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Foam Rolling for Myofascial Release

Last updated: November 14, 2020Leave a Comment

One of the important additions to my workout and fitness routines this year was the incorporation of a foam roller. I like to foam roll first thing in the morning after drinking my espresso and doing a 10-15 minute meditation.

Here’s a quick taster of what foam rolling can do:

  • Release trigger points and tight muscles, tendons and ligaments
  • Increase blood flow through your skin, fascia and muscles, thereby improving tissue quality and cellular function
  • Engage core muscles and build strength
  • Increase range of motion in your spine
  • Improve posture by strengthening your core

When foam rolling you are aiming for a myofascial release. The myofascial system is made up of all the muscles and fascia in your body. A fascia is a band or sheet of connective tissue, primarily collagen, beneath the skin that attaches, stabilizes, encloses, and separates muscles and other internal organs.

For those of you who are visual learners, you can imagine your skin is like the rind of an orange. So, if your skin is the outer layer of the orange peel, the thicker, white, fibrous layer that lies almost immediately beneath the peel would be your fascia. Just as that thicker layer completely surrounds the inside of the orange, the same holds true to your fascia. We all have a layer of fascia directly beneath the skin that completely envelopes the body, giving another protective barrier between the skin and the deeper soft tissue.

For various reasons, including inactivity, repetitive motion and injuries, the fascia and underlying muscle tissue can bind together causing painful ‘knots’ or ‘trigger points’. Muscle binding will restrict movement, reduce flexibility and cause muscles to fire improperly during exercise.

Rolling out stretches muscles and tendons and releases the fascia. This increases blood flow and circulation to the soft tissues, allowing muscles to fire at peak efficiency during exercise.

When rolling or working on tight/sore muscles you will experience discomfort or pain. Think of it like the pain you get while stretching. It should be uncomfortable, but not unbearable, and when you are done it should feel better.

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Filed under: Health & Fitness, Padel

Where to Play Beach Tennis in Barcelona

Last updated: September 05, 20231 Comment

Beach tennis is a sport that is becoming popular in Spain, and of course, Barcelona is a perfect place to practice this sport. Many tennis and padel players enjoy a good game of beach tennis in their downtime, while others dedicate themselves fully to beach tennis.

In Barcelona, there are two good clubs/schools to get started with this sport:

  • Beach Tennis Academy at Nike Box
  • Barcelona Beach Tennis

I train and play at the Beach Tennis Academy, where friendly coach Dave will guide you through the first steps of the sport. I highly recommend starting out there if you’ve never played before.

If you search on Meetup.com you will also find some events that include beach tennis, although there isn’t a group that is dedicated solely to organising beach tennis meetups.

The Barcelona Beach Tennis club holds open days once a month where you can try beach tennis for free and also receive some coaching. Here’s a video showing you a glimpse of what to expect:

Have you ever played beach tennis? How do you like it?

Filed under: Expat life

Riding a Bicycle in Barcelona

Last updated: January 27, 20211 Comment

Barcelona is quite a bike-friendly city. The number of bike lanes is always on the increase, and in general, drivers are quite conscious and respectful of cyclists, although you find exceptions.

It is also a city that is plagued by comparatively high levels of air pollution, and even higher noise pollution due to the exceedingly large of obnoxiously loud low-quality scooters and thanks to the population’s obsession with diesel-powered vehicles.

It, therefore, makes sense to fight back against this harmful environment by promoting bike usage. For commuting within Barcelona, I typically use my Brompton 6-speed bicycle. Brompton is hands-down the best brand for foldable bikes and you’ll see many Bromptons in Barcelona.

There are a number of stores selling them including an official Brompton Junction store. Folding bikes are ideal as they are easy to store in an apartment and very easy to transport, be it in a car/train for a day trip outside the city, or just carrying it into a store, bank, office etc.

If you don’t want to buy your own bike, you can rent a bike for specific journeys. Many people use the rental services for their daily commute to work or wherever they need to go within the city. Many times it’s the fastest means of transport.

Click here to join my favorite bike rental service YEGO

Since there are worrying levels of pollution, I would recommend wearing an air filtration mask. I use one especially in winter since my nose gets watery in the cold wind and thus the face mask helps eliminate that issue too. In summer I don’t really use it much since it gets stuffy, although if I were commuting during the rush hour on a daily basis I would definitely use it all year round.

