on a new training regime, it really is sensible to get checked out beforehand.  I don't just mean the usual GP checkup for blood pressure, though if you're seriously out of shape, of course that is important.  But from an injury perspective, or rather from an injury avoidance perspective, it is worth getting a good pre-training musculoskeletal assessment with a therapist who is familiar with the demands of personal training and who will talk to your trainer.  Our assessments help the Foundry's trainers to personalise their clients' programmes, adding in specific corrective exercises and avoiding anything that's likely to be detrimental.  Most of our clients have relatively sedentary jobs, or jobs that involve repetitive movements - I've lost count of the clients I've described as "chair-shaped" over the past year - and corrective exercises, particularly using the back block as an "anti-sitting" device, really do make a difference and help them to avoid injury.

If you're thinking of starting a course of personal training, whether at The Foundry or elsewhere, it's worth getting yourself checked out. We're not the only option, but we're pretty experienced and we're happy to talk to your trainer - what have you got to lose?  Contact us for your 30-minute MOT!

Depression in sport: Dr Victor Thompson on BBC Radio 5 Live

Posted by Nell Mead at 12:59 on 9 Dec 2011

After I published yesterday's post by our performance psychologist Dr Victor Thompson, he dropped me a line in the evening to let me know that he was due to broadcast from the BBC Radio 5 Live studio later, discussing the issue of depression in sport with presenter Eleanor Oldroyd, former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan and Chairman of the Management Committee of the Professional Footballers' Association. Clarke Carlisle.

I listened, and found the programme really interesting. But in case you missed it, below is a link to the podcast - the programme started at 9.30pm and Victor's involvement began at 10.

Depression in Sport: Radio 5 Live Special Programme

“How on earth could he be depressed?” Why footballers can hit rock bottom.

Posted by Nell Mead at 15:15 on 8 Dec 2011

Victory's performance psychologist Dr Victor Thompson was recently asked by Channel 4 to comment on the death of ex-Wales football international and Wales football team manager Gary Speed, who was found hanged at his home on 27 November.  Here, Victor reflects further on the factors that can send sportsmen into depression.

----------

The tragic news towards the end of November that Gary Speed had hung himself sent shockwaves through the football world and beyond. I have been asked to comment in the media on why a man with so much going for him would choose to end his own life. On the surface, it doesn’t seem to make any sense. Why would a man with a lovely wife, two young children, a multi-million pound house, a highly valued job, support from fans, a successful track record as a player and now as a manager, choose to end his life?

While I do not know details of Gary Speed’s life, his suicide does echo the story of Robert Enke, a goalkeeper, who played for various European teams as well as the German squad in Euro 2008. In November 2009, aged 32, Enke committed suicide when he stood in front of a train at a level crossing. He left a suicide note. Later, his widow revealed that her husband had been suffering from depression since 2003 and was treated by a psychiatrist. During this period his daughter, Lara, died of a heart defect and he struggled to cope with this loss. Enke’s story has been captured by his friend Ronaldo Deng, in the excellent book, A life too short.

Here are some stark statistics on the extent of the problem:

• Depression is common, affecting 8-12% of the population each year.
• It is more commonly diagnosed in women, but that may be mainly due to women being more likely to present for help and that doctors spot the signs in women.
• Suicide is the most common cause of death in men under 35 years of age.
• Approximately 5,500 people in the UK die from suicide each year.
• Men are three times as likely than women to die by suicide.

With professional football, we see players performing on the pitch or under the spotlight. There are pressures within the game, with struggles to gain and maintain form, challenges when out with injury. There can be difficulties with teammates and management. Critical ‘fans’ and comments in the media. Everyone seems to have an opinion on their performance.

Outside football these players can experience what anyone else can: problems at home, difficult relationships, loved ones who fall ill or other misfortune.

Then these players might have been on a likely path to experience psychological difficulties anyway, whether they were to grow up to become a footballer, tennis player, shop worker or unemployed. For instance, perhaps they were always an anxious child or someone who lacked self-belief.

