David @ DHPT

Over the past few months, I have started on a different training programme than I usually follow.  It has included a lot of walking. And I do mean a lot.  What is the reason behind this shift in focus?  Well, it is to help a good cause and challenge myself at the same time. Three of my college friends and I have decided that we will be doing the Oxfam Trailwalk in March 2020.  We have decided to call ourselves the NOBS - aka the Newlands Old Boys Society. For those of you who don't know anything about the Trailwalk, it is a 50km or 100km walk based in the Bay of Plenty with the purpose of raising funds for Oxfam to continue their valuable work.  We have decided that we will aim to complete the 100km walk.  This is a fairly big ask, especially as the 100km walk has to be completed over a maximum time of 36 hours.   I have never been an endurance athlete of any kind.  As a teenager, I was a fairly good sprinter, and I could stretch out t...

A while back I wrote a blog post about my journey with mental illness.  I talked about my struggles with anxiety and depression and how I had sought help to get through these issues after trying to help myself and not quite succeeding. Last year I had some troubles again.  Around October/November I had another bout of depression which really knocked me back.  But what surprised me was not that I had another bout of depression - that's happened before and I have dealt with it - what surprised me about it was the completely different feelings that were associated with it this time around. If you'll indulge me, let's take a step back and I'll explain how we got to this point. In February 2018 I ruptured my Achilles while sparring with a couple of mates, I knew as soon as it happened that I'd done my Achilles, I just felt it go.  It was annoying but I worked my way through it and got back to training.  Way too early as it happens.  I went back to trainin...

Before I get emails complaining about my grammar, no that wasn't a misspelled title.  Today I'm going to be talking about different planes of movement, and how sometimes we get stuck training in one plane more than the rest. But first, why do we care about different planes of movement?  To understand why they are important, you should first know what they are.  Bear with me for a second while I nerd out a little. There are three planes of movement in the human body: frontal, sagittal and transverse.  The easiest way to describe these planes is this - the frontal plane cuts the body into two even halves front and back, the sagittal plane cuts the body into two even halves left and right, and the transverse plane cuts the body into two even halves top and bottom. Now that the nerdy bit is out of the way, why should you care? Well, quite often people get into the habit of doing the majority of their training in one plane of motion.  Often, this is t...

Before I start this post, know this - I am not a doctor or a physiotherapist, I am just a personal trainer who has had his fair share of injuries.  So the advice below is just that, advice from my own experience.  Always follow your doctor or physiotherapists  recommendations. Injuries suck.  Take it from me, I have had a pretty vast array of them over the years and they have been frustrating each time they have happened.  Not only is there the pain factor to deal with, they interrupt training programs and can stall progress if you don't find a way to work around them. Now this may seem like just common sense, but the best way to keep your progress in the gym from stalling is to work around your injuries.   Common sense it might be, but it is pretty easy for an injury to derail you.  Especially if you are following doctor's advice.  When I ruptured my Achilles tendon my doctor told me to go home and rest (they told me this both times I ...

I have a four year old son who is a constant ball of energy and adventure.  It's been awesome to see him grow up and develop in his motor skills and physical abilities as he gets older. Currently his favourite activity is jumping.  Mainly jumping between pieces of furniture or off anything that is high enough to be exciting.  Sometimes as a parent this terrifies me - what if he breaks something? But at the same time I understand he is testing his own limitations and capabilities.  Something we all used to do as children. To him this is both play and learning, but he only understands it as having fun.  How high can I jump? how fast can I ride my bike? Can I do a cartwheel? These are all things we have done, and for the most part as adults we stop doing. Some of us still get out on bikes and ride trails for fun, or rock climb, or kayak, or do gymnastics classes, but the number of adults who partake in these activities are few and far between. I follow ...

One question that I always ask clients when they first start with me (and ongoing over the time we train together too) is how are you sleeping? It is not just a question to fill in the time while resting between exercises, it is an important one to be asking.  How often do you think about your sleep?  Do you think about it at all? Sleep is a vital component of a training program.  It is the time when our body refreshes itself, rebuilds itself.  If you are going through a phase where you are trying to build muscle, it isn't when you are lifting the weights in the gym that you build muscle, it is when you recover after those lifting sessions. The training helps to break the muscle down so that when we rest and the body rebuilds the muscle, it rebuilds it bigger (if following the correct program) and stronger.   Quality of sleep can also influence your success if trying to lose weight.  It does this in a couple of different ways.  Firstly, a ...

