Evolve Sports Therapy & Nutrition

05/09/2019

My client is fighting on a big undercard in just over 2 weeks time!

If you are interested in tickets, send us a message!

Not long until I’m back under the lights.

Not long until I’m getting another win.

Not long until I’m representing my country, my family & my town.

Not long until I’m back 😬

📍O2 indigo
📅 September 20th
🎫 £30,£50 & £100 balcony seating

19/08/2019

You may have heard stories about cars with over 250,000 miles on them running better than your brand new car you drove off the forecourt a week ago. Those car’s long, healthy lives are due to their owners regularly checking fluid levels, rotating tyres, and making sure they have all the other basic routine maintenance work that most of us ignore until it’s an absolute must. Equally, there are a number of reasons why some people are able to train/compete at a high level for many more years than most, with fewer injuries. It could be put down to a great coach with a good training routine, genes or simply knowledge of when to rest. Another factor, like the car owner, is regular maintenance work, i.e. sports massage.

Firstly, you don’t have to be a athlete to benefit from sports massage. This is a common misconception; sports massage therapy refers to the deep, firm mobilisation techniques used on the tissue. It helps relax over worked muscles and helps them release waste products. It also benefits people who suffer occupation problems. Lack of movement can be as damaging as excessive movement; encouraging muscle shortening, slowing the flow of blood and increasing areas of tension. Sports massage is very different from the relaxation techniques that most people associate with massage.

Sports massage has many of the same benefits as stretching, helping to increase blood flow to the muscles, break down scar tissue and stimulate nerve endings. It also encourages tissue healing by aiding the realignment of damaged fibres, which ultimately improves your muscular function. It is the quality of rest that is the key to effective training, regular treatment can be a great addition to your training routine.

Most sports require good flexibility; however stretching exercises alone aren’t always fully effective due to range restriction at your joints. For example, your elbow joint cannot extend beyond 180 degrees (unless you suffer with hyper mobility, post to follow), which doesn’t fully stretch all muscle fibres in the bicep. Where an injury can sometimes effect only a small part of a muscle, the majority of fibres are actually able to stretch sufficiently to accommodate the full range without really having any effect on the area in question. Sports massage techniques are able to target and stretch specific areas of tissue, irrespective of range of movement.

The greatest benefits from sports massage, like stretching, comes from doing it regularly, even if your muscles don’t feel sore or tight. Taking cost into consideration, to get any real benefits you should go at least every 4-6 weeks, less than this is often like starting all over again with your progress. A very effective way to avoid becoming injured is to be consistent in your flexibility program, which should include sports massage, as is one of the most powerful tools for improving muscle elasticity

23/07/2019

HIIT and how to get the most from it.

As you probably know by now, HIIT is High Intensity Interval Training. HIIT consists of phases of high intensity work, followed by phases of moderate or low intensity recovery. The duration of and number of rounds/recovery phases you perform will depend on your fitness level and training goals. Unfortunately, there are many ways to do HIIT wrong, which not only leads to injury and fatigue but also prevents you from achieving your goals. This can be something as simple as wearing the wrong trainers, to something slightly more complex like not using your work:rest ratios effectively.

When training HIIT, science suggests that the range of work and recovery for each interval be 15 seconds up to 2-3 minutes in duration for your average person. The internet is littered with workouts that have poor and just plain unsafe work:rest ratios! People seem to hear “high intensity” and then totally forget about the interval part, which is crucial for your body to get into the “fat burning zone”. Rest time also allows you time to get your breath back, as well as hydrate before your next interval.

Below is an example of a 20 week progressive programme for a beginner:

(Beginners) 1:3 Ratio

Week 1: 15 seconds work: 45 seconds rest

Week 2: 20 seconds work: 60 seconds rest

Week 3: 30 seconds work: 90 seconds rest

Week 4: 30 seconds work: 90 seconds rest

(Progression) 1:2 Ratio

Week 5: 15 seconds work: 30 seconds rest

Week 6: 20 seconds work: 40 seconds rest

Week 7: 30 seconds work: 60 seconds rest

Week 8: 30 seconds work: 60 seconds rest

(Progression) 1:1 Ratio

Week 9: 15 seconds work: 15 seconds rest

Week 10: 20 seconds work: 20 seconds rest

Week 11: 30 seconds work: 30 seconds rest

Week 12: 45 seconds work: 45 seconds rest

(Progression) 2:1 Ratio

Week 13: 30 seconds work: 15 seconds rest

Week 14: 40 seconds work: 20 seconds rest

Week 15: 60 seconds work: 30 seconds rest

Week 16: 90 seconds work: 45 seconds rest

(Progression) 3:1 Ratio

Week 17: 30 seconds work: 10 seconds rest

Week 18: 45 seconds work: 15 seconds rest

Week 19: 60 seconds work: 20 seconds rest

Week 20: 90 seconds work: 30 seconds rest

Personally, I’ve been doing HIIT for a long time, I built myself up, but even now I stick to these ratios consistently during my HIIT sessions, even if I increase the timings. If I do a 6 minute work, I’ll do a 2 minute rest.

Another common mistake I see in HIIT is form. As we all already know, form is of great importance to me. If you don’t want to spend time with me in clinic with an injury, slow yourself down and make sure you are hitting each repetition perfectly! Too often I see people so focused on high intensity, they actually forget that bad form can put strain on your joints, work muscle groups that aren’t being targeted (potentially leading to an instability) and make you susceptible to injury!

If you aren’t comfortable with HIIT, if ratios are too complicated, if it causes you any physical pain or you just don’t look forward to the workout, there are plenty of other options worth exploring that will get you the results you want. As with any exercise, if you don’t enjoy it, you won’t stick to it!

02/06/2019

Whether you’re a professional athlete, an amateur or you exercise recreationally, it’s important to stay hydrated, particularly as the warmer weather is coming around. Adequate hydration means your body getting the right amount of water before, during, and after training!

Connective tissues such as ligaments, tendons and collagen fibres are home to the bulk of the body’s water. As we lose the water in these tissues, due to poor diet, dehydration, lifestyle choices and just generally aging, we become more prone to injuries and inflammation.

Let’s look at joints as an example, water makes up nearly 95% of your synovial fluid, this is your joints lubricant, protecting your joints and also helping to remove the toxins. When your body becomes dehydrated, it’s basic defence mechanism, is to start pinching water from places it deems less important, including your joints 🙄 this allows toxins to hang around uninterrupted, causing pain and inflammation, as well as the lack of a lubricant risking damage to the joint itself!

The bottom line is, optimum hydration levels are paramount for a healthy body. Water is the key ingredient in making our body’s function properly. If you’re not hydrated, your body can’t perform at its highest level.
Please, do not neglect water, particularly not during training!

27/02/2019

How can we help you?

16/02/2019

We will have another one of these tonight 🙌🏻 Good luck to my awesome client fighting at tonight! Smashed his training and nutrition! Bring it home superstar 😍

07/02/2019

Running the marathon this year?

Evolve sports therapy are offering 10% off of sports massage treatments for this year’s participants to help boost your training!

Train smart and make sports massage therapy part of your marathon training plan.
Contact us today for more information on our sports massage packages!

06/02/2019

“How will scar tissue affect my performance?”

Scar tissue is made up of collagen. After an injury such as a muscle tear, the collagen cells are placed near the injured tissue in a random fashion, and this leads to scar tissue. This has a negative impact on your flexibility and the strength of the muscle itself, putting you at risk of a repeat injury.

aids the breakdown of scar tissue and restore your muscles function, so you are in the best possible position to start your rehabilitation.