A while ago top Baker Street Personal Trainer Si Tate was working with a professional footballer. The footballer is a creative player who had been struggling to get movement consistency without pain. With swelling and crunching in both knees and with one leg visibly smaller than the other, he had been spotted in the gym by Si. Now he needed to work towards the fitness that would get him into a Champions League club.
With John Hardy, founder of Faster Health& Fitness, Si had progressed with the footballer to the point where the last 1:1 session he did before his “incident” showed him getting full squats on two legs and one leg, without pain or swelling, and without his temporary orthotics. This was a massive achievement, so Si and John started working on speed drills.
The client was moving well and Si and John were getting him close to building him up to get through his medical. Them, just a few days after that training session, the client went over on his left ankle, during a speed drill, and suffered an inversion sprain.
Si and John had the client full squatting ( adapted in order to allow space for lack of range in Dorsiflexion) and started using FAKTR-PM tool assisted massage on the injury. Within 12 days the client was moving, and then after 18 days (21 days before the doctors said it would be possible) Si and John had got the client running. To reach this goal they had to help restore the footballer’s confidence by having him jump and hop!
Now the client was moving, it was time to get back to working on technique. Si started to push him hard to get his fitness up to the level that would get him through his medical. On a sub-maximal level he was now moving very well and without pain or swelling, so then Si and John worked in improving landing, taking off, squatting, lungeing and moving with great form and consistency – then the opposition will not get near him.
