Walk to Pen Y Fan (Brecon)

Hello!

Since I moved to Cardiff I have discovered some great places for riding my bike, but just outside Cardiff there are also several nice hills to visit if you want to. It has been a while since Will and I had a weekend off together so we decided to explore some of the areas around Cardiff by doing a walk up to Fan Y Bren followed by camping in Will’s new tent.



You can't see the top from here, but it is up there somewhere



Here we go..

We set off on Saturday morning and headed towards Pen Y Fan which is about 45 minutes away from where we live. Pen Y Fan is the highest point in Britain south of Snowdonia – 886 metres. We had never been here before, but the path up to the top was easy to follow so we couldn’t really go wrong. Initially I thought it looked fairly “easy” to get to the top, but I soon realised it was steeper than I expected several places, my gluteus and calves definetely got a hammering as I was trying to keep up with Will! Will is used to do a lot of mountain biking climbing so for him it was piece of cake, but my heart rate was definitely rising as we got closer to the top. The views on the way up were amazing.

Very windy so my hoodie had to come up:)

At the top we had to take a pictures to prove that we had actually been there  - 886 metres.

On the way down we decided to follow a slightly different route, but going downhill is definitely harder than uphill! The amount of eccentric work your quads needs to do in order to stop you from falling forwards is massive. Towards the end my quads were shaking, and my knees were also taking a pounding. Going downhill emphasises the importance of having strong quads to be able to control your knees and help you slow down.

After the walk we headed to a campsite just outside Brecon called. It was a really nice campsite, but unfortunately the weather was not the best. Will put up the tent quickly and sorted out the stove for us to cook some food. I had beef casserole which is normally not my favourite, but when you are so hungry you could eat your left arm anything tasted nice:)

Jamie Oliver in action:)

It has been several years since I last went camping, but listening to the rain pouring down on the tent is nice as long as you are dry and warm inside the sleeping bag. A nice weekend doing something different to what we normally do.

Hope everyone has had a nice bank holiday weekend:)

A little update from Cardiff

The last few weeks have been quite busy, but I was lucky to be able to go home to Norway for a little 6 day break as one of my friends from home was getting married. It was a great wedding, nice to see all my friends and family and have a little break from the daily routines. I came back to the UK late Tuesday night where my friend Oda came to meet me at the airport and drove back to Cardiff with me, very nice with some company in the car! Oda stayed to Saturday morning, but as I was working every night Oda had to come with me to work every night, what a nice friend!! (Don't worry, she knew I was working so she had the option:)

Oda:)

On the Wednesday night I went to Swansea to work for the Welsh team. The event was between Wales U23 vs Welsh Schools vs SW England U23 vs Harvard & Yale. Definetely the first time I have met anyone from the famous Universities Harvard and Yale, it was a good event on a nice stadium. Oda did a good job being the photographer and she loved the americans!:)

Someone seems to enjoy the event:)

On Thursday and Friday night I was working in the gym, and since Oda had to come with me I thought it was just fair to give her a tough gym session to show her how I do it here in Cardiff! Oda worked hard, but as Oda like to talk more than the average person I found it amusing and funny every time she said: “You are a tough coach Monica with a serious grin on her face” :)Well done Oda, you did a great job!

You seem to be enjoying the side plank?:)



I take it you are closing your eyes cause you are concentrating hard on the split lunge:)

 Even though I spent a lot of the time working, we managed to squeeze in a bit of sightseeing, shopping and a walking trip to show Oda some of the nice views of Cardiff.

First a drink in town

Then a stop outside the castle

   
 

   

On Saturday and Sunday I have been working at the U20/U23 European Trials in Bedford. We had a few very good results which is great! Well done guys and good luck in the Europeans!

New Year, New Opportunities

First of all: Happy New Year everyone! Hope u all had a good Christmas and are ready to start the New Year. I managed to get home to my parents 10 days later than expected, but at least I got to spend a week at home which was lovely as usual. Christmas in the UK was pretty good after all and the turkey was excellent!

As usual a lot of people have loads of goals and courage to lose weight and get fitter as soon as January approaches. Nothing wrong with that, but a lot of people are unable to keep the enthusiasm up for too long, cause the changes people are wanting make are too extreme. Make sure you set yourself long term and short term goals, but be realistic. If you are planning to run a marathon and have not been running before, you may want to give yourself more than a month to prepare for it.