A problem with depression is that when a person is struggling the most, when they would benefit most from help, they are least likely to reach out for help. The person’s outlook on life and the future is normally very bleak – pointless, hopeless, without change. At this point, suicide can become entertained as a way to stop the suffering or to solve the problem.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way: effective treatments exist for depression which can bring about improvements within days or a few weeks. I see sports and non-sports people every week, helping them to reclaim their life from the darkness of depression.

Teaching - the Sarah Key way

Posted by Nell Mead at 12:00 on 28 Nov 2011

Last year, Sarah Key invited me and nine other physiotherapists (all accredited practitioners of the Sarah Key Method, or APSKM) to a meeting at Highgrove, where she revealed that she was beginning to think about retirement and wanted us to consider taking on the legacy of teaching her courses in the future, and also that she was planning to write a textbook of her method for physiotherapists, to which she wants some of us to contribute. I understand that her popular books are already being studied in some schools of osteopathy, but she’s written nothing specifically for practitioners yet.

As experienced physiotherapists and enthusiastic practitioners of the SKM, we were all pretty flattered to be invited, and keen to get involved; and as Sarah has never let anyone else teach her courses before, we set out to train ourselves up. We’ve had help with this from Sarah herself, who has given us access to the PowerPoint presentations we’d be teaching, and also from her administrative staff Carmel, Ruve and Federica – and most of all from physiotherapist and researcher in spinal biomechanics Manos Stefanakis and his PhD supervisor, Professor Mike Adams who presented a superb lecture at our teacher training meeting at Kensington Palace in June.

We’ve all put in a lot of individual work into reading and absorbing reference papers, learning teaching and presenting skills; and meeting up on a regular basis to practise, update each other on the latest spinal research and discuss logistics, in Tetbury, Bristol, London and Belfast and during Skype-based conference calls.

And this month, we finally had the chance to put it all into practice as five of us took turns to teach the Sarah Key Masterclass 1 course at Highgrove.

With Sarah herself and Manos watching and assessing our teaching, we were all a little nervous; but the fifteen delegates were enthusiastic and the course went really well, with no real glitches. Everyone felt well prepared, and I think the work we’d put into learning and understanding the academic research behind the presentations really paid off. They do say that if you want to improve your knowledge of something, you should teach it; and that definitely rings true for me.

After the course, Manos took each of us aside to feed back on our performance, which was extremely helpful and reassuring as he felt we had all done well; but equally important and gratifying was the response from the delegates, who reported back with comments including:

• “enjoyable and helpful”,
• “I have honestly never been to such a good course before”
• “a fantastic few days”
• “a huge inspiration”
• “a really enjoyable 3 days of amazing learning and discussion”
• “your course has ignited my passion again... I can’t fully express to you my sense of relief and enlightenment”

Pretty awesome, huh?  Of course, the real credit goes to Sarah as it's her passion and years of work that underpin the Masterclass; but it's nice to hear that we managed to convey it successfully.

The next Sarah Key Masterclasses will be run in 2012 in Scotland and Northern Ireland, as we’re breaking away from just using Kensington Palace and Highgrove to make the courses more accessible. They’re open to physios and osteopaths. If you’re interested in attending, please contact Federica Bertolini at admin.uk@sarahkey.com.

*Picture taken by Manos Stefanakis of me standing on Sarah Key, at her 2010 Back in a Week course.
 

Shakespeare? What a pain!

Posted by Nell Mead at 15:48 on 19 Nov 2011

I was lucky enough taken to the Old Vic recently by an old friend, to see Kevin Spacey playing the lead role in Sam Mendes’ production of Richard III. I’m not generally a huge Shakespeare fan (memories of watching Macbeth at the National Theatre when I was studying it at GCSE put me off somewhat; and I found Jacobi’s Lear unconvincing this summer) nor am I a particular Spacey fan; but this show really blew me away. I was enthralled and barely glanced away from the stage for the entire three hours.

But three hours is an awfully long time for a man to play a twisted hunchback; the King is rarely offstage and the physicality of Spacey’s performance was quite extraordinarily compelling and consistent. He played a man in pain extremely convincingly; in fact I’d be amazed if he wasn’t genuinely in quite some significant pain by the end of the production, and I wonder if I was the only audience member relieved to see Richard hoisted aloft by his ankles at the end: at least he finally got some traction to relieve his poor, tortured spine!

