Accountability Corner
Embark on an adventure with Darren, Morgan, and Chris, the dynamic trio steering the ship at "Accountability Corner." As passionate OCR enthusiasts, they're on a mission to share their expertise and enthusiasm for obstacle course racing with the world. From sharing insider tips on overcoming training plateaus to demystifying the complexities of race registration and gear selection, no stone is left unturned. Whether you're a seasoned competitor hungry for fresh perspectives or a newcomer eager to dip your toes into the muddy waters of OCR, these hosts are here to guide you every step of the way. Join them as they peel back the curtain on the electrifying world of OCR, revealing stories of triumph, camaraderie, and boundless adventure.
Don't miss out – tune in and discover why OCR is capturing hearts and minds around the globe!
Accountability Corner
#25: Conquering Niggles: A Humorous Guide to Injury Management and OCR Time Trials Excitement
Ever been sidelined by those persistent little pains we athletes lovingly refer to as 'niggles'? Well, lace up your trainers and join us on a light-hearted journey through the ins and outs of niggle management, without sacrificing your training goals. From the comical woes of Viking hand to the trials of runner's knee, our latest chat is packed with humor and practical advice on balancing discipline with self-care to keep you on the racecourse.
We all know that ignoring our body's whispers can lead to it screaming in protest, right? In this heart-to-heart, we peel back the layers on the true significance of warm-ups, strength conditioning, and why recovery routines aren't just a luxury—they're your ticket to longevity in the sport. Stick with us, and you'll get the inside scoop on how to tackle those annoying aches head-on, while embracing recovery as a pivotal element of strength training. Plus, you won't want to miss our personal tales of triumph (and face-plants) as we share our own experiences with both confronting and conquering these pesky niggles.
But wait, there's more! We're putting out the rallying call for thrill-seekers eager to dive into our Fit Body Farm's upcoming time trials event—no wimps allowed! Whether you're a seasoned pro or a curious newcomer, we promise a dose of adrenaline, camaraderie, and the chance to test your mettle. Don't miss out on this deep-dive into the OCR community's pulse, complete with strategies for staying injury-free amidst the mud, sweat, and cheers.
Welcome to the Accountability Corner, where we talk about everything obstacle course racing, from staying disciplined in training, affording the sport, signing up for your first race and, more importantly, how the sport is growing around the world, with your hosts Morgan Maxwell, chris Shipley and Darren Martin.
Speaker 2:We're just going to talk about cats. Yeah, catability Corner.
Speaker 3:Welcome to Catability Corner episode. Ability corner. Episode 25 no, no, no episode seven, oh no nine.
Speaker 2:It's nine lives, don't get seven lives is it nine lives. How many lives do a cat get?
Speaker 1:nine lives. Cats have nine lives, nine lives, so it's episode nine and if it's cat ability corner, we should start with going you. We should be like meow, that sounds as grumpy as your cat looks my cat's not grumpy.
Speaker 2:Should I do a proper?
Speaker 1:intro, or should we just roll on from that? Yeah, do a proper one.
Speaker 2:Okay, welcome to Accountability Corner, episode 24. Today we have a topic to talk about. We aren't going to ramble as much as we usually do, we are going to ramble. Yeah, we are going to ramble. Yeah, we always ramble Mo's eating standard.
Speaker 3:Episode 25.
Speaker 2:No, we always do this, we don't count? We don't count the Christmas special.
Speaker 3:No, but you've titled this episode 25.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, he has Okay.
Speaker 2:All right, so it's episode 25. Do you know we're coming up to nearly our year anniversary?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to bring that up.
Speaker 2:Big month of May.
Speaker 1:We've been chatting to each other every two weeks for one year. Can't believe it. It's a pretty good going to be fair, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It is. Consistency is king, as they say they do say that podcasts don't make it past the first few months.
Speaker 1:Really A lot of them, yeah.
Speaker 2:We didn't overcommit. We went in with a plan, a purpose, topic, consistency, discipline. We weren't always motivated to do it, mode didn't turn up, sometimes you didn't edit on time, but we got there well, I've always turned up, just maybe on the wrong day have you turned up on the wrong day?
Speaker 1:you probably have probably.
Speaker 3:I've been sitting there waiting for you guys, like where is everyone?
Speaker 2:I've. I've actually got a few admin pieces I want to get out of the way because I've realized all good podcasts they seem to talk about promoting themselves right at the beginning, just in case they lose listeners after you know, mid to the end. So I just want to say I really appreciated all the questions that everyone sent us. It was really good to to actually get some people engaging with with what we're trying to do on this podcast, making sure that not only do we talk about obstacle course racing, but we get people training and feeling accountable for what they've what, what goals they've given themselves, what they've gone out to try to achieve. And having questions back and for us to hopefully answer them is really important because it builds their community we wanted. The next thing is obviously the website. If anyone doesn't like listening to our lovely voices, you can go on. We have blogs, blog posts, so we have accountabilitycornercom. We're worldwide, so go on, have a listen. Any other admin pieces you guys want to talk about? Obviously, ocr, long run reels. They keep coming yep anything else.
Speaker 2:No, I'll tell you. I'll tell you one other thing is is feedback. Anyone who wants to give us feedback five stars on spotify is always welcome anyone because those things really really help us. They make us get our voices out there more. They're gonna hopefully help people understand obstacle course racing more, the more people that are organically going to be able to find our podcast. So reviewing, sharing with friends, sharing with people because I was speaking to someone in in the gym the other day who'd had an ocr and I told him about our podcast and they've listened to it and they they find out more about OCR.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, share it with friends, that's the only time that we've got in the gym the guy in the gym.
Speaker 2:It was actually my gym at home and it was my friend, but we, we won't, we won't go past that it's probably you in the mirror just listening to his own podcast.
Speaker 1:But yeah, hey, you guy with a new hair you need to start listening to accountability corner.
Speaker 3:Who's that guy with the fringe? Who's that guy? Who's that?
Speaker 2:guy who are you no I know my name's, darren too, I didn't tell you two, I was gonna do that, but I just feel that we don't usually do it or ask people for things or tell them why we're trying to achieve what we are and how they can help us. It's definitely feedback, or sharing our posts, sharing things that we put on social media. Yeah, it all helps, and hopefully it helps the sport as well yeah, it is actually really nice to hear feedback.
Speaker 1:To be fair, even every every time we've heard it, when we've been at races and heard it from people, it has been really nice and reviews will be quite acceptable.
Speaker 2:Yeah apart from bad ones, I think we should. We should start reading them out as well, because letting people know what other people are getting from this podcast because, although we are, we haven't got a community group, we haven't got people talking to one another, so you don't see the interactions that we get. But there's someone who messaged us the other day who had lost motivation and they've given us feedback in apple um, itunes, is it itunes? Yeah, itunes, yeah, clearly I'm an android guy, whatever that apple place is. Uh, they give us feedback saying that we motivate them to get back into obstacle course racing and get back into fitness. So that's, if we can do that for one person, I'm happy. I'll carry on doing the vodcast that's banging.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sorry, that was me just on my burner account that was a bot.
