Days of sled dragging lay ahead, across this shifting landscape

Rupert Goodwin has been connected to Balance for many years now – he has had some tough times and has overcome them. Now he has a daunting challenge ahead of him that was taken on voluntarily!

Rupert's London training involved kettlebells, sandbags, mobility, rowing and copious tyre dragging

Ruperts preparations have been thorough but as with most living in London he has had to deal with the stresses of a his career, long hours and business travel. His physical training has included sandbag training, kettlebell conditioning, bodyweight drills, concept rower intervals and a few efforts on the “Deadmill”.

Apart from setting himself a personal challenge of a lifetime Rupert is doing this with the added incentive of raising some money for 2 wonderful charities.

Rupert pulling his sled on sand dunes in the Netherlands with his Dutch team mates

Please support Rupert in this great adventure by giving to Down’s South and HemiHelp, two wonderful charities that help families with children with Down’s Syndrome and or Hemiplegia – they are local and make a direct and very positive impact. Special children with special needs and their parents need help and support. These charities offer practical help and therapy – to families and especially to the children who need it.

These are the Just Giving sites you can use to support these two very worthy local childrens charities:

Down’s South: http://www.justgiving.com/Rupert-von-Eisenhart-Goodwin0
HemiHelp: http://www.justgiving.com/Rupert-von-Eisenhart-Goodwin-HH

Best wishes to Rupert from everyone at Balance.

Balance Performance #Running Clinic info: http://bit.ly/cp1Oe5 our expertise goes beyond high quality rehab and the Alter-G, we do PBs too!

We have long catered for runners – from novice marathoners to elite and professional runners – but we have refocussed some of our existing services and changed the structure some to better cater for a runners requirements. Early feedback is very positive.

We hope London’s runners, triathletes and recreational marathoners will see that Balance is a place to get expert advice on getting personal bests not just high quality rehabilitation.

Click here for the Running Clinic page

To celebrate the Marathon and Racing Season Balance has a Buy One Get One FREE offer for sessions on the Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill.

The benefits of the Alter-G a.k.a the “G-Trainer Pro” are many and Balance is going to make a concerted effort to see that more people get to see the potential in using the treadmill. Its not just for accelerated rehabilitation and weight loss. Running and multisport athletes can improve running speed, conditioning, prevent overtraining and assist recovery.

Despite all these benefits many baulk at the idea of running inside even its just once per week! So high praise from world class athlete Shannon Rowbury who last week “Tweeted”:

“Alter-G at M2. Very few products could make me run inside on a gorgeous day like today. Love AG. Great for recovery.”

Shannon Rowbury: Olympic athlete, 2009 World Championships 1500m Bronze Medalist and Alter-G user

To book a session on the Alter-G and find out what a difference it can make contact us via the main website by clicking this underlined link CONTACT PAGE.

To get the details on the offer GO HERE

The G-trainer challenges everyone in different ways, whether:

• elite Olympic runner (3 of the Worlds Best Runners have run on our treadmill),
• professional sports men (2 of the UKs best Rugby Clubs use Balance’s G-trainer week in week out)
• top or recreational IronMan and Woman triathletes (including Pro-VO2 tri club athletes and Pro Tristan Shipsides)
• or the 100’s of multisports enthusiasts with injuries who have rehabilitated from sports injuries using the G-trainer at our SW4 facility.

In the World Record Club the idea is to run a mile as fast as possible at either 75% or 85% of your bodyweight – members also get 50% off and a half hour run only costs £12.50.

For many the thing preventing faster running speed is aerobic/anearobic ability (lungs exploding, nausea rising) but not everyone…this is how Cj described his attempt to run faster and beat his personal best over the mile on the G-trainer treadmill running at 85% of his bodyweight:

“I didn’t find this attempt cardio-vascularly challenging as you will see from the video clip. It felt more neurological. Being able to turn over my legs at that speed, sustaining that cadence for that length of time was not easy. I could feel the impulses dampening, at times it felt as if I was tripping over my feet.

One thing is for certain, 4 minute miles is a serious pace, I have a new found respect for Roger Bannister who did it at 100% of his body weight. It highlighted to me that up to a certain point, running is more about skill then fitness. Economy and efficiency of movement. But more about this in part 2 of this post, as I, Cj, turn Chi / pose runner.”

To read the full blog click the link…

http://cjs-fitness.blogspot.com/2009/12/4-minute-mile-g-trainer-challenge-part.html

See the video footage (excuse the camerman he’s an amateur!!):

Climb in to the G-trainer Pro treadmill at Balance and discover gravity assisted speed- Sat August 8th 2009.

