My Pain Story - Joletta Belton

This is a brilliant insight of Joletta’s story of how she developed chronic pain and the long journey she took to a place of healing.

Joletta shares her wisdom and of the insights she gained from a roller coaster ride that started when she twinged her hip at work as a firefighter.

Hearing about her journey gives us all hope that there are solutions out there, and sometimes a shift in perspective and learning from the updated science of pain can be life changing.

PDF Download—> Joletta Belton: Explaining the Meanings of Pain, My Story

To hear more from Joletta, One Thing asked 10 experts in pain medicine to share the one thing they want people challenged by pain to know about.

View Joletta Belton’s response:

“If You Know How to Suffer, You Suffer Less”

This is the title of a talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2013.

He presents some very practical tips.

I particularly enjoyed this part of the talk (around the 30 min mark).

“If you allow the energy of mindfulness and compassion to penetrate into your body, you can release the tension in your body very quickly.

If you surrender to the collective energy of mindfulness and peace and compassion, you can release the tension in your body and reduce the amount of pain in your body.

Then you feel much better after a few minutes of listening.

And if there is some fear, anger and despair or loneliness in your heart - open your heart.

This is the time.”

How To Deal With A Big Spike In Load

This week I did something rather foolish - I spiked my training load in a big way.

As you can see below on the graph, on the right of the screen was my run on Wednesday - a long 30km run.

That was a big increase from anything in the past few months.

My current training plan does involve building up to include more endurance, and I had planned on running somewhere from 20-25km this day.

But on a very cold winters day, with the sun shining and a nice coffee in my system, the running seemed effortless and I just wanted to keep running for the sheer joy and enjoyment of it - a soul run of sorts.

Yes I realize big increases in training load put you at risk of injury.

So I consciously made the decision to go for the longer distance and then see how the body responded.

The main goal for the 24-48 hours after a spike in load is to create an optimal environment for positive adaptation and growth to occur and to minimize the negative effects.

This is where active recovery can make a HUGE difference rather than just resting and feeling sore and sorry for yourself.

Over the years, I have experienced a few spikes in load - and now I think I am managing them somewhat better, so here are my top 5 tips to successfully manage a big spike in load:

1. Favor heat over cold

Previously I used to head straight for the cold water baths.

Whilst I think that can be useful for acutely painful spots, now I gain much more benefit from warm baths to help increase circulation to the legs. Throw in some epsom salts to help relax the muscles even more.

2. Increase protein and carbohydrate intake

At every opportunity I will add protein to meals and at snack times. I have a shake (30g protein) first thing in the morning and then eat good quality proteins through the rest of the day. Some other examples - hard boiled eggs, high protein yoghurt and protein bars. Mid afternoon I often will feel quite hangry so I add some extra carbohydrates into the mix.

3. Get on the foam roller

This can be hard to do because you know it’s going to be pretty ugly.

But if you can get some pressure onto the legs, it definitely helps with recovery.

As muscles recover you want them to stay pliable.

If you don’t get in there with the roller or some massage, there is a greater chance for muscles to develop knots and trigger points, that can restrict range of motion and put pressure on joints - especially around the knee.

4. Sleep

Try and get a bit of extra sleep if you can by going to bed earlier or stay in bed a bit longer.

5. Light cardio

Some light walking/hiking and gentle core / pilates exercises help increase circulation and helps recovery.

After a big spike in load - you will definitely need to avoid high impact training for a few days or even up to a week.

Things to AVOID after a big spike in load

The things I would recommend you avoid:

• heavy intense stretching

• using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory

• cold baths (although icing hot spots can be good)

• lots of alcohol

Summary

Overall, I think spikes in load are a normal part of training.

Spikes in load can be very useful in fact as during the recovery - you can find out where your weak links are (the sorest spots) and perhaps add in some extra strength work to build resilience and anti-fragility.

Although they shouldn’t happen too often - I think if you can set up the optimal environment - you will come out feeling better than before.

