The Young Feller

Placement Hunting & Running Unknown Paths - 17th July 2013 Progress has been a word that I have heard hundreds of times over the past couple of years and one that I will probably continue to hear until my injury problems clear up, and beyond, seen as I plan on becoming a Physiotherapist anyway!  I seem to have progressed at a slow rate lately, although slow progression is always better than none of course.  Firstly, my hunt for work experience and shadow placements still continues, with difficulty but I'm not anywhere near giving up. I have my 2 day placement at the Royal Blackburn Hospital which is a solid start, as well as receiving a contact number for a local private physio clinic too.  Only 2 steps but as I've mentioned, it's 2 more than I had a few weeks ago and another couple of prospects do look positive.  I was told it is key to obtain experience in various fields to show that I am willing to work with a variety of people and not just be sports ...

Slow And Steady Wins The Race Since my last post things have progressed steadily, in all aspects of my usual blog topics.  As of last Wednesday (June 19th) I became a qualified Emergency First Aider (thanks to the Lancashire FA for putting on the course) so I am making slow steps towards increasing my knowledge in hope of becoming a Physiotherapist in the next few years as well as enhancing my prospects of obtaining relevant work experience. I have also, as of yesterday, completed what will hopefully be my final session of Physio for my own ongoing injury.  My runners knee condition is something that can never be "cured" as such, but it can improve to a point where there are no longer any symptoms and therefore it technically heals in a way.  This process should take a further 12 weeks hard work (and a lot of Kinesio tape) in order to strengthen my thigh to produce the symptom-less form I would prefer it finds itself in. The Kinesio tape (or whatever brand pe...

Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome & Physio Progress Following on from the last blog post, I have had another visit to the physio (yesterday) and progress had been made.  I was given a task of completing a large amount of squats either 2 or 3 times per week, I took it upon myself to do at least 3 lots though to ensure maximum results, obviously while monitoring my fatigue levels in order to avoid over straining. My knee was apparently "puffy" and rough around the knee cap upon previous examination but is now smooth and feel as "normal", which I was obviously delighted to hear.  I had completed 3 sets of squats over 3 different days as well as walking over 7 miles (with roughly 50%-60% up hill) on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday last week and on the Wednesday I opted to run the same route, so my quads were given a massive work out.  Oh, and Friday's now customary spin class was also completed. I have to say I do feel fitter than I can remember s...

Old Trafford & PPS As the regular readers will know, or if you saw my last blog post, me & 14 friends played on Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United on Monday, as part of a competition prize that I won last week.  As a football fan, albeit a Liverpool one, I cannot describe how amazing the experience was playing on the pitch at Old Trafford.  As much as I detest Manchester United, you cannot hide away from the fact that the facilities and size of the stadium are unbelievable.  I have been to Old Trafford on various occasions before, although that was to watch football and not play but until you are down on the pitch, you cannot appreciate the high standard of stadium that Manchester United really have. Tom, Me & Ryan taking it all in after the games I found myself, on several occasions, just standing and looking up and around into the stands in awe at the size of the place.  Imagining what it would be like to play there in front of 7...

Old Trafford On The Horizon From reading the title, some of you may be wondering why I would even mention Old Trafford, never mind title a blog post about it!  Maybe once I would have done when Wembley was being rebuilt and I have visited a few times, albeit not in the United end.  But yesterday I won a competition (yes, another one!) to play on Old Trafford with the lads from my football team. I was as surprised as anyone that I won, I even honestly forgot I had entered the competition, but even now, nearly 24 hours on, I'm still pretty much in shock.  Why you may be thinking?  Well, for anyone who knows me, there is no doubting how much passion I have for Liverpool FC and football in general, so the opportunity to play on Old Trafford, Britain's 2nd largest stadium, is one that I can't pass up, well, I don't think anyone can, even my Dad's playing! All the fitness training and everything that goes with it has indeed come in very handy for this unexpec...

Self Development Over Time For the people who have followed my blog from the start, or at least the early stages, you may remember I mentioned that it would at some point turn towards a fitness based and physical orientated blog rather than dwindling on the story of my knee injury. In the previous post I featured my fun run with Robbie Savage, something I obviously didn't get long to "train" for but fortunately I had been running 5K+ twice or three times a week for 2/3 weeks prior to the race, as well as my usual football training and 5-a-side games so my fitness wasn't too bad really. I have also been hoping that my quad muscles would redevelop due to the distance I have been running.  As I have previously mentioned, it can take up to two years post-op and post-recovery for the quad muscle to redevelop to it's pre-injury condition, or at least to something alike.  I have recently photographed them in order to see for myself the development and improv...

Robbie Savage & The 6K For those of you that follow me on Twitter, you will have seen that this past week, on April 25th to be exact, I spent a few hours with Robbie Savage in Heaton Park, Manchester, taking part in a 5K run as a competition prize courtesy of Kitbag.com and New Balance.  As regular blog readers will know, I run over 5K on a weekly basis anyway so I was basically already prepared for the length of the race, until I actually participated and found out it amounted to 6K with quite a bit of the course being up hill too! This obviously provided a bit more of a challenge than the usual quite flat 5.2K I run but with other people running it along side me, I always feel that bit more energetic as my competitive side comes out.  The weather was cold and it took a good 10 minute, professional warm up/dance to get things going before the race actually started. Having A Laugh & Joke With Robbie, Had To Mention Strictly Come Dancing At Some Point! ...