After all, Kevin Spacey wouldn’t be the first actor to be left crippled by Shakespeare. I rather assume this story is apocryphal, or at least that the wording has been altered over the years; but according to Antony Sher’s “Year of the King”, at the end of the original production of Richard III, Burbage told Shakespeare “If you ever do that to me again, mate, I’ll kill you.” Somewhat later, in 1972, Robert Hirsch of the Comédie-Française apparently found some sort of solution: his Richard limped on alternate legs from night to night!

Simon Russell Beale managed a five-month run as Richard III in Mendes’ production for the RSC in 1993; but just three days after it transferred to the Donmar Warehouse, he was forced to retire and to have an operation on a prolapsed spinal disc. The same thing happened to David Tennant in 2008 during a run of Hamlet: after a successful summer run in Stratford-upon-Avon, the production moved to the Novello Theatre and Tennant ended up in surgery.

Given how slowly spinal discs go wrong, it seems unlikely that Shakespeare and his directors can be completely blamed for this spate of injuries to leading men. They probably had some degree of back pain before they took up their roles. However, there’s no doubt that the physical demands of playing a role which requires extreme postures to be maintained for prolonged periods, will cause a degree of soft tissue deformation and also of extreme concentrations of compressive stress on the spinal discs. Moving and changing position regularly causes compressive stresses to alter, and it is thought that this assists with disc nutrition (which is why it forms the basis of Sarah Key’s “pressure change therapy” theory); the reverse is also true, with prolonged relatively static postures, particularly extreme postures, effectively reducing the discs’ nutrient supply and causing damage.

So my pleasure in watching this extraordinary production was tempered somewhat by the thought of the damage the leading actor was doing to himself in his effort to provide a superb experience for the viewing audience. Mr Spacey, I do hope you have a good physio!
 

Phil's Sports Massage

Posted by Nell Mead at 16:33 on 26 Aug 2011

Hi everyone! I’m Phil – I used to be a Royal Marine, but now I’m just about to qualify as a sports massage therapist, and this is my first blog post for Victory. As a keen bean student, I’m turning into a bit of a sports massage geek and for my first post I thought I’d share some of the things I’m learning on my sports massage course. So, here we go: one crash course in sports and remedial massage therapy coming up!

What is it? It’s just massage. It’s been practiced and documented since the beginning of time. It’s still about because it works. As researchers have learned more and more about anatomy and general science, they’ve been able to tell us more about why it works – which has helped massage practitioners to develop a range of different techniques. Here are some of the techniques I apply here at Victory:

• Effleurage – large area strokes for warm up, prepping the soft tissues for deeper work
• Petrissage – kneading, further softening up a more specific area
• Friction – very deep technique used on a single point of scar tissue and adhesions
• Neuromuscular technique (NMT) – an extension of deep friction to release trigger points and other tension caused by the nervous system
• Muscle energy techniques (METs) – using the client’s own muscle energy to release tension and lengthen muscle fibres
• Tapotement – chopping and clapping for a pre-event wake up and energising
• Soft tissue release (STR) – a hybrid containing several other techniques for quick and effective release of soft tissue tension

Later in my course, I’m looking forward to learning more techniques such as connective tissue manipulation, strain-counter-strain and acupressure.

So why is it called *sports* massage? You don’t have to be an active sportsperson to have a sports massage. It’s just a phrase we use to distinguish the deeper, more treatment-based massage from a more superficial “relaxation” or “beauty” massage. Everybody uses their muscles and moves, and everybody has micro-traumas, tension, scarring, adhesions and trigger points in their tissues that can be released by the correct application of the techniques I’ve mentioned. Nine out of ten “sports injuries” are, after all, not as a direct result of the respective sport. They are a result of postural imbalances and pre-existing soft tissue problems in the participants’ bodies. The uncontrolled nature of many sports just turns these problems into acute injuries.

And why should I have a sports massage? Virtually every professional sportsperson incorporates regular sports massages into their training regime because it helps their performance, helps to prevent injury by maintaining soft tissue compliance, and improves their recovery. So if you’re serious about your training, maybe you should learn from the professionals. And if you’re not working hard in the gym, I’ll bet you’re working hard in the office. Humans really aren’t designed to sit on chairs and poke at computers all day, and our bodies develop tension and imbalances as a result. Sports massage – particularly when it’s combined with activities like yoga – can help to redress the balance and to keep you on top form for longer.

