GYM GIRLS LOCKER ROOM - Why Running for Weight Loss Backfires... Fuelling Hacks, RED-S & Training Smarter with Sophie (@runfreephysio)

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

S3 EP6 – Why Running for Weight Loss Backfires... Fuelling Hacks, RED-S & Training Smarter with Sophie (@runfreephysio)In this episode, we’re joined by running-focused physiotherapist Sophie (@runfreephysio) to break down the science behind fuelling, recovery, and injury prevention for fitness lovers.With more people signing up for marathons, ultramarathons, HYROX and endurance races, many athletes fall into the trap of thinking that getting lighter, eating less, or pushing through fatigue will improve performance. But in reality, chronic under-fuelling and poor recovery habits are some of the biggest drivers of injuries and progress plateaus.Drawing from her experience as a physio, Sophie explains the patterns she sees most often, from athletes dieting during marathon prep, to the impact of low energy availability and RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) on performance, as well as short and long-term health.We also unpack the science of training adaptation, the importance of carbohydrates for endurance performance, and whether common claims like “running ruins your knees” or “running causes arthritis” are actually true.Whether you’re training for a marathon, half marathon, ultramarathon, HYROX, or simply trying to make real progress in the gym, this episode will help you better understand how to fuel properly, recover effectively, and avoid common training traps.In this episode, we cover:*Why running a marathon or ultramarathon should NOT be used as a weight-loss strategy*A physio's take on the most common mistakes made by athletes*What is RED-S? The dark side of underfuelling...*Adapting your fuelling and recovery strategy to overcome plateaus*Active Recovery vs True Recovery*You should STOP avoiding carbs*Importance of energy balance for endurance*Debunking myths like “running ruins your knees” or causes arthritisThis episode is a reminder that better performance does NOT come from eating less, shrinking yourself or training to exhaustion, it comes from fuelling properly, recovering well, and training intelligently.When you work WITH your body, rather than AGAINST it by providing it with enough energy and training smart, you build strength, resilience, and long-term performance.NOTE: At the time of recording, Sophie’s social media handle was different. Her current handle is @runfreephysio🎧 New episodes every Tuesday!⭐ Follow the podcast & leave a 5-star rating, it helps us grow the community.

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Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. Hello and welcome back to the Jim Girls Locker and Podcast hosted by me, Sydney Cassidy. Today I am so excited for this episode. I say that every episode, but I really truly am because I know that this is going to help so many people. Myself included, I feel like we have on someone who is super, super knowledgeable and I'm sure is going to drop so many truth bombs. We're going to myth bust and I'm really looking forward to it. Before we get into the episode, I'm going to do session which is the segment where I tell you what I'm getting up to now this is a bit of a time stamp so you know when I'm recording this um this is we're actually approaching Halloween and

for my session today um I'm doing a Halloween fancy dress uh crossfit class so I have no idea what to expect I I only know that the guy who like the gym owner who takes the class is going to be doing it dressing up, you know, really committing to the bit. And you guys know me, you know that I will absolutely send anything, well, anything in life, but anything that's fancy dress, it has my name written on it. So I need to come up with a very last minute costume idea. And I have no idea if everyone else in the class is going to dress up, but I still think it'll be funny. So that's what we're doing. This is what we're doing for the class. I've just had a little look for it's double under practice, meaning skipping, but like whipping it round twice, which I really can't do.

I don't know. I feel like I skipped in school, but nonetheless, I can't do double unders, but yeah, so I'm doing five sets of three minute amrap as many reps as possible, 60 double underses, five bar muscle ups, rest one minute after each set. Anyway, I don't know, I'll go into it and I'll keep you guys updated with what I dress up but as, and no doubt if you do follow me, at Sigrose, you'll see, probably know what I dressed up as. It's got to be something good. I've got to outdo myself because last year I dressed up as a barbell, a literal walking barbell,

which I went to a party with, like, people who don't really go gym. So I think they were all just like, what the hell is going on? And I just, like, role played being a barbell for the night at the party. I was just like laying down on the ground. Maybe for people watching on YouTube, we can insert what I look like. It was terrifying but also spectacular. Anyway, right, without any further ado, let's get into the episode. Today I'm joined by Sophie from Run Free Rehab,

a physiotherapist who helps runners stay healthy and injury-free. Specialising in Reds, stress factors and all things running performance, Sophie's also a keen trail and ultra-runner herself. So she knows exactly what it takes to train hard and stay strong, We're chatting about the biggest running myths, common causes of injury, reds, fueling, recovery, and how to keep it healthy, both physically and mentally. So let's get into it. Sophie, how are you doing?

Thank you for coming on. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, all good. Yeah, so excited to get into this because I feel like since running's exploded, it feels like everyone and their nan is running right now. But it also feels like everyone and their nan is struggling with it and having little twingges of pain, niggles and not really knowing what to do or ignoring it. So I feel like this is going to be an episode that everyone's going to really take a lot from and hoping you can share lots of

pearls of wisdom. Could you just start off with like a little bit about yourself and like your background and how you got into this? It's kind of ridiculous. My parents find it hilarious that I now run. I used to hate running. I was like a netball girlie. I used to swim. Running was like my arch nemesis unless it was on a netball court. But yeah, I basically trained as a physio. My background was actually a neuroscience. I wanted to be a doctor. As you can tell in my life, I take lots of like forks in the road. Yes, love. Just to mix it up. So yeah, I was going to do medicine, decided to change and do physio, was going to be a neurophysio. And then I was doing rotations, like specialist MSK rotations and did major trauma, which I, like, loved.

Like it's obviously a really like difficult area to work in, but it's, you know, it's, you know, you see how amazing humans are and getting people back is great. But obviously the NHS is as what it is. And after COVID, I just was like, I'm done. I need to tap out. So I made the jump into like the private space. And basically how I kind of did the shift into running was me and my now husband in lockdown decided to, we were one of those people that got a van, converted a van,

and took two months out, drove around Europe. and I was like, well, I can't go to the gym, and I'm obviously not playing netball when I'm travelling, so I'm going to have to get into running. And I've always loved hiking. I've hiked Everest Base Camp, so running was like, you know, kind of an obvious choice. And I saw a guy, Lewis Robling, who had started coaching,

and I was like, I know you're coaching, like, ultra runners, but I just want to, like, enjoy running. So, and I've always had coaches and loved it. So I started running. And then basically, Lewis was doing the, he's Ultra X, which is an events company that does ultramarathen. So he was going to do all five of their events one year. Long story short, the last one got cancelled.

He created his own event with Rini McGregor and asked me to be the physio. And then, so I went to that as the physio with an osteopath. And I just got like, by that point, I was loving trail running myself. And speaking to Rini and seeing the athletes kind of push themselves, a few people turning up a little bit underprepared. and like seeing the injuries that happened and, you know, discussing Reds with Rini, because I'd heard about it, but I'd never really worked. Like at that point, it was quite a, like, a bit of a phenomenon.

It was, like, talked about, but, you know, as a physio, you weren't taught about it. Yeah, and I just got completely fascinated by it. I've always, hence why I want to do medicine, I just love learning about everything. And I think the thing with Reds is it affects every single part of your body. and yeah, I just got completely obsessed with it. And then, so now I'm the physio for Reedy McGregor's team, which is a team that specialises in Reds or Redd-S. And that's it.

And I've just kind of, this has become my niche now, which... Amazing. Yeah, which I love. We love a niche. We absolutely love a niche. I forgot to say, actually, at the start of every episode, we always like to ask people, just for bunseys, what is their training split?

just out of curiosity, what does a, what do you get up to in a week? Like, what's your thing you're into? At the moment, recovering. Yes. Right. But normally, so I was doing, so I was doing CrossFit kind of two or three days a week. And then I would run between three to four. But normally like a long, like that classic long run.

One of my best friends who lives near me, I've got into trail running. And so we normally do a long run on the weekend and get a coffee. And you know, that cliche. Yeah, but it's a cliche, but it's all so beautiful. Like, there's nothing that it hits better than like going with the girls for a lovely run in the sun. Like, it's so nice. Okay, cool. Well, diving in, I guess like there's so many questions I already have, but I guess we should probably start with like the basics.

For listeners who don't know fully, what does a physio do? What can they offer? Gosh, physio is such a, physio is such a broad term, I guess. So essentially we are, well, in musculoskeletal physio, to the area that I work in, we are, I mean, there's different kind of, people say different thing, but I guess technically we should be like movement specialists and understand the body, the systems, how it functions. So therefore, we're able to understand when things have gone wrong,

why they've gone wrong, and kind of how to get you back to, like, baseline, running, going for a walk, like, whatever your kind of day-to-day life is. It's probably the easiest way to explain a physio. And you explained about how you've got a specialism within like Reds. So what would that, what would that be? So I guess for people who, I think people are starting to hear about Reds now. It's become a bit of a buzzword almost. But what Reds is, so it stands for relative energy deficiency in sport.

