At the Starting Line - Natasha Eekhout (Paladin Biokineticists)

You’ve just decided on taking up running as a lifestyle change but where do you even begin? Surely running and building up your pace and distance can’t be that hard? Admit it, we have all pushed until our lungs begin to burn, coughing up blood and the sensation of jelly legs begins to set in. Yes, this might in some torturous way improve your tolerance and endurance, but there really is a better way to do this.

The answer… taking walk breaks in between to allow your previously motionless and rested body to adapt slowly and safely. This is especially important for new runners as these short breaks reduce the ‘out of breath’ feeling and allow for you to actually enjoy the run. For the more experienced long distance runners, this also offers an opportunity to extend their running distances.

Taking walk breaks doesn’t mean you can transform your run into a solid Sunday stroll. The frequency of your walk breaks should be calculated appropriately. If you are just starting out you can use the following guidelines:

For unexperienced and more sedentary ‘almost runners’:

·         Run for 5-10 seconds

·         Walk for 50-55 seconds

For the more physically active but beginner runners:

·         Run for 15-60 seconds

·         Walk for 15-30 seconds

Runners with more experience can adjust this according to their pace per kilometre:

For 5 minute paced runners:

·         Run for 2 minutes

·         Walk for 30 seconds

All of the above also applies to your first race. The run-walk-run method may just be the winning formula to help you complete it, producing better recovery rates, reducing your injury risk and eliminating the slowdown pace that many runners experience just before the finish line. Start inviting the method a little earlier on into your run and skip them during your last third of the race, allowing you to cross that finish line strong!

Natasha completed her BSc Sports Science undergraduate degree at The University of Johannesburg and her BHSc honours degree in Biokinetics at The University of the Witwatersrand. 

She has a passion for a variety of sports in particular soccer, tennis, running and kickboxing which have contributed to a strong interest in orthopaedic rehabilitation and working with athletes. Other areas of focus include diabetic and cardiac rehabilitation, as well as weight loss and a keen enthusiasm for working with children of all ages. 

Natasha can be contacted on 082 476 9727 or natashaeekhout@kinetics.co.za

Champions aren’t simply born or bred, they’re nurtured! - Bianca Bunge (Paladin Biokineticists)

Usain Bolt, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Rafael Nadal, Lionel Messi, LeBron James, Mo Farah, what do all these world class athletes have in common besides lucrative salaries and huge sponsorships, oh, and the fact that they make whatever they do look so easy?! Is there some common genetic thread that ties all professional athletes together and make them destined for podium placements, gold medals and top rankings? Or is the road to Olympic gold and professional sports simply paved with thousands of hours of sport-specific practice and repetition or attributed to various inherent characteristics and attributes? Questions, questions, questions, but what is the answer here?! Every single coach, sports scout, and athlete, whether  you’re performing on the professional, collegial or school sport platform, is looking for that secret ingredient, special spice, and twist of something nice that make up that award-winning, everyone-wants-it recipe and mix ultimately producing the absolute perfect athlete!!

First of all, it can be said without question that many athletes have their parents to thank for their athletic success. Genetics shape us in many ways including our potential to excel in sports. Genetics have a large influence over strength, height, body type, muscle size, muscle fibre composition (fast or slow twitch), anaerobic threshold, lung capacity, flexibility, and to some extent, endurance, which is largely determined by cardiac capacity, or the heart’s ability to deliver enough oxygen (via the bloodstream) to the working skeletal muscles. These are all components that predispose you to being a superior athlete, one of the top in the world, all things that allow your name to be jotted down in the record books and remembered for centuries to come, all determined by genetics!

