I’ve had to remind a few athletes about the importance of sleep recently, and I think we sometimes forget just how much sleep does for us. The Benefits of Sleep … Continue reading Why is Sleep Important for Athletes?
You should ALWAYS check that your supplements are third-party, batch-tested, but even then NO supplement is 100% guaranteed safe.
I am thrilled to introduce the Total Performance with Siobhan Milner podcast. This podcast is dedicated to all things athletic performance and injury prevention. I’m a strength and conditioning coach, currently working with the Dutch Olympic Team, with a background in exercise and rehabilitation science.
I’m a huge believer in the benefits of movement for everyone from all walks of life, but I particularly like to get nerdy about athletic performance and injury prevention, so that’s primarily what this podcast will be focusing on. Over the last decade or so of working with athletes and performance artists, it’s become really clear to me that performing at a high level requires so much more than great training.
I don’t give out advice unless asked. But in the last few years, I’ve felt a rising urgency to at least start sharing the facts. I see so many people losing their ability to move well as they age, and perhaps not even realising the hugely powerful effects that exercise has to help manage (and in some cases, even reverse) age-related decline in almost all of the bodily systems.
So I won’t tell you what to do anymore (unless you hire me!). But I will share why exercise is so vital to living a longer, better life.
Something that I used to cue a lot years ago when teaching a squat was “hips back.” While some athletes can benefit from this cue (especially those with freaky ankle ROM – here’s looking at you, shorttrackers), an overemphasis on sending the hips back can turn the squatting movement into a semi-hinge pattern.
The 12 Days of Liftmas: A silly (and fun) holiday lifting session. You’re welcome!
If you’re not a professional athlete (and therefore don’t have access to coaching staff and a medical team to monitor your training), it can be helpful to know the current guidelines on returning to sport after COVID-19 infection. As I’m sure we’re all aware – COVID-19 (“Corona virus”) is a relatively new virus. And with emerging variants, and more of the population being vaccinated, guidelines on how to return to training have changed a lot since 2020. Older guidelines suggested a slower return to sport. But the guidelines have changed.
With both widespread availability of vaccines, and the circulation of less deadly strains of COVID-19, the approach is no longer quite as conservative.
If stretching doesn’t improve range of motion more than other movement forms, why stretch? If this blog title is news to you, here’s a quick update on the science around stretching and its effects on range of motion.
Pain is always created in the brain. 🧠 That doesn’t mean it’s all in your head. It’s still very real – it’s just a lot different to what we believed about pain a couple of decades ago.
We used to think there were “pain receptors” in the body that sent pain signals to the brain. It turns out, this isn’t the case.
Nociceptors send signals to the brain for processing. Nociceptors detect changes in temperature, pressure and chemicals and send “possible threat” messages to the brain.
The brain interprets this and decides how much protection you need. If the brain deems that pain will be protective (get you out of a potentially injurious situation), it will upregulate pain more than if it deems the situation safe.
Unfortunately… Pain can be learned. Our nervous system is great at learning. The brain can start to associate certain movements or situations with pain, even if the movement or situation is not causing tissue damage.
I spoke to Simplifaster about my work with TeamNL, my work in rehab, and my general philosophies around performance and training. I particularly like that they pulled out this quote … Continue reading Siobhan Milner on Simplifaster: Performance Training for Niche Winter Sports
Video is a powerful tool for feedback in your strength training. And you don’t even need any fancy apps. Here’s why I love filming in the weight room! 1. The camera doesn’t lie. You’ll see when bad habits are slipping in. I highly recommend filming a set, watching it back IMMEDIATELY, then re-trying the set with your desired technique if changes are required.
Learn about Siobhan Milner’s approach to Strength & Conditioning for Youth Hockey Athletes
Siobhan Milner 