I wanted to give you a few progressions of some simple core exercises today, but if you haven’t read the previous blog post on basic core training http://strengthandrehab.blogspot.com/2010/09/tennis-injury-prerehabilitation.html you may want to start with them first. If you have never done a plank before you will probably find it quite hard the first few times, but you will progress sooner than you think (I had a coaching session in the living room with mum and dad when I was home over Christmas and the plank seemed to be a success. Keep up the good work as I will be checking your progress next time I am home:)

These exercises are similar to the exercises in the previous blog post, but with some progressions.

1. Plank with side steps

Starting position

• Start with your toes, elbows and forearms on the mat

• Your toes should be placed shoulder width apart and your elbows shoulder be placed under your shoulder

• Make sure your abdominals are pulled in and that your hips are parallel to the floor throughout the exercise

• When you are ready start taking a small step with your right toes towards the right side, step back into the middle and step out to the left side with your left toes (No picture of this)

• Make sure you keep your hips stable and don’t let them rock from side to side while moving your legs

• Keep moving from 30 – 45 seconds, then rest on the floor for 60 – 90 seconds between your sets, and repeat 3 sets

2. Side plank – lift the top leg


Starting position

• Start with your left forearm flat on the mat (in line with your shoulder)

• Stack your feet on top of each other

• Lift your body onto your forearm and the side of your left foot (only the leftfoot is in contact with the mat)

• Work to have a straight line between your head and feet

• When you are ready lift the top leg (right leg) straight up into the air (No picture of this)

• Rest your left arm by the side or lift it straight up towards the sky

• Hold this position without letting your hips drop down between 30 - 45 seconds

• Turn around and repeat on the left side

• Aim to do this 2-3 times on each side, progress the time you are holding to make it harder


3. 1-2-3-4 from a press up position



Starting position

•Start on the mat in a press up position
•Make sure your abdominals are pulled in prior to starting

• For example your left hand is 1, right hand 2, left leg 3 and right leg 4

•Let a partner shout out a number from 1-4 (or just choose a number yourself). If the number is 1 lift your left hand off the floor 1-2 cm off the floor. If the number is 2 lift right hand of the floor etc

• It is really important that you don’t lift the hand or leg far off the floor at all

•The aim is to keep the rest of your body still while lifting either your hand or leg off the floor

• Aim to hold the position for 30 – 60 seconds whilst moving hand and feet continuously. Repeat 2 – 3 times 

Left hand off the floor



Left foot of the floor



Remember the main reason why I think having a strong core is injury prevention and it supports your whole body, but of course it also helps you getting a stronger and firmer abdominal area which is always a bonus. Remember if you want to get a nice looking and faboulous abdominals (that people can see), you need to burn the fat as well...

Wise words of the day: Consistency is key! Never give up, just keep working hard!

THE CHRISTMAS snow was falling in the UK....

Today I just need to get a little bit of frustration out of my system. As most people have probably seen and heard on the news, the weather here in the UK has been pretty crazy since Friday which means that thousands of people have been and are still stuck in various airports across the country.

As I said in previous blog I was supposed to fly back to Norway (via Amsterdam) on Friday, but that never happened as both of the flights were cancelled, lucky enough I realised this before I went to the airport. I was “lucky” to get another flight for Sunday morning, but again this flight was cancelled due to the weather. Since I have tried to contact KLM probably about 50-60 times over the weekend I decided to turn up at the airport (in Cardiff) to see if someone could actually help me there, but the message everyone got there was:  Contact the airline to get a new flight!! I couldn’t believe it! Well never mind, I realised that there was not much for me to do at the airport so along with several other passengers we got the bus down to the train station to head back home. We soon realised that wasn’t a smart move as the message we got when we got down to the train station was: All busses and trains to Cardiff are not running! What??? This meant that we were all stuck at the train station for 1 hour and 30 minutes in the freezing cold weather. Eventually we managed to get the shuttle bus back to the airport; at least it was warm in there. After this I had to stay in the airport for another 2-3 hours before we finally managed to get hold of a taxi to take a few of us home.

When I finally arrived back home I decided to give up on being able to get on another flight before Christmas, it just isn't going to happend. Since I don’t get to see my family and friends at home very often I decided to book another flight from Gatwick Airport in London for Sunday night (Boxing Day), so if the weather calms down over the next few days and the roads aren’t too bad I will be driving to Gatwick on Sunday and get a direct flight to Stavanger which means I can at least spend a week with my family. I will keep my fingers, toes and everything else crossed!!!