Speaker 1:That was a bot, guys, a mo bot no, it's.
Speaker 2:It's really, really nice to hear people's um feedback. Yeah, you're right, ships when you go to races, people actually saying that they find this valuable is amazing and and that's hope. That's what we're going to try to change as well. A little bit. We spoke about this to make ships that we should, instead of doing maybe a q a as an absolute app like a one um episode, we'll probably start to answer some questions at the end of our topics so people can wait for them. You know, build that intrigue. Who's going to get the shout out? Who's going to have a question answered? So, yeah, hopefully we can help with that. But today we do actually have a topic and, uh, I'm going to stop talking now and, shipley, you can introduce it yeah, because we're going back to topics for an episode, don't we?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going to talk about the one thing that every single, not only OCR racer, but every single athlete in the known universe and galaxies far away have, and that is the niggle. Dun, dun, dun, or niggles.
Speaker 2:No, introduce the niggle or niggles. No, introduce the niggle.
Speaker 3:So the niggle is a really, really annoying thing that happens as an athlete. Where it's not quite an injury, you can kind of get away with training on it, maybe a little bit, and you can do certain things with it, but it is just annoying and it's normally the sign that you're going to get injured or that something bad is coming I like that definition.
Speaker 2:That was a good. That was a good one. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, just an annoyance. Annoyance, something you have to consciously think about and you get surprised when you finish, uh, doing maybe a workout, do you think, oh, I didn't think about that that time. That was a good workout. Yeah. Or you think, oh, what was that? Yeah, that thing's back again. That's not been there before.
Speaker 2:No, because we could have started this topic today just talking about injuries and everyone deals with injuries. But that is like the that's the end end thing of a niggle. Let's talk about how to nurse and manage, and we say athletes, I think anyone could deal with a niggle, but that's true, anyone can. Like I was speaking to my brother the other day about he's dealing with shin splints, um, and really he isn't dealing with the absolutely dealing with shin splints, yet he's dealing with the niggle of shin splints because he can still run, still do everything. So how does he nurse that? And that's hopefully what we can go into, how we've dealt with it from our perspective. We obviously we aren't qualified to talk about it in a recovery sense, but but we can talk about it through experience.
Speaker 1:That's it, because we've got heaps of that.
Speaker 2:We've got heaps of niggles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've had heaps of niggles. In fact, we've had heaps of niggles that have turned into injuries. Yeah, yeah, so we've learned the wrong way.
Speaker 2:Let's go around the table, Ships. What are your current niggles?
Speaker 1:I'm going to around the table.
Speaker 2:Uh, ships, what are your current niggles all?
Speaker 1:right, I'm gonna start from the bottom up, okay, because I've got quite a few. I've got one a toenail coming off, that's lovely. Yeah, I've got a couple of cuts that keep appearing on my feet at the top, and then, as you go higher, I'm just starting to get the niggle of a bit of runner's knee, and then, as I progress further up my body, I've got the ever cursing back niggle, which is my prolonged, longest niggle that I've had, and as I get a little bit higher, I then move down to my arms and then I've got this new wristy niggle and that's about it. It's a lot of niggles. It is a few niggles.
Speaker 3:Go on, mate introduce your niggles well, if we're going along, kind of the blistery uproot. I've got an awful blister on my foot right now. It's really hurting me when I run, but I've been kind of just taping up and trying not to cry.
Speaker 3:So, that's one my ankle. I've got an ankle that likes to dislocate and that's been with me for a long time. And if I'm trail running, it's not ideal all the time, but it's just a case of going to see the physio and keeping maintaining the strength around it, shall we say. And then my knee my knee is fucked, but it's. I don't even know if it's a niggle anymore, it's probably just an injury, but yeah, that's been fucked for a while and I'm kind of just plodding along forgetting about it. Um, but yeah, currently can't squat, which is not ideal what do you need to do that for?
Speaker 3:Not much when I'm racing, so that's why I'm getting away with it at the minute. But S&C stuff and stuff that could probably help is not always happening.
Speaker 1:S&M's out of the question as well then.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but my, I think that's about it A bit of tightness in the upper back just from being on my phone too much, but that goes as soon as I start to warm up.
Speaker 1:Being on your phone too much. Such a bad niggle.
Speaker 2:That's an easy, manageable one.
Speaker 3:Self-inflicted Bad posture. I don't know if that's a niggle, it's just yeah, self-abuse, that's a bad lifestyle?
Speaker 1:Yeah, is that everything or?
Speaker 3:it's just yeah, self-abuse, that's a bad lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah, is that?
Speaker 3:everything? Yeah, I think so. Go on, darren, I know you want to take it away.
Speaker 2:I just no, no, I was going to see if you had any more to go on. I currently I have a pain on the top of my foot if I do more and more miles and I always worry that that's a stress fracture. More and more miles and I always worry that that's a stress fracture, but it goes away now and again. So you know who knows, we just continue. I always thought it was my laces being too, uh, too tight, but I don't think it is so. That happens when I up my mileage. That's a good one to have, um, and my main one actually is it turns into an injury really quickly is my psoas I have the tightest hip flexors in the world and it feels if I go to a certain, if I don't stretch properly, if I don't do what we're going to go into, obviously next on this topic, how to prevent it I feel like someone's just stabbed me in the side.
Speaker 2:I always used to think it was a stitch. It works into a stitch. Then it feels like someone's literally just come along and stab me and I have to stop running. That that's a bit of a, but it's a niggle that turns very quickly into a stab. And my shoulder I've been dealing with after the world's. I have my back's got really tight and I'm dealing with like I can sometimes get a bit of an impingement in my shoulder but unless if I don't do my recovery, that comes back and at the minute dealing with niggles in my tendons after doing lots and lots of obstacles. There you go, oh, and actually we've got that weird thing on our hands now, haven't we?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we've all got that though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:Viking hand.
Speaker 2:Oh, is it called.
Speaker 1:Viking hand. There's a longer name for it, but I can't.
Speaker 2:Hang on, I'll name for it, but I can't. Uh, hang on, I'll google it. Okay, you google it while I describe what it is, so, and then I'll try and pronounce it. Essentially, all of us seem to have got this weird callus in the middle of our hand with a massive lump coming out of it, and it gets worse the more obstacles we do, and it gets actually quite painful when you get into the obstacles.
Speaker 1:So do you want me to try and?
Speaker 2:say yeah, go and try and pronounce it.
Speaker 1:Do pythons contracture?
Speaker 2:what's the definition of that then? What's right it says?
Speaker 1:it says is a hand condition that usually develops over years and can deform the hands. It typically starts as a as small lumps in the palm of your hand in line with your ring finger and little finger. These lumps, called noodles, can be painless itch and are occasionally painful that's it, yeah, yeah that's what it says okay, well yeah, mine just protrudes and hurts, yeah yeah, we noticed it.
