Things as of late..

So, christmas has been and gone and its the start of a new year. Training died down a bit over christmas due to, well, christmas, but also due to the ever-continuing problems with my knees and back. Over the last few weeks I have really listened to my body and have been much more careful with my movement affecting these areas. I've cut out a lot of high impact things and have been conditioning my lower body more, particularly with calf raises and shin raises to strengthen the muscles around my knees. I'm also stretching a lot more and for longer periods, and all of this does seem to be having a positive effect. My knees ache less while training and after training and I'm not feeling the loss of power as much as I was. However, my back seems to have seen the improvement in my knees and has decided to get worse, just to keep the steady balance of pain, or something. So yer, in summary, knees hurt less, back hurts more. This may also stem from missing a chiropractors appointment a few weeks ago now and not going again since, so I havent had any manipulation for over a month now.

This makes my christmas sound pretty morbid though, when it hasn't been at all. Christmas itself was great and we also managed to have a fair few jams, and a trip to Nottingham that was a nice break, and a good day all round. As for training in particular, I've been working on taking impact out of movements and working around my injuries. The other day we were practicing taking off the opposite foot for running jumps and with cat passes, as it's not only helpful for when you land on the wrong foot into a movement, but it also helps me because I'm not constantly applying force to the same leg on take-offs. The injuries have also made me think carefully about every landing I have to take, because if I bend too far then it hurts, but if I don't pay attention and don't absorb the force then it also hurts, so I'm constantly alert for how I move. Although I hate not having the freedom that I used to have, it's given me newq methods of training and a different mentality that I think will stay with me for long after these injuries (eventually!) heal.

At the minute I want to work on actual parkour as much as my injuries will let me. I mean being properly fast and efficient, not just that kind of fluid vaults and a jogging pace kind of efficient, really quick. I think I'm at the point where I'm really comfortable and natural with all the basic movements but I don't work nearly enough on putting them together and working on them like in a proper parkour situation, and that's what I want to do at the minute, so I shall make a mental note to post again soon with how things go :)

Love x