Russell is a very unusual case for I have never dealt with anyone who has been competing at an international level for 29 years and is still within 5% of his or her best-ever results. What was interesting in Russell’s circumstances was that his strength levels were adversely affected by his shoulder injury and yet by shifting his focus to incorporating specific compounding stretching exercises into his daily training routine his shoulder-related symptoms gradually abated. His athletic performance remained at a very high level despite significant decreases in his strength levels due to not being able to perform heavy lifting exercises while recovering.
By shifting Russell’s focus away from strength-related exercise that offered diminishing benefits the older he became, and by focusing on technical improvements that came from being able to apply the required forces through a greater range of movement (ROM), he has been able to prolong his athletic career. This makes an interesting case study, highlighting that ROM increases significantly aid recovery, increase functionality and are more easily obtained/maintained as we grow older, where trying to maintain high-end strength levels is inherently risky the older we get.
Giving Russell the means to identify any imbalances that he may have inadvertently developed by combining specific biofeedback technology with kinesthetic movement-based processes effectively gave him a high degree of self-awareness. With significant functional increases in his ROM Russell was able to successfully apply forces through a significantly greater range of movement. This gave him a surprising level of athletic performance while crucially decreasing the risk of injury. Russell was awarded the prestigious Edwin Flack Award 2016 to honour "an athlete who has rendered distinguished service to athletics”.
I have competed in eight Paralympics games as a visually impaired athlete. My primary events were shot put, discus and in my earlier years, I also threw the javelin. I have won a total of six Paralympic gold medals, two silver medals and four bronze medals. I have also competed at IPC World Track and Field Championships where I have won four gold medals and three silver medals. Both the discus and the shot put are power events, which require very dynamic movements to be performed on a regular basis and on top of this my training involves performing weight lifting based exercises, sometimes lifting hundreds of kilograms at any one time.
After 29 years of training and competition, I came to a point in my career where I had to rethink my whole training strategy, as I was becoming less flexible with age and yet was still demanding maximum performance out of my body. Like most people who compete at a high level, I was constantly battling with niggles and I have since learnt that these seemingly innocuous little niggles were the onset of chronic movement patterns that could lead to serious injuries if not addressed in an effective/timely manner.
I highly recommend the FTM program whether you are an elite athlete or just an individual who wants to keep yourself moving in a balanced way.
In 2014 I tore my supraspinatus tendon (SST) and this is when I was fortunate enough to undertake an intensive stretching and activation program with Fit To Manage that addressed my underlying range of movement issues. I utilised their self-actuated stretching and activation equipment that they have developed. This equipment not only addressed my limited range of movement but also allowed me to identify imbalances that weren’t immediately obvious to me.
This system also utilises a software system that takes all the available information and then informs the user on how far they should move so that the appropriate compounding movement patterns can be implemented highlighting the relationship between all the relevant muscle groups, rather than adopting a more traditional isolation approach that tends to focus heavily on the site of the injury, rather than taking a more global approach and addressing all the underlying causal issues in their entirety that were responsible for my shoulder injury occurring in the first place.
The other major advantage of this system is that it allowed me to become actively involved in my own treatment, while at the same time being able to evaluate my strengths against my weaknesses, which is a crucial consideration when trying to manage one's body over the lifespan of their sporting career. I highly recommend the FTM program whether you are an elite athlete or just an individual who wants to keep yourself moving in a balanced way.
