Get To Know Your Muscles: Upper Trapezius

Get To Know Your Muscles: Upper Trapezius

Upper trapezius trigger points are the primary muscles responsible for neck pain and headaches. The upper traps are also the most reactive muscles in your body to emotional stress.

This blog post discusses:

• how the traps gets overloaded

• symptoms of an overloaded upper traps

• self-care tips

• how Physio can help

QUICK ANATOMY REVIEW:

The traps is the most superficial muscle of the upper back and runs from the base of your skull, along to the tip of your shoulder, all the way down to the middle of your back, (see image below).

FUNCTION OF THE TRAPS:

The trapezius muscle consists of three parts that all have different functions:

• upper part helps raise the shoulder

• middle fibers retracts the scapula

• lower fibers lower the scapula

This blog post will focus on the upper traps.

HOW TRAPS BECOMES OVERLOADED:

The traps can become overloaded from the following situations:

• excessive sitting / computer use

• whiplash (car accident, falling on your head, or any sudden jerk of the head)

• tensing your shoulders

• constantly pulling the shoulders down attempting to have a ‘good posture’

• carrying small children around a lot

• sitting with a chair without armrests, or the armrests are too high

• extended car trips

• looking down constantly at your phone

• any profession or activity that requires you to look down for extended periods (i.e.. dentists/hygienists, architects/draftsmen, and secretaries/computer users)

• bra straps that are too tight (either the shoulder straps or the torso strap)

• a hand-bag or backpack that is too heavy

• anxiety

• recent surgery

• unresolved emotional trauma e.g. PTSD

SYMPTOMS:

The upper traps has an interesting referral pattern, as shown in red in the diagram below.

The upper traps is often the ‘key’ muscle that can trigger other areas such as jaw pain and headaches.

Symptoms of upper traps over-load include:

Upper Traps Referral Pattern (areas marked in red).

• severe neck pain

• a stiff neck

• facial, temple, or jaw pain

• pain behind the eye

• headaches on the temples / "tension" headaches

• dizziness or vertigo (in conjunction with the sternocleidomastoid muscle)

• intolerance to weight on your shoulders

• sinus pain
  
  
  
  

TREATMENT APPROACH:

Physiotherapy assessment will involve a comprehensive movement assessment to determine the cause of your traps issue.

Some common manual therapy treatment approaches can include:

• joint mobilisation to the neck and upper back

• dry needling and massage to the traps to stimulate deep blood flow and release the tightness

• addressing any biomechanical issues with stretching, strengthening and foam rolling

SELF-CARE TIPS

• avoid extended periods of sitting

• Think about ‘time in the posture’ vs trying to find a perfect posture e.g. have a short break every 20 minutes

• consider a standing desk

• avoid constantly looking down at your phone

• apply heat to the traps 10 minutes each day to encourage blood flow

• ensure you are getting enough cardio-vascular exercise each day (30 mins minimum)

• take regular breaks on long car trips and consider using a pillow or support under your arm to take the strain off the traps

• learn to breathe through your diaphragm and manage your stress

• Wear bras that fit properly

• If you suffer with anxiety, seek help through your GP or a take a free online course

Some of the following exercises you may find useful:

Pecs stretch - feel the stretch at the front of the shoulder and hold 30 secs

Thoracic foam roller - release your upper back with a few rolls up and down

Upper traps stretch - hold gently 10-15 secs

Diaphragm breathing with legs at 90/90 - helps calm your nervous system

Building capacity in the upper body

Constantly focusing on relaxing and releasing the upper traps can be counter-productive because it isn’t always getting to the root cause.

Focusing on the pain and tightness can keep your body stuck in the ‘zone of stress’ (see picture below).

The only way to get better in the long term, is to gradually start building your physical capacity with a personalised program, so you can create a ‘zone of relaxation’ where you have the capacity to handle all of your daily life without the muscles becoming overloaded.

The trick is to build up gradually - step by step. As soon as you push too far you risk re-activating the tightness by over-loading the muscle.

In the beginning it is best to be conservative.

As your work with your body more, you will get to know and respect your bodies limits.