And essentially what that means is there is not enough energy in your system to cope with. your physical activity and then your daily function. Because we obviously use a lot of energy just moving and living. Our brain uses a huge amount of energy. But then on top of that, when you start exercising a lot, obviously you're taking a lot of energy away. So I suppose in individuals who do have reds, what has basically happened is there's been a mismatch,

like I said, between kind of energy in and energy out. And one of the big things as well that people don't realize, everyone kind of focuses on the eating side of things, but actually the under recovery plays a humongous role. So we do have athletes in Reds who are eating pretty well, but they're just not resting, so their body just can't cope with the demands of it. So I guess for someone like myself who specialises is a bit of a like,

it's a bit of a buzzword in physio, because obviously in medicine you have medical specialty and you like go and train in that area. and physio we don't have those set courses so i mean it's the area that i'm the most interested in i'm definitely not an expert but you know um so for if someone came to see me it would be like looking at um them as a whole so their training um their nutrition like what their timing of their meals look looks a little bit like um how much they're recovering and also just i always ask people about life because life stress plays a huge role and like you know

work, your kids, everything like that. Yeah, it's such a holistic thing. So I think people often quite surprised seeing a physio for something that's, because obviously you get a lot of injuries with Reds, but often, especially with Reney McGregor and the stuff I do with her, I will see people that don't have an injury, but they're in Reds. So it's like we're trying to get that rebalance and really in the other dietitians and nutritionists will work on that side of things. And I'll help working with any exercise dependency issues and stuff like that. more of the greatest stories. Hulu on Disney Plus.

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Bulu on Disney Plus. So what are like those warning signs of needing to kind take a look at things or to see a physio. I guess there's quite a lot. I'm guessing. It's so cool.

I guess the obvious one. So the ones, especially for females, so if you're not on hormonal contraception, so if you're on hormonal contraception, your period is controlled by hormones. So you won't notice any changes to your menstrual cycle. So if you're not on hormonal contraception, so any changes to your period.

So be that it stops completely or, it becomes shorter, it becomes longer, like anything you notice changing is a sign. Other things are like increasing injuries. So if you start noticing that you're just kind of going from like niggle to niggle to niggle and you're just not quite recovering stress fractures, if you've got a stress fracture, that's a pretty big sign that there's probably something going on. And other things like lack of like you're not progressing. So say you're training really hard and you're like, I'm just not getting any better.

or I'm not making any strength adaptations. Stuff like that, again, is a sign. And then there's loads like poor sleep, you know, changes to your gastrointestinal system. So people often will be like, I've started getting like IBS-type symptoms. I feel really bloated. And it's literally because essentially your body is down-regulating systems

it thinks are non-essential. So it's kind of crazy, yeah. Do you know any, and it's so fine if you don't, but like I just wondered, do you know are there any stats on like the amount of people that are dealing with reds or um what's kind of like yeah the prevalence of people running with injuries or underfueling and you know all those those sorts of things there's not stats that i'm aware of in like general population yet there was a paper that came out recently and that looked at it in like elite runners

and like i can't remember the exact amount i have to go back and check but it was high it was like 40% or something had experienced reds or low energy availability. And it's, so it's really common because I think, I think the biggest problem in today's society, you kind of nailed it on the head like earlier, is that everyone is running at the moment. But I think the, it's not just everyone's running,

everyone's running these big endurance races. And you just don't realize the impact it has on your body. And it's, it's not that doing, you shouldn't do those things, but it's really hard to do them right, especially if you're really busy or you're really stressed. or you just don't have the knowledge there. Yeah, absolutely. So it makes it really hard.

So it's really common. Like I see, obviously, see a lot of runners. And I'll ask kind of the same screening questions to everyone just so I can get an idea of like how their body's coping with their training. And I would say it's more common for people to have a few signs. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are in reds. but there's, yeah, there's always little, very often little signs that maybe the body's not quite coping. And I mean, if you're injured, arguably that could be a sign, unless you've literally like fallen over. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, we'll dive into everything kind of as we get into the episode. But I think what you're kind of discussing about how a lot of people don't know and stuff like that kind of does make me think about this like intersection between running and so. social media and the fact that like social media has been amazing for kind of blowing up running but it also means that it has this kind of well in my opinion and i'd be keen to hear your opinion this like warped kind of idea of what the actual healthy picture of running and fitness and rest and recovery and diet looks like because obviously people are driven by like numbers and that sort of thing and what does well and the racing and the training hard and everything does well but not actually

like the recovery, the eating well, they're like managing your stress. So I wondered how you feel social media has kind of like changed or influences people's running, you know? Quite a lot. As you said, I think the thing is because social media is like a highlight, we always say it's like a highlights real and you, you know, like scrolling like myself, I'm sure the same with you. It's constantly people running or videos of them.

on a run videos with them in running kit, video of them getting a PB or doing an event. And so I think there's this constant pressure that if you're someone who describes themselves as a runner, you should look like that, train like that. Because also if you see people getting PBs all the time and you're like, well, they're training six days a week, so that's what I should be doing.

Or I should be getting PBs because that person gets PBs every single time they do a race. And I think it's, It's really challenging because I love, like, running is such, like, compared to other sports, it's such an accessible sport. And it's so easy for people to just get out and go. But I think the difficulty is a lot of the kind of social media influences who are runners, who are paid to run.

I think what people don't realize is they have, you know, like a whole, often always, but often we'll have a team of people that help them and support them. You know, that might be their full-time job. You know, they're paid professional athletes. So they will get more time in the day to rest. You know, they won't, you know, they might be, I don't know, editing or stuff in the day where they're sat down. Whereas, you know, like for someone like myself, a physio, I'm on my feet all day. Yeah.

And it's, and it's realizing and recognizing that difference that, like, just because someone is able to train in a certain way doesn't mean that's how everyone should. And I think that's the problem is people see that and they, like, I have athletes who come to me and they're like, oh, my running volume is not that high. I'm only doing like 60K a week. And I'm like, that's big, that's a big volume, but they compare it to people who are doing like 100. So they're like, oh, it's not very big. Yeah. So that's quite challenging.

Yeah. What do you find, like, the key elements of kind of this bigger picture we're talking about of like, you know, being a healthy runner that people are missing out on? Like, what are those, yeah, things that you're like, oh, not seeing enough of this, not seeing enough of that? I would say the biggest, my biggest pet peeve is people are doing. too many events a year. Because if you look at like the elites like Kipchoga, say for example, like he'll do two

major marathons a year and that's it. And so it's like we've got those elite people who are full-time elite athletes and they will only do two a year because, you know, you have a training block. Like they train through something called periodisation so you'll have different training blocks. You'll have your peak volume. You'll do your race and then you need a period of time off to recover because I think people don't realize it, but your body when you do a marathon like breaks down, like it's trauma for your body.

So they'll have a period of recovery and then they'll get back into a new block. Also they have what we'd call like a training age. They have a really long training age. They've run their whole lives. The problem is that I see at the moment is people will do a race and then they'll already have their next race in, sometimes like people do like a marathon, and they'll do another marathon two weeks later

because I'm like, well, I've already trained for that marathon. So I'm ready to go for another one. And I would say that is one of the biggest causes of reds and injury because your body just can't cope with that strain. After you do a marathon, you're in a humongous calorie deficit for a very, very long time. And it's when you do those back-to-back events, you just get this like roll over of injury trauma. Your body can't cope. And then eventually it just breaks down and you get like burnout or, you know, whatever term you want to call it essentially red. So I would say that's one of the biggest things.

The other one is, I've noticed it's starting to disappear, but there was a big thing around faster training, where everyone was like, oh, what was it? Raw dogging. Oh. Really? Was that a social media trend? It was like, oh, just raw dog to PB half marathon.

And I was like, oh. Guys, what are we doing? I'm happy I didn't see that one. I would have been raging. It just gives me an ick anyway. just that term, but stuff like that. So fasted training is really not a good idea. Like, you know, there's,

people say that it increases fat oxidation and stuff like that, but speaking to Rini about, like, I'm not a nutritionist, and luckily I work with amazing dietitians, like Rini, and she basically was saying it's so hard to do right. And actually your body's main source of fuel is carbohydrate. And actually, if you're not having carbohydrate in training, you're just going into this state of like we say low energy availability and especially for females we're really really sensitive to low glucose levels

and high cortisol and obviously we have this fluctuation of hormones that men don't really have well don't have and faster training can just cause havoc with our hormones so that is the other thing is getting is getting your nutrition right for your training and you know and like I said it's hard it's why dietitians and sports nutrition exists to help, you know, with professional athletes, like guide them on how they should fuel. So I would say not quite getting fueling right is a big one, especially for Reds. Just because you mentioned it a second ago, like I'd love to hear obviously so many more people are doing like marathons and all those sorts of things. And it's crazy we've reached a place where I don't even

think like 10 years ago we would be here where somehow a marathon. and doesn't seem like this big, incredible thing that it is. It's like, oh, yep, everyone seems to be doing it. Okay. But it is still special nonetheless. But what I'd love for you to explain, if you don't mind, like what actually does go on with your body. You spoke about, like, you know, it takes a huge toll on you.

