Malika Desai

The Problem

Malika is a Corporate Lawyer. For most of her adult life she has also been an enthusiastic gym-dodger and exercise avoider, with a running history largely limited to twice-weekly 15 minutes jogs round the park whilst trying not to pass out.

The problem was that she had signed her self up for the London Marathon, with 16 weeks to get ready.

She had set herself two goals. First, not to have a heart attack. And second, to run 26.2 miles at a sustained pace and within 4 hours.

The Solution

Quite sensibly, Malika decided that her best chance of success lay in following a pre-existing Marathon training plan. she also decided that given her exercise history (or lack of), she take a prehabilitative approach to her training, and sought help from ‘Total reform’

Trang Fitness’s Total reform is ideally (and as far as we know) uniquely suited to the holistic, multi-disciplinary approach that Prehab requires. Unlike the traditional fitness industry model, our Trainers and Therapists work seamlessly together to share expertise, insights and client information.

So following Malika’s initial assessment (surprisingly good flexibility, but unsurprisingly weak glutes and all-over body strength) we agreed that she would need the following:

• Gait Analysis to identify any problems with her running alignment

• Sports Massage to improve recovery time after exercise and deal with any aches, tightness or niggles as her body responded to the running schedule

• Regular Dynamic Pilates sessions to improve alignment and posture, and to strengthen her core along with her weak glutes, and increase overall muscular endurance and control.

• 2 regular training sessions with our strenghth, to strengthen her weak glutes and strengthen her over all body strength.

The outcome

Gait analysis confirmed that Malika is wearing the right running shoes and insoles for her pronation (essential if she was to last the training programme, let alone the marathon). However it also showed that her running style was inefficient. she was wasting too much energy bouncing up and down when she ran, her hips weren’t straight (a function of her weak glutes) her stride was too slow, too narrow and too long, her arms were underused, and her posture too ‘slouchy’.

Like many people, Malika arrived at her first class with the impression that that Pilates would be posturally beneficial, but more of a glorified stretch than an actual workout. she was right about the postural benefits, but after an hour of burning muscles and profuse sweating (and to be fair, some useful stretches to maintain muscle length and recovery) began to rethink her views on the workout element.

A few weeks on, her core and glute strength had improved significantly, along with her muscular endurance and control and she’s able to perform more complex and demanding moves. In recognition of her improved ability and fitness, she moved to a more advanced class.

She’s already seeing the difference of improving both her running technique and her glute strength and stability. She is less tired after long runs, her interval training speed is increased and much more consistent across the high intensity bursts.

Sports Massage have helped reduced muscle soreness and tightness post-workout and enabled him to keep to a demanding training schedule (4-5 runs and 3 Pilates sessions per week).

Since writing this, we’re delighted to announce that Malika successfully completed her marathon. She finished in a time of 3 hours 57 minutes, according to her watch, but 4 hours 3 minutes according to the official marathon timer.

Malika is particularly annoyed by this, and claims that it’s purely because she was unable to keep to the race line and so had to run further than the official marathon distance.

Determined to reclaim her missing 6 minutes, Malika has already signed up for her next marathon, and remains a regular client at Trang Fitness , where we continue to correct her initial impression of Pilates and make sure that her muscles burn and shake, and that she still sweats as profusely as she did on day.

Take the next step and make your movement health a priority!