Dröm UK are proud to sponsor two amazing decathaletes: Commonwealth Silver medallist Ashley Bryant and young Surrey athlete Dylan Carlsson-Smith who is currently flying high in the England rankings after winning at the England Senior & U20 Combined Events Championship at the weekend with a personal best score of 6849 points.
Dylan, who is coached by Ian Grant, was representing Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers at the competition in Bedford. The competition was really close on Day 1, with three competitors vying for the lead and he finished in second place with a score of 3417. However a strong performance in the discus on Day 2 saw him move into top position with 3 events left. He then recorded a height of 4.40m in the pole vault which was 40cm higher than any other competitor, and even though he finished third in the 1500m, it was still enough to secure the title with a margin of 240 points. He is now ranked No 1 in the UK U20’s for 2016.
As well as beating his personal best scores in 8 out of the 10 events Dylan also beat the club’s point record which has been in place since 1982! Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers said “Dylan’s work ethic and performances this year have been outstanding”.
Dylan Carlsson-Smith
Dylan is thrilled with the result having battled and overcome back injuries during the recent indoor season. He says: “I’m very pleased with this result as I have purposely increased my training to over 30 hours a week (fitting it in around my college work) and it’s great to see it paying off. I’m really looking forward to improving on this performance during the Summer Athletic Season.”
But you can’t reach this level of achievement without working hard and incorporating health and wellbeing into your everyday routine. Recovery after exercise is also important to be able to maintain your athletic performance. Diet and nutrition is a major part in any athlete’s life and Sports Nutritionist’s are agreed that more wholefoods and natural nutrition over processed and manufactured offerings is very important. Fresh fruit and vegetables, seeds, oily fish, eggs and nuts are a good source of protein, antioxidants and wholegrains. Carbs are also a main component of an athletes diet and can be found in pasta, wild rice, oats and sweet potatoes for example. (Sweet potatoes are great source of potassium to help soothe sore muscles after sport).
After a training session or competition, it is very important to help your muscles recover.
Ice is the most common way of helping muscle tissue heal itself quickly. The cold constricts blood vessels and reduces swelling and tissue breakdown. Then as the body slowly warms up afterwards, the increased blood flow helps improve circulation which in turn kick-starts the healing process. Remember though that everyone has a different personal cold threshold – work out your comfort zone and stick to it.
Massage (either before and/or after exercise) is beneficial during a warm up before exercise and also helps with muscle soreness after a workout. Just relaxing on a heated lounger can also let gentle warmth permeate into the body. Heat storage ceramic loungers are ideal as they store the heat and emit it back to the body via infrared long wave gentle heat. This penetrates deep into the body soothing muscles and easing any joint pain from repetitive exercise.
British Commonwealth silver medal winning athlete Ashley Bryant relaxing on one of the Sommerhuber heated loungers on display in the Dröm UK showroom.
Muscle soreness can also be relieved by spending time in a sauna. Relaxing in the high temperatures of a sauna releases endorphins which are the body’s natural painkillers. The endorphins can ease the muscle soreness after intense exercise.
For more information on the recovery methods mentioned above, and for all thermal wellbeing bathing practices, please visit http://dromuk.com/online/dromology/
Ashley Bryant is competing in this weekend’s Multi Event Championship in Gotzis, Austria, aiming for a place in the GB team for the Rio Olympics in August. Good Luck Ash!