And I know I've definitely seen, again, people online doing like London and then doing Paris two weeks later. and I think it would be really helpful to kind of know like no no no this is actually what's going on in your body right now and this is why rest is so important so I guess um like I said loads of things happen but some of the bigger kind of I guess not scarier ones but ones that you do have to be more aware of so one of the ones that I found the most shocking was they did a load of tests on marathon runners and there was this protein called troponin that was increased in their blood after a marathon and that's a sign of of cardiac damage. And when someone's having a heart attack, we test their troponin levels. And that is increased after you run a marathon. So it's normal that happens for everyone. And those levels should, they increase a little bit and then you rest and then those drop down. But I think that's quite an important thing that people, because people attribute like exercise with health. And it is. But like I said, those bigger endurance events where you're pushing yourself to your max,

like you're literally breaking your heart muscle down and you know so that's a big one and because again you're in this huge like low energy availability your immune system is kind of completely whacked out for up to about seven days so a lot of people will notice they'll do a marathon and they'll get ill afterwards and that's just because your your immunity like your immune system's like response is really low um you obviously massively like you have a huge like decrease in um not decrease but breakdown of like muscle and bone because obviously you've caused huge trauma um and we know like normally when you exercise you get micro trauma your body recovers and then it gets better but if you imagine you know if you've run a well any any time marathon huge amounts of trauma to your muscles and your

bones and if you go straight into training again that increases your your risk of tears or tendonopathy's or even stress fractures um the other things we see is drop in sex hormones so testosterone especially just like gets knocked straight off. Really? Yeah, they all just go, bloop. See ya. Yeah, bye. I'm chilling.

Wow. Yeah, and often people will say, like, after, you know, after a marathon, they're like, I, you know, my libido is like, gone. Yeah. And that'll be why. And how long does it take to recover usually? Normally after kind of like four to seven days. So if you're, you know, recover well, you're eating, you're not, so my big thing is

taking time off. I normally say to people two weeks. of no running and often the response is like but I normally say minimum two weeks of running so yeah if you do it all right those will after a week things will start to improve again that depends on like that you know a lot of the studies are based on um people that like run marathons more regularly so if you're new to you know you're newer to the endurance running space that might be a little bit longer um if you've been ill before your stress and you've got other stuff going on that can get then get extended so normally we say it takes about a week for things to

start um start settling wow okay so you know like when we're working out obviously we know it's good to like as you're saying like break down the muscle a little bit and then come back stronger and like that's how you you grow then you etc but um so when you're creating like significant damage like this how does that once you've rested and recovered is that a thing where like you will come back stronger, like, especially that like heart, the toll that it takes on your heart. Like, does it, does it come back around where you've kind of, or is it, is it just like, I don't really know what I'm trying to ask it. No, I understand what you're saying.

Yeah, like, yeah, like, is it? Yeah, like, is it? Yeah. Like, is it just like, no, you're doing the race and then go back to the little ball training? Yeah, no, so you, yes, you do make, because like you said, it's a significant amount of strain on your body. So, yes, if you recover efficiently, then. your body will heal all of that.

And then, yeah, you'll, you'll notice after a period of time that you'll, you'll, you'll notice that, like, adaptations have taken place, essentially. So, yeah. But it's not like, well, not to my understanding that, like, if you do a marathon, because it's so big, you're going to get X times more adaptations, if that makes sense. Because it's not like, like, there's a reason why when you do your training, you don't need to cover marathon distance, because it's like that we know that that is going to be trauma, and it's a lot of toll on your body

and so that hence why you know normally you'll do around kind of, well, a lot of the guides got up to kind of, you know, 32K, 33, sometimes a little bit longer if you're more used to running. But so yeah, so it's not like, yeah, running a marathon means you're going to get 10 times the adaptation because it's further. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you still will, it will help within your journey of becoming a better endurance athlete. Yeah, better run.

Yeah. So obviously we've discussed a lot of things that are like frustrating on social media. But how has kind of like the misinformation if you feel there is? How has the misinformation affected you or created like challenges as a professional? Because I could imagine that I don't know. I just feel like I can imagine people being quite like willful. It's like I actually literally yesterday joked with my friend. We were getting some new shoes.

so we were getting an analysis done and we were talking about physios and we were joking that it's like oh yeah my physio said to do this but I'm still not going to do it so I'd imagine people are quite willful and yeah I just wondered does like social media

have a big part to play in that kind of situation yeah no definitely I think it's quite hard for me when people come with pre-existing and I say knowledge in loose terms because yeah

Yeah, they'll, like, you know, they've seen someone else who is a runner and they'll be like, oh, well, blah, blah does this or blah blah has these shoes or whatever. And that's quite hard because you don't want to say to someone like everything you know about running is incorrect. Because that's obviously like, it's quite hard to hear. So it is quite challenging trying to like unpick misinformation. And I think one of my face. favorite quotes is like experience doesn't equal expertise. So it's like you'll often see a runner who'll be like, I had, you know, runners knee. And these are the, these are the 10 exercises I did. And it's like, but there's so many things that can go wrong with your knee. And yes, run his knee is like the most common kind of knee injury in runners. But it's, it's really hard because then people will try those things, make it worse. And they come to me and they're like, but they had runners' knee and that helped them and why is it not helped me?

And so that can be quite challenging. Yes, people don't do the exercises half the time, which again, I mean, to be fair, I don't want to like toot my own horn, but my athletes are normally really good. Oh, amazing. Maybe, I don't know, maybe I'm really scary, so I'm like, do them.

But I do think that, like, running's become such an important part of people's life. So like the thought of it being taken away does therefore make people a little bit more adherent to it. But there's always lots of fun about being a physio and trying to get people to buy into what I'm saying rather than what. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember 9-88, Canada's suicide crisis helpline. It's good to know just in case.

Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada. Yeah, it reminds me of like, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it, drink it. It's like, guys, you've come to me to help you. Do you want me to help you? Or do you just want me to like, yeah, whatever? I have some myths, running myths. I know you do like myth busting on your page and stuff, which is very, very helpful.

because there is so much out there. So I thought it would be cool to just like go through point by point and kind of discuss them because I don't know, I think there's a lot to learn from it. So first one is that getting lighter automatically makes you faster. Thoughts on that? Completely incorrect. Yeah.

I think there's always like especially I see it more in like the US athletes, like the collegiate athletes. It's always this thing about like race weight. and they were always like oh I've got to get down to race weight yeah and I I don't know where well I do know where that came from because people always thought you know if you're heavier you've got more weight to move so therefore you're going to be slower but if you're ultimately for you to get lighter you have to under fuel and for you to under fuel you have to not eat you know often people will cut out carbohydrates and carbohydrates are literally our fuel for life

like everything relies on carbs like all our cellular functioning as I kind of touched on earlier So what basically happens, which I was kind of alluding to with Reds, is if you're like on a diet, as I always say to people, like, running a marathon or an ultra is, you should not do it to lose weight. Like, that should not be your goal with it. Because ultimately what will happen is as you get lighter, and this isn't, I would say this is for, I mean, it is kind of the case for everyone because your body will, like as you exercise, your body will naturally adapt anyway, so you'll find that you lean out and stuff like that.

But generally speaking, if you're dieting in order to get lighter to be faster, yeah, essentially there's not enough energy in your system, and you end up just getting injured and ill. So it's just, it's not a good idea. And we see like, gosh, especially in the, well, I guess in both marathons and ultramarathon spaces, It's like you see some absolute weapons who are, like, you know, really musly athletes, which traditionally you would say was more of like a sprinter, like body type, you know, absolutely crushing these events. So that I think like you can, you just go and watch the London Marathon.

You can just see that like being lighter does not necessarily make you a faster runner because there's people of all different body types. So, yeah, it basically, like if anyone takes away anything from this, it's please. don't try and lose weight to get a better marathon time. Yeah, you know, I really am guilty. I will hold my hands up in the name of educating the girlies listening. When I started, because my background, I started off first with powerlifting. So I've always kind of come from just like a gym purist background. So for me, kind of, I didn't really have too much of an understanding for years of my journey.

about kind of the science of food in the sense that for me I was very much like yeah well I know I need to eat my protein for my workout but it was only really until I started doing running that I well I began by not fueling at all and I kind of would I noticed that I was losing weight I now in hindsight no that was because I was not fueling at all and you know could well be a factor to why I'm still injured. But I think it would be really helpful to kind of explain to people, just because I would imagine there, like myself, there are a lot of people that don't know. Could you, in like kind of like the most simplest forms, explain why carbs are so important for running? Because I feel like it's something people still don't really understand, you know?

I think there's a lot of carb phobia still. Like, you know, we were always taught that carbs made you fat. Like, do you remember the special K diet? Oh, yeah. And like, I swear there's a mean girl's quote as well about carbs. It was just like fed to us throughout, you know, the media grown up. So it is definitely a fear food for sure. A hundred percent.