Some of the exercises you could include would be:

• push-ups

• bicep curls

• triceps

• bent over row

• lat pull downs

• core work

• increasing cardio fitness

Acknowledging underlying emotional issues in chronic pain

When your neck symptoms are chronic, one of the most concerning things is the ongoing pain, which can sometimes go on for months or years, despite seeing multiple health care practitioners and trying different medications.

Understandably, this can create a lot of fear and anxiety about the underlying cause of the symptoms which can keep you in a state of fight or flight (see picture below).

For some people, when they experience pain or injury it may be associated with anxiety and catastrophizing about the pain, like for example whether or not it will ever go away and if it will get worse if they move too much.

Some people become fearful of exercising and being active (known as ‘fear avoidance behaviour' and 'kinesiophobia') and might rely solely on passive treatment and resting, which can have some adverse effects and may lead to decreased function and a lower load threshold which could result in more pain.

As you can imagine, a downward spiral of fear, lack of movement, weakness and de-conditioning can result (see picture below) and become very difficult to break.

Examples of factors that may contribute to dysfunction in the upper trapezius Reference

You are not your scan !

Often there have been some scans showing some damage to a structure such as a disc or nerve issue.

Injuries and structural issues certainly do cause pain initially.

Unfortunately, sometimes the patient is not given a broader context in which to interpret the significance of the results.

The body has a tremendous capacity to heal, and generally tissue damage takes no more than six to twelve months to occur.

If you are still getting pain after this time (and you have been thoroughly investigated by your health care team), your pain is more likely to be coming from a sensitized nervous system (see picture below) than an damaged structural fault.

Maybe the most important picture to understand if you’ve had pain lasting more than six months.

Pain that lasts more than six months is generally related to an overly sensitive nervous system rather than a specific issue in the tissues

(Picture credit: Explain Pain - Butler & Mosely)

One thing is very clear with the recent research is that you can have structural abnormality and have no pain whatsoever (see picture below).

Degeneration, disc issues and arthritis are very common in asymptomatic individuals (i.e. who have no pain - see picture below).

Reference: Nakashima H, Yukawa Y, Suda K, Yamagata M, Ueta T, Kato F. Abnormal findings on magnetic resonance images of the cervical spines in 1211 asymptomatic subjects. Spine. 2015 Mar 15;40(6):392–8

The ongoing nature of the pain is more often to do with tight muscles with restricted and oxygen blood flow.

Just understanding this process can go along way to resolving your ongoing pain issues, but you will need an experienced GP and Physio to work with to help you diagnose and get you back on the fast track.

Get relief from your neck pain or headaches

We have a special interest in helping people overcome their neck pain / headaches and get back to what they love.

If you think we are the right fit for you and you wish to get relief right away, use our simple online booking system to make an appointment.  If you would prefer to speak to us directly,  call us 1300 657 813

Psoas - Get To Know Your Muscles

Psoas - Get To Know Your Muscles

QUICK ANATOMY REVIEW:

The psoas (pronounced ‘so-az’) is one of the deepest core muscles in the body.

As you can see in the picture below, the psoas is a long muscle, attaching above to the upper part of the lower back as well as the intervertebral discs.

It then travels down through the abdomen and attaches to the inner part of the hip, making it one of only two muscles that attaches the spine to the lower limb.

FUNCTION:

The psoas has a number of diverse functions, making it a key factor in health.

There is still some controversy concerning it’s exact role in the body.

The psoas is partly a hip flexor - that helps bend your hip when you walk and run.

It also has an important role in stabilising the lower back and posteriorly tilts the pelvis.

HOW PSOAS BECOMES OVERLOADED:

The psoas can become tight from spending extended periods of time in the following positions:

• sitting

• sleeping in the fetal position

• standing with a swayed back and wearing high heels too often

• sitting in a kayak/canoe

The psoas becomes overloaded with repeated use in the following situations:

• driving

• kicking

• cycling

• excessive sit-ups

Visceral pain

As it passes through, and has some attachments to the internal organs, the psoas can also be activated when there is irritation internally, (in particular the colon).

