Rachel Oakley PT

Rest days. We tend to either love them or dread them, spending the waking hours getting twitchy and irritable. But whatever you're working towards, why are they such a crucial part of every training plan? The building blocks of progress When you exercise, whether that's running, cycling, weight training or anything else, you're causing teeny-tiny micro-tears in your muscles. These micro-tears are what cause the various aches and pains that you feel after a long or fast run (or particularly vicious session in the gym), and continuing to exacerbate those tears will eventually cause them to become a bit more than micro. But, give your muscles a recovery day - and a good amount of protein - and they will not only repair themselves, but adapt to be just a little bit stronger than before. A note on protein -  As a minimum, we should be looking to take in around 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight a day - and that's if we're totally sedentary. There's ...

Bums. We've all got one and, chances are if you're reading this, you spend a fair bit of time off yours and running instead 😉 But just because our behinds are quite literally behind us, are we giving them the respect they deserve? Our glutes are a collection of six muscles (three each side), the biggest of which - the gluteus maximus - is the largest muscle in our bodies. These muscles have the job of producing all of the power that activities such as running, dancing, cycling etc require, but if they themselves aren't strong to start with, other stronger muscles - maybe your quads, calves or hamstrings - step in to compensate, and this is where we can run into difficulties. A fair few running-related injuries and niggles can be accredited to weak or under-active glutes. Studies have linked gluteal weakness to common complaints such as shin splints, runner's knee, back pain and iliotibial band syndrome (that burning sensation down the outside of your thigh); n...

One of the many things I love about running with others is sharing goals, ambitions and what motivates us to lace up our running shoes and get ourselves out of the door. Everyone has their own story to tell and idea of what they'd like to achieve, whether it's to be able to get into a good habit of exercising regularly, run 5k without stopping, push for a PB, complete a marathon, improve overall health and well-being, lose weight... Whatever your goal, it's easy to start out with good intentions but lose focus along the way, which in turn can lead to despondency, frustration, and even giving up altogether. While setbacks are often part and parcel of any journey, there is a really simple way of helping yourself to stay on track. Get SMART Think of your personal goals - what is the biggest focus for you right now? For the sake of this example, let's say that you've been running 10k fairly regularly, always around the same kind of time - about 1 hour and 5 minu...