Swearing 

Swearing! That’s right, our parents aren’t right about everything! Swearing has all sorts of good effects. Studies show positive physical, psychological, and social effects that simply aren’t found with polite language. Specifically, when it comes to exercise, swearing seems to increase pain tolerance, increase power output in anaerobic testing, and improve grip strength. The authors of the review recommend not doing it too frequently though, it might lose its power if we get too used to it. We would also advise against trying this one in a crowded gym at 5pm… 

Verdict: Weird and wonderful

Brain endurance training

Mental fatigue is pretty detrimental for exercising. Motivation goes down, performance suffers, and it can become a big barrier when you need to push through a tough workout. Good news though, you can train your brain to become less fatigued during exercise and this will have a knock-on effect for boosting your endurance workouts. Participants who did brain training before their endurance training saw double the improvement of the group that only completed physical training (12% vs 24%).

If you want to give this a go at home look up an online Stroop test and give it a go for a few weeks. Alternatively, regular meditators have shown to have a higher threshold for exhaustion. Even better, studies show that meditation can help runners “get in the zone” better, making the run feel even more effortless.

Verdict: Weird and wonderful

Social competition

It seems intuitive that this is true but there are some nuances to it. There are two main ways that exercise performance improves in a social context. The first is through competition and the second is encouragement. Studies that have people competing against one another show much higher attendance in groups where people can see their individual score and their opponents’ as opposed to when they are working towards a total team score.

Encouragement also seems to be a powerful tool for both short and long bouts of exercise, one study looked at static biking and found that having someone to encourage you was enough to boost power output in both sprint and endurance conditions. The improvements were modest but who doesn’t want to be cheered along on a ride?

Verdict: Wonderful

Smelling salts

Smelling salts conjure up the image of heavy lifts in the gym with lots of shouting and screaming but in reality the evidence seems to suggest this is where they are the least effective. CrossFit, Hyrox, and HIIT is where they really shine. These all require repetitive bouts of high intensity and the evidence shows that people get a good performance boost from using smelling salts prior to workouts. This isn’t to say that they aren’t good for lifting in the gym, they improve perception of performance for heavy lifting which in itself could be worthwhile, but that seems to be where the improvement ends.

Verdict: Mostly weird, sometimes wonderful

References

Bender & Popkin. Ammonia Inhalants: Use, Misuse, and Role in Sports Performance. Sports Health. 2024.

Dallaway et al., Prior brain endurance training improves endurance exercise performance. Eur J Sport Sci. 2023.

Edwards et al., Impact of active and passive social facilitation on self-paced endurance and sprint exercise: encouragement augments performance and motivation to exercise. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2018.

Nien et al., Athletes with meditation experience counteract the detrimental effect of mental fatigue on endurance performance and neurocognitive functions. Journal of Sports Sciences. 2024.

Washmuth et al., Effect of swearing on physical performance: a mini-review. Front Psychol. 2024

Zhang et al., Support or competition? How online social networks increase physical activity: A randomized controlled trial. Prev Med Rep. 2016.

Sleeping Better

Why do we sleep?
Sleep is a vital bodily function which allows the body and brain to recharge. Sleeping is important for memory retention and to maintain good cognitive function. When we fail to get enough sleep, it can have a detrimental effect on our bodies.

Lack of sleep can:

How does my body know when it’s time to fall asleep?
Your body has an “internal clock” known as your Circadian Rhythm. One of the processes controlled by this “clock” is your sleep-wake cycle. This cycle is closely tied to light. In the day, the light stimulates signals that keep us alert and active and at night the reduced light exposure promotes the production of Melatonin, a hormone which helps us get to sleep and keep us asleep.
Not everyone has the same sleep-wake cycle , 30% of the adult population are known as “owls”, in that they will feel more tired later at night and tend to wake up later in the morning when given the choice, this is even more common in your teenage years. Other people will find the opposite and are known as “larks”. They feel more tired earlier at night and prefer to get up earlier in the morning, which is more common as we get older. This is thought to be caused by genes we inherit.