So in February this year I suffered a complete rupture of my Achilles Tendon while doing some sparring with some friends.  This was one of the most painful injuries and frustrating rehabilitation protocols I have had to go through (and I've been through a few!).  But it came with a silver lining. In my first Krav Maga training session back after being cleared by my hospital physio, I took a step back and pop, it ruptured again.  While the re-injury was very frustrating - in fact it is possibly the most upset over an injury I have ever been - having been through it once before has taught me a few things. The first thing I learned was that I am able to ask for what I want in terms of a cast, in some aspects at least.  When you rupture your Achilles Tendon you are put in what is known as an equinous cast.  This basically sets your cast in a position with your toes pointing down to bring the two ends of the tendon as close as possible. While I could not...

It's been a while since I have written a post about my Achilles tendon rupture rehab so I thought I would bash out a few quick words on where things are at in my recovery. For the last month or so I have been able to walk around in normal shoes again, which for anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of rupturing their Achilles is quite a milestone!  Having your toes pointed at the floor for 3 months or so has definitely been a bit of a pain, its amazing how a simple change in the way you hold your foot can cause a whole lot of other issues. As a result of the normal shoes, my back, hip and knee pain have vanished almost instantly - a pretty clear sign that they were having to compensate for the change in my gait pattern.  Really just confirming what I already thought was the case.  But good to know that it wasn't anything more serious. Something that I hadn't really thought too much about (but should have really) was the loss in my balance, especially the loss...

As men, often when we train we focus on lifting big weights, training at a high intensity, and pushing ourselves to our limits.  While there is a time and place for this sort of training, we also need to balance this out with other forms of training which help the body to recover for these high intensity bouts of activity. I have had a guest blogger write about the benefits of massage previously, a method of recovery which I put great value in. If you are interested, you can read about it here . Another form of training I have been using for a while now and highly recommend for guys especially is Pilates.  I work one on one with Carolyn from Pilates by Design .  I began doing Pilates because I have had tight hips for a while now, and during my Krav Maga training I found it difficult to get my round kicks high enough. Pilates has helped me to loosen up my hips and as a result get my kicks up to chest height (the plan is for them to get to head height, but one step at...

So I had a big moment this week in my recovery - my specialist has advised me that it is time to start weight bearing again. This is a huge step in my recovery.  After having 6 weeks on crutches and being unable to do so much of what most people take for granted, it was a glorious sound hearing those words from the doctor.   But it was a difficult process getting to this first step.  There was obviously the initial pain of the injury and getting over this, which took a combination of rest, medication, rest, putting up with a cast, and some more rest.  This was both fatiguing and frustrating as I wasn't able to train my clients, or myself a whole lot either.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank three groups of people.  Firstly, thanks to the group of people who have gone out of their way to look after my family and I.  Thanks to all of those who cooked meals, brought round groceries, dropped in to say hi and keep my spirits up, it ...

So as you may know by now I'm currently recovering from my ruptured Achilles tendon injury (to see how it happened read this blog post , to see how I'm progressing check this one out ).  The rehab is going well so far, the specialist was happy with what she saw and the pain has decreased which is a good sign.  But that doesn't mean it has been all smooth sailing.   Injuries come with their fair share of associated problems, so I thought I'd outline a few of the ones I've been facing and how I've dealt with them, in no particular order of importance. Firstly, pain.  Now there wasn't a whole lot of pain in the first week, which lulled me into a false sense of security to be honest.  Then the second week arrived, and the pain levels increased dramatically.  Now, I was prescribed some fairly good pain medication - Tramadol being the most effective (I got the option of getting Codeine but that messes me up in ways which I won't go into here).  I ...

So yesterday I had my first follow up appointment at the fracture clinic to see how my Achilles tendon rupture was progressing.  After a frosty greeting from the receptionist I have to say that the rest of the experience was great.  The doctors and nurses there were all very friendly and helpful, which says a lot for their professionalism as they looked like they were run off their feet. The first thing they did was to cut through the old cast.  Which felt great to get the air to my leg after it being in plaster for two and a half weeks.  Then came the words that were like torture to me..."oh and please don;t move your leg until the doctor comes to see you" Which is great if the doctor comes straight away, however it was about 20 minutes before the doctor turned up, which was exquisite frustration waiting to take it fully out of the damned thing.   Once I got it out I found something very interesting - there was no serious bruising at the point whe...