I also wanted to mention that I contated by my local newspaper in Norway. They had heard I was "stuck" in the UK and wanted to hear my story. So since my norwegian readers will be able to read this in the paper tomorrow (Wednesday) or online. I thought I would share it with my UK readers as well. Norwegian readers can check out the article here: www.jbl.no. I was asked to take a photo of myself so people could see the snow, but that is not easy when you are on your own. Didn't fancy knocking on the neighbour's door to ask if they could do it for me, so this was all I managed to do! The funny thing is that there isn't acutally that much snow:)



Looking at the whole situation from a positive point of view I will be spending my first Christmas in the UK, and I am sure the English turkey will taste just as nice as the Norwegian one :)

I hope all of you get to spend Christmas with your loved ones. Merry Christmas everyone:)

MoTo

Update from Cardiff

Just a little update on what I have been involved in over the last week:

UWIC - ATHLETIC GRAND PRIX

Last Saturday I was invited to come along to the UWIC Indoor Athletic Centre in Cardiff to perform pre and post event massage for the competing athletes. I got to meet eight second year students and two third year students from UWIC University doing Sports Conditioning, Rehabilitation and Massage who were also there to perform massage. It was quiet when we first started as most of the athletes wanted post massage rather than pre massage. After a couple of hours it started getting busier and all of the massage tables were used. I came across a variety of athletes and met a lot of nice people. It was a great day which I really enjoyed. Hopefully I will be able to get more involved with the athletic team and join some more of their events and competitions.

FIRST MEETING AT BRISTOL ROVERS

On Monday this week I got in my car to head off to the first meeting at Bristol Rovers. As I have never driven there on my own before I wasn’t too sure of how long it would take me, and since I never like to be late I was in the car park at Bristol an hour before the meeting started, but at least I got there! I met Lee Southernwood (1st team’s S&C coach), Ken Oram (from Centre of Excellence) and Ollie which is the other intern I will work alongside. Lee and Ken introduced what we will be responsible for and how we are going to work as a team to achieve this. We also planned how we are going to perform the physical testing with the players when we start back after Christmas.

We then got to meet some of the other coaches and staff and got a tour around the facilities we will be using. We also had a look at the training session where the kids were training hard. I am looking forward to get started after Christmas, it should be good.

So I am starting to get to get involved with some sport in Cardiff. On Friday I will be heading home to Norway to see my family and friends, I am looking forward to it. I will come back with more updates after Christmas.

In people have any question regarding Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation or Strength and Conditioning in general feel free to get in touch. Here is my email address: mtorland@googlemail.com

  

  

Merry Christmas Everyone! Enjoy, but remember to get some training in as well!:) 

 

Have a good xmas!

MoTo

My New Car

Hi everyone!

Been in Cardiff for two weeks already, felt like we just arrived! Last Saturday I managed to buy myself a new car, it is actually my first car! Previously I have been driving my parents' old car when I have been home over the holidays, and that was an amazing car...Someone told me once that it looks like a hearse!! That's a big rude! It wasn't exactly a Ferrari, but it always took me where I wanted which is the main thing, right?:) Unfortunately the hearse is dead now so I can't drive it anymore which is a bit of a shame, but you can check it out underneath and see what I am talking about:)



The Hearse!! What a sight!

But like I said I have managed to get my own little car now. I have only driven once on UK roads before and as far as I remeber I was told that I was "cutting the grass" on the side of the roads! Don't know why! Since I am not used to having the steering wheel on the right hand side and driving on the left side of the road, that will be a fun challenge! If you are going to the Cardiff/Bristol area in the nearest future please don't be surprised if you see a little Ford Fiesta coming towards you in opposite direction, it will only be me:) I have attacted a few photos of my little speedo underneath!

My new speedo!

A bit overexcited by the looks of it!

Saturday night is here, time to recover and relax!I will come back with more training and injury blogs soon:)

Have a good weekend everyone!

MoTo

Bristol Rovers Internship

I recently applied for an internship with Bristol Rovers Football Club as S&C coach for their 9-16 year olds players. I was selected to have a phone interview last Friday which I thought was a bit of a challenge. I got asked questions from two experienced men and it wasn't just easy to think and try to give good answers under pressure. So after the interview on Friday I was a bit disappointed as I didn't think I gave a very good impression over the phone.I thought to myself  that I wouldn't hear anything back from them and was a bit annoyed with myself for not being able to give better answers...