How much sleep do we need?
The amount of sleep we need changes depending on our age, this typically starts out longer when we’re younger and gets shorter as we age but stays between 7-9 hours for most of our life. The table below is taken from the sleepfoundation.org recommendations.

Age Group Age Range Recommended Amount of Sleep per Day:

Newborn 0-3 months              14-17 hours
Infant 4-11 months                  12-15 hours
Toddler 1-2 years                     11-14 hours
Preschool 3-5 years                 10-13 hours
School-age 6-13 years             9-11 hours
Teen 14-17 years                      8-10 hours
Young Adult 18-25 years       7-9 hours
Adult 26-64 years                   7-9 hours
Older Adult 65 years +          7-8 hours

How do I know if I am getting enough sleep?

Activity trackers and smart watches have been shown to be good at measuring time
in bed but poor at measuring the quality of sleep.

A simpler way is to ask yourself:
● Could you fall back asleep at 10am or 11am?
● If you did not set an alarm in the morning would you sleep past it?
● Could you function well without caffeine before noon?

If the answer to the first 2 questions are yes, then you are likely not getting enough sleep.
If the answer to the third question is no, you are likely using caffeine to self-medicate your lack of sleep.

What can I do to improve my sleep?

1. Try going to bed and getting up at the same time every day. It takes more than one or two nights to catch up on reduced sleep. So a lie in on the weekends might not be enough to catch up on sleeping poorly throughout the rest of the week.
2. Exercise can be great for increasing your sleep pressure (the desire to go to sleep).
3. Avoid caffeine after noon. Caffeine has a half-life of 6 hours, meaning a cup of coffee at 4pm is the same as having half a cup of coffee at 10pm.
4. Do not smoke. The nicotine in cigarettes act as a stimulant making it harder to get to sleep. Smokers can also be woken up earlier by nicotine cravings.
5. Avoid large meals and drinks just before bed. This can lead to indigestion which can interfere with sleep. Drinking too much before bed can lead to frequent awakenings to urinate.
6. Naps can be very useful in the early afternoon, but naps after 3pm can make it harder to sleep at night.
7. Relax before bed. Reading, listening to music or meditation can be a good way to relax before going to bed.
8. Thermal dump – Taking a hot shower or bath before bed can be a useful way to reduce your core body temperature which helps your body prepare for sleep. This is because our bodies will naturally drop about 1°C during sleep, when you get out of the hot water more of the blood will rise to the skin’s surface (this is why your face gets red when its warm) which means heat is lost more quickly, leading to a drop in core body temperature.
9. Make your bedroom a hibernation station, create an environment which is cool, dark, and quiet.
10. Reduce your screen time before bed, because the production of melatonin (the hormone which makes you tired) is tied with darkness. Blue light especially has been shown to delay the production of melatonin so downloading blue light filter apps such as “Twilight” can be helpful. Also using lamps and smaller lights in the evening can be a good way of reducing light exposure.
11. Getting exposure to light when you wake up can be useful in making you feel more awake, ideally outdoors with sunlight.
12. Do not lie in bed if you’re feeling awake, get up and do some relaxing activity such as reading and return when you feel tired. Clock watching can cause sleep anxiety by making us feel more stressed and less able to relax, to prevent this turn clocks around so they are not easily seen.

Further resources:

Running is excellent aerobic exercise, is an amazing outdoor sport, and is accessible to anyone with very little equipment. It’s important to remember that running places large forces and physical
demands on the body regardless of your chosen distance, pace, or terrain. Without proper conditioning of the leg muscles along the biomechanical chain it can be easy to pick up injuries.
Running injuries include bone and soft-tissue injuries caused by sudden events like sprains or strains, or can be caused by repetitive injury and overuse. ACC data shows that there were 153,014 running related injuries reported between 2010 and 2020 in New Zealand. The majority of those affected were aged 10-54, with similar numbers of males to females… basically, running injuries can affect anyone at any time!