Stress

The psoas tends to tighten in response to general life stress (activated during the fight / flight response). Think of the fetal position protective response - that is the psoas causing your spine to contract.

SYMPTOMS:

The psoas is known as the ‘Hidden Prankster’ due to it being responsible for a lot of lower back pain (especially related to disc pain), without many people being aware of it.

Pain from a tight psoas muscle may be projected in a vertical direction in a ‘gutter’ along either side of the lowerback as well as to the sacroiliac region and buttock (see red areas marked below).

Pain may be felt during sitting and walking.

Overload of the psoas can also lead to pain and tightness in the front of the hip. 

TREATMENT APPROACH:

Physiotherapy assessment will involve a comprehensive movement assessment to determine the cause of your psoas issue.

Some common manual therapy treatment approaches include:

• joint mobilisation to the lower back

• dry needling to the psoas insertion point in the hip and upper attachment point in the back

• deep tissue and manual myofascial release on the mid-section of the muscle (pictured below). It is very difficult muscle to dry needle direclty due to its deep location and proximity to major organs.

SELF-CARE TIPS

• avoid extended periods of sitting. Think about ‘time in the posture’ vs trying to find a perfect posture

• consider a standing desk

• avoid walking and jogging uphills and on sloped surfaces in the short-term

• apply heat to the front of abdomen 10 minutes each day

• sleep on side with pillow between knees, avoiding the fetal position with the hip flexed right up

• use cruise control on long car trips to stretch the legs

• learn to breathe through your diaphragm and manage your stress

  Some of the following exercises you may find useful:

Psoas stretch - gently ease into it tucking the pelvis under as you lean forward (Picture credit: Fiona Melder Photography)

Bridge stretch - tuck your pelvis, squeeze your glutes but don’t overarch your back. Breathe! (Picture credit: Fiona Melder Photography)

Diaphragm breathing

As the psoas attaches to the diaphragm, when you breathe deeply you will naturally help decompress the psoas.

You can do this by putting your hands on the outside of your lower rib cage.

As you breathe in, expand the ribs from the sides, front and back - 360 degrees.

Aim for five seconds breathe in and five seconds breathe out for 1 minute.

Building capacity in the Psoas

Weakness in the psoas causes decreased ability to flex the hip joint.

It’s really important for runners to have adequate capacity in the psoas.

Try this marching exercise below with a theraloop to help build some capacity in your hip flexors.

Need some help with your lower back or hip pain?

We have a special interest in helping people overcome their pain and get back to what they love.

If you think we are the right fit for you and you wish to get relief right away, use our simple online booking system to make an appointment.  If you would prefer to speak to us directly,  call us 1300 657 813

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Chronic Pain - The Myths

Chronic pain is a significant global health burden and low back pain causes more disability than any other condition.

Interpreting pain

People with negative beliefs about their pain report higher levels of pain intensity and disability.

People with musculoskeletal pain often view their body as being a fragile or a vulnerable structure which is easy to (re)injure.

Here are some common misconceptions about pain:

Credit: World Confederation of Physical Therapy

Some facts about pain

Acute pain alarms us about potential tissue damage and typically comes on suddenly as a result of a specific incident.

Chronic pain serves no biologic purpose as it is not related to actual tissue damage, but more the threat of tissue damage.

Sensitive Alarms

To understand chronic pain more simply, think of a house with a security alarm set up.

After the house was burgled a few months ago, the owners decided to set the alarm’s sensitivity to high.

So every time the wind blew, it would blow a lot of leaves and debris around - setting off the alarm system. The owners woke up to the alarm and prepared for a ‘fight-flight’ situation. But each time the alarm went off, they didn’t find anything wrong.

After an injury, the body is biologically wired to act like a sensitive alarm system - magnifying small normal niggles.

This is a normal and healthy protective response.

For some people though, while the original injury can heal (normally taking no longer than 3-6 months), this protective response (highly sensitive alarm system) can remain in place indefinitely.

This can lead to overwhelming sense of anxiety and fear, that can turn into a downward spiral of inactivity, de-conditioning and eventually more pain.