Climb in and experience why the G-trainer provides the ultimate Speed interval training session

WORLD RECORD CLUB
Gravity Assisted Speed

Presents:

Summer Speed Taster Session
* Experience NASA engineered technology
* Enhance leg speed through over-speed running
* Gain that extra edge this summer season
* Rehabilitate faster- run with reduced bodyweight

Saturday 8th August 10.00am at Balance Performance Physiotherapy,
113 Gauden Rd, London, SW4 6LE.

Entry £5.

To register interest and for more info please email:

frances @ balancephysio.com

Full registration for the G-Trainer Speed World Record Club and details regarding the forthcoming World Record Club Championships will be available on the day.

Contact Frances on 020 7627 2308 about the World Record Club and the 1 mile challenge. Only £5 but you need to book.

This Sunday (12th July 2009) Frances (multisports injury specialist) has organised 3 teams from Balance to compete in the “Bananaman” triathlon at Dorney Lake, Eton. Best of luck to them.

Balance has entered 3 teams to compete in the triathlon

I can’t speak for everyone’s level of commitment but I have seen a fair few of the team members giving it some at various times over the last 6 weeks. Either heading out the door for long runs. Using the G-trainer for quality running sessions of overspeed training and speed/strength intervals.

TEAMS:
1. Counter-BALANCE: Sian (physio) – Warwick (Cyclefit Ringer)- Mick (podiatrist)
2. Im-BALANCE: Rene (sports masseur) – Jacqui (physiotherapist) – Graham (physio and director)
3. Perfect-BALANCE: Fran (physio) -Paula (physio) -Kellie (sports masseur)

Good luck to them all.

Despite the tube strike the planned lecture as part of Balance’s CPD Evening Lecture series organised by Raph Rinaldi will continue:

Pat testing a client at his London facility

Dr Simon Shepard, Team Physiotherapist of CCC Middlesex and CEO of Optima Life will present his research and clinical experience on different methods of monitoring recovery patterns according to various level of activity. This could turn particularly helpful to physiotherapists, for example, when it’s time to increase rehabilitation workload and /or add specific sessions to pre-existing training programmes.

Pat Leahy, Owner, founder and high performance coach of ProVo2 will also present his own toughts on how to design an effective training programme aimed at maintaining aerobic fitness in injured athletes, or to improve aerobic capacity in most sport disciplines or to optimise own metabolism by adopting clever forms of exercise. This will break many myths related to aerobic exercise and provide a practical guidance when it comes to advise our clients in a practical and effective manner. A practical demonstration of metabolic testing will follow by carrying out a VO2max analysis on site. Any volunteers obviously welcome.

Raph says: “As all of you are aware of the tube strike kicking of tonight I would like to confirm that our Lecture will take place regularly. I remind you that you can use your oyster card to travel by train to Clapham Junction or Clapham High Street; there is also a taxi share options so you can organise yourself. I’ve got few places in my car as am driving Simon Shepard home in North London after the lecture. Hope it helps. Raph”

The G-trainer has demanded the attention of everyone who has come to Balance over the last couple of weeks. The beast is impossible to ignore but once our clients have had a run on it they have seen the potential and the opportunity to do some serious training on the Alter-Gs unweighting treadmill. The team has worked out exactly where its strengths lay and cant wait to begin in earnest when we go completely live in the next 7-10 days.

Interval Training as it has never been possible before:

• speed,
• strength,
• anaerobic conditioning
• quality running drills
• heightened volume at increasing speed or load was previously impossible.
• body spared from the jarring and accumulative effects of impact.
• EDT (escalating density training.) means increasing amount of work done in the same period of time.
  

Interval training is the most rapid method of achieving performance gains and the ability to tailor and optimize the interval profiles determines the ultimate limit of performance.

Interval Overload Training at Higher Running Speed

Control of body weight also provides a means for interval overload training (interval training) in which you achieve a fast speed while at reduced weight and then introduce body weight briefly to overload the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems.

Marathon training will be phenomenal on this treadmill. With your running performance improving week by week due to the increased effectiveness of interval training, quality pace and strength work and alternate long runs on the G-trainer to spare your joints from the trauma of long distance running the chances of overuse problems developing are greatly reduced. You do need some knowledge and support behind you to achieve your goals so Balance’s highly experienced team is there with the skills in coaching, running analysis, injury prevention, strength and conditioning to make the G-trainer more than just a fancy toy. It is a highly effective training tool.

Sound confusing?
Difficult to believe?

Come and try the G-trainer for yourself – contact me at jonathan @ balancephysio.com
or call 020 7627 2308 to register your interest and i shall get back to you.