And it was kind of like white carbs make you fat. Like that was the messaging, wasn't it? Like, oh, you like brown rice or sweet potato is better and all the others are the devil. But yeah, essentially carbohydrate is our most readily available source of energy. So it's broken down the easiest. So like that is why it is such an important source of fuel. Like we do use fat for carb, but that process, so fat oxidization is just the process of breaking down fat,

just takes a lot longer. So when you, like now, me moving my arms, like that's using carbohydrate because it's a sudden quick movement and I need a quick burst of energy to use it. Our brain uses like up to 20% of our carbohydrate. And it only uses carb, it doesn't use fat. So. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. Yeah.

So it's like, you know, and one of the things people will notice is if they're not eating enough carbs, they'll be like, oh, I'm getting like brain fog or I just can't concentrate or, you know, stuff like that. So, yeah, carbs are the most readily available source of energy. So our body doesn't, and like people will say, like, you can train your body to, like, utilize fat.

It's not how it works. When you start moving, your body's not going to be like, oh, well, I've been practicing using fat, so I'm going to use fat. It will use carbs first. And then when you naturally, you know, as you're running, and if you run for long distances as your carbohydrate intake runs out, then you'll start using fat naturally anyway. Unless you're really good and you take, you know, gels and nutrition,

which you should do. But yeah, does that kind of answer? It's basically just the easiest source. Yeah. Yeah, because I think a lot of people are really still intimidated by it and just maybe don't even understand kind of like the process or the reasoning why it needs to be carbohydrates and what your body, needs that for.

And yeah, just because you mentioned it, like that whole, like, I really think the moment people choose to fuel mid, you know, especially if you're training for something like a half or a marathon or anything, you know, beyond like certainly an hour, I think it's such a game changer to, yeah, be trying gels and to eat.

I know a lot of people will joke about how ultra-marathon races are like more of it eating, race, than a running race. But yeah, could you explain a little bit about like kind of, yeah,

eating and fueling mid-run as well? Yeah. So basically your body can store up to, it's about 500 grams-ish, five, six hundred grams of carbs, I think is the correct amount.

Like I said, I'm not a food- We'll double-check. But it's essentially your body can only store a set amount in your liver and in your muscles. So that's where it's all stored.

So the reasoning why sports nutrition is so important is because when you, when you're training for about, up to about like 60 to 90 minutes, you have enough energy within your system, enough carbohydrate in your system to last for that period of time. So that's why you'll see people saying if you're running for more than 90 minutes, that's when you should start taking on sports nutrition. And that's basically just to replenish those stores. So you've just got enough, like I said, energy available. the again this is generic advice the generic advice is if you're running for over 90 minutes you should take on between 60 to 90 grams of carbs an hour but that is like I said that's generic it very much it like depends on your weight and like how fast you're running but that's like a really good um kind of rough estimate that people should should stick to because what I see a lot of as well is like no sports nutrition is made equally so so so Some sports nutrition will have like 20 grams of carbs. Some, you know, some of the bigger ones have like 60.

So often people will be like, oh, well, I'm taking on sports nutrition, but it's like 20 grams of carb an hour, which isn't really enough, especially when, like I said, you're going over those longer distances. The reason why ultramarathans become eating contest is because your body just gets sick of gels. They, I don't know if you've ever had to take gels for a really long period of time, but after a while, like it doesn't, it doesn't make you feel full. So when you're training at that kind of intensity, like the hunger that come, well, for me, a lot of people just feel sick.

But I start to become like hungry and it's so it's really nice to like mix it up just because your stomach basically just gets bored of the same thing. So that's where, I mean, people, like speak to anyone who's done an ultramarathon, they'll have their own quirks. I prefer savory food personally because gels are so sweet. but yeah that's that's ultimately why yeah amazing yeah i have heard that actually that you do also like i think people just get like sick of the consistency as well of just i mean yeah when you are running my longest i've done is just like my marathon so i was fine by then but i think yeah i can understand

any longer you just need a little bit um i remember my friend being like oh i just needed something more like salty and and savory rather than the the gels which is fair enough um yeah the next one is no pain no gain which we hear quite commonly i feel like but um take that how you will in whichever direction you like oh god i guess there's a few things so like it's like exercising does cause discomfort like that's like you said we know that when you're training be it running or strength training or cross feel whatever like how you adapt as you cause microtrauma which your body then repairs and that's how you get stronger so to degree loosely. Yeah, like it's not like you have to chase the pain to get adaptations,

but if you get a bit of discomfort after training, like, you know, that's normal. Like if you get doms, like you know your body's going to heal from that. But like I said, it doesn't, as your body adapts better to training, you should start to notice that things do become less painful. And the difficulty, especially with running, is like pain can be a really serious indicator that something is not happening. and it's pain's an interesting one because different injuries we can kind of train through a little bit so if someone has like an inflamed or an irritated tendon depending at like what stage it is within that journey and we normally can get away with like a little bit of discomfort and you know

I'll normally say to people you know as long as your pain is you know 10 is the worst pain zero is no pain. If it's under a four during and it doesn't get worse after, you know, we can normally carry on with running for a little bit. When it comes to bone stress injuries, like we need zero pain because that pain is a signal that the bone is not coping with what you're doing to it. And the problem with bone stress is kind of on a continuum. So it can start off as like a little bit of inflammation to the bone without a fracture.

But if you carry on running on it, then it can can become like a full-blown stress fracture or even go as far as becoming like a complete fracture. So yeah, it's, I hate that term, as you can probably imagine as a physio. The other term I'm like, I don't know, I have mixed of feelings about is like the pain cave. Yeah. Okay. Go on. I'm interested. Because that is a really big thing in the ultra space is everyone's like, I strive for the pain cave like i you know i love to like meet it head on and and all yeah stuff and it's definitely true that oh my gosh like my ultra last year there were times in it where i was like oh my gosh

this is horrendous what am i doing um and it's definitely like it's a really cool i think what's really cool about the body is like i had that around i think it was around 30k um they're basically they'd been thunder and lightning they were potentially going to cancel the race and then they we managed to start later and they changed part of the route, which meant that we had to like run on tarmac. So I was in my like trail running shoes with poles in Madeira, in the sun, and this heat was just like ruining me. And at that point I was like, how am I going to do another like 20K?

Like this is this is insanity. And then it was like my body just kind of got over it. Like I kept going and then my body was like, oh okay, right, we're ignoring that. And that was quite a cool experience to like for the human body, for me to experience a human body just being like, right, we're just, okay, we're over that now. So I think it's an interesting thing, but I think it can be quite problematic when that's what you're striving for. Like, I don't think striving for pain and discomfort is always necessarily healthy.

And one of the things we see a lot in the endurance running space is a lot of people get into endurance running because of it's a way of coping from trauma or things like that. And then it's kind of, that's when it becomes slightly under. healthy so I like when people always say to me they like strive for it I'm always a bit like oh let's unpick that a little bit like why is that um so yeah pain pain can be it's a it's a interesting phenomenon for a physio but yeah you don't need pain to make strength adaptations and you don't need to find the pain cave if you don't meet it great still succeeding yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah because I feel like you do definitely hear that a lot and like people saying like you know

I've got to do this distance to really, well, actually, myself included, to be like, I really want to meet myself, you know, unlock a version of myself that I've never, that I've never met. But sometimes it is just about going with the girlies for a cute little run and enjoying yourself. Hey, dare I say, you actually enjoy the run. So with regards to pain, if you are feeling pain is really the only way to kind of find out whether or not that's pain you can run through or not is to just book yourself to go and see a physio. and I mean yeah in terms of if it if it carries on I think like I said like getting discomfort is like kind of normal like so many times like you know I've been for a run I'll get like a phantom knee pain and like where has this come from and then it will go so it's not like as soon as you get a niggle go and see a physio like that I like that's a you know it's a very expensive way

to live your life but I would say if you are having consistent discomfort that is not getting any better than I would, yeah, it's like I said, the difficulty with running is bone stress injuries are becoming so common and they can be completely life-changing just because ultimately you're going to be out of running for quite a long time. And the type of fracture and the location of the fracture determines how long you're going to be out for. So we categorize them by like low and high risk. and high risk just means that their chance of healing and your return to sport afterwards is a lot lower. So they can be obviously completely, you know, life-ruining, really.

So I just, I always say to people, like if you're noticing something that is becoming consistent and you feel like it's getting worse than the earlier you get seen the better because then we can rule out all those nasty things. If it is something potentially nasty, we can catch it way earlier. Obviously, you can go and see your GP, but they'll often say go and see a physio so you might as all just yeah bypass that okay

amazing um okay this one really when i saw you post about this i was like damn okay um so i love to hear hear your thoughts on this one active recovery isn't recovery yeah hate that term not me using that one so for anyone who doesn't know active recovery is like being like well to my understanding, the way I would have used it. It's like, you know, it's my rest day, but I'm going for a walk or whatever. Like exercise, I guess it refers to. Yeah, thoughts on that one. Yeah, I literally think that term should like.

