Comments (0)

By admin, December 23, 2009 11:10 pm

Traditional mince pies. Photo courtesy of Nick J Webb at Flickr.com

It’s that time of year again when most of us go on the “seefood” diet – you see food and eat it (an old joke I know). There seems to be food on offer everywhere you go and you can easily end up eating and drinking to excess.

There’s usually no netball training or matches during the Christmas holidays, so your body gets dealt a double blow – you’re exercising less and eating a lot more. End result: you lose some fitness and gain unwanted pounds that you’ll be keen to shift come January 1st.

But when you do resume your regular exercise programme after a break, the first session back can seem a lot more effort than usual and you can end up with sore and aching muscles the next day. How to avoid this? Whilst, I don’t expect anyone to wake up on Christmas morning and bash out a few hundred sit-ups, try to do a little something over the festive period. Why not go for a swim or a run with a friend (weather permitting – we have snow in the UK right now) or try to attend fitness classes at your local sports centre.

Alternatively, there are lots of things you can do at home: knock out a few of those aforementioned sit-ups and add in some press-ups, dig out those hand-held weights that have been gathering dust under your bed or maybe even practise some gentle yoga to keep those muscles toned and supple. And, don’t forget to keep up those exercises I mentioned in last week’s blog post too.

Will I be practising what I preach? I will certainly try but I’m not promising anything! I do plan to keep going to my regular Boxercise class which will certainly help to burn off some of those mince pies but I shall be happy when netball training starts again too.

What do you do to maintain your fitness level during the holidays? Leave a comment on the blog to let everyone know your plans and how you get on.

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope to hear from you in 2010.

Comments (4)

By admin, December 16, 2009 5:17 pm

Picture courtesy of Perfecto Insecto on Flickr.com

Netball is a high-impact sport and can be very physical at times so playing it regularly, whilst good for your fitness, is not so kind on the joints. The knees and ankles bear the brunt of all that running and jumping about and stiff, aching or swollen joints after a match are common among netball players. Does this sound familiar? Do you have trouble getting out of bed, never mind walking, the day after a match? The following is a quick list of some useful exercises for helping to keep things in working order. Please feel free to share any exercises you find beneficial.

The best exercises in the world will be of no use if you don’t actually do them so to get the most benefit try to

* practise the above exercises on a regular basis, ideally every day or every weekday

* do the exercises first thing in the morning so you get the benefit for the whole day

* do these exercise when your joints are feeling good, not just when they ache or feel stiff after a game

There are many alternatives to the above but I picked these as they can be done easily at home or at training – some of them can even be done whilst lying in bed! You may want to use versions that don’t involve lying down if you want to use some of these exercises as part of a pre-match warm-up, especially if you play outdoors. If you can’t manage to do 30 rotations or hold any position for 30 seconds, do what you can manage at first and build up slowly over time.

Try the exercises for awhile and let me know if you notice any difference in how your joints feel. Notice also if there is any improvement in your performance on court or post-match recovery. Do you have any exercises that you want to add to the above list?