Strength and conditioning is something that has kind of only come to the lips of your average amateur sports person in recent years, strength and conditioning is something that has only been worded in the glossy fitness magazines these last few years. To me, it's almost like they are the 'IN WORDS' for fitness fanatics, it kind of feels like it is in fashion right now.
The truth is, professional sports people have been doing strength and conditioning training for the last 15 years now, it's something that all the major sports seem to have adapted, all the Premier League footballers do it, Team GB athletes do it, boxers do it, infact most professional sports people do some form of strength and conditioning to help benefit their performance and prepare them for competition the best they can.
It's now gone main stream, it's all over the internet, amateur You Tube channels, health and fitness magazines, running clubs, you name it, so many people are taking up different types of strength and conditioning training and exercises - it really is the 'IN THING' in fitness right now, although Cross-Fit is beginning to get a foothold in the fitness scene too.
Strength and conditioning is a lot more than just doing a bit of weight training, I think a lot of people think it is a glorifying way of changing the name of weight training. Don't get me wrong, a part of strength and conditioning (S&C) is going to include some weight training exercises, whether it's free weights or resistance weights, but there's so much more to it than that. S&C exercises and programmes are used to work on all the major muscle groups, but if you are training to compete in a particular sport, the exercises and programmes may be focused on certain types of muscles and different strengths in order to get the best out of the athlete for that particular sport.
For me, my main sports I compete in at a competitive level regularly is football and running. Two or three years ago I just solely did weight training, both free weights and resistance weights, with the aim of giving me more upper body strength and power for my football and I would work my legs for power for running (sprint finishes) and football. At the time, weight training is all I really knew, although did a small amount of core strength and I thought I was the fittest I had ever been and would never get any fitter (I was 27,28).
It wasn't until I began really looking at new core strength exercises that I realised that there is more to weight training and I began broadening my horizons in strength work and fitness. When I was 29, training for the London Marathon and other races, I really began doing a lot of different core strength exercises and I realised that most of your strength actually comes from your core, your core muscles - upper legs, abs, lats, the whole torso. Biceps don't make you strong, your core does. It benefited my running and football an awful lot, as I learned new exercises I realised I was actually doing less weights and becoming fitter and stronger, I felt great.
As I approached this year and the scary sporting age of 30, I began looking at other ways of working on strength all over my body, using different equipment, but also my own body weight and boxing, but what was really new to me, was the conditioning side of things, and boy did I need it.
Conditioning is all about keeping your vital muscles in great shape and condition so you are strong, fresh and ready for competition. If you are a friend of mine or a regular reader of my blogs on my website, it is not secret that I have had some problems / issues with both my calf muscles over the last few years, I have had such problems with them that I have had to change my training, change how I play certain sports and change how regular I train, I have even bought special blood compression socks to help with circulation in both calves. But what has had the biggest impact on my body is 'conditioning' exercises on for my muscles. I've never been well off enough to pay big money for massages and sports consultants and so on, so I have adapted my own way of looking after my muscles, which I only discovered before this year's London Marathon.
I use vibrating power plates to massage and stretch my muscles, I use foam rollers and self massage and to grind out any knots that may be in my leg muscles, there are so many exercises and that's what strength and conditioning is about, it's about working on different areas of your body, trying to balance out the strength of your body and ensuring you are in the best physical condition you can be at the time. There's so much more to keeping strong that just lifting weights and I really recommend looking it up to anyone who wants to improve at their sport. Right now, I feel athletic, strong, fit, fast, explosive - although I feel I may have lost some power, maybe that's due to no longer using weights on my leg - my main leg exercise now is 100cm box jumps, which is really improving my explosiveness and elusiveness - while keeping my speed.
You can check out some of my strength and conditioning exercises at my RJ SPORTS TV You Tube Channel by clicking the logo below:
I've been thinking for a while now of quitting Virgin Active gym, I pay £49 a month (which is pricey) and on average I go once a week for a big strength and conditioning session. Is it time I looked at saving that money and buying some home equipment and maybe working on non-equipment exercises outside, whether that's in my garden or on the local park?
I'm so tempted, I already have boxing gloves and pads, I punch the wall if I have no one to hold the pads for me, I have a skipping rope (which is so hard and energetic it's great for fitness and legs). I have a balancing gym ball for core strength and some hand weights etc. I'm thinking that if I buy a medicine ball for core strength, an abs roller, a pull up bar, I will be sorted. I love my gym sessions and I also love the atmosphere and the buzz, but maybe it is time to try something new?
The problem with home workouts is it's easy to cop out, it's easy to cut it short, when you are at a gym you get inspired by people around you, you want to train the hardest, you want to be fitter than the person next to you working out - I love that about the gym. But at the same time, I can do body weight exercises at home, I can do similar things. In the garden I can do jumps up steps and hops rather than box jumps in the gym? There are still a lot of benefits by working out outdoors or in the garden.
I feel like I am at a cross-roads in terms of the gym at the moment, I would love some advice or thoughts off anyone as to what you think I should do?
Talking of the gym (today) - check out my Leg Press record from today:
I HAVE EQUALLED MY LEG PRESS RECORD: 250kg:
Today in the gym, out of the blue, despite my calf muscles feeling in pretty poor condition from burning the candle at both ends recently, I decided to give the Leg Press a go.
I haven't performed the Leg Press for nearly two years, the reason being is because I tore both my left (2012) and right (2014/15) calf muscles respectively within three years of each other and I just lost my confidence in them, I was scared of tearing them again, not because of the pain (believe me it hurts) but because I didn't want the frustration of not being able to run, walk properly but most of all - play football, my first love.
Until I tore my left calf muscle (from playing football), I was smashing the Leg Press. I reached 250kg, which was the highest weight I could go on the machine. Anyway, today in the gym I saw the Leg Press was free, I thought hard about it and I just felt like I wanted to give it a go, I wanted to test my power (since I have stopped Leg Press and changed to Explosive 100cm Box Jumps I feel my shooting in football is less powerful) right now.
So I started off at 180kg, did 10 pretty easy, felt good. Next set of 10 I did 12 reps of 230kg. By now I was sky high and just went 250kg and smashed it - 10 reps - I now know my calf muscles are ready for it - I'm looking forward to developing my power again, something I have missed I must say. Proud of my efforts there today.
- start training again next week, already started some light training on the treadmill.
- maybe run the Abbey Dash 10K in November, depending how my training goes over next month or two.
- had a good couple of months rest so now have that hunger back in me to run again, if any other 10K races come up in the meantime I may enter them late on.
I'm going to make a lot of changes to my training next year to try and get the best out of myself and hopefully get a new PB. I'm not going into what my training will be just yet but one thing I will say is I'll be focusing less on strength and conditioning - I think I put too much emphasis on strength work rather than going on more long runs.
At the end of the day, you can do as much conditioning as you want but what really improves your running is actually going out and running more. I'll never be one of these who runs every day, I like to stay fresh and I play other sports too - but I'm going to make some big radical changes to my training next year. Maybe I am being a bit harsh on myself as I did have injury problems with my right calf last year which meant I had to manage how often I went out running and I had to also cut my tapering down short too.
2016 CHARITY IDEA:
I've been having a little think and at the moment I am thinking I may run the next marathon season for Help The Aged. I feel we can all do a bit more for the elderly generation and having old aged pensioners in my family who are always there for me, I would love to give something back to that community. I'm not confirming this charity yet but I think it is pretty likely I will run for them next year at the London Marathon.