<span style="font-weight: 400;">Recently I have been getting my running mojo back after over a decade of not really feeling it since rupturing my ACL back in 2009.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The reason I lost it is likely clear - injury - but I feel there was more to it than that. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">I had been at the peak of my ‘fitness’ and faster than I had ever been (even with my slow twitch muscle fibre dominance). Yet I had lost my purpose in running, the reason I ran in the first place….the simple joy of ‘healthy’ movement. Becoming obsessed with the time stopped me taking in the scenery, all I thought about was the seconds ticking away on my Garmin combined with the next mile alert coming up.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Anyway this meant I had also lost my health radar. When I look back now I realise I was overtraining, not taking time out for body AND mind and thus resulting in a major injury that literally stopped me in my tracks. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">For those of you reading this who have experienced this or maybe have seen a client experience it, when an injury strikes...well that forces time to reflect, right?</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">So I am not suggesting that it has taken me 11 years to realise this as my mojo is coming back, no what I am saying is now that I am starting to enjoy running (ie NOT jogging) again I am considering how and why it has happened.  </span>

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<h3><b>How?</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Well this is easy…..my 84yr old dad. Most of you will recall my social media posts, blogs, videos running with my dad after we discovered he had early signs of dementia. He was the motivation for me starting to run 30 years ago and more recently as he was keen to exercise. We have motivated each other over the years and he gave me back my joy of running by being by my side. </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">THIS is WHY I run!</span>

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<h3><b>Why?</b></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">The pure joy of it, the camaraderie that has always given my dad so much joy is what I recognise as the reason I enjoy it. It doesn’t mean I cannot race, it just keeps it in perspective and also keeps me mindful of my health. Health is much more important to me now than fitness and so I felt this Juicemail from back in 2016…..</span>

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<h2><b>Can You Be Fit And Unhealthy?</b></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Interesting conundrum right? Having been an endurance runner for over 20 years I stopped running through injury some 7 years ago and just lost my mojo. Actually looking back I think it was almost a relief NOT to be pounding the streets anymore as I now had a reason not to run. Instinctively, I knew running the number of miles I was running was physically probably not good for me and the injury just proved it. Also, the time I had been spending exercising had been a challenge to fit into my routine of daily runs, lifting weights, work, family and other regular activities.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Having always lifted weights anyway I decided to refuse knee surgery and began to focus my attention on improving my intrinsic biomechanics, including knee stability, with specific training of the strength ratios on my leg musculature. Most of you will be familiar with my squat, snatch projects over the years.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Then I read a fascinating book </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Body By Science by Doug McGuff &amp; John Little. </span></i>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">In their book,</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">McGuff &amp; Little define words like ‘health’ and ‘fitness’ in an endeavour to understand what amount of exercise we could deem as optimal for health. Now, something I quite enjoy these days is the concept of challenging what most of the society accepts because…</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">…</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> it’s what we have always done</span></i>

<i><span style="font-weight: 400;">…everybody else does it</span></i>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">…</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">I read it somewhere</span></i>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">….</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">that’s what Olympians do</span></i>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">McGuff &amp; Little certainly challenge current thinking in their book by promoting </span><b><i>”a research-based program for strength training, bodybuilding and complete fitness in 12 minutes a week”</i></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">. That’s a pretty bold statement to make, isn't it? However, they have provided a huge amount of references from valid sources while they have also been doing studies of their own for many years too.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">In their book, they explore definitions of words we use all the time in this industry. They state;</span>

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<b><i>HEALTH</i></b><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">: Is a physiological state in which there is an absence of disease or pathology and that maintains the necessary biological balance between the catabolic and anabolic states.</span></i>

<b><i>CATABOLIC: </i></b><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Anything that results in the breakdown of the organism</span></i>

<b><i>ANABOLIC:</i></b><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Anything that results in the growth and differentiation of the organism</span></i>

<b><i>FITNESS</i></b><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">: The bodily state of being physiologically capable of handling challenges that exist above the resting threshold.</span></i>

<b><i>EXERCISE</i></b><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">: A specific activity that stimulates a positive psychological adaptation that serves to enhance fitness and health and does not undermine the latter in the process of enhancing the former.</span></i>

<i><span style="font-weight: 400;">(McGuff, Little: Body By Science 2009)</span></i>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Basically what I interpreted from this is that you can be recognised as ‘FIT’ (see above) and yet be ‘UNHEALTHY’ on a cellular level (see above) and in a ‘CATABOLIC’ state (see above) from activities like endurance running, my previous choice of sport. Interestingly, since I was forced to stop running initially from the injury, I have ‘felt healthier’ since simply lifting weights once or twice per week (subjective, I know).</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Anyway, controversially McGuff &amp; Little promote a 12-minute strength workout every 7-14 days using 3-5 moves combined with push and pull exercises. They encourage super slow long reps of around 20 seconds or so and to failure, of course. They describe in great detail how this style of training promotes improved health on several levels including strength, gastrointestinal transit time, resting metabolism, glucose metabolism, insulin sensitivity, release of body fat stores, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, bone mineral density, symptoms of arthritis, lower back pain, flexibility and Cardiovascular stimulation. Big claims but most, if not all, with some evidence and science to back them up.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">So I read this book while on holiday in Cyprus and you know what hotel gyms are like right? Well of course they didn’t have the machines that these guys recommend or use in their studies but I managed to find 2 x 7kg dumbbells (a relatively light weight for me) and decided to have a go at these </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">TIME UNDER LOAD</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> (TUL) 20 second reps for push-ups, bent over rows, shoulder press and static lunges which were about all I could do with 2 dumbbells. I set my iPad timer and aimed for 10 second concentric 10 seconds eccentric contractions. </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">WOW! Blew my mind how tough this was and I was managing about 5 reps at most! The intensity of the endurance effect on the muscle was quite different to anything I had tried previously and with so few reps going through the joints, such a light load and the safety of the speed it just made sense. It was all over within minutes too. My colleagues who have tried it have also been ringing me after trying it with severe DOMS from considerably reduced training times, reps and exercises using these methods. </span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">One thing I didn’t really get to the bottom of in the book, and I am hoping they write a second book to cover, is how much your ADL influences the effects of this style of training. How being a manual labourer or desk worker might affect this style of training with requiring long periods of recovery and what can be done about this.</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Now one of the obvious considerations has to be training goals and how this style of programming fits or maybe it just doesn’t?! Well hey, if your sport is running then I too can appreciate the joy of a peaceful run in the countryside but the evidence in this book does indicate that we need to seriously consider how much time we allow for recovery and, from my personal experience, how we should really prepare the body for movement to reduce the risk of injury. Which is where programmes like iMoveFreely fit perfectly since this does not require any sweat nor impact and can be done without impeding on this TUL training method and by virtually anyone since it’s the safest exercise programme on the planet!</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Finally, if you like research-driven information, running, strength training or anything to do with exercise I would strongly recommend giving this book a read. It is full of research, references and information right down to both a historic and cellular level. p.249-275 is simply pages of research sources and references!</span>

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">I would be really interested to hear your opinions too by the way particularly if you read the book!</span>

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