Muscle Fitness Muscle & Fitness UK - April 2018 | Page 117

Dina proudly
wears the new
Nike React
running shoes.
did make
the heart grow fonder”.
In hindsight, it was lucky that she
realised she was so fond of Athletics
because if we fast forward a few years
to today Dina tells me that she trains
“6 days a week, sometimes twice
per day”. To become a world
class sprinter is not easy and
requires a lot of effort. Some
of the main physical traits
required, according to the Olympic
bronze medalist are “physical fitness,
a very strong core, strong legs and you
need to be incredibly powerful”.
She cannot emphasise enough to
me how important a strong core is,
for the first time her jovial tone turns
slightly more serious as she explains
“I don’t think people recognise this
but your core stability, whether that’s
through your Abs, Obliques, Lower
Back, Pelvis or Hips...especially your
Hips, has got to be super strong”. My
lesson continues as she tells me that
“if you want to be efficient, your upper
body has got to move as little as
possible and allow your legs to
do all the work. But to do
that your core has to be
able to stay perfectly
still when you are
running”.
Some of
the most
effective
core
exercises for
sprinting in her
repertoire are Swiss
Ball Planks (with elbows
moving forwards and
backwards) and Hanging Knee/
Leg Raises which all sound like a
great incentive for me to stay slow.
Dina was the first, and is still the
only British woman to run the 100m
in under 11 seconds, so all going
well her races will be over in next
to no time. But despite the extreme
explosiveness and anaerobic (without
oxygen) nature of the sport it is
imperative that these sprint athletes
have a good aerobic (with oxygen)
base more commonly associated with
long distance endurance athletes.
“Sometimes you might have three
races in one day, sometimes
you might have to
compete on five
consecutive
days,
and to
do that
you need
to be fit
H E A DL I N E SLUG