The Natural Environment

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

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

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

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

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

Does everyone need to stretch? Some do and some don't. Cross sectional studies of sports such as basketball have shown that the best performing athletes are the "tighter" ones with bodies "wound like springs".

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

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