Maybe the most important picture to understand if you’ve had pain lasting more than six months.

Pain that lasts more than six months is generally related to an overly sensitive nervous system rather than a specific issue in the tissues

(Picture credit: Explain Pain - Butler & Mosely)

Consulting with a Physio who is specialised to treat chronic pain can help you discover if you have a sensitive nervous system and get you back on the fast track to living life again.

Physiotherapists will help you understand how chronic pain works.

They will help you reduce the fear attached to pain and explore long-term strategies to build confidence through engaging in activities that you once enjoyed.

Exercise and building capacity

People who have suffered chronic pain often have reduced physical capacity, that has dropped over a period of months or years.

This keeps them in the ‘zone of stress’ where everyday tasks can seem over-whelming and tiring.

The only way to get on top long term is to re-build your capacity, to create zone of relaxation, where you can easily handle the demands of everyday life.

A few tips:

1. Increase training or exercise loads gradually – our bodies don’t like surprises

2. Avoid changing too many training or exercise factors in one go

3. Participate in a program that focuses on whole body strength to ensure the body is tolerant to changes in exercise load

4. Pace yourself. Break bigger activities into smaller chunks.

Pain is normal - use this scale to guide your level of activity

Some people with chronic pain become overly sensitive at perceiving small normal niggles.

When you start to resume your activities., pain that is at a 0-5 level is considered ACCEPTABLE —> KEEP GOING.

Pain that increases to 5-10 means you are probably over-doing it and need to rest or modify your activity.

Pay attention to your pain during the activity as well as notice the 24 hour response e.g. the next day.

Need some help with getting you back to doing what you love?

If you think we are the right fit for you and you wish to get relief right away, use our simple online booking system to make an appointment.  If you would prefer to speak to us directly,  call us 1300 657 813

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6 Minutes To A Supple Spine

There are many options out there for addressing back pain.

But the one approach that has the best scientific support is exercise ✅

We are taught early on how to care for our teeth to prevent tooth decay.

But no one ever told us how to take care of our spines 🤔

Unfortunately this can lead to ongoing spot fires 🔥 and niggles, as the underlying issues aren't being addressed.

Below you'll find a short 6 minute set of exercises - that you can do once or twice per day to keep your spine healthy, supple and strong 👇

We have our own strengths and weaknesses so getting a personal assessment / set of exercises from your Physio would be best, but this would be a pretty good start.

Let me know how you go in the comments and please tag anyone you know who might benefit 🙌

Prevention is better than cure!

Here’s an outline of the moves:

• Heel taps

• Bridge

• Single leg bridge

• Hip abduction, clams

• Side plank

• Plank

• Cat-cow

• Superman

• Child’s pose

• Pigeon pose

• Thoracic foam roller

• Hip flexor stretch

The solution to keeping your spine healthy lies in finding the balance of mobility and stability.

Each part of our body has a specific function (as the picture below shows).

This is know as the joint by joint approach.

Focusing on the giving what the body what it needs will lead to more efficient movement and a suppleness that you will leave you feeling energized and strong.

Research has showed that people who just focus only on stretching only had a higher incidence of lower back pain.

And people who focused only on strengthening (e.g machine based weights at the gym) had a higher incidence of back pain.

So this set of exercises has been specifically formulated to switch on the deep core stabilisers and creating mobility in the hips and back.

Doing this regularly will certainly help keep your spine supple and strong.

Let me know how you go in the comments.

Need some help with your lower back pain?

If you think we are the right fit for you and you wish to get relief right away, use our simple online booking system to make an appointment.  If you would prefer to speak to us directly,  call us 1300 657 813

My journey to a sub-20 min 5k

Author: Dan O’Grady (Physio from Adelaide, Australia).

Follow on Strava

8:51am Sunday 4th August 2019

I’m sitting slumped on the steps of the Torrens Parade ground in the heart of Adelaide. I’ve just done something I didn’t think I was capable of - especially at the tender age of 40 - that was to crack 20 minutes for 5k.

That may not be all that impressive, but I’ve never been an overly competitive runner.