Speaker 2:We noticed, yeah, we've all. Do you know that that's a sign that we've been doing good training, we've been on the obstacles yeah, so we're all gonna have deformed hands by the time we retire we. We're not doing a good job of getting people, new people, into the sport by saying that we've got all these problems. But I guarantee, I guarantee anyone who even goes to the gym has got some sort of niggle. So we're not where.
Speaker 1:This isn't anything new, it's really funny, right, because when I was um, when I contacted everyone who was taking part in Born Survivor on who's Hot I usually send out a few messages Every single person I spoke to mentioned that they had a niggle, and it's quite a common thing, like usually they're like oh yeah, training's going all right, I've got this little thing that's creeping, creeping up, but it's not too bad. So everyone, everyone gets niggles yeah.
Speaker 2:So the question is really, is that from an athlete or anyone who you've maybe you've just done the london marathon and you're feeling like your knee, your front of the knees, hurting a little bit? That's what we would consider a niggle, because that is the sign of something that's going on in your body. One thing I learned and I make sure everyone's aware of don't start massaging. Massaging that part of your body, because it can be coming from anywhere. It's your whole whole gate and your whole posture can be creating pain in somewhere else. So let's just definitely go get yourself a like checked out. That's my I'm just caveating it before we go into our recommendation of what things that we've done.
Speaker 3:Definitely go get yourself checked out, because I found that tension somewhere builds pain somewhere else and that's a nightmare I'd say possibly 70, maybe even 80 of the time, it is not the location of the pain itself that causes the pain and it's from something else, and I feel like half the time it's probably quite a fixable thing if you actually dedicate your time to it, yeah, so, yeah, definitely get checked out well, I was going to say you don't want to take the ostrich approach.
Speaker 1:What's the ostrich? You don't want to bury your head in the sand about it sometimes my approach, too many times exactly yeah, do you know?
Speaker 2:the best thing about it is is the same principle, you know, when we talked about failure. Failure is the greatest opportunity to learn. A niggle is the greatest opportunity to learn about your body a bit more. That's, that's what you've got to take from it. Like a niggle is the opportunity to think, oh, am I doing my training properly? Am I, am I, is my gait properly? Is my cadence correct? Is the way I'm lifting that right? Am am I actually doing enough stretching? Am I doing enough roller in like? It's an opportunity to learn and and actually become better. Because you'll see from these people that is asked about born survivor. They're still attending and and performing and and we, all three of us are as well. But so let's go into it Like cause. We're still performing, we're not injured, we haven't led the way to injury, we haven't. We haven't got there yet because we're doing things. Ships, what are you doing for your niggles currently?
Speaker 1:Strength work, stretching. And then, well, strength work, stretching. And then the most important thing is keeping an eye on my training to make sure I'm not overdoing it. In the sessions that bring on little niggles, I take a little step back, I look at what I've done through that session and I think, oh, should I be doing that much during that session, and then shall I do the same the next week. And I just have to just tweak things a little bit. Not change the training, tweak, just do little tweaks yeah, well, did you?
Speaker 2:what niggles did you currently? You currently got that were injuries. What have you? What have you taken back from an injury? Is your back, hasn't it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the back's probably been the worst one that I've had for quite a long time and stretching and strength work has been the biggest thing to keep that niggle at bay yeah, still there, though still tell it.
Speaker 2:Basically, sometimes a niggle can be a bit of motivation to get up and do some strength work, isn't it?
Speaker 1:yeah, well, absolutely, like literally, I've been stretching and doing strength work now. Well, especially the stretching for where how long ago was COVID?
Speaker 2:Four years now.
Speaker 1:Four years. So I use that app and I've been using that app for four years because I'm sick of my back. So if I don't do my stretching then my back will start to go and it literally means I do the stretching every single day. Pretty much you can say the app might get sponsored by. I doubt it means I do those stretching every single day. Pretty much you can say the app might get sponsored by. I doubt it, but I use Pliability, which used to be what did it used to be Ron Wood, ron Wood, that's it. Yeah, it's. You know. It's good enough. It's got me through about back so I keep using it. There's probably other other useful apps and stuff out there and stretches to do, but I find that keeps me consistent. I mean, I've been doing it for four years.
Speaker 2:That's pretty consistent yeah, and you, you've, you've stayed healthy.
Speaker 1:That's the whole point of it as well to try to stay as healthy as possible and strength works definitely helps the the, the strength stuff that I do definitely helps with the back chains if I I don't do that as well. So that mix of the stretching has definitely helped. And if I lay off it for a week or two then things start flaring up. It's weird. Literally lay off it for a week or two and then that niggle just start showing its little head again. And you guys must have the same sort of thing with yours.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:We'll go around in a circle because I've got another question. I think leads into summarising it. But yeah, mo go on, you go next. What ones are you having? How are you currently dealing with them?
Speaker 3:Similar to what Shipley said, mainly mobilising and strengthening the joints and the areas that are weak or have problems. Also, the biggest one that I've really started to hone in on recently, which I definitely neglected in the past, was warm-ups, and an actual good warm-up before any quality work, before sometimes I just get out the door and start going into your threshold sessions or tempo runs or whatever they are, and then I'm almost warming up in the run and feeling the niggles in the run and just biting down on my lip a little bit and just getting your head down. But now warming up, and when I say warm up, not just a three mile run, a little bit of activation work and then a little bit of mobility and then going into your your slow or progressive run to warm you up, rather than, yeah, just getting out the door and going right, I'm going to go health lever as soon as I press, go on my watch, and that's been one that I've yeah, especially this year, I've done more of. It's been a lot more beneficial, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was the same as you two as well. I think you always think you need to stretch and you need to roller, you need to buy a ferro gun, you need to buy the new best boots in the world, but until you've actually tried and tested what you can do, you can practically do don't go and buy all these expensive things. I, I literally just make sure that I'm stretching. I, strength is key. I always used to think it was mobility was the issue, but strength is sometimes the issue which is such a weird thing to think about that you need to get stronger for a pain to go away. It's because we're always pushing the limits of our body. We're pushing ourselves a little bit further, a little bit further, and sometimes it's just not strong enough to do that, that move. So therefore need to strengthen. So, yeah, strength and um and and stretching, but the same mo, I think.
Speaker 2:I think you've uh kind of taken a leaf out of my book with stretching, the warm-ups, because that's what I was doing. Loads. I was doing like a mile, two mile warm-up because of my, because of my uh, so as my side, I knew if that wasn't warm, that that literally would. Just it's like an elastic band that just didn't want to move, and when I tried to go fast so I needed to, I was warming up for like nearly an hour before a race.
Speaker 3:Well, I kind of figured out as well my and I think everyone's body is slightly different, but especially mine and I think a lot of active people probably have the same thing is that our bodies respond to movement well and if the more I've sat down in the day, the more I need to build into my movement and move more, I find my rest week sometimes are my worst weeks. If I'm having a week off training, I have to keep moving because if I just have a rest of life and sit and do nothing, my body feels like crap. When I try and get back to training, and even not getting back to training, just walking around normally, I start feeling all them little things that actually I thought training was doing. Sometimes it's not. Actually the movement's more beneficial than not moving.