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Filed under: Expat life

How Many Times to Bounce the Ball Before a Padel Serve

Last updated: September 18, 20191 Comment

Bouncing the ball before serving in padel serves to focus the serving player on his next shot and point, and there is no rule saying how many times the ball can be bounced. The only rule that is related is that about time wasting, however, I’ve never seen a player being given a warning due to bouncing the ball too many times.

It is true that some players have a habit of exaggerating things and trying to throw the opposing players off their psychological game by bouncing the ball many times, but if you play against such players it’s best to just grin and bear it; in the end, they are unlikely to be sanctioned.

The average seems to be between 3 and 5 times.

I think 3-4 times is the sweet spot for me. Here are the serve preparations from two of my favorite players: Maxi Sanchez and Mapi Sanchez:

The serves above are what I would consider fair and clean serves. While we’re on about the topic of serving in padel, make sure you serve without breaking the positioning rules and ball height (waist-high maximum).

Again, you will find players on the World Padel Tour circuit who don’t follow the ball height rule that closely (Bela and Lima are very frequently accused of breaking the rules on this one), however, I’ve never seen them sanctioned.

Here are some screenshots of serves that in my opinion are faults, but they are never sanctioned:

Above the ball is at the height of his hand, almost chest high.

Again, the ball is clearly higher than the waist right before impact.

And this is what happens when a player complains about the rivals’ illegal serves (he gets a warning):

At the end of the day, there is little regard for the rules in padel as of 2019. It’s something that I hope changes in the coming years, because I’ve also experienced this on the court myself. It’s hard not to get thrown off your game when your opponent is consciously breaking the rules just because there is nobody to sanction him.

If this happens, I would suggest breaking the rules yourself if it gives you an advantage. It’s sad to have to give such advice, but this is the way things stand today. In the future, I hope things will get more professional and rule breakers will be punished.

Filed under: Padel

The Importance of Proper Mobility in Padel

Last updated: September 05, 2023Leave a Comment

As part of my journey to becoming a top padel player, I recently went for a mobility evaluation session at the sports department of Fisiogestion in Barcelona. This was the first time I was doing something of this sort, although I’ve had osteopaths check out my body for specific issues I had in the past.

This time around, I went without having any niggling injuries or current pain points. I only mentioned that I’ve been feeling an abnormal sense of fatigue in my quads ever since I started playing padel, and that I also had a twitching tendon behind my right knee, which has been like that for as long as I can remember.

I was then examined by an osteopath as well as the therapist at the sports center, and they couldn’t really identify the reason for the twitching of the tendon, although the therapist mentioned that she felt that I had a case of baker’s cyst that might be causing the tendon to pass over the cyst and twitch. I would probably have to do an MRI to get more information on that or visit some other specialized doctors.

Going back to the fatigue in the quads though, when I was asked to do a squat, it turned out that the way I go down is incorrect. I tend to lean forward too much and double up while going down, placing all the weight of the task on my quads and lumbar region, and almost none of it on my glutes.

The therapist mentioned that the glutes are luckily some of the best muscles in which to see quick improvements, so it’s a case of re-educating my body to start using those glute muscles in the movements I do in daily life or padel. She emphasized that I need to be doing isolation exercises for the glutes and obliques (another area I’m weak in). Once the glutes can be properly activated and have some serious strength built, the body can be re-trained (they have special machines to help with this) to perform movements in a different and correct way.

I am now actively working on my core and glutes with my personal trainer in our sessions during the week, and on off-days, I like to use this set of resistance band glute exercises at home.

Another great set of exercises for glutes can be found on Bret Contreras’ (The Glute Guy) website.

All the above is just to say that it is crucial that you learn how to move correctly and address any mobility issues that you might have. This will not only help you play better and recover faster (you have no overstressed areas in your body) but will also help ward off injuries.

You can find lots of videos about mobility on YouTube, and you can also subscribe to programs such as GMB which aim to provide full-body mobility, but for me it’s been a great learning experience to visit a specialized sports center and have my padel-specific movements analysed. I will in fact continue to have regular sessions at this center to fix my glute-quad balance and I’m really looking forward to faster recovery between matches, because now that I’m training and playing almost daily, my quads have become my greatest impediment to performing at my best.

Filed under: Padel

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