Winter Ideal for an Indoor Programme

By GIBBS, Peter

There’s been a fair amount of rain lately. Not only has it made some tracks very unpleasant underfoot, but it’s often been a bit daunting just getting out the door for a run or bike ride.

But it’s not all bad. We needed the rain to top up our lakes and when the weather is as bad as it’s been on some days, you know it can only get better. Before you know it, summer will be here and you’ll be cursing the fact that your training didn’t get under way a bit earlier.

Now is the perfect time of year to go to the gym or the pool – it’s warm and cosy inside and you can do yourself a lot of good with a well- constructed programme.

My gym sessions tend to be quite structured, with specific goals. I’m looking for flexibility, so do plenty of work on achilles, hamstring, lower back, neck and shoulders. These are all areas that tend to catch out runners and cyclists as the training load increases. It’s a lifelong battle to keep them supple, but well worth spending time on. A couple of stretch sessions a week can save you a whole season of lost competition.

I’m also looking for core strength, so I have quite a few exercises targeting that.

Balance is important too – recruiting all those small muscles that switch on when some unexpected movement takes place can also help prevent injury. Try kneeling on a swiss ball, or standing on one foot with your eyes closed while you lean forward with arms outstretched.

While you’re at the gym, you can also work on strengthening and building any muscle areas where you have weaknesses.

If you don’t have a habit of this sort of work, it’s high time you did. The best thing you can do is to contact a gym and get an introductory session. Many are offered free in the expectation that you’ll later become a member, but if this isn’t in your plans, at least one or two appointments with a trainer can give you a framework for future sessions in your own home.

On days when I don’t have a pre-work gym session, I’m usually at the pool.

When the summer sea swim series starts, it can be hard to get up to speed straight away, so now’s the time to be building some form and strength.

I find a coach indispensable. Swimming is crucially dependent on balance and technique. Anyone can haul themselves through the water at speed for a short period by just swimming endless lengths up and down.

Unfortunately, this approach also reinforces all your bad habits.

How many swimmers are confident that they know exactly what position their head should be in, or their hands? How do these positions change during the stroke cycle? A good coach will constantly tweak those things, showing you techniques to relax through the stroke.

I recently had a short session with coach Lionel Padial, where we focused entirely on the position of the elbows and how they related to a more efficient stroke. This also brought in considerations of the role of hip rotation, the powerhouse that can drive your body through the water (but not without core strength).

The evening finished with a look at some underwater videos, not only of our small group, but also of Olympic greats Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett.

You can find some of these clips on You Tube if you want to visualise how your stroke should look.

It may seem that the depths of winter is hardly the time to be thinking about training, but you can take your summer sport to new heights if you use this time of year wisely.

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