I think in my thing, I was like, it needs to get in the bin. Yeah, because I think the point that I was more making is I see a lot of people, you know, I was saying to you earlier how, how, like, vital recovery is for you staying healthy and not getting injured and ill. My problem with active recovery is people use that as their recovery. And ultimately, if you're exercising, you're using calorie, you know, you're burning, you're using up your carbohydrates, you're creating micro trauma to your muscles and bones.

So you're just adding to, you're just accumulating essentially damage. So there's nothing wrong with like, say you had a hard session, one day and then the next day you're like, oh, I'm going to go and do like a really easy swim just to like let, you know, just to kind of sometimes you feel quite stiff and uncomfortable. But that you still need to have a rest day. So it's not like, oh, I'm going to do that instead of a rest day. I think I think that's the difference is. So it's like if you're someone who is training every single day and you don't have a day off

because your recovery is always active and you're not recovering essentially. Yeah, because I think all that people always, I think this is something I probably saw when I was researching, like, you posting about. But like that I think a lot of people still don't understand that like recovery is where all the progress is like made, you know? And I think if you're not doing that, you're not going to be progressing. And I feel like as soon as you kind of understand that, something clicks and you're like, oh, okay, that is actually so important. And I'm not just being lazy or, you know, not sending it as much. No, it's actually equally as important, isn't it?

Yeah, so like, I always say, like, when you rest, that's when the magic happens. So sleep is a big time when you recover. So I'll always ask people about what their sleep is like, because if your sleep is terrible, then you're automatically knocking out a load of recovery time. But yeah, that is literally when you sit down, rest and eat is when your body's like, oh, okay, well, I can fix all of these things now.

But if you're constantly moving, then that's just never going to happen. And I think a big thing that I, I get with people is they're like, oh, but blah, blah, trains like eight days a week. Like, how is, eight days a week, eight times a week? And like, how are they able to do it? And I need to rest. And then that then comes down to you assessing your life as a whole because some people, you know, have super sedentary jobs that aren't very stressful.

So that for them is kind of like recovery time, like, you know, potentially people, and I don't want to say some jobs aren't stressful, but say someone who, I don't know, maybe not, because then I'll say a job and then they'll be like, it's really stressful. But yeah. Let's go for like a surgeon or something or like a high pressure, like, yeah, bring in a job. Yeah.

Well, like a nurse or a, yeah, a nurse or a doctor or something like that. They are on their feet all day, high stress environment, probably not eating at great times. Like when I used to work on the wards, like snacking wasn't a thing. I like ran around like a headless chicken. I got 20 minutes for lunch and then that was it. So like if you imagine something like that, like, your work, like you're on the move during the day.

So if you're then never having a day to recover and you're training loads, like your body is just not going to cope or either it just won't be able to adapt. You'll notice you're not making improvements or it will just start to break down essentially. So I always say people need like one rest day, at least like minimum one rest day a week where,

and ideally like if you're someone who go back to our doctors, that's not a day that you're working. That can't be a rest day. because you're working and your work is stressful. So, which people find hard because it then means weekends. And that's where people like to do fun stuff. But it's then I'll have, I'll have athletes who'll be like, oh yeah, my rest table was on a Sunday.

And, you know, I met my family and we walked around town for like 10 hours. And we did a big walk. And I was like, well, when were you resting in that scenario? And they're like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So, yeah. I'm even doing it. It's like, damn, yeah, you're so right.

Like, we mean like a proper lazy day. Yeah. like indulge in watching some TV, eating some good food, you know. Yeah, yeah. I think one of the other big, one of the other big things that is a bit of a, that I've started noticing recently is like, you know, the kind of 10,000 steps a day thing? Yeah.

Yeah. That was made for sedentary individuals. So government guidelines, you know, move, like move a little bit every day. That is for people who are sedentary. It's not for athletes, but people who are active have, like, taken that. And they're like, well, I have to do my 10,000 steps a day because that means I'm healthy. And it's like, no, no, no, you're doing all of this other stuff. Does not apply to you anymore.

You're so right. You're actually so right. I didn't even think about that. Yeah. Wow. Okay. I mean, it's clock. I'm getting it.

Another one here, another myth is that strength training makes runners bulky. Thoughts on that. Yeah, no. Yeah. Makes you stronger. Yeah. This would be a good place to talk about, like, running and strength training because I think a lot of people do miss out on it entirely,

you know, gym and training as a runner. And it is super beneficial. But I think also then there's people perhaps like myself who I go to the gym and I do a lot of stuff but not maybe necessarily stuff that's supportive for running. Could you explain a little bit more about that? Yeah. So, I mean, strength training, there's no like, specific research that it says like strength training reduces your injury risk but we know that it like

ultimately does because there's there's a couple of things that are so which is why strength training is so important so one is it increases your something called running economy if you heard people often say about running economy it's basically like how efficient you are as a runner so if you are strong so strength training not obviously increases your muscle mass so makes your muscle stronger but it also does this really cool thing which um increases your tendon stiffness. So when people talk about, or when we in like kind of the medical space talk about stiffness, we're not talking about like, oh, my joint feels stiff. It's your tendons ability to act basically like a spring. And if you have really springy tendons, what that basically does

is it takes the workload off your muscles because your tendons are working to like store and release energy. So your Achilles tendon specifically. So strength training is really, really great for making yourself and more kind of like explosive, more efficient runner. So as like a one part of it. The other thing that a lot of people don't realise is it's really, really important for your bone health. So running is terrible for bone health in that it essentially not, it doesn't make your bones bad inherently, but it doesn't excite your bones and it doesn't cause bone remodeling. So kind of the easiest way to explain it is your, there's a few ways that your bones remodel. One is through hormones and one is through like strain on your bones. So like I said, you get micro trauma. Basically,

your cells respond to that like load or like forces or bending or anything like that. The problem is, is if you do the same movement, it's kind of between 20 to 100 repetitions of the same movement, your cells are like, this is boring, we're used to this now, we're just going to go to sleep. And they basically switch off for like four to six hours. So running is basically the exact same movement. And if you think on average we do 160 steps a minute. So under a minute's time, your bone cells are like, this is boring.

We're not going to adapt to this anymore. Whereas strength, yeah. So people are often like, oh yeah, running's really good for bones. Like it's not bad for bones, but it doesn't make them stronger. Whereas strength training, because you're constantly like, you know,

when you do like CrossFit, for example, you're doing loads of different movement patterns. Yeah, exactly. So your bones are like, oh my gosh, like this is exciting and this is exciting and this is exciting. So it keeps them excited for a lot longer. So you make really, so basically ultimately your bones become stronger through strength training. So for individuals who want to do endurance running, who are going to be at higher risk of stress fractures, like I cannot say how important strength training is for your bone health. At Desjardin Insurance, we know that when you're a building contractor, your company's foundation needs to be strong. That's why our agents go the extra mile to understand your business and provide tailored solutions for all its unique needs. You put your heart into your company, so we put our heart into making sure it's protected. Get insurance that's really big on care. Find an agent today at Dejardin.com slash business coverage. Yeah, because I will say that is one of those things that I just,

I've always in my head just had a bit of a grey area about because I feel like you hear people saying like, oh, running so bad for you. Like if you do loads of it, you know, when you're older, you're going to think, well, hate yourself for having bad knees and da-da-da-da. Is it the case that, yeah, we are inherently just like, yeah, causing damage? Or is it that actually, by taking?

these steps like the strength training, like the recovery and eating correctly, that actually you should get away kind of unscathed. Yeah, yeah. So like the whole myth about running, causing knee arthritis, like we know from research is incorrect. Like they did a massive study, yeah, on individuals who ran and individuals who didn't and looked at them and their risk of arthritis. And they found in the running group that that was reduced because it helps to strengthen your cartilage, again, from like adaptation. So it's not the, that running, like I said, all the stuff I explained before, it's not that running then damages your bones,

but it just, it doesn't make them stronger. But ultimately, if you are a fit and active individual who eats well, recovers well, like you are going to be a much healthier older adult compared to someone who does nothing. Yeah, no, definitely. So no, running's not like, dooming you for life. We're not all going to be there in our, like, nursing homes being like,

you ran, didn't you? I can tell. No, because I was talking to, I was talking to, I don't know if you're familiar with Emily Fers, but she, yeah, she does a lot of, like, ultramarathon running. She said, I was surprised to hear her say that she hears, like, the most common thing she hears is people saying to her, you're going to get such bad arthritis in your knees, which kind of, like, leads me onto my next question, like, why do you think myths still seem to sort of, like, hang around despite, you know,

evidence or so much scientific kind of backing saying otherwise. I think it's just, it is just the power of social media. Like I did a post not that long ago, like ironically about podcasts because I basically saw this research that looked at like misinformation in podcasts. And it's because, and it was just like, and it's exactly the same as social media. I think anyone, like everyone has a voice nowadays,

which I think it's obviously really important, like freedom of speech. It's great to be able to like have open discussions. and for people to talk about their, like, lived experience. Like, I think sharing lived experience, especially around running and injuries, is really important. But I think the problem and where misinformation comes from is when people try and say their lived experience is fact,

