I originally came to Jack for “preventative” sports massage. I have no hesitation in recommending him as an excellent sports massage therapist but the main purpose of this testimonial is to specifically recommend his core rehab and running specific performance programmes which have had an extremely beneficial effect on my running. If you are a runner wanting to see significant improvements in your performance I suggest you seriously consider these programmes.
I have never previously been very good about core work on the basis that it takes too long and I would sooner be running. Jack’s approach is to prescribe a limited number of really targeted core exercises which he works through with you in detail in one to one sessions so that you know exactly what is required. He is extremely encouraging and patient. He backs this up by an email after each session setting out the exercises so that you can work through them at home and is always available on email to answer any queries. The targeted approach means that the exercises only take around 20 minutes and so can easily be fitted around running sessions. We did core rehab for several months during which time I saw Jack about once a month and then worked on the exercises 3 times a week at home and as I improved he prescribed different more challenging core exercises each time.
In June I continued to do the core programme at home and my sessions with Jack moved on to a specific running performance programme which he designed to help me work on making my running gait more efficient. The core rehab work definitely gave me the strength to get the most out of this programme. The running drills which Jack prescribes combine well with my running sessions as warm-up exercises or as part of my speed work. Jack makes the sessions fun and I really feel they have livened up my running. After only a couple of months of the specific running performance programme my steady run pace has improved by around a minute per mile without my trying to push that pace at all and without my heart rate increasing. Further I am running a marathon in October and have just completed a 20 mile training race at exactly hoped for marathon pace. Throughout the race I was able to maintain good form and to finish strongly. More importantly I recovered from the race very quickly and was back training in a couple of days. All this is very much due to the core and specific running work I have been doing with Jack.