“HELP ME BUILD IRONMAN STRENGTH”

Reader Craig Jones left the rugby field and competitive bodybuilding circuit due to injury, and now wants to complete his first Ironman in 2019. Dermott Hayes advises how…

Craig: Years of weight lifting and sustaining injuries on the rugby field and in the gym mean my thumbs and wrists are very weak, and every time I get to 35-40 miles on the bike, I start feeling very bad pain and numbness. How can I protect my wrists and thumbs when doing long bouts on my road bike?

Dermott: Firstly, it’s important to guarantee that there’s nothing more serious causing the numbness in your thumbs. From your sporting history and injury background there could feasibly be some nerve damage, which can result in difficulties with your extremities, therefore seek medical advice if the issues persist. As well as this, there are some other changes you can make that may help.

You should vary your hand position around the bars so that any pressure is evenly spread across your wrist and hand, spend time on the hoods, the drops and on the top flat section of the bars and remember to keep your hands relaxed and loose to reduce the amount of tension in your fingers. In particular, riding with your hands on the top of the bars reduces the amount of body weight and pressure being loaded through your wrists, however the disadvantage of this position is that you’re not particularly aero!

Lastly, a simple fix is to double up the amount of bar tape and make sure that your cycling gloves are well-padded.

How can I calculate my macros to help lose weight but to also ensure my body is fuelled for the exercise? So pre-, during- and post-exercise nutrition.

To get the most accurate understanding of your calorie needs, I’d advise undergoing a resting- and an exercise-based metabolic assessment, where you can ascertain your base metabolic rate (BMR) to help manage your daily intake and see how many calories you burn during exercise and how they’re composed of carbs and fats.

Your disciplined sports’ background will help you to focus on getting the calorie intake correct versus calorie burned, but do ensure you don’t aim for radical weight loss quickly.

As you increase the amount of aerobic exercise, your ability to utilise and burn fat stores will improve. As with a lot of exercise, aim for a pre- and during diet of mostly carbs and have your proteins ready for recovery post workout.

I’m slowly getting better as the muscle drops away but is there a specific stretching routine that would lend itself to the three disciplines?

In this instance, I feel that rather than suggesting specific stretching exercises, I’d look at introducing a more holistic approach by trying pilates or yoga [see p14 for more on the benefits of yoga]. Either will offer a workout that challenges the body to take your muscles through a full range of stretching, balance and core movements.

Rather than treating this as a recovery session, it should be deemed as an additional part of your weekly training routine. A twice-weekly class will vastly improve your body composition as well as boost your triathlon potential.