How is a Victory sports massage different from a spa massage? It’s easy to give a ‘nice relaxing’ pamper. On request, I’ll happily play ‘crashing waves’ on the iPod and leave you feeling sleepy and without a care in the world. However, I get my job satisfaction when a client stands up and the end of a treatment in a physically better state than when they walked in. You might well feel some discomfort when I’m applying deep friction and NMT, and I won’t give you a cup of green tea and a fuzzy robe at the end of it – but once I’m done with you, you’ll feel great, and I’ll recommend the most amazingly large burrito around the corner at Poncho’s.

Phil is available to provide sports massage at Victory on Friday afternoons, and at other times on request. You can follow his adventures on Twitter, and you can book an appointment with him here.
 

Victory's Flexible Friends

Posted by Nell Mead at 08:00 on 17 Aug 2011

For the past few weeks, as I’ve been working to turn Victory into a larger and more interdisciplinary practice, I’ve been having fun doing some “quality control” – making sure that the practitioners I want to be associated with Victory are at the top of their game. So, all in the name of benefiting you, the client, (naturally!), I’ve been swapping treatment sessions with Victory’s sports massage therapists, and with The Foundry’s trainers. I’ve not yet been disappointed, and I’m quite sure you won’t be either.

This past week, I’ve branched out a bit. Pilates teacher Laura Hogg used to work at The Foundry but has now set up her own, more spacious, centre just a few minutes away in Shoreditch. I’d been wanting to meet her for ages, so grabbed the opportunity when she rang to request some physio treatment, to ask if she’d be happy to swap sessions with me.

I’ve never really done much formal Pilates or yoga, though I’ve learned some of the basic exercises over the years as I’ve expanded my knowledge of physiotherapy and core control. But last week I Laura gave me my first Pilates lesson (which was excellent – highly recommended!); and this morning I also met her colleague Jo Lawson, a yoga teacher from New Zealand.

Both Laura and Jo are very bendy, which makes the shapes they can contort their bodies into really rather lovely to look at, and inspirational to try to replicate. But they’re also both very encouraging and sympathetic to those of us who are not quite as flexible. And – somehow – after repeating the moves a few times, I gradually felt myself becoming, if not quite graceful, then slightly less rusty!

One of Jo’s stretches, which we did when I mentioned an old shoulder injury, was completely new to me, and I thought it was brilliant so with her permission I’d like to share it with you. You may well need some assistance with this at first (I did!) but after a bit of practice it should get easier.

• To stretch your right shoulder, sit on the floor with your legs out straight in front of you and toes pointing at the ceiling. Pull your right foot all the way into your groin.

• Then reach your right arm out towards your left foot, making sure your right shoulder is inside your right knee.

• Next, twist your shoulder inwards so that your right thumb rotates anticlockwise towards the floor. Lean your upper body forward and reach your arm around your raised right knee, so that your hand reaches as far round your back as you can manage. You should feel an agreeable pull between your right shoulder blade and your spine, as your shoulder blade is pulled forward to accommodate your knee.

• Your next move is to reach round behind your back with your left hand, and try to grasp the fingers of your right hand with your left.

• Seen from behind, the stretch should ideally look like this.

• However, most of us won’t be quite that flexible, especially at first. So if your fingers can’t reach each other, you can hold a towel or strap in your hands, and gradually work your fingers closer together. At first you may need a helpful someone to place the strap or towel into your hands behind you.

Relax into the stretch for a couple of breaths, focusing on allowing your muscles to relax and lengthen. Then let go of your fingers, unwind and repeat on the other side.

When people ask me – as they frequently do – whether they should choose yoga or Pilates, I often respond somewhat glibly (and generally, I think, truthfully) that it doesn’t really matter which you do as long as you find a good teacher. Now, with Shoreditch Pilates and Primal Yoga round the corner, I’m delighted to be able to say that I think I’ve found excellent teachers for both disciplines, and I’ll definitely be going back for more: see you in class!

*Thanks to Jo for kindly agreeing to model at a moment's notice!