Every runner’s regular training routine should include some form of strength and balance training. Adding these types of exercises into your training can improve your overall performance in addition to preventing injury. Remember to choose exercises suitable for your level – if they are too easy then you won’t see improvements, and if they are too hard then you won’t perform well enough and will likely forget about them after a few sessions. This principle applies to both strength and balance exercises.

For strength training you can start with body-weighted exercises and progress to using weights as you become stronger. To build muscle strength you should pick an exercise and weight that allows you to perform somewhere between 8-12 reps well while making any further reps difficult. Complete 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps on 3 or more days each week to see improvement over time. To improve balance, you need to ensure that your exercises are challenging enough to stimulate your nervous system. Balance exercises often involve standing on one leg and keeping your balance
for as long as possible. Create challenging drills by standing on an uneven surface like a Bosu ball and add movement or distraction like throwing and catching a ball at the same time! Aim to complete 5-10 minutes of balance exercises on 2 days each week. If you’re unsure which exercises to choose – have a look at the examples below.

If you are serious about building a personalised training routine and incorporating strength and balance exercises that target your weaker areas, book an appointment with one of our physiotherapists for assessment and guidance.

Single leg squat: Stand near a wall or table for support if you need it. Balance on your affected leg. Keeping the heel on the ground, bend your knee, ensuring the knee travels directly
forwards over your toes. Straighten back up fully, and repeat the movement.

Single leg bridging: Lie on your back. Bend one leg upwards, placing the foot on the floor. Draw your other leg up to the same position, maintaining a hips width between
your legs. Lift one foot slightly off the floor. Using the effort of your remaining foot, lift your hips up into a bridge until you have a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Lower back down and repeat. Keep your pelvis level throughout this exercise.

Single leg heel raise with weight: Stand up straight holding a weight in each hand. Move your weight onto the leg to be exercised, lifting your other from the floor. Ensure you to not rest your elevated leg on your stance leg. Keeping your gaze directly ahead and your knee straight, rise up onto the ball of your foot. Ensure you keep your core, buttocks and thigh muscles activated to help control this movement. Slowly lower your heel back to the floor and repeat.

Nordic hamstring curl: This exercise requires a partner. – Start position is kneeling on the floor with the partner behind holding onto your heels to keep the legs in place. Lean forward from the waist slightly for three repetitions, returning to the starting position each time. Do not bend at the waist and keep the trunk and the thighs in line. After the first three repetitions, increase the forward lean a bit more for every movement until you reach an angle from which you are unable to return, then fall forward keeping the trunk rigid and use a push-up to return to the starting position

Resisted crab walks: Place a band around your ankles and gather some tension. Side-step keeping constant tension on the band. Make sure you do not bring your feet too close together and keep your toes and knees pointing forwards.

Side plank with dip: Lie on your side and lift yourself in to a plank on your elbow, with a straight line from your head to your feet. Drop your hips down until they are just off the floor, and then bring them back up.

Mountain climbers: Adopt a plank position insuring your hands are directly beneath your shoulders. Fully flex one hip and hold. Extend the bent leg to the rear and repeat the movement pattern on the opposite side.

Box jumps on/off: Start Position is standing in front of a box or step with your feet shoulder width apart. Perform a short squat in preparation for jumping at the same time swinging your
arms behind you. Rebound out of this position, extending through the hips, knees, and ankles to jump as high as possible. Swing your arms forward and up. Land on the box with your knees bent, absorbing the impact through the legs. Jump off the box landing on the balls of the feet and heels absorbing the impact through the knees and hips.

Plyometric alternating lateral hop: Stand up straight with a line marker on each of your sides. Transfer your weight onto one foot and lift your other off the floor. Using your arms to generate momentum, hop sideways over one line landing lightly on your foot, then immediately hop sideways over the other line landing on your other foot. Continue as instructed.

Single leg stand on BOSU throw/catch against wall (stand on round side): Place a BOSU onto its flat side on the floor in front of a wall. Stand on one leg on the rounded side of the BOSU and gain your balance. Throw the ball against the wall, keeping your balance as you catch it. Repeat this movement, trying to keep the BOSU as steady as possible.