How to increase its flexibility, speed and strength as a master obstacle with advice from Neuff Mensah Elliott ambassador
“Many people fear obstacles because it is the natural human response to obstacles and potential pain, right?” Mensah Elliott jokes. “People always tell me:” You must be stupid or crazy to run and jump on an obstacle at full speed. “But it’s fun. I love it. What is good, because I’ve been doing it for 30 years.”
And, in the last three decades, Mensah has achieved something with which many of us can only dream: compete on the international stage as a senior athlete and teacher.
Now, as many of us fight to retain even an appearance of speed and strength, not to mention mobility, Elliott challenges his age of M45 to be competitive during the obstacles of height of 3 feet and 6 inches: in February Indoor Champingham.
Therefore, it is the perfect candidate for teachers athletes, the best way to accumulate the physical attributes required for obstacles: speed, strength and flexibility, which is what will do in part of this blog.
(They are attentive to the second part, which will focus on spaced obstacles and perfecting their beginning).
30 years of success, with some breaks in the mixture!
Growing up in Gambia, Elliott ran everywhere: school, stores, to see their friends. Wherever it was, he ran. Fast.
As a student at the Saint Augustine high school, Hey stood out in athletics, competing in sprints, javelin and bullet launch. E, inspired by the 100 -meter Olympic victory of lymphord Christie, he dedicated himself to becoming a superior athlete.
After moving to England in 1993, Elliott joined Blackheath Harriers and focused on the sprints, however, it was not until the end of the 1996 season that the obstacles became part of the Elliott training program, when he tried the decathlon.
For 1999, it was among the best obstacles in the United Kingdom, occupying fourth place nationwide in 2000-2001. Then it represents Britain and England in the main competitions, including the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
But a serious back injury shortened his senior career. After a year free, the pain disappeared and another cooled it, but it was not the same. Another six -year break continued before returning as a master’s athlete, this time with a better understanding of his body and how to train for longevity.
Representing Gambia, he won money in the World Masters Championship 2012. They continued to leave their mark, establishing records of British, European and world masters in the obstacles of 60 million and 110m obstacles. Over the years, he has claimed multiple national and international titles, consolidating his status from one of the main obstacles in the world.
Today, Elliott is still dedicated to sports, balancing competition with training. It is proud to advise Junior athletes, transmitting their experience and experience through the S-Academia Academy. He is also a passionate lawyer from Masters Athletics, Track and Field Promotion through his voluntary role as Neuff Ambassador.
Flexibility of prioritization and mobility
“As we get older and more busy, we tend to be on the lazy side and neglect mobility and flexibility,” Betins Elliott.
However, maintaining the thesis two physical features often overlooked is one of the most important parts of his training plan, and something that he reaches all master athletes prioritize.
“I do at least half an hour of stretching and mobility every morning. Now it is part of my routine: my day does not start until I have done it,” he adds.
He focuses on his lower back, buttocks, hamstrings and hip flexors, all just up and just below the hips.
“If your hips are weak and tight, then you will have difficulty with everything that does with the obstacle, especially the high obstacles!” Elliott explains.
You need to be strong, but sensible!
For teachers athletes, it is essential to incorporate some resistance training in their routine.
Whether using resistance or weight lifting bands, strengthening muscles is one of the most important factors to stay only competitive, but also healthy and painless for longer. “It’s just athletics,” says Elliott. “It’s about living longer and moving without pain. At this time, while I feel here speaking, if I want to get up, I need the muscles to do that. If they are, it will be more difficult. I am doing this for my future health.”
And force is one of the areas where Elliott’s training approach has changed significant as it has grown.
“When I was young, my gym approach was to work all large muscles and lift heavy weights. I simply did what everyone did,” explains Elliott.
Now, everything is specifically intended to be as strong as possible in each phase of the obstacle movement, with a reduced approach to heavy lifting and compound movements: “It’s not about doing more; it is Beyises.
An area to which he now pays special attention is to strengthen his feet and ankles, in preparation for his lead to land outside the obstacle. “I would say that 90% of my heating on and off the track is barefoot; and those are my feet, improve my balance and develop all the smallest muscles of my body,” he explains. “When you use coaches, they give you that damping. But then they think about running on picos and getting out of an obstacle: the force that crosses the feet, rings and the whole body is huge. So I work in the little girl from my tip of the tip of the tip of the tip of the tip of the tip of the Myte. When moving without shoes.”
But the main change for Elliott has been to reduce weights. “You don’t have to enter and try to hit a Max every time,” he explains. “Just working at 50% resistance and building resistance is enough.”
He adds: “I no longer raise the ‘heavy’ weights. I don’t need.
The only exception to the heavy lifting rule is when you are training in contrast: complete a heavy elevator (ISH!) And then perform a plyometric exercise immediately later. “I will make three or four dead weight at 125 kg, then a cash jump immediately afterwards. This has really helped me mount my explosiveness,” explains Elliott.
Speed work throughout the year
“Speed: you use it or lose it,” Elliott begins; What gives a clue about what is about to say when it comes to maintaining leg rotation as quickly as possible.
Elliott admits that when he was younger, he sometimes followed the most “traditional” seasonal model of having a month free in August or September, then returning and doing long, hard and slow repetitions during the first months of winter conditioning.
It is a process with which most of us, including myself, will be relatives, but that Mensah says that it simply does not work for major athletes.
“I make a good solid winter on the track doing hard and resistance things, but I still keep my speed,” he says.
“Usually, I make a small complete obstacle until around December. I make obstacles, all my specific gym work of obstacles and a lot of Sprint’s work to maintain my fast fibers shooting,” he explains.
In Elliott’s opinion, going weeks and one week of the week stretching their legs at a speed of approximately 70% it only means that you will have to recover and risk injuring when it comes out.
And the combination of his year: the sprints with an exercise of gym that has added to his repertoire as a teacher athlete: lunge to walk with weight.
“I discovered that these have really helped me maintain my speed and my stride length,” he says. “I do them in most sessions, for some sets of about 15 meters using 10 kg weights are something that would recommend that each Sprinter and Hurdler increase to their training.”
Basic concepts work when it comes to exercises
Not everything has changed in Elliott’s training, since he is older: his obstacle exercises remain to a large extent.
“I still do all the ‘traditional’ obstacle exercises that I have always done: path of path, lead leg, walkovers or with resistance bands,” he says. “I will simulate my path of path crossing, either fixing a band of resistance to something or use ankle straps on the cable machine,” he explains. “It’s about strengthening my muscles in the position in which the race will last, that really worked for me, since I have progressed as a master’s athlete.”
And the fact that their obstacles can be going down in the competition, does not mean that they need to train especially when the most slow obstacle exercises are done, such as Walkovers. The exercises to walk on higher obstacles are a estepulate in Elliott: “As we age, it could be forgiven for thinking that you always need to maintain the lowest obstacles, but you can walk on the movement of obstacles, in a doll,” he explains.
“But when it comes to career exercises, 80% of the time under my obstacles in three or six inches to concentrate on my technique.”
Be attentive to the second part or this characteristic soon.