I grew up playing footy and discovered the love of running in my 30’s. After overcoming some serious injuries to my knee, hip and spine, the focus generally has been to use running as a means of staying healthy and maintaining a solid physical foundation.

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Download Dan’s 12 week sub 20 5k plan HERE

Going back 12 months, I had set a sub 20 min 5k as my main goal for 2019.

I wasn’t all that keen on doing a marathon in 2019 - with 2 little kids around the place I didn’t want a race that was all consuming that takes too much time from family life.

My main motivation?

I was going to be turning 40 mid-June and thought a sub 20 min 5k had a good ring to it.

Perhaps it was my version of a ‘mid-life’ crisis - an opportunity to set some PB’s while there was still time.

The plan

In late 2018 I ran a 21:53 at the Glenelg Classic - so I clearly had a lot of work to do!

I certainly knew how NOT to improve my 5k, and that was to simply focus on running more 5k’s.

My ‘training’ for the 5k traditionally was to run a hard 5 km every month or so and see what would happen.

Almost every time without fail, I would go out at a decent pace, get to 1k feeling great, 2k feeling a little shaky and by the 3rd 5k completely spent.

I’d spend the last 2k limping home full of lactic acid wondering what went wrong.

To give myself the best chance for the sub 20, I realised I needed to change my approach from a goal focused ( Figure 1 - running more 5k’s) to a process focused (Figure 2 - getting the right mix of key workout sessions, race strategy and recovery).

This meant I saved my 5k efforts for when it really counted, trusting that by focusing on the process would end in a successful outcome.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Summer Trail Series

Over the 2018/19 summer I did my first Summer Trail Series, which provided a nice focus to keep some mileage in the legs.

No doubt, the additional hills helped build some leg strength which gave me a good foundation for the year ahead.

Early on in the year, most of my workouts were at a very ‘easy’ pace - which generally involved a walk/run combo. This enabled me to build a solid volume base, without stressing my body with fast paced workouts.

Getting a Running Coach

Being a big fan of the Inside Running Podcast, I was intrigued to hear the stories of the hosts and their guests week in and week out. It was great to hear their passion for running and much thought they put into their training and racing. I had never fully appreciated the intricacies of running, in the way they talked about it.

No doubt some of their knowledge and passion started to filter in and when Brady mentioned he was looking for runners to coach to a sub-20 5k PB I was keen to get on board.

After a good chat about my running history and plans, Brady got me on a well structured program.

It was fantastic being set up with a personalised training plan and it meant I could focus 100% on the running.

Brady introduced me to some really good training philosophies and I learnt about some key training sessions, that I hadn’t done much of before such as the progressive tempo runs, lactate threshold runs and fartlek work.

At school, I mainly played football, tennis and swimming. I never did little athletics where you learn about how to develop a structured training program and learn about the key sessions required to progress fitness.

So having Brady as a guide was incredibly beneficial - and helped me gain some confidence and momentum in my training - something that Matt Fitzgerald talks about in his excellent book RUN: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel.

I think one of my main mistakes before getting a coach was to push myself a little too hard during my training - leading to overload and a boom-bust cycle of niggling injuries.

In terms of the sessions, the Mona Fartlek was a real game changer for me - with the intense interval work really showing up my weaknesses.

I was OK at doing some quick intervals - but I used to walk or stand for the recoveries.

Instead, the Mona Fartlek demands you jog / run the ‘off’ periods at a half decent pace.

My first Mona was a bit of a disaster - as I didn’t even know how to set up my Garmin GPS watch for workouts, so I was constantly looking down at my watch pressing start/stop.

I went out way to hard in the first few intervals - and paid for it in the second half.

The Mona really taught me about proper pacing and not going out too hard too early.

I had a solid two months of training with Brady’s program - and found my fitness improving dramatically. Towards the end of April, I had a trip to Melbourne over Easter and managed to pick up a nasty flu - that everyone seemed to also get at the time.

Being pretty motivated - I probably didn’t rest as I much as I needed - and the flu / cough seemed to get worse and not better.

I was feeling a little burnt-out and needed to take a break from running in the short-term to get myself healthy again.