However I guess my instict was wrong as I suddenly got a nice phonecall from Lee Southernwood (Fitness Coach for Bristol Rovers) who offered me the position and said he was really impressed with my interview. Great news! Maybe it is true that girls are a bit too critical sometimes:) They have also given the position to another guy, which means we will work as a team to try and develop their 9-16 year olds players. I think it is a great opportunity as I have always been really interested and passionate about football, and I am hoping to be able to transfer some of the knowledge and experience I have with football to the younger players.

This is a great picture from one of our yearly training camps to Spain with the team I used to play for in Norway (Klepp). We used to have a lot of fun between sessions!! Lets hope I will be able to spread some positive attributes to the young players at Bristol Rovers:)

MoTo:)

New gym induction video on it's way

For the last year I have been working part time as a gym instructor at Leeds Metropolitan University (Civic Quarter). My main responsibilities are to induct new members of the gym on all the equipment, write individualised programmes for patrons, and help and instruct members of the gym. Over the summer the gym is normally pretty quiet due to all the students going home so I was asked to be in charge of producing a new gym induction film over all the equipment we have in the gym. I thought it would be a good challenge, so I was responsible of contacting the film staff at the University and also get hold of someone who could be my “model”. One of my colleagues stepped up to the mark and offered to help me in my little project, thanks for that Johnny!

After a few meetings with the film crew to discuss how to best organise and film the video, I sat down and wrote down a script over all the 26 pieces of equipment we have in the gym. Having not really done any type of filming like this before, I decided to prepare myself by filming myself while speaking to my laptop, good job no one could hear me when I did that!! We did a test shot of me induction Johnny on the treadmill which you can laugh at underneath:

As English is not my first language a few error were made here and there like hand railings, instead of hands rails. The thing is that when you have to look straight into a film camera and think about the next sentence you have to say, things like that happens. Don’t worry the final film will hopefully be in a language you can all understand.

After getting some constructive feedback on our first attempt, we all got together to start the “real” film. The filming took just over 5 days to complete and believe it or not I think I got used to staring into a camera after a couple of days. Not too sure that weather presenter would be anything for me though.......

Anyway I will be getting the DVD back this week to see if any changes needs to be made, so the film will be ready for all the students to enjoy from the 20th of September. Bet they can’t wait...:)

Follow the link to see the video!

mms://video-2.leedsmet.ac.uk/contentglobal/080710-1021 AM-37287--1.wmv

Sports and Exercise Therapist

The day is finally here! 3 years of hard work and effort is over and I can finally call myself an undergraduate sports and exercise therapist. I am at the moment working with the rugby league referees to provide sports massage together with Ian Mitchell when they need me. I also work alongside Brendan Chaplin (strength and conditioning coach at Leeds Metropolitan University) where I have have started my case study for my UKSCA (United Kingdom Strength and Conditioning Association) accreditation on a very talented badminton player. She had a knee surgery about a month ago and was back lifting heavy weight the second week after surgery. I am convinced that the reason she was able to progress and recover so quickly is because she was very strong prior to her surgery and therefore didn't suffer any athrophy! Having said that the surgery was just a "small" clean out with no major damage. I will get some photos taken from the gym to show you some of the exercises she work on in the nearest future.

If anyone is interested in getting a sports massage or need help with injury management/rehabilitation you can contact me to arrange an appointment on 07942461440 or email me on monicatorland@hotmail.com

Tonight is the last fitness session for the 13 year olds tennis players before the summer so I will make sure they finish with a nice and tough session:)

Cheers

This is the start of a new adventure..

Welcome to all strength and conditioning interested individuals! My name is Monica Torland and I will be blogging about my experiences as a final year Sports and Excersise Therapy student and a budding strength and conditioning coach.

One of the requirements of The Society of Sports Therapy is that students perform a minimum of 100 hours practical experience on related placements. Last year one of my placements was with Teleri Wilson, who used to be the head of strength and conditioning at Leeds Met University. I really enjoyed the work and this year I have taken on another strength and conditioning placement with Brendan Chaplin, who currently is the head of Strength and Conditioning for Leeds LTA High Performance Tennis Centre. Brendan is also strength and conditioning coach for Huddersfield Giants Rugby League and has also got his own personal clients, in other words a very knowledgeable and busy man! Check out his website here

The week’s placements and lectures are now over and the weekend is approaching. Since I am in the middle of writing my dissertation about ACL rehabilitation I have got an exciting weekend of journals, journals and more journals to look forward to. Anyway this is the price we have to pay to get the degrees we want, so it’s all for a good cause after all! Keep smiling and keep training:)