and then people will be like, oh, well, blah, blah said this. You know, they've got a big following. They must know what they're talking about. And it gets trickled. Yeah. It is wild that there is. is literally it's like the wild west out here like there's there is no fact checking i mean not to name and shame it but um i know there's like a very popular um podcast that got like

they actually fact checked the professional they had on and it was like they got so many of the things wrong um which people make mistakes and whatever but like to not even in production like kind of fact check it seems crazy because people will listen to you and to it, people are using it as a resource to kind of learn and especially podcasts, like, you know. Yeah. And I think people, like, I have to be really careful because, you know, like, I have a professional title. So like, so with that comes, you know, people will, you know, take what I say some people as gospel, like often, you know, people disagree, but people will, will take that information because I am a, like a professional. And a lot of, there's a lot of, there's a lot of

professionals out there who have very, um, like, interesting opinions and they, you know, a bit like out there. Like, like, you know, the whole, um, like, some doctor said that sun cream caused cancer. And then it was like, the whole internet jumped on it. And it's just like, it's so incredible. But because they were a doctor, obviously vulnerable people were like, well, I don't want to give my baby's cancer. So I'm, you know. Yeah. So it's got credibility behind it, you know. Exactly. And I, and I think that's, most, like, I think that is one of the biggest issues is like, it's so confusing. And, and I mean, research is really confusing. The other thing I see quite a lot is, um, people quoting research. And it's

like, you can find a really rubbish journal to like publish your research, but it doesn't mean that it's good research. And like, you know, we're, as part of my science degree, like, I'm trained to pick apart research. And like, I'm not going to name names, but like, there was a, uh, a, uh, a brand that contacted me and they were like, this product reduces injury risk. And I looked at their research and it was just, it wasn't even in runners. And I was like, so it's stuff like that.

So people will quote research, but then the research isn't great. So it's so, it is so hard and it's, we're in a quite a difficult space at the moment where we are bombarded with, with information and it's really hard for people to be like, well, who do I trust?

Yeah. Who should people trust? Like where, where would you advise people to get the, me? No, I'm joking. Yeah. Actually, follow me. Yeah, I run for your rehab. And I mean, I, you know, I think it's, I would say when it comes to, like, like, injuries and giving, like, medical advice, it does need to come from a medical professional.

Because ultimately, like I said, you know, for an example, if someone's got Achilles pain, it could be the Achilles tendon or it could be irritation to, like, the sheath of the tendon. you treat those two things extremely differently. But if someone's like, I did this to treat my Achilles pain, it could make it worse. So I think when it comes to medical advice, find a medical professional. But I think find a professional who, one is keeping up with the research,

but also isn't afraid to be like the research has changed. You don't what I mean? Like if suddenly it turned around, there was loads of research, it was like, actually running's great for your bones. Then I would be like, oh, this new research has come out, completely goes against everything I've been saying

based on previous research, you know. So I think it's that I just wouldn't, I would always just be a bit cautious about people that have like really, really fixed views on anything, I would say. Oh, 100%. Yeah, no, I think that's a good way to be. Talking about like injuries and prevention, like what are the most common running related injuries

that are coming through your door that you're seeing? I guess the big ones are, so like some form of Achilles issue, our calf complex are like our powerhouses when it comes to running and often people will not train their calves. So like for example, I guess at CrossFit you probably don't do like heavy single leg calf raises. No, I literally was going to raise my hand and say, I don't, yeah, no, not at all. And to be honest, this is terrible. I actually can't remember even the last time I did.

Yeah. So that's a big one. So I think people always think about training these big muscle groups, which is really important. But like your Achilles, your calf complex, like the forces that goes through those muscles is somewhere between 8 to 11 times your body weight. Whereas like your quads and your hammies are like four to five. So they're big ones. So often we'll see Achilles issues in individuals that have like just suddenly ramped up their running volume or have been like, I started doing intervals. And I'm like, okay, that's why. Runner's Knee is literally called Runner's Knee. So Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome is a really common one. And in females like kind of hip pain, so like irritation to the glute tendons, yeah, because we are kind of triangles. So we've got something called like a wider cue angle than men. So we tend to run with a slightly narrower gait because we have wider hips. So it just puts a little bit more pressure on glute tendons. So they're probably the some of them more common ones.

And then I see a lot of bone stress injuries. But then someone was saying to me, do you just think bone stress injuries have increased? Or are you just seeing more because people come to you who have reds or if they think they have a bone stress injury, they come to you? So yes, definitely the latter. Like I probably seem more than just a musculoskeletal physiognosophysiolitis. who doesn't publicly say that they like working with runners.

But they are definitely, definitely increasing, which makes me really sad for people, because as I said, they're just a really rubbish injury to get. The others are, like, irritating, like, especially Achilles issues, or, well, especially, like, Killy's tendinopathy, you can have for, I mean, I've had someone struggling with it for kind of 12 to 18 months. Like, they can be long injuries,

but you can, like I said, you can generally get away with still training to a degree. But, yeah, stress fracture is like, no, you're done. You're out. And does everyone seem to have the same cause, or can it be multiple different things? I would say, I would say the majority of the time it's from Reds or like low, low energy availability. Yeah, under training, over training, under recovering, under fueling. because, you know, I said earlier that when there's not enough energy, your body downregulates certain systems.

So it's essentially, it goes back to like, it's really interesting, it goes back to like caveman days. So like, obviously cavemen didn't have much food. So they were constantly always probably in low energy availability. But if they suddenly had to hunt, they had to, you know, that energy, whatever energy they had to go into hunting. So our body will always prioritise energy for movement above,

like everything else. So what it does is if there's not enough, it's like, okay, well, what don't I need at the moment? So one of the big ones is your hormone, it's basically like, well, we're not going to make a baby. So that's why menstrual cycles stop. And the big one is bone remodeling. So it basically, I don't want to be too science-y,

but you've got two cells that, we love it. Throw loads of science at you today. You've basically got two different, of bone cells you've got osteoblasts and they put down new bone and you've got osteoclasts that munch away old damage bone and normally that they happen kind of in in equilibrium and that's how your bones get stronger but basically what your your body really annoyingly does is it down regulate because of complex systems the the cells that put down new bone um get essentially like reduced so they

they don't function as much as they should do or you know extreme extent is not really doing much at all. So basically what happens is every time you're exercising, the cells are just munching the damaged bone away without putting new bone in. And that's what causes a stress fracture, essentially. Hmm. Is this why eating is so important?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Damn, okay. So, okay, and then the recovery for stress factors, remind me how long that was? Oh, like, so the thing that's really challenging is the research on stress fractures is rubbish. They're becoming more prevalent, so the research is increasing in them. So we don't have specific guidelines.

And originally everyone was going off like fracture guidelines. So in a normal healthy adult, if you have a traumatic fracture, so you fall and just break your arm, normally after six weeks, there's been good new bone formation. So that's normally you'll be like in a cast for six weeks and then you can come out and stuff. And the problem with stress fractures is it's not,

I did a video on it with a banana once just kind of funny but so normally you have health so traumatic fracture you have healthy bone you fall and you just get a fracture line so the rest of the bone is healthy it's just trauma that's caused it to break what happens with stress fractures

as I was saying you get this munching away of bone where so you get this large area of bone that's weaker and then over time that causes a fracture so if it's left so the problem is you don't just have this tiny area of bone that needs healing, you have this big diffuse area of bone that needs healing, which varies. I've seen some horrendous MRI scans of stress fractures. But the problem is,

is even if we offload you for six weeks, if you're still not eating enough, you're still not got enough energy for that normal bone turnover. So that sudden six weeks of healing becomes much longer. So it's really, and like I said, different areas will recover quicker than other areas. So I mean, I normally, again, it depends on if there is red. So if someone has reds, I will, I will say you're not going to run for at least a year because the problem is we need the bone to heal and then we also need to work out why you're in reds and your body needs to recover from that. Because if you just start running again in the current state that you're in, you're just going to get another stress fracture. So, yeah, in other people six months. Yeah. Yes. It,

It can, some people never get back to running. Really? Yeah, so there's a, there's a little bone in your foot called the navicular. And it's really, really important for kind of like maintaining your arch. But it's got a really bad, but like there's basically the blood supply to it is pretty rubbish. And a navicular stress fracture is a really high risk because it basically doesn't heal. Sometimes you need to have surgery. You have to have like a pin put in it.

And the chance of getting back to running if you have a really nasty navicular stress fracture is quite low. So, yeah, they can, like I said, they can be awful. Okay, so this is, yeah, this is everything you need to hear basically to just like take it seriously. And right, it definitely seems that the more you kind of push through, well, there is no pushing through. Otherwise, you are just making things so much worse and delaying things. Yeah, I think the biggest thing, I think that people need to appreciate is that although it, like we said earlier, it seems like everyone's doing marathons. I think it's appreciating the distance and appreciating what the impact it can have on your body because it's when you start to be like, oh, it's just a marathon.