Speaker 2:I give credit to the running public, because that was always an influence of us. Perk always says a body in motion wants to stay in motion, and that is so true. That is true, isn't it? Because you want to stay pliable, you want to stay mobile, you want to stay athletic, and the only way to do that is to consistently keep doing it so. But you can't expect yourself to jump up and be able to do it, because you need to warm up into it, you need to make sure your body's primed and ready for it, and that's how to stop niggles becoming injuries, I think yes there is.
Speaker 2:There is more underlining issues that you. So the only reason I know what to do is because I have seen someone, and I think I always was. I always was thinking that on as soon as I go see someone, I have to see them every week. It's like no, they're kind of like, if you go see the right person, like a physiotherapist, a chiropractor, any one of them if they're the right person, they'll give you the tools that you can do at home. They'll give you everything you need. They will diagnose you and tell you what you can do at home to stop the niggles becoming injuries diagnose diagnose what have I got?
Speaker 2:wrong diagnose?
Speaker 3:that's why you said it it's your Milton Keynes accent Milton Keynes.
Speaker 1:Accent diagnose diagnose Ali. That's what I was thinking about.
Speaker 2:I'm just thinking about my niggles and what I'm going through, Like how do you stop them becoming injury ships? Do you feel you do the right things? Is there anything that surprised you about them that you have to do something totally different?
Speaker 1:Only when you get something that's new. If you get something that's new, it's always a bit of a like uh, like, oh, what is this? It's the unknown, and it's like you kind of have to go through that, that that process to work out what the hell it is and where it's come from. Because because when it's someone, something new, you don't know where it's come from. It's just just something that's appeared out of nowhere, like a lost puppy or something. It's just there. Actually, that's a really bad sort of thing in it.
Speaker 2:You don't want a lost puppy to be there well, you don't, you don't want a niggle to be there like a lot like a tiger in the dark or something.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Let's move on. It's um, it makes it scary. It is so scary, I mean, yeah, it's just, it's like a phantom in the dark or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, keep going, keep going. We need all these shit for a t-shirt All day.
Speaker 3:Keep these coming to me. I need ideas.
Speaker 1:Anyway, the phantom in the dark niggle that just appears. It's scary and then, because you don't know what to do, you're having to figure out, and then that can sometimes be the wrong move. You might end up making it worse.
Speaker 3:I think. Naturally, as humans as well, our first thought is always oh no, I'm injured, I'm not gonna be able to run, I'm not gonna be able to do this, and you kind of jump on everything first before you've even taken the time out to investigate. You've kind of gone. Oh well, that's it my career's over, um I can't do anything, or you just go.
Speaker 1:You think, oh, what is this niggle, I'll forget about it, it'll go away, yeah, and then it gets really, really bad. Yeah, I'll just ignore it, it's so many things we've done wrong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I I never. I never saw someone about my side for like four years.
Speaker 3:Just thought it would go away it'll go away, it's fine.
Speaker 2:That's the.
Speaker 1:That's the other tricky thing about a niggle, because sometimes it doesn't ever get that bad, but it never really gets to the point where you think, oh crike, I've got to really sort this out because it is debilitating. It's something that's always there, but if it's not debilitating it's not a problem.
Speaker 3:But then it's what does that also debilitate you Like my ankle, for example. A lot of times I can run on my ankle, but a lot of my knee problems because I'm running on my ankle and I shouldn't be because it's in the wrong place, and it because I'm running on my ankle and I shouldn't be because it's in the wrong place and it hurts. But I'm like well, I can get through this, but then everything else out of line, because I'm running on something that I shouldn't be and that causes my knees to then flare up and it's like, oh, it's just a snowball effect yeah, you do need to.
Speaker 2:What we're trying to say is, if you've got a little niggle, that it now is the best time to just spend what 45 quid maybe, maybe 60 quid, 45 to 60 quid. Go see someone, because if it's really going to affect your enjoyment of what you're doing say it's training for the next marathon or training for your next ocr then just go see someone just to diagnose it diag, diagonal nose and then and then they will tell you how you can stop it and prevent it becoming an injury. Don't go spend 45, 60 grid when it becomes an injury because you're going to be spending that about five times to to get it back into a niggle again and then you're going to have to look after it yourself. Do it, it's kind of it's the same. It's like it's preventative measures, isn't it?
Speaker 1:it's like you need to do the stop tactic, didn't you? Well, stop, think, observe and plan okay, that actually you know it was worth the wait exactly I might be slow at these things, but there's knowledge deep, deep buried in the, in the crevice of my brain somewhere it's all right, mo can speed us up.
Speaker 2:He can put, he can get rid of the gas. That's what you need to do.
Speaker 3:No one knows what just happened. Yeah, it didn't exist.
Speaker 1:It didn't happen but yeah, like literally, when you have, when you have a niggle, you need to stop, you need to think about it, observe where this might be coming from and plan out what you're going to do next. It's almost like you read that I did.
Speaker 2:Ai actually really works, yeah yeah, well, no, I ai said uh first thing on ai is acceptance, accepting the fact that something is wrong, and seeking out um uh recovery, or seeking out the answers to what is wrong. So it's similar to what shipley just said.
Speaker 1:Well, we all know I'm smarter than ai.
Speaker 2:Shipley knows ai. So, mo, what about you? Is there things that I can't remember? The question I'll ask Shipley now.
Speaker 3:But yeah, you talk about your niggles more well, yeah, I think I'm very guilty of not doing the right things all the time and I'm definitely in the camp of I just forget about it, it'll be fine. And I've done that a bit too many times in my life now where I've caused further issues, like my knee. At the minute I kind of there were signs of the injury coming back. So I injured it before and I kind of went, I started the recovery process and like what I did last time, and then we kind of got into the season. I was kind of like, ah well, I'll just do some races and I'll just get through it. And then now it's just starting to creep back in saying, oh, I'm still here, don't forget about me, and I'm starting to have to go back into that process and background to try and get it feeling a little bit nicer.
Speaker 3:But I think, never forget even when you don't feel it. I think that's the biggest takeaway I've learned is don't stop doing the sphings just because it doesn't hurt or it's not there anymore. Because it is there, he's just not saying hello, he's got his eyes closed.
Speaker 3:But as soon as you stop, it will come out and say oh, you're right, mate, I'm still here, I'm still, uh, still just doing, doing my thing. So, yeah, just keep going and build the routines back in to your training as a lifestyle thing, rather than doing it for six weeks or eight weeks or two weeks and then never touching it again and having to do that process all over again that is true actually, yeah, because if you, if you stop doing the things that have got rid of it, it doesn't necessarily mean you fixed it.
Speaker 1:And then you stop doing the things that you've done to get rid of it and then it comes back. You're like, oh no, it's back in. Well, no shit, you've stopped doing the things, that's got rid of it.