Does that mean athletes blessed with less-than-perfect genetics and born without the optimum combination of muscle fibres should rule out their chances of ever achieving Olympic glory and just give up? Absolutely not! Let’s be honest, we aren’t all created equal where our genes and abilities are concerned, so what can we do to fill in these blanks? Identifying potential professional athletes based only on their genetic and physiological make-up is short-sighted! It takes a hell of a lot more than just genetics to get you the title of being one of the best athletes in the world. I mean let’s look at Wayne Gretzky and Tiger Woods, sure, they're both gifted genetically and physically in unique ways, but they also spent hours and hours practicing from a very young age. The idea that athletes are bred and not born has become increasingly popular ever since Malcolm Gladwell introduced the 10,000-hour rule in his bestselling book The Outliers. This 10,000-hour rule is based on the idea that with the exception of genetic traits such as height and weight, exceptional performance in any given field is the result of 10,000 hours of what he terms “deliberate practice” – therefore any training or practice specifically related to your particular sport.

Furthermore, various technological advancements have made major contributions to athletic progress and have allowed athletes to be stronger, faster, bolder, and better than ever, whether they have that blessed gene pool to back them up or not. Let’s have a look at the winner of the 2012 Olympic marathon, Stephen Kiprotich, he completed the marathon in 2 hours and 8 minutes. If he had been racing against the winner of the 1904 Olympic marathon, he would have won by nearly an hour and a half. That sounds pretty crazy right? Let’s look at another example, if Usain Bolt, undoubtedly dubbed the fastest man in the world, ran against Jesse Owens, the 1936 100m world record holder, Owens would still have had 4,2672 meters to go when Bolt crossed the finish line – and although that doesn’t sound like a lot, believe me in sprinter world it is! This just opens up a whole range of questions and speculations. Are we just somehow getting better as a human race, inevitably progressing, but it's not like we've evolved into a new species in a century, come on now. So what's going on here? Well, technology and various advancements have had a massive impact! If we look at the Bolt, Owens example it can clearly be seen – Bolt propelled himself out of blocks down a specially fabricated carpet that is specifically designed to allow him to travel as fast as humanly possible. Owens however had to run on cinders, the ash from burnt wood. This soft surface stole far more energy from his legs than Bolt’s red carpet. And although this is a relatively simple example, technology has made a difference in all sports, from faster skis and lighter shoes to low-friction swimsuits and aerodynamic bicycles.

Okay, so let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of it – As with many things in life, being classified as a world-class sportsman or sportswoman or getting that all-glorious title of being a professional athlete, is both complicated and complex! Athletic success is more than only having the genetic potential, or simply putting in the hours of training on the field, track, ice, or court, neither is it solely achieved by perfect nutrition, technological advancements, having the right gadgets and gear, and pure love of the sport. So what on earth is the answer then, what allows you to be a professional athlete?? Well, it’s pretty simple actually, ALL OF IT! It’s a magical mix of having those predisposing athletic genes in your corner, putting in the work, time, and effort to the ultimate level, taking advantage of technological advancements, expertise and opportunities that are offered to you, as well as possessing valuable all important characteristics and attributes such as drive, unyielding passion, discipline, competitiveness, self-confidence, focus, adaptability, raw talent, perseverance, and pure-determination! More than that, it’s about having that ‘athlete mind-set’, that full-force, unwavering will to do whatever it takes to be the best, to put in absolutely everything you have, then to take a deep breath dig deeper and put in a little more, that is what it takes, that is what makes the difference! Having that unquenchable desire to win! Once all of this is added to a big golden pot of potential you have to nurture the hell out of that potential, care for it, invest time and effort into it – because potential is nothing if it’s not harnessed and developed – you can have all the potential in the world but if that potential is not nurtured but, rather wasted there is just no way you’ll ever be able to become the professional athlete you were destined to be.

So remember, champions aren’t born or bred, they’re nurtured!

Bianca completed both her BA in Human Movement Science as well as her Honours degree in Biokinetics at the University of Pretoria. 

Bianca has a keen interest in various sports, particularly Netball and Running. She loves working with individuals and athletes of all levels and assisting them in achieving their desired goals. It’s all about the comeback! 

She’s passionate about the human body, movement, and working with different people and has a special interest in Orthopaedic Rehabilitation, in particular knee, hip and back rehabilitation. 

Bianca can be contacted on 082 8297 438 or biancabunge@kinetics.co.za