Does Everyone Need To Stretch?

Spondylolisthesis is endemic among athletes participating in sports, particularly those requiring repetitive hyperextension movements such as in gymnastics and cricket bowling.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

The best athletes who perform at the highest level and avoid injury are very intelligent in understanding the process of activating muscles and groups of muscles.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

When a person sleeps at night, osmotic pressure causes the discs to expand. This decreases lumbar flexion by about 5 degrees.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

A muscle does not need to be maximally stretched to be torn. Muscle tears are the consequence of a combination of a sudden contraction and a stretch at the same moment.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Overtraining and Exhaustion are both a result of imbalance between stress and adaptation of the body. Adaptation leads to an increased functional level of the body where as stress depletes the current reserves.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

The side bridge is an outstanding exercise to challenge the major stabilizers of the abdominal obliques, latissimus dorsi and quadratus lumborum, while sparing the spine from high loads.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Because the intra abdominal cavity contains mainly liquid and viscous material, it can be considered an element that can transmit forces from the muscles surrounding the cavity to the supporting structures of the core.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Many people with bad backs are programmed back and core exercises that exceed the capacity of their damaged/weak tissues.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

The design of any strength and conditioning programme would be insufficient without attention being paid to all features of safety in training, including safety of training methods, individual exercises, sequence of exercises, intensity, volume, time under tension and recovery periods.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

The crossed pelvis syndrome is the result of muscle strength imbalances in the lower body and may be one such cause of back pain and impaired athletic performance.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Considering that tendons and ligaments are viscoelastic, they also display sensitivity to loading rate and undergo relaxation, creep and hysteresis.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Golgi Tendon Organs are nerve networks located in the tendons of the muscles, constantly monitoring tension and help to coordinate actions of many cooperating muscles.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Acute or chronic injury may make it impossible for an athlete to produce maximal strength or execute other motor qualities.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Movement Analysis and Testing can play huge roles and add great value to a training programme. It doesn't matter whether the client is an athlete in peak condition, returning from injury or somebody that is completely new to exercise, everybody can benefit.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Hormones are involved in many administrative roles for metabolism, growth and development, hydration, cardiovascular adaptations, immune responses and stress reactivity.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Exposure to a cold environment has extreme effects on many features of the human response to exercise. It brings about changes in the lungs, heart, blood vessels, muscles, nerves, rate of metabolism and the functioning of brown fat.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Training and Competitions in hot environments offer an additional challenge to athletes as heat dissipation becomes a limiting factor for performance.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

The Effectiveness of altitude training for a particular athlete depends on many factors, including genetics, training status, total physical and mental stress, diet and recovery.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Since bones are living tissues, they have the capacity to adapt their structure and mechanical properties to the functional demands of the whole body.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

The following are signs of performing too little aerobic exercises in proportion to anaerobic exercises e.g. strength training

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

- Swimming in open waters boosts the functioning of the nervous system and thermoregulation of the body. - Frequent swimming in the summer prevents worsening of arthritic pains of the spine and joints that normally arise in winter.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Lack of sleep causes irritability and an increased feeling of fatigue. Lack of sleep hinders memory, learning sports skills, attention, reaction time, creative thinking and the ability to deal with hard situations. If lack of sleep is regular, physical performance is also impaired.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Jet lag is a disconnection of ones internal biological clock from the actual time of day, caused by travel to a time zone different than one is customary to. This detachment from real time may cause an athlete to operate poorly at the time of performance.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Sometimes the current spotlight on physiological measurement in strength and conditioning causes coaches & trainers to lose vision of the significance of enhancing methods of kinematic learning.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

Sports training is a way of stressing the body in a desirable manner to enable the athlete to adapt to high levels of stress in competition. A great deal of these training methods and adaptations are very useful in helping you cope with stress, both in sport and daily living.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones

"Its not the will to win that matters. Everyone has that. Its the will to prepare to win that matters". Training or Conditioning is the process whereby the body and mind are prepared to reach a heightened level of work capacity and fitness.

4 mins

Matthew Watkin-Jones