So, there I was, my training was going well, I was tracking nicely to reach my goal of 500 hours of training over the course of the year, and then I decided to organise a sparring session on a Sunday evening just for fun with some guys I train with.   Everything was going well, I was 20 minutes into the session, we were working with some intensity without trying to kill each other, I wasn't getting hit too much (except that round kick to the face - thanks Ants), and then it happened.  I stepped backwards to avoid a hook and bang (and I do mean BANG) I ruptured my Achilles tendon. It happened just like everyone I had talked to previously described it - it felt like I got kicked in the leg, I heard a huge pop (not an exaggeration - one of the guys I was training with heard it clearly from across the room), and I felt like my foot and leg were no longer connected to each other.  I went down like a sack of potatoes.  My first thought was "not again!", I ha...

Regular exercise isn't just for the young folks out there who want a six-pack to show off when they hit the beach.  As we age, it gets increasingly more important for other reasons. Improving and/or keeping our quality of life is the big one! Yes it does have the benefit of being able to build muscle (and burn fat), but the benefits reach much further than that.  Firstly, the right types of regular exercise can assist with retaining muscular power.  Why do we need to focus on this?  Well as we age, muscular power drops off sharply.  Why do we care about this?   Because it is a key aspect in preventing falls later in life.  Think about it - when we stumble we try to catch ourselves (usually with our non stumbling leg or an arm if we fully trip). When we do this a large amount of force goes through the "catching" limb - without muscular power this limb can just act as a painful cushion, with muscular power it can literally break our fall. Another ...

In June I'll be having knee surgery (if ACC approves my request) which could see me unable to fully run/train for up to 6 months.  A few years ago (maybe even months ago if I was being completely honest) this would have sent me into a depression that would make Eeyore look like Mr Happy.  Here's what happened and why I'm not feeling too bad about it. I walked into my specialists office thinking that it would be just another meeting where he would say that yeah I injured my knee (again) but it has resolved itself.  I thought that because I'm in no pain despite doing a fair amount of running and other training on it.  This was not the case. He pointed to his monitor which was showing my MRI scan.  The news was not what I expected - torn cartilage with a PCL partial tear to go along with it.  Less than ideal. Long story short this meant one of two possible outcomes - which he wouldn't know for sure until he operated. 1. He would trim the frayed cartila...

It took me a while to finally accept it but this week I went and contacted a personal trainer to help me out with some motivation and to write me a program to suit my goals. This may seem strange to some of you out there - a personal trainer who needs a personal trainer.  I can understand, as a trainer my job is to motivate and train others, so shouldn't I be able to do the same for myself?  I thought so too, but I was wrong...somewhat. For years I was carrying more weight than is optimal for a person my age.  This was something that as a personal trainer I hated in myself - I felt hypocritical telling others how to improve their health and fitness while struggling with my own.  There came a turning point however that changed my habits for the better. I got diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. You have no idea how much that (1) shocked me, and (2) gave me a kick up the butt to get some changes made in my life.  I have dropped a lot of weight since that phone...

Injuries are pretty frustrating.  I can tell you from vast experience.  I have even been referred to by friends in the past as "Mr Glass" which gives you an idea of the number of mishaps I have had in my recent past.  But as well as being frustrating, they have also been learning experiences for me.   Here are a few things I have learnt along the road to recovery.  You can't make a better investment than a good physiotherapist The first thing that I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt is that you can't make a better investment (post-injury) than a good physiotherapist.  Once the damage has been done and the doctor has made their diagnosis, seek out a good physio.   Physios can make sure that you get a proper rehabilitation plan that will get you up and about much sooner than just waiting for it to heal on its own.  Sure, there may be some pain in the sessions but a little discomfort now can prevent a lot of issues later. ...

In many ways, our bodies are like motor vehicles. They both move us around, they are both more fragile than we realise, and they can both cost us a fortune to get fixed! However there are some ways in which we can prevent them from costing us more later in life, and some ways to get them fixed that will prevent further costs as well. WOF – Medical Check-up Your car needs to be safe out there on the roads, so every so often you need to have a warrant of fitness performed on it to ensure that it is roadworthy. While these can be expensive depending on what needs fixing to bring the car up to the required standard, I don’t think there would be many people who would say they are not worthwhile. As you get older your body needs the same attention. While you may not be putting anyone else at risk if there is an undiagnosed issue with your body, you may be putting yourself at risk. By getting regular check-ups with your GP you can often catch issues before they become serious. GP vi...