You need to monitor your response to training for the next 1-2 weeks after a big spike as your body can still be a little vulnerable through the recovery period.

I hope that helps with your training and please let me know in the comments if you have any other tips.

Book Review: Anti-Fragile Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Book Review: Anti-Fragile Nassim Nicholas Taleb

❓What's the opposite of being fragile?
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🔍 It's not being tough or robust - that is just something that doesn't break with stress.
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💥 It's being ‘anti-fragile’, according to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the book Anti-Fragile, which I have finally gotten around to reading recently.
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Anti-fragile refers to something that IMPROVES with pressure, something that gets better with repeated stress and impact.
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When you think about it, our bodies are a great example of being anti-fragile 🥊
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For example, when you expose muscles and bone to (the right dose) of stress, they respond and grow stronger 💪🏼
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Here are 4 tips to to developing an anti-fragile body 👉

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🙏🏼 to @craigliebenson + @gabbetttim for inspiring this philosophy & mindset

Motivation - How to Use it To Your Advantage

With the new year here, we often feel a wave of motivation to achieve our fitness goals.

We head out the door for a run, (the eye of the tiger pumping in the background), and everything feels great with an endorphin buzz generating a feeling of invincibility that flows through our bodies.

A few days later - a niggle pops up and all of a sudden things are looking a little shaky.

This wasn’t part of the script, so we often double down on our efforts, using our willpower to ignore the sensations coming from our bodies.

This can lead to pushing harder than what are bodies are prepared for and ending up in the boom / bust cycle (pain, injury, time off).

I’ve certainly been there - thinking to myself - I’m doing the right thing and trying to get fitter - why is my body always letting me down??

Two ways to use motivation

There are two ways to use motivation when trying to improve running fitness.

First is to push yourself harder physically - focusing purely on longer distance and higher intensity and using your willpower to push past limitations and ignore signals from your body.

The other way is to channel the motivation into creating good habits based on a balanced approach of training and recovery.

The second approach allows you to get upstream of injuries and leads to genuine resilience and anti-fragility.


TIME FOR PLAN B

At first glance, motivation is thought to be a positive factor in achieving success.

But when relying purely on motivation - our focus becomes more on the outcome and less about the process.

This means we often can end up pushing too hard without balancing our training with adequate recovery.

Running is a significant stress on our bodies - a stress that causes muscles, tendons and bones to breakdown in the short-term.

Following the stress, the quality of your recovery helps re-build you stronger and more resilient.

We need to learn to consciously plan and implement effective recovery strategies, based on our current training loads.

In truth, when we are young we can get away with many training errors as our bodies are powerful recovery machines.

But as we get to a certain age (around 30) our bodies don’t have the same recovery capacity.

How to use motivation wisely

When you find yourself with a bit extra motivation - you can use it to increase your training loads, but also channel part of it to plan and implement a balanced training and recovery strategy to support your growth in a sustainable manner.

Setting up good habits from the beginning of your training plan can pay big dividends later on when your training really ramps up.

In reality it can be a little tricky to plan and implement recovery.

Scheduling in recovery as well as a sensibly planned training program can help you lay a solid foundation for a successful year of running.

To help you bring clarity and intentionality to this process, I’ve created a free Weekly PDF Running Planner.

This will help you focus on balancing training loads with adequate recovery and say goodbye to the boom/bust injury cycle forever.

FREE DOWNLOAD - 

WEEKLY RUNNING PLANNER PDF

*Important disclaimer

Admittedly Plan B is a boring route. You won’t get the highs and lows of the rollercoaster ride (otherwise known as the boom/bust cycle).

Only follow this path if you want to develop into an athlete with a solid foundation. Ironically this takes more willpower and discipline than the first path.

And if you’re keen to learn more about setting up habits to improve the quality of your life - then check out the book Atomic Habits by James Clear - game-changer!

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”

“Long term consistency trumps short term intensity”

“Don’t chase fitness, let fitness come to you”

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