Maintaining Fitness

calistro

Bit of advice please!

was training for DCM but ITB injury has put paid to this for this year. Would you recommend cycling, swimming or other to help keep your fitness up over the winter months as am rescheduling for the Connemarathon in April. I will be able to run but a lot less than I was doing but the main thing is that I don't want to start back at the beginning (couldn't face starting a C25K all over again). I know there are different muscles used between running and cycling but at the end of the day they're still legs aren't they!! Cheers

metamorphosis

calistro wrote: »

Bit of advice please!

was training for DCM but ITB injury has put paid to this for this year. Would you recommend cycling, swimming or other to help keep your fitness up over the winter months as am rescheduling for the Connemarathon in April. I will be able to run but a lot less than I was doing but the main thing is that I don't want to start back at the beginning (couldn't face starting a C25K all over again). I know there are different muscles used between running and cycling but at the end of the day they're still legs aren't they!! Cheers

Swimming and cycling are great activities to take up. When i was out injured i did agua jogging and got a race bike and did spin classes, yoga etc

If you can, get to an aqua jogging class. I found them great.

It might also be a good idea to throw in some conditioning work to build a base for your body so that when you come back ,you come back stronger. If you can, squats, lunges, deadlifts and rows are great exercises. Also maybe work on flexibility and core strength by doing fitness yoga, pilates etc.

myflipflops

ULstudent wrote: »

If you can, get to an aqua jogging class. I found them great.
.

This is something that interests me for my recovery or rest days.

There would be no classes available where I am but I have read up on it. Any tips or advice from someone with direct experience of it? Is the belt really necessary as I won't be able to get one?

fiddy3

myflipflops wrote: »

This is something that interests me for my recovery or rest days.

There would be no classes available where I am but I have read up on it. Any tips or advice from someone with direct experience of it? Is the belt really necessary as I won't be able to get one?

You pretty much need a belt, but i've heard of some people doing it without it. They cost about 25euro, but if not you can always stick one of those cheap foam boards in the back of your shorts which helps with bouyancy. You usually use shorter strides than running when doing it, sort of whirring your legs fast, but there's two schools of thought on that one. (One says use long strides, same as dry land, but obviously slower, other says take shorter strides to maintain stride frequency etc.) Also, you need to go a lot harder in the water than in running because the water pressure on your body makes the hr about 10 beats lower for a similar effort. So the best way to do it is break it up into hard efforts of different length to keep your sanity and short recoveries, or if it's an easy day then still do a 30sec surge every 3mins to spike the hr. I once watched Paula Radcliffe absolutely killing herself doing an aqua jogging session before beijing (was aqua-jogging a lot slower in the same pool at the time!), and like a good spy, I checked the watch, she was doing ridiculously many 3 minute efforts at what looked like absolutely all out, and taking only 10-15 seconds recovery floating easily, a session I'm sure she'd never have done on dry land but the short recovery and higher perceived effort are necessary in the pool.

To the OP, I wouldn't go near aqua jogging with an itb injury, I was warned off it by a very good physio because it's the same leg motion as running and so your itb still rubs over your lateral condyle the same way it does when running, creating the same inflammation. Not offering medical advice here :rolleyes:, but personally I would strengthen the holy bejesus out of my glute medius if I had your problem, it's prime suspect numero uno in itb injuries.

myflipflops

fiddy3 wrote: »

You pretty much need a belt, but i've heard of some people doing it without it.

Thanks. I'll attempt to source one from somewhere.