Victory at The Foundry

Posted by Nell Mead at 08:00 on 8 Aug 2011

For us at Victory - well, ok, maybe just for me - today is a hugely exiting and momentous day.  And why, might you ask, would that be?  Well, partly because I left the Army exactly a year ago today.  But also because the lovely directors of The Foundry, Dave, Helen and Graeme, asked me a little while ago if I'd like to set up a proper rehabilitation centre in their premises.  So from today, Victory is officially a full-time entity, with two therapy rooms, in the one location - hurrah!

I, my dad and my lovely friends Claire and Jono have spent the weekend repainting the therapy rooms, and you'll also see logos appearing over the next few weeks and a bit more clinic furniture.  Dave's also suggested holding a launch party - definitely something to think about in the near future!

In the mean time, I'd like to introduce you briefly to a few of the characters you might meet when you come to Victory.  When I get a chance, I'll blog properly about each of them - this really is just a very brief hello.

Sarah Harvey is my lovely PA.  She keeps me on track with all the myriad things I'm supposed to do but keep forgetting.  She organises the team's diaries and makes sure I don't double book myself and do remember to pay bills and invoice clients.  If you ever need to contact anyone about the administrative side of Victory, or to arrange an appointment, Sarah's your girl - e-mail her here.

Dr Victor Thompson is a clinical psychologist who specialises in sports and performance.  I met Victor nearly ten years ago when I became interested in sports psychology as a way of improving my results on the tennis court.  After four hours with Victor I won 20 tennis matches in a row, and I've been recommending him ever since.  At the moment, he consults with me on clients who have an emotional, psychological or stress-related component to their physical pain; so far this has been very successful and I look forward to being able to offer this service more frequently in the future.

Jake Thackray is a former Physical Training Instructor in the Royal Navy and is still a serving policeman.  He's been working at The Foundry for some time now as a specialist in sports massage and remedial therapy, and will continue his sports massage work with Victory.  At the moment he is mainly available on Monday evenings but over the next few months he will hopefully be around more regularly.

Busy bee Sarah Franklin is - by day - a fitness manager at Virgin Active Moorgate; but she is also qualified in sports massage therapy, and is available to see clients at Victory some evenings and weekends.  Although she has been working at The Foundry for some time, Sarah and I haven't yet swapped treatments (something I like to do regularly with all the Victory therapists) but I hear great things and am really looking forward to it.

Flight Sergeant Paul "Spot" Leppard leads the multidisciplinary Spines Team at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, Headley Court.  A qualified Exercise Rehabilitation Instructor (ERI), he also received his BSc in Sports Studies from the University of Wolverhampton in 2003.  He is available in the evenings and at weekends to provide exercise therapy for clients with back pain and spinal injuries.

Graduate Sports Rehabilitator Cat Cornwell is also currently working at Headley Court as a civilian ERI specialising in complex trauma.  She holds bachelors degrees in Sports Rehabilitation and Sports & Exercise Science, and is currently working towards an MSc in Neuromusculoskeletal Healthcare.  Last month she was also part of the Team True Spirit squad of Headley Court patients and staff to complete the Iron Man UK Triathlon.  With a very solid history of working with high level sportspeople including GB Women's Basketball squad, Cat is definitely the girl to take you from getting over an injury to being ready to start full-on personal training.  She is available in the evenings and at weekends.

Ryan Walsh is a former member of the Parachute Regiment and of the Army Rugby team - and is now a professional boxer - see him in action here.  He's a qualified Personal Trainer who has worked with Bath Rugby and was seen on the 2010/11 School of Hard Knocks series on Sky Sports One.  I've known Ryan since he was 17 and was surprised when he called to tell me he had qualified as a sports massage therapist; but even more surprised when he proved to be really rather good at it, with a good range of techniques and an instinctive touch.  You really can't teach someone to have good hands!

Former Royal Marine Phil McDougall is currently in the process of completing his Level 5 Sports Massage qualification at the London School of Sports Massage, and is due to start training at the British School of Osteopathy in September.  A thoughtful and instinctive therapist who is keen to learn, Phil will be available on Friday afternoons, and on other days by prior arrangement.  Given the famed rivalry between the Paras and the Marines, I'm intrigued to see how Phil gets on with Ryan...!

