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Is your running training stressing you out? By Physiotherapist Claudia Cocci Grifoni

 

Mind over matter

Your relationship with your running training relies on two distinctive important parts: your emotions and your attitude. If you change your emotions into negative ones you will automatically go through an attitude shift.

And guess what? Ongoing stress can seriously affect your nervous system, causing increases in cortisol levels and a domino effect of other physical problems or serious health conditions, including pain, anxiety, lower immunity, and poor recovery ability.

 

How to take control

So what can you do to break this painful cycle of performance anxiety and negative attitude? Here are a few useful tips to manage your emotions and regain the right training balance:

 

1) MAKE YOUR GOALS FLEXIBLE

Review and adapt your goals to your current physical and mental situation. Running training should be a pleasure rather another tedious thing to cross off the to-do list.

 

2) REST

What runners often underestimate is how important is to get the right balance between training and rest. Keep your training mixed with a variety of intensities and rest days to ensure you have adequate recovery time from harder sessions. Also consider other activities like swimming, cycling, core work and strength exercises (which are waaaay more important than many runners might think!)

 

3) SLEEP

As usual, quality over quantity is what matters the most! Keep phones and laptop away from your bedroom, avoid pre-bed eating, use blue light blocking glasses or nightshift apps. Also sleeping in a cool, dark and peaceful environment is incredibly helpful.

 

4) FUEL

Nourish your body with the right food. Vegan? Vegetarian? Paleo? Keto? It doesn’t matter! Do what feels great for your body. Just make sure to use quality organic ingredients and avoid processed and ready meals. Healthy eating habits are as crucial as your physical training sessions.

 

5) RECOVER

Take your recovery to the next level with compression socks and tights, hot baths with Epsom Salts, good quality Magnesium, floatation therapy, infrared saunas, NIR and red light lamps and much more!

 

6) HYDRATE

Drink smart and clean. Avoid alcohol, frizzy and sugary energy drinks and also tap or plastic bottled water. Go for clean filtered one and add some good quality Electrolytes or Trace Minerals (Magnesium and potassium are essential for muscles repair and relaxation).

 

7) MEDITATE

Don’t neglect your mental downtime. Before falling asleep, zone out and raise your legs up against the wall. Perform few minutes of deep respiration exercises to promote general relaxation and improve blood flow (inhale in 5 sec, hold for 1-2 sec, exhale in 6-7 sec).

 

8) ENJOY!

Running shouldn’t be another job. Be flexible with your training schedule and enjoy the journey. Over-sleeping or socializing is often a very important part of your de-stressing program and you can be sure it won’t ruin your hard work.

 

9) REPAIR

If you have any pain or aches that are disrupting your training and increasing stress level go and see a professional. With the right advice and treatments, injuries could be sorted out very quickly and your running efficiency could improve massively.

 

I hope that has been helpful, please get in touch if you would like to see me for a running assessment or if you are injured. 02075838288.

 

Claudia Cocci Grifoni 

Chartered Physiotherapist

Octopus Clinic 

02075838288

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