You're not like appreciating the trauma that's going through your body. And I think that's it. Like if you, you know, you're like, right, this is a big thing. I have a really stressful life at the moment. So how am I going to make space for recovery? How am I going to make sure I'm fueling properly, then you can do these things really healthily, but it's, I think it's people have just become really blase about it. They're like, oh, it's just a marathon. Like, half marathons are still massive. I think we just, we started skimming past half marathons. I was talking to something the other day and we were like, when did 5K become nothing? Like, I know, I know. I know. It's so strange. And like, yeah, just kind of honoring that you are, you have done something special and to

like, soak it up. It almost feels like, you kind of, people are like kind of doing it. And then onto the necks and not just like sitting in that in that moment. So what would you say are your like top three pieces of advice for avoiding running injuries? Don't do more than two big events a year is top. Yeah. Oh, it's top is it? Right. Yeah.

It's that much of a priority. Because it's just if you are doing more, then you're, you're never going to meet your nutritional demands because it's just so impactful on your body like most unless you have a you know dietitian or nutritionist that works with you. You're just never going to get your nutrition right. You're never going to be resting enough because you can't because you're just going from block to block. So it kind of that underpins everything. So yeah, max max too. And one of the things is you can have, which is where it becomes a bit gray area, you can have like bee races. So often someone who's training for an ultramarathon may have a bee race of a half within their training plan.

but it's making sure that your big races. And again, the more you, you know, if you're doing like 100-milers, probably should only do one big race a year. But yeah, if we talk about marathons, don't do more than two a year, especially if you're new to running, one. So that, then the next one is have a rest day,

at least one. Yep. And then the third one is never train fasted, take on gels if you're training or, you know, nutrition, if you're training more than, half, 90 minutes, and making sure you take on some form of carb and protein within 30 minutes of finishing. Yeah. So just eat well, basically. Eat carbs. Just eat loads of carbs. Just, yeah, use it. I mean, this is, I always say, my friends say to me, like, pre-races, they're like,

make sure you're carb loading. And I'm like, guys, you don't have to tell me twice to eat carbs. Like, I actually, I think with my marathon, I think I went a little bit too far the opposite way. and then I kind of ate too many carbs and I felt really quite swollen and just like, oh God, I've done this a bit too much. I am a foodie. In terms of like running form, can that have like quite a big impact on injuries

or, you know, for me, everyone listening to those because I talk about it so much, but like I have really struggled with my shins for a while. And I don't know now if I've kind of sort of stepped into like paranoia, phantom pain territory. I don't know. But I remember when people were kind of, as they do online, offering unsolicited advice, people were saying, like, a lot of people were talking about even just like running

form and about me, maybe you're, maybe you're a hill striker and maybe you're causing shin splints from that. Could you speak a little bit on kind of running form? So there is no evidence to support foot strike, one form of foot strike being worse than the other. So, oh wow. Yeah, so heel striking got completely demonised at one point for literally no reason. So foot strike, like naturally, so like if you heel strike, you are just biomechanically going to put a little bit more strain on like your knee just because of you kind of land in a slightly more like extended. position um whereas if you like mid to four foot strike you're going to put a lot more load through

your calf and your Achilles so like different different foot strikes will load different areas but it's not like heel striking is going to give you shin splints like it's just yeah completely incorrect um in terms of like form i get a bit frustrated with again like i see quite a lot of um videos online of like here's the perfect running form you should run like this and the problem is is like Running is a really natural movement for humans. Like we've run, we've always run. We're built to run, basically. And actually the best way to run is whatever feels natural for you,

especially when you're starting running. Because if you say you saw me running and we run, we'll run really differently. And say you're like, well, Sophie runs like that. So I'm going to run like Sophie. You'll get injured because your body's not used to running like me. So no, there is no one perfect running. form that will reduce your injury risk. The only thing that there is a bit of evidence for is overstriding.

So basically landing with your foot in front of your centre of mass, which technically you will naturally heal strike if you overstrived because it's quite hard to like mid, not always, but it's quite hard to like mid or four foot strike and overstriad. It is possible. So the thing with overstriding is basically because you're landing in front of your centre of mass, your body has to like break. So all of your muscles have to break.

break to then get your body on top of it in order to push away. So there is a little bit of, like I said, there's evidence behind overstriding. So that is the only thing that say someone's coming to me with like a hamstring issue. And I look at their running and they're overstriding. It's like, well, that's probably going to put a bit more load through your hamstring. So one of the things will work on is just trying to bring that foot under their centre of mass. but yeah there's honestly the best way to run is just run how feels naturally to you and then if you start to notice things like picking up like even generally like I said overstriding is literally the only thing I would ever change with someone because ultimately like I said if I if I say you come to me

with an Achilles issue so say you're a toe striker you come to me with an Achilles issue and I'm like right okay well we know that toe striking puts more load on your calf complex so we're going to turn into a heel striker, you're just going to get an injury somewhere else because, like, probably in your knee because your body's like, well, I'm not used to doing this. So what I would do instead is be like, okay, well, that's, why is your Achilles and your calf not coping with it?

It's probably because it's not strong enough. So that's work on building its capacity. So, do you know what I mean? Like, I very, very, if you speak to any physios that, like, work specifically in the running space, like, they'll very, not, I'm not to speak for everyone, but there's not much evidence to inform, to be good enough to be like, completely change someone's running form.

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Business. It's never too early to plan your summer story in Europe with WestJet, from rolling countryside to cobblestone streets. Begin your next chapter. Book your seat at westjet.com or call your travel agent. WestJet, where your story takes off. Yeah, I think that's a really fair point, actually, because I think there is a real, for like the everyday person,

I think it's really easy to kind of get all of this information and kind of overcomplicate things in your head. Like, even the other day I was guilty of it. And I was kind of like, maybe I should just like, maybe I'm not running correctly. I don't know how to like run. But then I think it's really lovely the way you kind of say that actually it is just this like really kind of like innate thing in us. And like it's probably quite, I'd imagine quite like nuanced and that it's quite different

between person to person. So that makes complete sense. And if you look at like, again, the elite marathon runners, like naturally our board. so a lot of like the elites will will midfoot or four foot strike but if you look at them over the course of a marathon they'll change to a heel strike form towards the end because it's just uses up less energy your body just naturally does it so um yeah like like i said it's injuries aren't like i would say very rarely are injuries like truly just from like running form it's it's they normally always come down to you've increased your volume too quickly or you've started adding

work too quickly. You're basically just working the muscles above their capacity. So like, easiest way to explain it is like, I'm built like a T-Rex. I've got like tiny arms. I'm like a pair. I'm like a textbook pair. Big legs, tiny arms. So like if I suddenly went and tried to do bicep curls with like probably even like a 10 kilo weight, I would hurt my arm. So the same thing applies to running. If you're not used to running long distances and you suddenly go and run a 10K, you've worked those muscles above what they're capable of, so they're going to be sore. So literally the same principle. So like with shin splints, it's, it's, I saw, I saw people telling you to do Tibant raises. I was like, oh, everybody, everybody, everybody,

is saying that. Oh, gosh. So, so, and I guess shin splints is really, is another really common one. So maybe we'll just chat also helpful for you, but yeah, yeah, yeah. So basically when you're, so shin splint, so medial tibial tibial stress syndrome and tibial bone stress injuries are really common. I think tibial bone stress injuries make up like 50% of all stress fractures. So like I said, your calves are like your most important run like muscle when it comes to running. And if you imagine, you know, like a bow and arrow. So when you pull on the bow string like the bow, like the wooden bit, bends slightly. So that is essentially what happens to your. your shin bone when you run your big muscles contract and they create like a bending force on the bone

so what happens is your bones are wrapped in like a cling film it's called periosteum but it's like this cling film so the muscles and so you've got muscle then you've got a tendon and then the tendon attaches onto that cling film so it doesn't attach directly onto the bone it attaches onto the coating so if you are if you suddenly start increasing your volume or your speed that cling film isn't used to those muscle contractions on it. So if you have shin splins, it's essentially irritation of the cling film, just from it not being used to the load. What can then happen is you can also get irritation of the bone itself,

and then that's when you start to get, when you can get stress fracture. So like I was saying, so when it comes to shin splins, you have to get that that kind of whole complex used to running. So one of the best things to do for someone who has shin splints is to get that bone and that pariosteum used to the contraction of your calf muscle. So calf raises, basically. Tibant. So your Tibant is like lateral.

So where people get shin splints, it's on the medial side or like kind of essentially more the back. your tibant literally barely does anything like its job is to lift up your foot and control your foot going down so in terms of like muscle contraction strength it's really small so it doesn't actually do anything in terms of strengthening your tiband

there is some evidence that it slightly reduces like your perception of pain but it doesn't it won't it won't help with shin splints it might make them feel a bit better short term because you're stimulating and you're stimulating the periosteum basically, but it won't prevent them coming back. So I think probably with yourself, like you said, you haven't done calf raises. So if we go back to my bicep curl analogy,

so I bicep curl, I hurt my arm, I then just don't do anything. And then I go back and try and lift up that weight again. I'm going to have the same issue. So with shin splints, you need to kind of let it settle down, reduce your volume of running down to a comfortable amount. So you want to make sure that you're not getting your symptoms whilst you're running really. Start increasing your calf capacity. So basically doing heavy single-leg calf raises.