Speaker 2:You can't just yeah, yeah you gotta, you gotta keep doing these things yeah, and there's three things there that if it does keep reoccurring, then maybe you do need there. There might be a postural thing you need to check out or something that isn't aligning that maybe you do need to see. But like we're not saying that you can't get rid of anything, we're just saying that some things keep recurring, maybe because either the way that you're training or the way that you're moving or the way that your demand putting the bonds on the body is making it come back. So maybe maybe professional help there might be the case. Um, because I know people that have gone and seen a chiropractor and they've sorted their alignment out and they don't have them issues again well, I think.
Speaker 3:I think also the main thing, like you say, is when you're seeking out help is almost don't seek out help and then be self-destructive, especially when you're paying money.
Speaker 2:I think there's too many times people seek out these health individuals can I stop you a second, but you know that reminds me the worst thing people do um on facebook. Excuse me guys, has anyone had a knee injury on the left hand side? It hurts when I go at a certain pace, and can anyone help me?
Speaker 1:yeah, mic drop ready for this comment comment comment.
Speaker 2:You need to stop running.
Speaker 3:You're about to die in two weeks like this and that's, and that's also not a good idea is seeking help of. Facebook can be handy, but sometimes you do just bite the bullet. But my main point was if you're going to see a professional as well and you're seeking out help, don't spend however much. You're spending hundreds of quid to then think he's gonna fix you. Listen to every single word he says, note it down. I want you in there with a notepad writing down what he says, or or she says, and then go away from that and actually do the things that he's asked you to do. Do the homework, because if you're spending £100,.
Speaker 3:I know it sounds like a lot of money but I think some people think, because it's expensive, it's going to fix me, but you have to fix yourself.
Speaker 1:I like the bit where you think it's going to work and you do it for like a week and it doesn't work and you think, well, that was a waste of time.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Go see someone else yeah, go see someone else.
Speaker 2:so the other thing about that motor to really emphasize what you're saying best thing, about the things that they give you and the things that you can stop these niggles they're actually training. Like you, you're getting stronger. So it's not recovery. Rehab is a form of training. I would say it's not a form of recovery and pointless hours Me sorting my side out has actually made me so much quicker. The only reason that I've got quick enough to be where I am in OCI is because my side doesn't hurt anymore. So it's a form of training.
Speaker 2:All these recovery methods that people give you or you do yourself, that's the best message I could say to anyone because, like the questions I asked you guys on my side, my side's been the most baffling thing in the world, like it felt like a stitch. I thought it was an appendix. That's worked one time because it hurt that much. And do you know what's helped it the most Is obviously I've got loads of exercises to do. It's tension in my calf and my quad that is causing the side to take all the impact of my running, because my calf and my quad on my right side is so tense it's not taking any of the absorption of my running, so all my side does that. So all the tension goes up into my say was it so so as so as, yeah, that's interesting, crazy.
Speaker 1:I've had so as issues before and literally similar, very similar to what you said, but mine's completely different. It literally was just tight hips really yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was quite funny because actually I was listening to the running public and they had a q a and someone asked them a question about, like they said, I run along, I suddenly get this like stabbing pain in my side, especially when I'm going downhill, and I'm like that's tension, that's tension going in your so, as because your legs are so stiff and they're not taking anything, that is going into your side and you might be over striding, so you're hitting the ground with a straight leg, so all the tension goes up and that that's is that's me, and what's made it even better now that I don't get any pain, that's. I'm like I'm sitting here now and I've got a bit of pain from the run earlier, but I know that later on today I need to do like lateral twist movements, like, instead of just stretching in a in one plane of motion, I need to be stretching in different planes of motion, because everything we do is straight, isn't it? Running wise? So my, I'm really tense when it comes to twisting on my hips and that stretch really relieves it. So it's strange that's I'm the.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to say that because that's like straight. You think you just need to stretch your hips. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, well, that's also strange. You'd think you just need to stretch your hips. Yeah, it's crazy, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, that's also like again, we're going more on kind of what people describe you and things, but the most, the biggest problem people have, in sports especially, is not working the opposite movements. We in OCR do so much pull but when are we really pushing? When are we jumping on the bench press unless a lot, maybe a lot of the males that want to have a big chest for the holidays but really a lot of us do a lot of pulling work and get a lot big, nice, big back, but we're not doing any push work. We're not doing even push-ups or things that are going to push, because it's not really a thing we do in our sport?
Speaker 3:um, but you need to be doing the push, because we do do so much pull and that's how you're not going to get injured, and that's, I mean, that's any sport. Think about the movements you're doing and then almost do the opposites in your training as well, as much as you can I know a few people who could do a listening to that.
Speaker 1:We'll get a bigger chest. Well, yeah, yeah, actually the person I was thinking of.
Speaker 3:Well, no, no they know, they know they know they've got a lovely chest do you ask people before you train them, though?
Speaker 2:don't you like um, like what's if they've got any injuries or anything?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, it's normally, oh yeah because, being being a coach or a pt, you've got to know these things, haven't you beforehand? Otherwise you're going to make the niggles worse.
Speaker 3:As a as a person giving someone advice, you've got to know what not to try and make these niggles worse yeah, I mean typically, especially when you're working with someone new, you always try and dig out what what they're and a lot of times they are hiding things as well. The amount of times you'll get people and they're like, oh no, no, I've not got an injury and you get them up on something and you go oh, my shoulder hurt. And then you actually start delving it in, you start having a chat with them and delving down this kind of rabbit hole of oh why didn they came to you with an injury or with a niggle and they're like, oh OK, maybe we should have spoke about this before, but that again is just an example of a lot of people running scared.
Speaker 2:For me. When I came to personal trainers mode, though, when they asked me you got any injuries, I saw it as a sign of weakness that you're telling them that you're injured or you got a niggle and that they're going to treat you differently. But now that I've been training for so many years now I realized that I should have always just told them, because they're going to adapt to make me stronger. Like we just said, training, rehabbing and recovering is actually just a form of different, different form of training. So yeah, should have always just said I don't even think I told dave about my side when I first you first started coaching me which is crazy, because he was put, he was giving me like times to do and and sessions to do and I'm like, oh, that tempo I couldn't finish.
Speaker 3:It's my side, yeah, man yeah, and sometimes people don't even like. I've got people on programs and things that never reach out to me and say, oh, that exercise you programmed I couldn't actually do that because this was hurting, and they've never told me that. And it's like now I'm finding out this information in our PT session. Why don't you tell me and we could have changed this a long time ago, then you wouldn't have missed that strength session because you would have had something you could do. And now you're scared of doing strength training because you're like, oh, I can't do it and it just creates quite a negative effect. As a trainer, I always want people to tell me, tell me everything. I want you to be as open as physically possible that's where it gets to the observe part of stop exactly exactly.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that's exactly it, because once with training especially, it's good to write down what you're doing for like your training and that, and then like when it goes bad, and that you can tweak things. It doesn't have to be the same every week, it can change.
