Stephen Moore continues to make excellent progress as he recovers
from surgery on his right shoulder. Moore, or Roger as he is
affectionately known in the dressing room, underwent an arthroscopic
anterior shoulder stabilisation and SLAP repair in August. And as the
new 2011 Lancashire season draws closer he is well on the way to making
a return to competitive cricket.

Following the surgery in August, the initial aims were to protect the
repair by using a sling, and regain the range of movement in his elbow,
wrist and hand. As directed by the surgeon, initially he could only move
his shoulder into certain ranges, known as the ’safe zone’, where the
repaired shoulder capsule and labrum are not put under any stress. With
guidance from the physio staff at Lancashire during the first 6 weeks,
he was gradually able to wean off using the sling, and slowly progress
his range of movement.

While slowly increasing his range of movement, it was important to work
on the muscles that surround the shoulder to provide stability and
control. Without these, the shoulder is potentially unstable and doesn’t
have a base for the powerful rotator cuff muscles to work from. We began
with active assisted exercises, using a shoulder pole so he could assist
movement in his right arm with his uninjured left. Basic weight shift
and balance exercises onto the operated shoulder followed, helping
improve his proprioception and reactive ability.

Once he was comfortable moving into his full range, we progressed to a
variety of light resistance exercises using theraband, aiming to
strengthen the main rotator cuff muscles primarily responsible for
movement in the shoulder. When he had reached his 6 and 12 week
milestones in terms of range, strength and function and had the all
clear from the surgeon, we could then return to light free weights and
some early cricket specific movements like catching and shadow batting,
aimed at getting his movement patterns going.

Batting starts with top hand work only, followed by a graduated
programme of tennis ball, bowling machine balls and eventually cricket
ball practice. Likewise, throwing takes considerable time to build up in
terms of technique, distance and intensity. Even when back practising
his cricket skills with the squad, it is vital Stephen maintains his
daily shoulder strength and stability programme to get back to
pre-injury levels.

Read more from Stephen himself in the article Moore: I’ll come back
stronger

Go to the link below;

http://www.lccc.co.uk/index.php?p=news&id=3947

I don’t know how, but somehow three months have passed since my last blog entry.  A lot has happened I can assure you…a lot of miles, some injuries, a race debut and a dramatic change in weather.

Last time I wrote, I’d managed 46 miles and was stuck inside with 6 inches of snow outside.  After 104 days of the year, I’ve now run 683 miles with the small issue of 1327 miles still to go to finish my challenge of 2010 miles for the year.  I’m sure, like me, a lot of you will be enjoying the sunshine which is certainly making running in the evenings a lot more tempting.  However, it has forced me to look into my hydration a little more.  With my long runs now reaching 20 miles on a Sunday, I have found that I need to take on quite a bit of water now that it is warmer.  The only problem with this is that I get shoulder pain from carrying the bottle (clearly I’m such a finely tuned athlete, that a bottle of water is enough to cause problems!).  Apparently, this is not particularly unusual, and for anyone else who might have this problem, I suggest you invest in a “tool belt”…a belt similar to a bum bag that you can put your bottle in, and any gels, jelly babies etc…saves you carrying things and it makes you look much more professional.

As I mentioned, I have been struggling slightly with various minor injuries, all of which I could put down to increasing my mileage too quickly and not stretching sufficiently.  Despite my Physio background, I, like most of you, was doing a brief stretch prior to and after a run and that was about it, but I found that my quads, and ITB (band down the outside of your thigh) was getting increasingly tight causing me knee pain, which was painful enough to make me stop running.  Since this wake up call I have done a daily stretching regime, as well as dynamic stretches (stretches with movement) prior to a run, and static stretches (your old fashioned ones) after all my runs.  The difference has been huge…not only has my knee pain disappeared but also the general tightness and aches and pains I had put down to just doing lots of running have reduced massively!…try it..you will be surprised.

