Today at 6.30pm I forfeited a swim session in exchange for standing around in my underpants being analysed by three women and a bloke. Allow me to explain!
Kinesis are primarily a company dedicated to physiotherapy and operate out of the Acorn centre in Twickenham, London. The three women and a bloke are all body experts and really seem to know what they’re talking about. As of the 1st of April Kinesis have volunteered to help me become a better triathlete through physio and a bespoke strength and flexibilty training schedule.
The 1st session with them was aimed at assessing my lower body. The upper body is going to be analysed at a later date. As I mentioned earlier they made me stand around in my underpants and for quite a considerable period of time I might add. I’m glad I was careful dressing today!! I was also to perform a number of simple exercises that would give them an insight into what made this elite runner, Ironman and GB age group triathlete tick.
Some simple observations quickly assertained that :
- I’m not very flexible
- My right leg is longer than the left
- My core strength is terrible
- My back is slightly twisted (ok I said it was a lower body analysis…but they couldn’t resist pointing out that my spine does appear to have a kink in it)
- It’s a miracle I can run so fast with the above
- I do have a hamstring insertion problem and some mild tendonitus
- I have weak Gluteus Medius
- My left side is weaker than the right
So all things considered I’m a tip top thorough bred racing machine!
Having done the lower body assessment I asked why they hadn’t done the upper body as part of the same assessment. Apparantly that’s another world of problems! They likened the whole process to the layers of an onion. We are going to start with the inner / core layers first and work outwards. So the first set of exercises are going to be core. The 1st exercise prescription will come tomorrow.
After the analysis I was given a very nice one hour massage by Helen Gordon. It turns out that Helen used to be an elite triathlete so it was interesting to pick her brains and it was amazing how many people we both knew. She was racing in the late 1990s and there’s so many people still kicking about. Unfortunately Helen’s tri exploits were put to an end by an injury.
No Comments