Hi! I'm Ali. I'm one of the physios from
Treat My Achilles.
Today, I'm talking about how
cross-training can help us maintain
fitness
if we're unable to do our normal
activities due to an Achilles
tendinopathy.
So, how an Achilles tendon works, is it
works a bit like a spring.
It stores the energy and then, when we go
to move, to
push off to create another step when
we're walking or running,
it releases that energy like a spring, or
indeed when we're hopping or jumping.
So if we tend to normally do a sport
that includes those activities, like
dancing,
or again running, we might find that
these activities are then painful,
and we have less ability to do those
because of our Achilles
tendinopathy. So what we need to try and
do, is find other alternative activities
that help to maintain our fitness levels.
So, what I want to do is talking in... to
talk about in this blog,
is to... thinking about what happens to
our bodies
when we are exercising and when we don't
exercise,
and how can we replicate that with other
activities.
So, if we think about what happens to our
body when we exercise:
A good way of looking at that, is to look
at the super compensation cycle.
This is something that happens to all of
us. So an example could be a weight
lifter.
We go to the gym and we lift weights. We
then recover
for 24 hours or so afterwards, and that
24 hours or so means that we
can then recruit more muscle fibers or
we can increase the
cross-sectional surface of that muscle
so it gets bigger. So then the next time
we go to the gym, we might be able to
lift a little bit more.
When we're running or doing
cardiovascular type exercises,
what we do when we get fitter is, we help
maintain our higher rate of oxygen
uptake.
So we get more oxygen flowing through
our bodies and feeding our muscles.
We also get to improve our running
economy, so that means the amount of
energy
needed to move at a given speed becomes
lower because we come better at doing it.
If we were to stop these activities, just
like a weight lifter, their muscles
wouldn't get stronger anymore - they'd in
fact get weaker -
we'd also lose some of this running
economy or this ability to uptake this
rate of oxygen.
So what we need to... this is called
reversibility... and what we need to do, is
try and prevent that reversibility from
happening. So cross training is finding
another sport
or activity to do that helps increase
that oxygen uptake again,
and also it helps improve, maintaining
our cardiovascular fitness.
So, things that wouldn't involve
particularly that spring-like mechanism,
so that
push-down and that push-off that the
Achilles is well known to do:
Activities could include things like
cycling
or swimming, for example. Or if you have
the ability to get into a swimming pool
and wear a weighted vest and run in a
pool,
that is another option. All of these
create the same cardiovascular benefits
as walking, running, dancing, or any other
cardiovascular activities.
And this helps maintain our general
fitness, so that when our
Achilles capacity has been restored with
tailor-made exercise programs and advice,
we then can return to the activities
that we want to do.
A best way to look at that would be to
remember some golden rules:
How often do you normally train a week?
If you can replicate that
in your new training program - so if you
were to run three times a week
you might cycle three times a week. And
the intensity that you're working at,
and this could be measured by using a
watch, it could be using a heart rate
monitor, and looking to see
how much heart rate you're doing when
you're exercising, and is that very
typical of what you would have done
normally before your Achilles started
hurting? Or you could measure...
measure your intensity by how hard you
think you're working -
that's called the rate of perceived
exertion. So what you're aiming to do, is
sit in the middle of that rate of
perceived exertion - that ability to
have a conversation but in short patches,
not be gasping for breath and working
too hard,
and equally not feeling like you're just
walking through it. And if that's the
same level of intensity that you were
working at before,
that's the level of intensity you
replicate on the cycle.
If you were used to doing interval work
and work where you were doing speed work
and getting super out of breath, so you
couldn't have that conversation,
then again, you would replicate that
interval
working by doing sprint sessions, for
example
on a bike or in a pool. So,
generally what we're saying, is that
cross training can help maintain your
cardiovascular fitness
if you select activities that remove the
same
problems that could be there when
you're walking and running, which is
mainly the push-off, the propulsive
activity.
And if you can replicate the same
intensity that you're normally working
at,
and frequency that you're normally
working at. Another thing to think...
consider is that if you have never done
these other new activities before,
you might want to start small and work
big.
And that starting small and working big
means that you then prevent
other injuries occurring anywhere else
in your body, and also you start to adapt
to that exercise and those muscles that
you're using with those exercises.
If you would like any more information,
please have a look at our website:
www.treatmyachilles.com,
where you can all arrange a quick call
to ask us any questions,
or feel free to book an appointment.
Thanks very much! Bye!