Speaker 2:You're trying to get the goodness out of all the all the bad yeah, well, it's quite funny because that's we're all training really hard and this is why we didn't want to talk about being injured, like maybe that's another topic, because I think you can talk about the reaction to being injured and how you come off the back of it better. But we're talking about the in-between world, where people that the unspoken world where everyone's got something going on, but they don't want to seem weak, they don't want to seem that they're changing their training. They don't want, they don't want to admit that something's hurting or they or they just don't know what to do about it. This is the unspoken world of I don't want to go to a personal trainer because I don't, I don't, can't afford it, and then I don't want to look on the internet and it tells me something different. I don't want to change my training, it's just so. It is confusing. Confusability corner of niggles yeah it is confusing.
Speaker 3:I think time as well. Time is one thing that people get, especially in the training world. We get so kind of we just forget about, like you'll go for a 12-week block, and sometimes I'll fly by and you're like, oh my god, I'm at this end of the 12-week block. I didn't feel like I started. And same with niggles. You might get this little niggle and be like, oh, oh, my ankle's a bit sore. And because, especially if you're not tracking it, you might get this little niggle and be like, oh, my ankle's a bit sore. And especially if you're not tracking it, you might end up six months later still with a sore ankle, thinking, oh, that ankle. And you can't even place where when it started because you've just kind of lived with it. And I think that is the first thing. Like Shipley said, stop, stop and think, okay, I need to write this down, I need to start monitoring this, at least assess the situation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it doesn't need to. If you stop and recognize what's going on, it actually doesn't need to stop your training. That's the good thing about it, because you'll see all these people, that racers that are going to turn up to Born Survivor at the weekend, they're absolutely going to smash it, like even yourself, mo, with with lots of things going on. Everyone's got lots of things going on, but they're still going to do so well, because they've recognized it and they've adapted their training. Like you're not squatting, but you found when we were training together, you were still finding something that you could do pain-free while also doing your rehab to make you pain-free for the movement you can't do so that's the beauty of a niggle, isn't it really?
Speaker 1:you can still train with it, you just have to. Yeah, it lures you in, though, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:yeah, if you don't adapt and you get lured into it that fish on a hook yeah, come on, come to me make me an injury.
Speaker 1:Yeah, please make me an injury.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that it was like it was like when mo was saying the person, the mate talking to you Hi mate, come on, you want to be an injury? Come on, we're up six weeks off.
Speaker 1:Let's run harder.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a good point. Just stop training, just have a day off. There's nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 1:That's a funny one, isn't it? Yeah, it's like I'm going to have a day off. There's nothing, nothing wrong with it, even if that's a funny one, isn't it? Yeah, it's like I'm gonna have a day off training. I am gonna lose all my fitness yeah in one day.
Speaker 2:This, this is where the beauty of recognizing that rehab and recovery is training if, if you have, you're adapting your training, not having a day off of training. So, like the many times that we've probably done it or I've done it, I think I did it. I did it on friday, actually, before we came on set, before we did the long run on saturday. My god, I had a snc session on friday, but I was feeling a bit fatigued from thursday and my side was hurting a bit. So all I did on friday was just stretching, rolling and making sure, doing all them lateral movements so that I could train again on Saturday. So it wasn't stopping training, it was adapting my training to make sure the niggle wasn't there for when I needed to do a quality session on Saturday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, funny enough, I did exactly the same. We wanted to be fresh for that, didn't we?
Speaker 2:There's that ego coming in again in the long run.
Speaker 3:I think that's also a thing to take away as well. I don't I'm not actually a big proponent on full rest days. I think if you take a rest day, you should still go for a walk or do some mobility or do some movement. I think that's going to be more beneficial, especially because sometimes people that are good at making excuses to not train because they don't particularly maybe like training will get doms or get something with pain. That might not be a niggle and they'll think, oh, this is, this, is something bad here, but it's actually just a bit of doms.
Speaker 3:That can also be a mistake. I think if you just take a full day off, you're not exploring the possibility that actually, if you start stretching, that might feel a lot better and then you might feel, oh, actually, maybe I could train today or maybe try something. So I think don't, don't move. If you're resting and unless you really need it, that's not an excuse to not do anything. I'd still use that as your excuse. Okay, now I need to foam roll. This is the day where my hour session I was going to do that doesn't mean I go and sit down on the sofa for an hour. That means I get the foam roller, or I get I don't know a yoga tape on YouTube or whatever it is. And that's my hour, not just. I'm just going to gain an hour for the day and scroll through TikTok.
Speaker 2:And get a neck ache like you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and the only reason I'm saying it is because I'm the biggest, the biggest person out there for doing that like I'll sometimes. Oh, this is feeling a bit sore and I don't want to run, and then, rather than going and just stretching and feeling better, I'll start scroll doom, scrolling on my phone and I'm like, oh, now I feel even worse because I'm just sat here not doing anything and I hurt and it's like ugh.
Speaker 2:As this is Accountability Corner and we only set this up really for the three of us to stay accountable for each other. Mo, I've got to have a go at you. That blister niggle has been going on since Christmas and that is the easiest win to sort out. So just sort out, sort your socks out, cut your toenails, get, sort your your um, your toe box out if you need some different trainers.
Speaker 3:That's been going on for too long yeah, and to be fair, it only comes back when I wear a certain trail shoe. But I've just enjoyed wearing the trail shoe and then I I don't pay for it. In the run I pay for it afterwards and then I'm like oh, I knew I shouldn't have done that, but I've just really enjoyed using you.
Speaker 1:I have the same problem. Actually, that's why I get the cuts on my feet from a certain trail shoe, but it's not because I like the trail shoe, it's because it's been peeing it down in the rain and I haven't had a choice because I need the grip no, you too.
Speaker 3:That is the easiest niggle to sort out but in the moment, true, I could just put some tape over it all right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go. Counterbeat corner. You've held yourself accountable. Let's uh, finish off this topic with the most controversial question which, mo, you brought up at the beginning. Um, when we were off, off off air, when should you have more niggles? When should we push ourselves more, as we're athletes trying to do better, trying to train? When should we be pushing ourselves to complete limit? How much of a limit should we be going to like? We're talking about nursing, we're talking about being. We might be. I might come up, I might come off this thinking, oh, I'm being too, too careful, like am I the most careful athlete out there. Am I leaving things on the table, not training hard enough? Is that an issue with me?
Speaker 3:I think there's kind of two answers to this and one if you're a massive pussy and you overthink everything, because there is people out there that think just the smallest thing is gonna fuck them up and as athletes, we do have pain. We're we're putting damage through our bodies. Yes, there shouldn't be little niggles all the time and you should have moments where you feel pretty good and you should have days where you feel pretty good. But humans are the biggest excuse makers I've met and we will easily just go oh yeah, my toes hurting today. I'm not gonna run. Oh yeah, my knees hurt, especially if it's a different thing every day.
Speaker 3:You're probably just being a pussy and that's where you just need to train and you might feel better. And then, if you don't, and track your progress, if you feel like like, oh, actually, okay, in two weeks' time, three weeks' time, that toe's still hurting, okay, yeah, probably there's something wrong. But if it's a one-off thing or your quads are a bit sore because you did some heavy squatting the day before or two days before, that's not an excuse just to go oh, you know what?