After about a month of little to running, the 5k was pretty much off the table, and I wasn’t too fussed about pushing my body for the immediate future.

In June we had a family trip up to North QLD - and with the warm humid weather, I started to get some more energy back and got back into some easy jogging.

I had also bought a book, Run Faster by Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald.

This book really simplified the process of training for the 5k - and gave some key sessions such as:

• Building endurance with a fast 10k

• performing 5 x 1 k at goal pace (1 min jogging recoveries)

• weekly hill sprints to build leg strength

Queens Birthday Turkey Handicap

In June, I felt like my fitness had improved quite a lot - and I felt ready to give my body it’s first 5k test. This race was set up by the Harriers Running Club - and involved predicting your race time, and then the winner was the person who got the closest (without using a GPS watch).

I nominated a 19:59 time - and ended up running a 20:23.

My thoughts going in was that running by feel - and not stressing over my pace by looking at the watch every 5 seconds may play to my advantage.

I started out pretty strong - probably too strong as usual (approx 3:50 pace) and by 3km I was cooked.

The last 2 km I could feel the lactic acid taking over my body and even my arms started to cramp up (weird!), due to the hydrogen ions that build up in your body when you’re pushing beyond your limits.

After this experience, I had some more hope that the sub 20 min could happen this year (especially if I got my pacing right from the the start). But I wasn’t 100% and had almost resigned to leaving it be for this year and giving it another crack next year.

That’s when I heard about the Fitzy’s 5k coming up in a couple of months - a run that I had done with my brother in 2015 as I was building up to the NYC marathon.

I had also been getting some inspiration from running coach Greg McMillan who gave a really enlightening talk about how to tackle the 5km. He highlighted some key factors leading to a positive race, you can check it out below.

One of the keys from Greg’s talk was setting up the race with a proper warm-up prior to the race.

For the 5k, there is no ‘warm-up’ period as such - you’ve got to ready to hit your race pace as soon as the gun goes off. In my training, I found it did take me quite some time to get warmed-up - sometimes up to 45 minutes. I found that if I didn’t warm up properly, then when I started the 5k, my heart rate would really skyrocket and I’d feel really anxious because I could hardly breathe!

Greenbelt 10k

Two weeks out from my 5k attempt at the Fitzy’s 5k I decided to run the 10k at the Greenbelt running festival. I ended up running a 43:53 - a time I was happy with, but at the same time, didn’t fill me with a huge amount of confidence to go sub 20 5k.

There were quite a few rolling hills along the course, and I think I was having a slightly off day - it felt like a pretty hard 10k and I was really tired at the end of it. It probably set me up pretty well for the 5k two weeks later.

Final week before the Fitzy’s 5

The week before the Fitzy’s 5km I came across this podcast interview with Craig Mottram.

I had known about Craig Mottram, but never knew how incredible a runner he was until listening to his podcast with Brad Beer. And he is surprisingly tall - 6”2 (I have always felt slightly out of place being a taller runner, so knowing this was a bonus).

Talking about his mental toughness - he described himself as the ‘King of Pain’ and encouraged to work hard and don’t be afraid to test your boundaries.

Craig mentioned in the podcast that Ron Clarke said to him that you’ll the hardest kilometer you’ll ever run in your life is from 3 to 4 km in a 5km race. That’s when you start to doubt yourself about maintaining the pace and staying strong until the finish.

That was good to know that I wasn’t the only one who really struggled with this part of the race!

Watching Craig in his Commonwealth Games race (above) was pretty inspiring - his confidence and belief in himself to the extremes was amazing.

Mindset
A couple of days before Fitzy’s 5k - a new research study came out that I saw on social media (thanks Michael Nitschke) - talking about the way you talk to yourself.

By simply changing from ‘I’ to ‘You’ can influence your physical performance e.g.

• I —> YOU can tolerate this

• I — > YOU can keep going

• I —> YOU can deal with the pain

• I —> YOU can go flat out now

• I —> YOU are going to finish strong

I was keen to test out this small tweak in self-talk to see if the research was accurate.

