Men’s Health Week
Altius has worked with Honda UK Motorcycles for five seasons now. We are primarily retained to look after the riders when they are injured. Now though, more and more we are focused on the health and well-being of the riders and staff, trying to reduce the risk of injuries and improve their performance through making small changes in their lifestyle and building good habits.
In elite sport, marginal gains are made through tweaking what you eat and drink and the training you do. Louise Carter, our dietician said “John is evidence of how these small holistic changes, done consistently, can make an enormous difference to how you feel, how productive you are and therefore how well you perform”.
John Mcguinness MBE is one of the most successful road riders ever winning 23 Isle of Man TT races and 44 podiums in total. Doug has been working with him for the past six months, but sadly, at the age of fifty two he has not had a podium since 2013 and all the talk last year and this year was that of retirement from pro riding.
We are delighted to say that John rolled back the years three weeks before the TT and took a podium in the North West 200 road race finishing third. He also completed his fastest ever lap of the TT this year finishing fifth this year in the senior race, proving that age is only a number and that if you work hard on your health and well-being your productivity and performance will improve.
Honda asked me to work with John at Christmas, said Doug, and he would say himself that he is “old school” and that is part of all his success….stiff upper lip and crack on! “On assessment in clinic John was in so much pain day-to-day just walking I knew that if I could change his pain he would get in a better position on the bike and be happier and happy riders tend to relax more and go faster”.
I think changing Johns attitude to how he looks after himself has been key to his recent new found form. Speaking to his wife John would never prioritise his health and be constantly working going from one work event to the next doing long hours and being up till late working for Honda and all his other sponsors and supporters.
Respecting your body and giving it enough time to recover has been so important for John. By introducing a regular stretching routine and some regular aerobic exercise that he enjoys (enduro motorcross and e-mountain biking) he has lost weight and improved his strength and mobility.
John hates the gym and like most other riders Doug treat they just want to ride their bike. The problem is over a long successful career and as the injuries mount up if you dont invest time in recovery and rehabilitation you become less able to ride without pain and then less motivated to to do the hard work in the week.