Why should you make time in your training schedule for cross training?  Time not spent running is wasted time right?  Wrong!  Here's why....

This edition of Core Conditioning 101 focuses on the 'Swissball Prone Roll Out' a rather long winded name but a great, simple exercise for conditioning the whole Abdominal musculature.  It integrates the inner (stabiliser) unit muscles with the outer (movement) unit muscles to produce a fully functional abdominal exercise that should be the bedrock of your core workouts.  Here's what you need to know....

A large part of our focus at On the Bench is the treatment of aches, pains and injuries brought on, often, by a particular activity or event.  It's quite common for our clients to come in with a painful back, for example, and cite a step class or a weekend spent gardening as the source of the problem.

I have never run a marathon. The Great South Run and Half Marathon distance has (so far at least) been enough of a challenge for me. But I am in awe of everyone that takes on this massive challenge. Every year, I see people pre- and post-marathon events and have learned a lot from each of them. So here are my top tips for a speedy recovery from your marathon.

With the Masters on this weekend I thought this would be an ideal time to answer a question that I get on a regular basis when Sam and I get injured Golfers come into the clinic for treatement.  Why condition golfers?  It's an easy sport that people play in their leisure time to unwind and relax isn't it.  You hit a ball, take a walk, hit a ball again, easy right?

Wrong!  The forces generated in long game shots are easily as high as any of those required for sports that are commonly regarded as far more physically demanding.  Studies of electrical activity in the muscles of golfers driving the ball have shown that this shot takes as much muscle activation (effort) as lifting a load in the gym that is so heavy you can't lift it more than four times!  That is an incredibly heavy lift!  Your gym instructor would have a heart attack if a novice lifter came into the gym and proceeded to try that lift!  Yet that's exactly what most golfers do.

Strains and injuries to the arms, particularly the wrist and elbow, are frighteningly common in golf today.  In this article I'm going to try and help solve that problem for anyone who suffers with this.  Now the focus is on golf due to that being my specialist subject but this information applies equally to any sport involving expression of force through the arms such as tennis, squash, cricket etc.

As part of our offering at On the Bench we have a comprehensive range of Golf Biomechanics services.  These include everything from work to correct swing faults and injuries to professional standard conditioning to improve performance.

In less than a week, I will join 4999 other people for the most exciting running event I may ever have the privilege to take part in - the Olympic Park Run! The 5-mile course takes in the sites of the Olympic Park and culminates in the Athletics Stadium, on the running track, in front of 12,000 spectators. To say I'm excited is the understatement of the year.

Weight training, resistance training, cross training, call it what you will it all means the same thing:  Find something that feels heavy and move it around as many times as you can with good form, rest and repeat.  Simples!  In practice the specific variables of how much you lift, how many times, how often and how you lift it are tuned to the requirements and abilities of each person.  This is the plug section where I mention that you should have this sorted out by someone who knows their stuff, someone like me!  A cookie cutter approach to training where you follow this months magazine workout or do whatever your friend is doing is going to be hit and miss at best and dangerous at worst.  A properly designed program, from a skilled practitioner (like me) gets results faster and minimises the chances of injuries that halt your progress.  With your personalised resistance training program you're all set for your short journey to better health; here's what you can look forward to....

When you bend forward the properly functioning core works like this:  The contraction of the lower abdominal muscle fibres act to rotate the pelvis posteriorly which tightens the sacrotuberous, sacrospinous and sacroiliac ligaments and stabilises the sacroiliac (SI) joint against the shear force of the torsos weight.  This is what happens when everything works as it's supposed to.  If your lower abdominals aren't strong enough or they aren't firing up in the sequence they are supposed to you get problems such as lower back ache and SI joint pain.

The Horse stance - Silly name, great exercise!

Having a strong core is all well and good for doing complex exercises on the floor but you need to link that "inner unit" strength to the muscles of the "outer unit" that mobilise the body for it to be any good in the real world.  You can have great core strength in an isolated exercise on the floor and still put your back out lifting something.  The inner and outer units must be conditioned to work together and that starts with the Horse stance exercises.

Everyone loves an abdominal curl!  There are gadgets and contraptions and machines abound that all claim to help you to build a washboard stomach.  In our first YouTube video Neil explains the key pointers that go into making this gym staple a worthwhile exercise that won't leave you riddled with muscle imbalances, poor posture and pains.  Well worth a watch...

The big thing in the fitness industry over the last couple of years has been to jump on the “functional fitness” bandwagon. Bootcamp, P90X and Crossfit style workouts have soared in popularity emphasising as they do “big-bang” exercises like Olympic lifts, tyre flips, kettle bells etc, etc. These are all great things, compound lifting, training movements rather than muscles and the integration of core strength are all laudable goals and things I can get behind with just one little caveat: It must be suitable for the intended recipient of the exercise program.

You know the story, it's as old as the hills.  Overindulge at Christmas, swear it'll never happen again and start an uber strict detox diet in January with all the best intentions.  If you make it to February it's a miracle of willpower and self deprivation.

This year I'd like to suggest something different, something that is sustainable all year around and most importantly works!

If you are signed up to our Facebook page or Twitter account then you may well have read the Yahoo! news piece that I posted the other day about the amazing results Olympian Jade Johnson has achieved working with the CHEK institute.  In a nutshell; Jade was running herself into the ground, she was hormonally exhausted (what we commonly call over-training) due to a poorly designed training program that she had been following that took no account of her lifestyle or nutritional needs.  Effectively she was being drained not trained and finally she had no reserves left to call upon and burned out.  You can follow the amazing progress on the blog: http://www.jadedragonreturns.com/