Speaker 2:I'm just just gonna stop training for a week, get out there and cause some pain in the right way. We need pain ships. What's your opinion of that? More more of a pc opinion, please. This isn't.
Speaker 1:This isn't ryan reynolds and hugh jackman no, I'm with mo a little bit, because you do need to. You do need to push through things sometimes and that's the beauty of a niggle. The niggle is the thing that you can push through. When an injury occurs, that's when you need to really take things back. So in niggles, keep an eye on them. Injuries stop. Really take some time to think about it, but you don't want to get to the injury. Use the niggle to to work things out before you get an injury I, yeah, I think I'm.
Speaker 2:I. I actually would say sometimes on I am, I am too careful I think mo was talking to me then. I'm a careful person when it comes to training. I I won't cause myself any major, major pain, but I do it in a race. That's why I race better than I train, even though I love training. That's the most bizarre thing, because I noticed that on Saturday when we did our long run ships, I've actually dropped off in training. But if that was a race I think I would have done really well this year, better than I have probably done training, because in races I can't hide, in training I can hide. So maybe I do need to cause more niggles in my life. I need more niggles in my life.
Speaker 1:See, maybe I'm the same, but in the opposite way around. Maybe I need to do it more in a race.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe, maybe.
Speaker 1:You need to go to the well a little bit more. I can go to the well on a really long one. I still find it really hard to get into the well on a short thing. But that's a whole different conversation. Go into the well.
Speaker 2:Go into the. Well, should we jump into a Q&A question or do you have anything else to talk about Niggles? Or do you want to call anyone else a pussy Moe?
Speaker 3:Well, I just think I think the people that that might have rung true with they know I feel, like you know, deep down, like the reason I'll call Darren out is because I'm exactly the same as Darren. We're actually very similar when it comes to mentality. I can just be a little bit more aggressive. I think that's the only difference. So I also have that sometimes where I won't train as well as I race, because I'll put boundaries and I'll make excuses. But I know that about myself and I know myself well enough to kind of go right, I am just being a bit of a bitch and I need to get on with it, and sometimes you need people around you to tell you that as well. Like you guys will tell me, or Darren especially, he'll always call me out on bullshit or if I'm doing something that's like oh yeah, I'm just being a bit of a bitch right now and I'm not really taking it seriously, or whatever. He'll be the first person to tell me.
Speaker 3:I think that's also helpful having them people around.
Speaker 2:But yeah think, that's also helpful having them people around. But yeah, you know, you know people I'm talking to, you know it's funny you say that, mo, because I actually I actually um recorded my mental state in the ocr long run on saturday and what I mean by recorded it, like I lapped not not the lapse of time in all laps I did, I lapped when I wasn't mentally engaged or pushing myself to the right limit I should have been. So I actually recorded 45. We were meant to be doing an hour of a hard effort. I recorded, I think it was, 44 minutes of not being a little bitch. And then I recorded 16 minutes of me faffing about walking, jump, not getting on some things go, just going on rings, then walking, then get a bit of water, then going, then running a bit waiting for Shipley to finish.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I actually recorded it because I wasn't being a pussy there's nothing going on when he's running it's like he doesn't think, he just works nothing going on when he's running.
Speaker 2:It's like he doesn't think, he just works. That's true. Got a, got a question to let's end, end this. We're going to end our episodes now with a lovely q a question. So I hope you've got loads out from talking about niggles. So there's a few is fair few questions that we've actually got, which is really exciting. She's gonna going to pick one. So someone was asking are you streaking and naked in the picture? That was because, absolutely, I am. That is because I try to make it look like you both were naked when you were running by putting the question over the top of you. Well, that's quite funny, entertaining myself.
Speaker 1:Imagine the niggle you get from that.
Speaker 2:They're chafing, you know we've had a few people um come like at least like 10 different people ask questions, and there's actually a question that keeps reoccurring quite a lot, which is how is best to pace for a race or pace an ocr? What's the best way to pace and OCR?
Speaker 1:Hmm.
Speaker 3:I think we could do a whole episode on that, to be fair.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we could, we could do a whole episode on that one.
Speaker 3:I could easily do a whole episode on that. That is complex, but just because it's a question.
Speaker 2:No, no, okay, we'll do a whole episode on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it's OCR, it's very difficult, and then you've got to go into the races.
Speaker 2:Yeah, should I go again, mo, and then you can take that bit out no, no, we'll leave that in, because we'll let them know it's coming okay, so for all of the yous that heard that we are going to get back to you.
Speaker 3:We're not just ignoring you, but we'll do a whole episode, because that could be a really complex subject, I feel. I feel we can actually delve quite deeply into that. There's too much variability, I think, just to answer it right now.
Speaker 2:Well, someone actually asked us top tips on recovery. So listen to this episode on niggles and then maybe we could answer that, because that's a good question to finish follows the yeah top tips on recovery, like what say let's go? Five tips, all right, do you want to go first?
Speaker 1:yeah, go on, then rest rest um management food water sleep. Judgment food water sleep.
Speaker 3:Sleep. That's the first thing that came to my mind Sleep.
Speaker 2:Sleep. Good quality kipper.
Speaker 3:Now I feel like if you listen to a lot of fitness podcasts, you always hear people bang on about sleep. But that's why they're banging on about it. Sleep is up there. Sleep is definitely, probably is number one. Sleep is number one. Sleep is good and food, food Nutrition is number one. Um, sleep is good and food, food, nutrition, sleep up there. I think. Just to kind of be a bit more technical, I'm going to throw some things like foam rolling.
Speaker 3:I don't know about you, maybe it's not for everyone, but I love a foam roller, especially on my legs go through the pain.
Speaker 2:It will save you hundreds and hundreds of pounds in physiotherapy because you can get this similar. I would never say it's exactly the same as a sports massage, but it can get 80% there.
Speaker 3:I think next, just actual mobility, where you're moving through movements slowly and precisely and not just stretching, actually moving in and out of stretches and coming mobile and activating. I think that's's. People stretch a lot but there's a lot of times where they don't do mobility. I think that's quite important yeah, I should, we.
Speaker 2:Are we scrapping the five point swing?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, because most of them I agree with the mobility one, because I used to do a lot of yoga, a lot of um like the, when you used to hold like for a minute, and that was good. But what I have found works the best now is just moving in different angles, different planes, doing that. So it's kind of crazy. It's like you're bear crawling like doing some like silly movements on the floor, but it's just all different ways. The body isn't meant to go and you just feel pliable in them directions and doing that, as maybe like 10 to 15 minutes really makes you. This is more of a warm-up technique for a cup, but it also helps you recovery. If you warm up then you're less likely to get niggles and you're going to be better recovery afterwards.