August 4th - Fitzy’s 5k

Admittedly we had absolutely perfect conditions - it was cold and sunny (around 10 degrees), no wind and wide roads.

How The Race Unfolded

0-1k - First 150m was uphill and my pace was 3:50 so I had to be really disciplined not to push myself too fast. Turning from North terrace into a long downhill along King William Street and picked up some nice momentum. Had the Garmin set up to beep me if I went out of the 3:50 - 4:00 range. At 1 km, I had a beep that was telling me I was going too fast, so backed off a bit more.

1-2k - I was holding myself back at 3:55-4:00 pace, even though I felt like I could have gone way faster. Quite a few people over-taking me at this stage, and I was desperate to go with them, but knew I’d pay for it later in the race. As Greg McMillan says, as you maintain even pacing through the race, your perceived effort will ramp up significantly towards the finish. Started picking up some energy from over-taking a bunch of runners.

2-3k - Felt good, ran past the Women’s and Childrens hospital and was focusing on some deep diaphragm breathing and trying to avoid sub-consciously holding onto my breath, which I have a tendency to do when the going gets tough. Focused especially on the exhale and blowing off the excess CO2. Tried to keep the stride efficient and strong.

3-4k - Around the Uni ovals - felt solid like I was at my limit, but didn’t feel terrible, still something in the tank for the finish.

4-5k - Picked up the pace a bit - Garmin had me averaging 3:58, so I felt comfortable that I was on track.

Towards the last 100m, someone yelled out if you sprint you can get a sub 20.

I was a little surprised, but had no time to really think, but I could see the big clock ticking away above the finish line and absolutely sprinted my guts out to cruise through the finish line with a time of 19:59. The last 100m was at about 2:53 pace - something I don’t think I’ve done before!

I was pretty pumped to achieve the goal. It was over and done with so quickly - I didn’t even get a chance to really think about it - I guess that is a good thing - getting into the zone.

Looking back - it’s been a fun and challenging goal to get the sub 20 for 5km. It certainly makes life interesting having a goal and working towards something every time you go out for a run.

The 5k is a really interesting test of fitness. I would say that the training to get the sub 20 has been actually harder and more focused than running the two marathons I’ve done.

A few random things that I think helped me on the day:

• good tapering over preceding 2 weeks - reduced volume but maintained (or slightly increased) intensity

• in the few days before the run big focus on core e.g. plank endurance holds. As I wasn’t running as much, I found this a good simulation for dealing with ‘uncomfortable’ sensations and pushing yourself through

• had a long warm-up 45 mins - easy running + some run throughs at race pace and slightly quicker

• happened to have a foam roller and mat in the boot of car - so took a couple mins after warm-up to roll out and get maximum mobility out the body (hips especially)

• listened to some cheesy motivational music during the warm-up, but ditched the phone for the actual race

• ate easy to digest, low-fiber carbs the day before e.g. mash potato, ravioli, 2 min noodles, rice crackers, lolly snakes. Not that you really need to carb load before a 5km, more about avoiding hard to digest foods

• had a gel 15 mins before race

• mantras used during the race - King of Pain (borrowed from Craig Mottram), stride - smooth and efficient, talking to myself with in the second person…YOU’ve got this.

If you got this far - as always thanks for reading, I’d love to hear from you and learn about your experience also. What helped you most with setting a recent PB? Please leave your comments below.

If you are interested, you can view my specific training schedule on Strava.

Happy running!

Dan O’Grady

Dan O’Grady is a Physio based in Adelaide, Australia and has a special interest in helping runners move better, feel better and get back to doing what they love.

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Working with a Physio who understands your body, your passion and your goals and who can work with you is invaluable to your running success in the short term and keeping you healthy in the long run. 

Dan O'Grady ( 2 x NYC Marathoner) has helped hundreds of runners quickly overcome their injuries and re-build their foundation.  Dan works with all levels of runners - from weekend warriors to elite level ultra marathoners.

Please feel free to wander about the blog where you'll find tons of helpful information to help your running.

If you'd like some more personal attention, please use our simple online booking system to make an appointment.

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