Having done lots of training (and stretching), I finally took part in my first race at the Wilmslow Half Marathon.  I was a little nervous, and not quite sure what to expect so probably started a little too far back in the crowds, and paid for it with a very slow first couple of miles trying to get passed some much slower runners.  I then spent the rest of the race trying to make up for lost time finishing in a time of 1 Hour 37 minutes and 47 seconds, which, although respectable, was not as fast as I’d hoped, mainly due to the poor start.  And so for my last words of wisdom for this blog entry…if you are even a vaguely serious runner (in that you are aiming for a particular time rather than just to finish), then make sure you start further forwards than you think you perhaps should.  This way you can run at your own pace and will not be tripping over others at the start.

So my last few blogs entries have given you a brief insite into the early parts of my training.  However, it has been suggested by both the critics and my fans that they would like tips from a Physio regarding training for a Marathon.  With that in mind, as I’m always eager to please, I have formulated my “Ten Tips for Twenty Ten”, the title of which was chosen more for its alliteration than it’s content you understand!

1.  Enter a race!  Until I entered a Marathon I managed to run maybe twice a month as I found some genuinely excellent reasons why I shouldn’t go for a run.  Now I have something to aim for, I actually enjoy going!  More importantly my body is now used to running and so I don’t hurt as much after the runs.

2. Get the right kit.  This does not mean getting the most expensive trainers and running shorts and shirt.  However, if you are going to be doing a lot of running (which you will be if you are training for a marathon) then the right running shoes, as well as appropriate clothing, will reduce the chance of injuries.

3.  Build up your running slowly, and aim for a steady pace.  Most people who get injured when they start running  do so because they build up their training too quickly, and don’t allow their bodies to strengthen and become accustomed to the new stresses being put through the joints and the muscles of the lower limbs in particular.  Another way of getting injured is trying to run too quickly too early in a run, without having warmed the muscles up.

4. Stretch! You can happily read millions of articles about stretching all of which will be totally contradictory and leave you confused.  I would recommend stretches are held for between 20 and 30 seconds, and are applied slowly without “bouncing”.  They should be done regularly as part of the warm up and cool down, and I still stretch certain “problem areas” on the days I’m not running as well.

5. Cross train.  To avoid injuries it is important that you are not over stressing the particular joints and muscles used in running.  Try adding rowing, or swimming into your weekly exercise routine.  Swimming is particularly good as it is very good at building lung capacity, but it also gives your joints a rest from pounding on the roads.

6. Run on different surfaces. Try not to run on roads all the time, as this means that your ankles, knees and hips, as well as your lower back are taking a lot of force through them on a regular basis.  Try and build in runs on grass or dirt tracks…these runs will be slower but will be just as good a training exercise.

7.  If you are forced to run on a treadmill (as you will be in this lovely winter we’re having), add an incline to the run.  This will make it harder and mean that you don’t have to run on the treadmill for as long which can get very boring, and can also cause some people shin pain.

8.  Don’t ignore the niggles.  To a certain extent, when training for a marathon you are likely to have a few niggles, aches and pains along the way as you have to put a lot of time in training and it is demanding for your body.  However, do not ignore that achilles that always hurts after you’ve run, or that groin pain that comes on when running, or whatever part of you hurts more than it should.  Make sure that you get them checked out particularly if they are getting slowly worse.  If you ignore it for the months proceeding the marathon, Sod’s Law dictates that it will “go” a week before the race.

9.  Make sure you have rest days.  Going for a run is demanding on the body and it needs time to recover every now and then to avoid getting injured or over worked.  If your training schedule is quite tight with not much time to your race, then maybe the rest day would involve a gentle swim rather than a run so that you are still working on your fitness but avoiding using the same parts of your body as you would normally with running.

10.  Strenthen your glutes and core (for starters)!  When I strated running, I could feel that my pelvis was rolling around a lot, and by the end of the run my hamstrings would be tight and my back stiff and painful.  Since working hard to strengthen my glutes and core, these pains have disappeared and I feel more stable around my hips, which means I’m not wasting energy, and I’m less likely to get a hamstring strain because they are not having to work as hard.  Although a marathon is an endurance race, you still need to incorporate strengthening work into your work out…it will boost performance, as well as reduce your chances of getting injured!

These tips are in no particular order, but if you follow them, you will certainly reduce your chances of getting injured, and that means you just have to worry about running 26.2 miles in the best possible time!!..Simples!