Speaker 3:So warming up is a key aspect of recovery yeah, and I don't know about you guys, but I feel I actually now so, and it's actually my physio that helped me with this um, but it's actually warming up before I stretch. So, rather than just stretching because I don't always stretch directly after exercise because of time wise and things so sometimes I'll go into my stretch sessions cold and my physio has got me working a little bit more mobility, a little bit more just getting warm, um, sometimes even just like jumping on a bike or something, just before I stretch, just so I feel a bit warmer and then I find my stretching so much more beneficial and I can get a little deeper ranges, but I also I've noticed a big benefit from also being warm from stretching yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:What just before? We just answer this question just to finish it off. Then, like is there anything you use for recovery? Like there's so many expensive things out there uh, what like tools?
Speaker 1:yeah, um, the best one I've got is that pliability app okay, yeah, that's a good, yes, that's a tool, yeah yeah and nothing else like ferro guns or to be honest with you, the ferro gun. I like using that, but I don't use it that much. To be fair, the best thing I find is just putting the work in and doing the stretching and the mobility.
Speaker 3:So I've got a Theragun, but I probably use it once a week. If that, that's probably once a month sometimes. Just it's not actually as handy as you think it's going to be.
Speaker 1:Do you know? I'll tell you what the best tool is. You'll love this. What the best tool you can get is consistency.
Speaker 2:In what.
Speaker 1:Everything. That's what the question was consistency in what?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, that's what it is. Tips to recovery consistency, great yeah, but in what?
Speaker 3:how's that what? How am I recovering? Just?
Speaker 1:do it consistently, do you have?
Speaker 2:you doing consistency. One of the little, the best, the best tool work. I actually use like a 30 pound gun from amazon and it does my calves and my, my quads perfect, and I'd use that about twice a week. The only thing I'd say is you need some headphones if you want to watch tv, because all I hear is can't actually hear anything on TV. Oh, do you know what actually?
Speaker 3:The little peanut balls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the tiny little balls, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but not like so. Obviously you get like a cricket ball or like a golf ball or things like that. They're great, I love using them. But you can get the double-ended one where it's like two balls with a little bit in the middle. Yeah, and I use bit in the middle. Yeah, and I use that to roll my feet out. Yeah, that's so good before I run. That is amazing. I used to get like really tight feet, um, and that has sorted that right out, just rolling before I run and after I run so so, to answer this, answer this question, there's a lot of um, there's a lot of things we can do.
Speaker 2:We actually I didn't say who who asked us.
Speaker 3:Julie botwood asked us this question, so our biggest fan shout out to our biggest fan out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, biggest fan, you're probably hearing this in the long run. Who hasn't? Hopefully she's looking up for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she probably listened to this and then probably whack on a bit of taylor swift exactly new album.
Speaker 2:What about you? People can talk about like how long do you do it for and when do you do it? Frequency of it. We're saying that actually we do it every single time we train, but in different um, uh yeah, different ways. We do it like one's a warm-up. It can be as long as you you are practiced at doing warm-ups, but we would say there's got to be got to be some heart rate. You've got to increase your heart rate, got to do stretches, got to make sure that you're moving in a way that's going to prep you for that activity. We do individual sessions when I'm trying to watch tv and then got my gun going there's. There's even days when I'm just doing stretching and mobility. So yeah, it's. It's just a combination of everything. You've just got to make sure you've got all the right tools in your toolbox and you're using them on the right days.
Speaker 3:I think always, for everyone in the world, even if you struggle with time, the answer is just do it whenever you can, because more or some is always better than none. Even if you're, even if you're stretching once a week, that is better than stretching not at all or doing recovery work once a week. That is so much better. So even if you only find on a wednesday I have a spare 10 minutes and that's all you have in your life, that 10 minutes devoted to it, because that's better than just doing nothing well, we said that, didn't we about the like five minute walk, didn't we?
Speaker 3:yeah building consistency and and discipline yeah, go back to our consistency episode if you haven't listened to that, because that's probably a good episode as well to start thinking about building habits when it comes to recovery yeah, we are actually building the tools in our podcast episodes for you to be educated and hear the experience of us us making mistakes we mess up.
Speaker 2:We've made the mistakes, yeah yeah, we've messed up. So much we make mistakes, you don't have to. Yeah, well, I'm actually taking a minute. My niggle on my side is is is hurting after saturday and the run just now, so that's going to become a problem if I don't look after that and what are you going to do about that?
Speaker 2:no, I indeed need to start stretching more and doing more of what the tools that I've got give given to get rid of it. I'm not doing them as much as I used to do. You know why? Because it wasn't hurting, and I want everyone to know right now why. Because it wasn't hurting and I want everyone to know right now, just because something isn't hurting doesn't mean it's going away. Like we said, he's there, he's waiting to come in and become an injury.
Speaker 3:That's the thing we've done a lot of preaching this episode. But we are just like you, we. The reason we know what we're saying is because we do exactly what you're doing right now. So we know what you need to hear, because it's what we need to tell each other all the time yeah, that's why we guess why we do the podcast.
Speaker 2:Just to remind ourselves me, me and ships. Again, where we talk to the weekend, we're like it's just niggles, we'll get a q, a and afterwards, but no no, no we never, do?
Speaker 2:no, it's actually, it's so. It's so good that you it so organic. Like everyone who asks us when we see them at races, like, how do you get to come up with topics, it's just that all of us, every single person, anyone at any place in time who's doing some sort of sporting endeavor is thinking about these things. Why not talk about them in depth? I think it's because you don't want to steal an hour and a half of someone's time talking about niggles at the side of a race. Do?
Speaker 3:you? No, you can't, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, imagine that If you guys talk to me, for an hour and a half after a race like this. I've got to go, I've got to go, I'm going to fall asleep. That is all I've got to say about niggles, and that's the last time I'm going to say niggles niggles, niggles, until next week talk about niggles well, we'll have a niggle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably yeah, all right, I think that's everything. We'll get some more q and a's. Send us messages, look at our website, give us feedback. Share our podcast with loads of friends. If you've got someone that comes up to you, oh, my knee's really hurting. I know a great podcast that episode that talks about niggles. Send it to them. They might like it and then they might get into OCR and then we'll be really happy because we're doing our job. That's the user journey we're going for the journey of OCR.
Speaker 2:Injured to OCR. Tell you what OCR does. Give you a lot of niggles.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not the sport you want to get into. If you don't want to hurt, I think we should go now before we expose ourselves. Yeah.
Speaker 2:All right, thanks, guys. Thanks for listening. Everyone Review us Review.
Speaker 3:Everyone review us review, review review right guys just going to interrupt our lovely outro very quickly to bring you news about Fit Body Farm and their time trials. So, as part of the free case series, they're putting on time trials on the 4th of May Saturday. I believe. Really good price 25 quid and they give you a chance to get on the 4th of May Saturday I believe, Really good prize 25 quid and they give you a chance to get on the obstacles, have a practice, but also participate in the 3K series as well. The series race will be for ages 14 plus. However, there is the option for 10 years plus to do a time trial as well. Really cool event. Go check it out. Go over to Fit Body Farm and the 3k ocr series instagrams sure there'll be more information on there. Back to the music.