And the other thing that's really good is plyometrics. Because again, it's getting that tissue used to contraction, but in a much smaller version. And then as your body gets used to it and adapts to it, then you can start increasing your volume and then you can start adding speed back in. There you go. Job's good and simple. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

There you go. Fix. because I think it does make sense because I've heard people talk about like you shouldn't is it that you should increase training load by like 10% each? What's like the rule of yes or no? Well, so the 10% rule again, there's no real evidence for it

but it's still quite a nice thing to go by but it only really helps when you're running longer distances because if your current weekly volume is 10K and you increase by 1% you're increasing by 1% you're increasing by point, you know, one of a, you know, 100 meters, basically. So so it doesn't, like I said, you can't really use 10%, especially if you're a newer runner, but it's just increasing it gradually. And the other thing is having like delode weeks.

So if you follow like a formal, if you work with a coach or you follow a formal training plan, they should have a delode week in every third week. So you'll do three weeks of training where you maybe increase a little bit. And then you'll have a week where everything drops back on. off and that's literally just to let your body adapt basically. And I think that's worth noting for anyone that does, because I know there are a lot of people out there that don't have like coaches or anything.

That's something definitely to be mindful of. I know even within like the gym space, people will just keep going, keep pushing. It's like, guys, back off a bit. And, you know, just for a week. And it will do you so many favours. I think when I felt a little bit of a niggle most recently, because I'm doing, I'm currently training for a high rock

so I'm doing a lot shorter distances. To be honest actually, right now I'm barely doing any running at all because I've just kind of gone into like freeze mode of like, oh my God, I really hope this isn't an injury. But this is the first time that I've been like properly, well, I only did one session before it failed. But, you know, the idea would be to be doing speed sessions. And I wondered how can people kind of make sure

that they're not increasing the training load too much when it comes to speed because I think it's quite easy to think about oh well I'm not going to go like this distance over but when it comes to kind of interval sessions tempo work what's the point where it's like you're doing too much um again it completely depends on like your training history because if you're someone who is you know run their whole life used to training their whole life like your body will be able to cope with more speed work than someone who's new to it the the problem with speed work is it's because you're running faster it's higher impact and it's like stronger muscle contractions basically which again just takes your body time to get used to

um so as a new runner or you know someone who's new to high rocks especially the problem with high rocks is like it you're sprinting so um i would even just say for someone who's new getting into high rocks like don't even worry about speed like just if if you're not someone who's naturally run a lot like just get used to running like don't just don't even do interval sessions um it's one of my pet peeves about uh running apps okay because um a lot of them um put speed in too early so especially for the for the beginner runners like if it's your first half marathon you should not be doing intervals or tempo sessions you should just be or even if it's your first 10k even if you're just getting into running like your focus should just be getting your body used to running and and i see so many

people injured because they've added speed too early so unfortunately there's no like there's no right once you've hit 10k or whatever you can you can add speed in but i would just say once you've consistently been running for a couple of months, you've gradually built your volume up, your body feels good when you're running, because obviously for all of us who haven't run our whole lives, when you first start running, you feel like an 80 year old the next day. So once your body, once you're feeling like running

has become more natural, I would say, and you're not getting those aches and pains, then it would be fine to start adding in a little bit of speed work. But especially when you're injured, the biggest thing we take out straight away is your any speed, like any speed just stops because like I said,

it's those big, bigger, more impactful muscle contractions that puts just too much load. I didn't even ever consider that, but like, yeah, you know,

I think I'd be guilty of being like, oh, it was only a 5K or a 6K but it's like, no, no, no, your muscles are working harder and to really kind of sit with that and consider that.

But yeah, I think, to be honest, I think you're like the first person I've ever heard to mention just about kind of how maybe speedwork isn't something for beginners. And I do feel frustration kind of as a new beginner, as a beginner runner myself. And also, you know, never really done running. I'm also, I've kind of always done, um, within sports kind of like very explosive, like powerful stuff. So it's very different for me.

Um, and I think, I think it's really easy to kind of feel that fresh. of like, oh yeah, but like I want to be doing that and I want to be there now and to kind of just actually accept where you're at. But I think you're definitely right. I think even on like, you know, certainly the apps that I've used and those kind of more like generated kind of run-of-the-mill plans, it's, what was I going to say about? Oh yeah, like the fact that you, I've noticed on the plans that I'm fairly certain on some of them, you kind of choose whether or not you want like the speed work in them so then you're obviously like well okay i'll use that but to actually know maybe no opt out of using those just to kind of get used to like the process of it

and allow your body to get used to it yeah just enjoy running like literally just enjoy running for what it is like i i mean i mean i'm a trail runner i bias i um but like a big thing for me in running now like i've is just the appreciation of like moving my body and being out in nature as as that sounds. Oh yeah. It's just, you know, I think sometimes, I think, I think it's almost a bit of a shame in the running space at the moment where it's this pressure on getting PBs because I saw people like Berlin this year was so hot and there was so many people like, oh, I didn't get a PB and I'm like, you just ran a marathon in like ridiculous heat. Like it's, you're never going to get a PB every time. Like it's not normal. And I think we need to kind of, that we're saying earlier, like pull back from that and just

embrace that you've just run a marathon, which is like awesome. Yeah, well, because the thing is as well, it takes away from like, it kind of negates every single, like, part of the race that you could have taken from it and all the learnings and like, just like the experiences that you felt. And like a lot of people, you know, when they go on these trips, it's like, the whole thing is clouded over this dark cloud of like, I didn't get a PB. And it's like, well, no, but look what you did get, you know. Yeah. Just kind of to wrap up and like finish.

up like what are some red flags and green flags that you um would recommend for people to kind of look out for if they are trying to find like professional help in a physio green flags with a physio would be yeah that they have experience working with runners you don't have to be a runner yourself I think that's a big misconception that like if you look at keely Hodgkinson's coach like he you know he's not like a currently an elite you know runner but you know for you to have a good understanding it doesn't equal you don't have to be an amazing runner I would say so would just say look out for someone who has experience in running and running related injuries. And if they are on social media, you know, at least makes an effort to like talk about current research and, and show that they're well informed.

Red flags would be by this, buy my package for healing your shin splints. Yeah. Because like you just, like I said, you know, it could be, shin splints, you know, it could be a stress fracture and it's, it is so important. I'm not saying everyone has to have a million sessions with a physio, but I would say for an injury, like, you don't want to buy an over-the-counter guide. Like, it's, it's really important to make sure you're getting a good diagnosis first. And then, you know, if you know, 100% it's shin splints, then fine, then, then, you know, you can, you can kind of see what's out there. But yeah, I would say they're probably my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my big green and red flags.

or if you go and see a physio, and they don't give you any rehab, because, like, you know, I kind of said to you, like, the soft tissue stuff is helpful for, like, short-term making you feel better. But as I've kind of said throughout this whole thing, all injuries come from working tissue above its capacity. So I know the rehab is boring,

but ultimately it's there to get you better. So, yeah, making sure they're not just saying, like, oh, we're just going to do dry needling or we're just going to give you a massage and off you go. Like, you need to have, you need to have, You need homework, basically. Yeah. Yeah, I even experienced that myself.

Like, and I think actually that's how you and I first came in contact with each other because my physio told me that it was because I hadn't been stretching that I had shin splints. But I kind of felt the same. And I remember reflecting and thinking, oh, maybe the next time I go to see a physio, I'd like to see someone. I didn't even know if that's a thing that people, yeah, did offer with, like, say, when you get like a massage or like an assessment, but to say, like, moving forward, make sure you're also doing these things, you know.

I guess it's never just a one-stop shop, is it? No. If it was, we'd be rich because we'd be like, right, you're fixed in one go. Yeah, literally. That would be dreamy. Well, thank you so much. I feel like I've literally just like absorbed all of that. And I know the girlies are going to love so much of this

because there were so many, like, amazing nuggets of information. So thank you so much. Where can people find you if they want to stay in touch? So, yeah, follow me on Instagram. which is at run free rehab amazing thank you for coming on i really really appreciate that okay well i hope you guys enjoyed that episode that was i thought i knew that one's going to be good but i literally was just like soaking up every bit of information that i possibly could and i think there's definitely a lot for us to take away from whether you are a runner or whether you just want to improve kind of

like your training in general and there was a lot a lot i learned there myself um if you did enjoy this episode, would you do us the honour of giving us a five-star review if you are listening on Apple or Spotify? It helps us out hugely in bringing you more incredible guests and getting the show out there. And remember that we're on YouTube now. So if you do want to watch us instead of just listening, then you can find us at Jim Carls Locker Room on YouTube and on all platforms. Thank you so much for listening, guys, or watching, and I will see you in the next episode. Bye. Bye.