Capt Harold Ackroyd and Maj William Allen were the first two members of the Royal Army Medical Corps to be awarded the Victoria Cross.  Sarah suggested that we should name our therapy rooms in their honour - so we have.  For those who are familiar with Victory's layout, Ackroyd faces you when you reach the bottom of the stairs, and Allen is on the left.

Finally, there's Starvin' Marvin (on the right) - the leanest member of Victory.  He was named on 2 Feb after The Foundry held a Facebook competition.  He hangs around generally looking like a bit of a cool dude, and is always available to show you what bones look like and how joints should work.

The only down side to this is that - with not enough hours in the day - I'm having to give up my clinic at The Back Shop.  But the staff are great, and I still really rate the equipment they sell (particularly the Mobiliser!) and their ergonomic assessments, so I have no intention of losing touch with them completely.

Right - that's it, I've said enough.  You've met the gang: what are you waiting for? Come on in and meet us: get in touch to book that appointment you've been needing for ages....!

The problem with leg raises

Posted by Nell Mead at 09:50 on 3 Aug 2011

I went to my usual circuit training session the other day, run by British Military Fitness.  It's a lot of fun: a fairly tough workout with a lot of cameraderie and competition, and outwardly no-nonsense (but actually very humorous) instructors.  They will push you as hard as you want to be pushed, and often very slightly harder.

I love the sessions; but as a punter, you have to remember that most instructors aren't psychic. They will always ask if you have an injury, and will always offer alternative exercises, but they can only help you if you tell them that there is a problem.  This is something that can be tricky unless you are quite confident in your own body and its capabilities (not something I generally struggle with too much, but I've had a lot of practice!).  It's easy to let your competitive side take over, and to start competing in exercises you're not familiar with.  Consequently your form can go to pot as you try to complete that 20th rep before the guy next to you: if you're doing a demanding exercise, that's an easy way to get injured.

One of the exercises I really dislike in that situation is the leg raise, where you lie on your back with your feet together and wave your legs in the air, with an obtuse angle at the hips.  It's an exercise that's supposed to work the lower abdominals and tone the tummy.

The reason I dislike this exercise so much is that the majority of people find it tough to control their torsos in this position.  I have a strong back and good awareness of trunk control, but in this position I find it really hard to stop my low back from arching.  That's because the hip flexor muscle psoas major is being put under a lot of stress to control the momevent of your legs at the hips.  Psoas starts at the sides of your lumbar vertebrae (T12 to L5 to be precise) and goes down to the lesser trochanter of the femur.  When it contracts, these bones are pulled together.

When your back is being correctly stabilised (by, among other muscles, lumbar multifidus and the deep abdominals), the spine is braced to pull your femur forwards and up, so your hip flexes and your legs move up and down.  That's the plan; so far, so good. 

But when your back isn't correctly stabilised - either because of weakness or pain around the low back, or because you're focusing on banging the numbers out rather than on protecting your back properly - your low back can arch and the vertebrae shear forwards towards your hip rather than your hip moving towards your spine in a controlled manner.  I've mentioned forward shear as a bad thing before, when I talked about spondylolisthesis.  So with 80% of the population suffering from back pain at some point during their lives, I'd suggest avoiding this exercise if possible, not because it is intrinsically bad but because many people will do it badly, particularly in a competitive setting.

A good alternative exercise, which will strengthen the deep abdominals safely, is the reverse curl.  Lie on your back with your hips flexed to 90 degrees.  Your knees can be bent or straight, but your hips must not drop below 90 degrees throughout the exercise.  Using your abdominal muscles, pull your legs towards you so that your bottom lifts off the ground.  Hold for a second, then lower it slowly back to the starting position.  If you feel that your back wants to arch as you return to the start, try putting your hands or fists under your bottom (not your back) as this will encourage you to keep your low back in contact with the ground at all times.  This way you will still be working your lower abdominals and your psoas, but there will be no risk of a shearing force damaging your back.

I should mention that after quietly explaining my concerns about this exercise to the excellent BMF instructor, she asked me to show the class and to post about it on the BMF Facebook page.  So Annie, this one's for you!